mine {h.s.} | {b3}

CHAPTER FIVE

n. feel free to pop on over to my twitter (@/witchysunflower) to see the wedding inspo pinterest board that i created if that's your jam. if not, feel free to pop over anyway. i'd love to have you. happy reading. oh, and, happy valentine's day.

— CHAPTER FIVE —

november, year one.

November 11 was never going to be an ordinary day.

From the moment that Harry and I got the call on that horrible day in October, we began to plan. Scramble, I suppose, would be a more accurate word. As soon as we agreed on doing a do-over wedding—and doing it right—we called in all the stops. All of our friends were called straight to our house—at least, those that could attend on such short notice—and we explained the nature of our present situation: our wedding had been an accidental sham and that Harry and I need to find out a way to get married before the baby comes. Ideally, legally this time.

Just like that, everyone was put into motion. Fitzy took Harry to his woman at immigration services. As an immigrant himself, he is pretty familiar with the process of getting a green card. If anyone would be able to sweet talk Harry into getting approved on such short notice for the proper immigration status to marry me, it would be Fitzy. (Of course, this was something that quickly became needless when we realized that most of this had been done Harry's first time around and the paperwork was all in order in the first place. It had been a small error from the Las Vegas Police Department, something that served as a great relief to Harry and I.)

TJ offered to touch base with Harry's sisters. Harry and I were in mutual agreement that there was not a chance in hell that his sisters would be missing this wedding. When TJ asked for a date to tell them, I blurted out November 11 like it meant something. The more I thought about it, the less certain I became. The date held no significance for Harry and I, at least, none that I can remember. But, I rationalized that that didn't really matter. At first, May 27 meant nothing to us either. It's all about the meaning that we provide. With the date in mind, he nodded his head and took off to sort out buying their plane tickets and explaining the situation to them.

Only Ruth was left unoccupied then. Harry and Fitzy were scrambling together to leave the house and get a move on the status. TJ was on the phone with Hattie explaining the situation, waiting patiently as she relayed sentence by sentence what was happening to her four other sisters. Ruth looked at me and reached over and took my laptop from me. I asked her what she was doing and she simply said, "Gracie, you're five months pregnant. There is no way you have enough energy to plan an entire wedding in a month. I know that I didn't."

What she had said was true. I hadn't considered the practicalities of a wedding on November 11—just over a month away, a mere five weeks—when I said the date. Harry walked over to her then. The small act of kindness hadn't gone unnoticed by him, not even as he was scrambling to get himself in order. He cupped his hands on either side of her head and pressed a gentle kiss on the top of her ruffled curls. "Here," he fished his wallet out of his pocket and handed her his credit card. "Go crazy, I don't care. Whatever makes Gracie happy, and if she's not working with you... whatever makes you happy." They shared a knowing look and I threw a pillow at him. He caught it and blew me a kiss before he walked out of the room and headed out.

Thus began our wedding planning.

Right then and there I asked Ruth to be my maid of honor. I hadn't the time nor energy to figure out how to ask her in a special, meaningful way, but fortunately Ruth wasn't the kind to mind that. She just squeezed my hand and we both knew. Everything between us was unsaid. I had a feeling that at that very same time in the car ride to wherever Fitzy was taking Harry, Harry was asking the very same question.