Waiting for the Moment (Rizzoli and Isles)

Chapter 4

"Mom, I don't want baby's breath in my wedding!"

"Maura, they are beautiful flowers." Mother insisted.

"They are not! They are little and ugly! They shouldn't even be considered a flower!" I said. "Get carnations or roses or something." I said with a wave of my hand.

"Roses." Mother decided. "What colors?" Mom scrolled down the page on my laptop.

"I don't know, Mom. Red and white?"

"You're getting married in six months, Maura. Start taking this a little more seriously. When is this man coming over?"

"After Lyndzie's soccer game."

"Whose Lyndzie? Oh, you aren't marrying a polygamist, are you?"

"No, mom! I'm marrying a widowed lawyer. Not that it would matter if he was a polygamist. Lyndzie is his seventeen year old daughter. Okay, I think everything is done. The casserole has five minutes left."

"Oh, you didn't tell me he has a child. When did soccer become a fall sport?"

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Tell me about his daughter." Mom said.

"Well, she's beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. She has dark brown hair and it curls at the bottom. She has these amazing hazel eyes that light up when she smiles. She never smiles around me though. She doesn't tan, because her mother never did. Her dad is her best friend and she hates me."

"She hates you?"

I nodded. Then looked out the kitchen window and saw their car pull into my drive way.

"Oh god, they're here. I have to change. Father, get the door!" I shouted.

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"I swear Lyndzie, if you say anything to make Maura cry tonight I will ground you for the rest of your life." Dad said to me as we walked up onto the porch.

"Okay. God, I'm not the Antichrist. Besides, her parents are here. I'm not going to anything in front of them."

The door swung open. It startled me.

"Hello. You must be Joseph Taylor. I'm Richard Isles, Maura's father." The man said as he greeted my father.

"And you must be Lyndzie Taylor, Maura has told me so much about you."

Great. She probably told them all about how I hate her.

Her father spoke again as if he read my mind. "Don't worry, they were all good things."

Maura came down the steps in a black dress, high heels, and a black sweater. She looked like she was going to attend a funeral. But again, she looked beautiful and the way she smiled at me made me hate her a little less.

She wrapped her arms around my dad and introduced him to her mother. Then she looked at me.

"I'm sorry I'm not dressed up. I just got out of soccer." I said to her.

"That's okay. I understand." She smiled again.

"Do you mind if I use your bathroom? I'm all sweaty and gross. You probably don't want that at your dinner table."

"I want you to feel comfortable here with me, Lyndzie. Unfortunately, my parents like to sit at certain spots around my table, so you have to sit next to me this evening."

I looked at her. She smiled one more time.

"I don't mind." I replied and smiled back.

Once in the bathroom, I couldn't stop my tears from falling down my face. I looked at my watch.