Cather and Levi

Dress Shopping

3 weeks later

Cath's POV

Things are pretty much back to normal, and Wren wants to take me shopping for my wedding dress this afternoon. I called Levi's mom too, so she's coming with us as well. I'm leaving Ruby with Levi, because I don't want to chance any fits in the store. I'm also making sure to bring my laptop with me so I can skype Reagan. I put my boots on and turn towards the apartment door.

"I'll see you later" I call to Levi, who's feeding Ruby in the kitchen.

"Alright sweetheart. Good luck" he replies.

As I'm driving to the store, I realize I haven't thought about what kind of dress I want. I've never really had a dream dress, and I'm clueless on what kind of styles I'm going to like. I guess this trip is going to take a bit more time and thought than I expected.

I find Wren waiting when I get to the store, and about five minutes later, Levi's mom pulls up.

"Are you nervous?" she asks me, when she gets out of her car.

"A little" I admit. I want to find the perfect dress, and I'm a little stressed out about whether I will find it or not. We go inside, and pick out a few that we think look nice. Two out of the three we picked are nice, but I don't feel like myself when I put them on. The third one (the one that Wren had picked) looks terrible on me. We all agree that it is definitely NOT the one.

After I try on a few more with no luck, I start to lose hope. Will I ever find a dress? Wren goes to look for more, and comes back with two beautiful ones. I try them both on, and fall in love immediately. I can't choose a favorite, so I decide to ask the person in my life who knows me best, besides Wren and Levi. I skype Reagan, and she answers right away. I hadn't told her I was going shopping for a dress today, and she is definitely surprised.

"OMG girl, have you found a dress?" she asks.

"Two actually. I need help deciding" I reply. She smiles at this, and I put on both to show her, over the computer's camera.

"I can definitely understand why you're torn between the two" she says.

"I like the style of the first one, but it's a bit simple. I'm not in love with the second ones style, but the jewels around the top are beautiful. If only you could combine the best features of each into a single dress..." This gives me an idea. I could combine the two. It would just be a matter of adding jewels to the first one, and I'm sure it wouldn't cost much. I ask the lady helping us how much it would cost, and the price blows me away.

"I'm sorry, but we can't afford that right now" I say.

"My house was destroyed in a fire, and we have a newborn daughter to take care of. Our budget is pretty tight" I guess I'll just have to settle for one of the dresses, but Wren has another idea.

"I'll pay for it" she says.

"Wren no, it's okay I'll just choose one of the dresses. It's not a big deal" I reply.

"Just let me do it. You only have one wedding, so consider this an early wedding gift" I run over to her, and hug her.

"Thank you so much Wren"

I pay for the simple dress, and Wren pays for the beading to be done. It's at times like these, that I miss my mom. Even though I'll never be able to forgive her, It would've been nice to have her with me today.

Levi's mom is going to keep the dress with her until the wedding, so she'll have it for a few months. I pull in the parking lot to the apartment, and go inside.

"I'm home" I call to Levi, a bit too happy.

"Hey sweetheart" he says, coming down the hall and kissing me. I'm not sure what it is, but something seems off.

"Where's Ruby?" I ask.

"I just got her to fall asleep after a half hour of non-stop crying, so try not to wake her up" he replies.

"Did you find a dress?"

"Yep" I say quietly, smiling.

"And It's hidden away from you" He laughs quietly at this, and responds.

"Of course. I wouldn't want to see the bride in her dress before the big day" We go down the hall to the kitchen, and I pull out some bread, peanut butter, and jelly. I'm starving, and it's not quite dinner time yet, so a sandwich will hold me over.

As I'm waiting for the bread to finish toasting, I notice that Levi has a worried expression on his face.

"Is everything okay?" I ask him.

"Yeah everything's fine" he replies.

"But there's something I wanted to talk to you about" I pull out the toast, and start spreading peanut butter over it.

"What is it?" I ask, worried. He gets up from his spot at the table and walks over to me, so he's clearly looking at me. I stop what I'm doing and wait for him to continue.

"I got a really good job offer" he says.

"That's great Levi. What is it?" I ask in response.

"It's at a horse ranch. I'm not sure how they found me, but they just called me up a few days ago and offered me the job"

"That's awesome. You have to take it" I say, wondering why he was so nervous to tell me.

"There's just one problem" he says, slowly. I look at him, silently telling him to continue.

"The horse ranch is in Tennessee" this comes as a huge shock to me, and I almost spit out the piece of sandwich I was chewing. I swallow, and try to get this through my head.

"What about our families?" I ask. He looks really nervous, so I wrap my arms around him, reassuring him that I'm not completely against this idea.

"Well it wouldn't be for about a year, so we can still have the wedding here. And as for our families, we've just started our own. We won't be living here for the rest of our lives anyway, and we can still visit" he says. I nod in agreement.

"Plus, we'll have the year to save up to get a house there" I add. When I say this, he lets out a breath that I didn't know he was holding.

"You could just quit your job at Barnes and Noble, and write books for a living. You'd always be home with Ruby, and we'd both be doing what we love" he says this all really fast, as if I might change my mind before he can finish.

"Slow down" I say, laughing.

"You can take the job offer, but let's focus on the wedding before I quit my job, and we restart our lives" he laughs at this, and pulls me into a bear hug, grinning from ear to ear.