Marie's Path

Chapter 45

"Those guys never cease to amaze me," Mindy said walking into the bathroom. She perched herself on the bathroom counter looking Marie over. "You look like you're in shock. Are you ready for this?"

Marie peeled her eyes away from the mirror above the sink to look at Mindy. She'd been sitting in her bathrobe, on a bar stool Marc brought up for her, studying the dark circles under eyes.

"He asked. I said yes. He said today. I agreed." She was barely able to get the words out. Stunned, and feeling she was about to come apart she turned back to her reflection. "What was I thinking? What were they thinking? Look at me! I look like death warmed over! I know it's only going to be a justice of the peace coming to the house. But I'd like to look halfway decent."

Aghast, she ran a hand through her limp hair. "What am I going to do?"

"When Kevin told me its today, I knew I had to get over here. Now don't panic, but it's not going to be a JP that will marry you and Brandon. He's a Judge, and at one time, he even sat on the Supreme Court of South Carolina, plus he's Academy. That's why Brandon was able to call in a favor and get everything done today. The guys are busting their butts to throw a nice little wedding for you."

"Oh, geez." Marie's arms broke out in goosebumps as she gripped the edge of the counter taking in deep breaths.

Mindy pulled out a makeup kit from under the sink and turned to Marie. "Stay calm, Marie. You don't have to worry about a thing. Everything will fall into place, you'll see. It's going to be a great day and you're going to look great."

"Tell me what they're planning?" she asked with a wheeze in her voice. "Isn't it just going to be us?"

Mindy gave Marie a sympathetic smile. "Well, they want to have it outside, near the flower beds. The ones close to the weeping willow tree. They thought you'd like that spot. Then after, we'll grill meat, have wedding cake and just hang out. See? They're keeping it simple."

Marie narrowed her eyes at Mindy. "There's something you're not telling me. I can see it in your eyes. What are you leaving out?"

Mindy bit her lip. "Marc called Gabriel."

"Oh, god." Marie burst out laughing before groaning and laying her head on the counter. "He'll try to turn it into an event!"

"How much can he do in," Mindy looked at her watch, "four hours?"

Marie rolled her eyes. "This is Gabriel Coleman we're talking about."

"Well, Kevin did say Marc gave him a credit card. Gabriel's picking out a wedding dress and then there was something said about a trail of rose petals from the house to the -"

"What?" Marie shrieked. "He's - I - rose petals? Do I look like a rose petal type of girl? Mindy, I'm not even supposed to walk yet! How does Gabriel think I'm going to walk down a trail of petals? And I told him before I didn't need a dress."

"Don't worry about it. They uh, they have you not being able to walk covered." Mindy put her hand over her mouth trying to keep from laughing. Of all the things Gabriel came up with, his ideas for getting Marie down his rose petaled aisle takes the cake.

"You know what?" Marie said waving her hand. "I'm just going to go with it. Whatever they want to do, is fine." She breathed in deeply and focused on trying to relax. She was determined to roll with the punches. It was her wedding day and the only thing that could ruin it, would be her alone. They were going to a lot of trouble to make everything as nice as possible in a short amount of time.

Her eyes brightened and she turned to Mindy. "Did you see the wedding bands Brandon bought? That's where he'd been all morning. Mines a platinum band with six small princess cut diamonds. A diamond from each of them. Its beautiful. It's exactly what I would have chose. And he was even able to get six matching mens wedding bands too. Theirs are platinum matte bands with bevelled edges. The guys seemed okay with Brandon picking everything out. I think the rings have a contemporary look, simple but elegant."