Chapter 9

Figuringout what to wear to her parents was almost as nerve-wracking as going on a first date. At first, she'd started to put on the kind of demure, elegant dress she always wore for dinners with her parents, a navy-blue conservative sheath. Then she'd stopped about halfway through and sat on the bed.

"What's wrong?" Todd asked, adjusting his tie.

She looked him over, from his dark, perfect hair to his concerned eyes, down his crisp white shirt to the dark grey slacks and his polished black shoes. There was a sports coat he was going to wear with it. The perfect image of the man her parents wanted her to end up with.

Meeting his eyes, Allison shook her head.

"We can't do this." Todd raised his eyebrows, his hands stilling their movements on his tie. She nodded at his attire. "This. The whole point was I want to live my own life and want them to accept who I've become. And right now…" Standing again, she let the dress fall to the floor. "We're not going to a formal dinner. We're not even going to one of their godawful family dinners. It's just us and them, right?" Todd nodded, and Allison headed back to the closet.

With a small, bemused smile on his face, Todd followed her.

* * *

To give her mother credit,her smile barely flickered when she took in what Allison and Todd were wearing. Todd had talked her out of going in the jeans and t-shirt she'd originally tried to put on, pointing out she probably wouldn't wear that to any kind of planned dinner, no matter who it was with. An impromptu dinner? Definitely. But there was no point in trying to rile her parents on purpose, just to make a point.

Todd had changed into a less formal button-down shirt made of a hunter green, soft jersey and a pair of khaki dress slacks, instead of the suit he'd originally planned on wearing. She'd changed into a button-down shirt and a soft flowing skirt that stopped well above her knees, which was probably part of the reason her mother's lips twitched.

"It's so lovely to see you, sweetheart," her mother said warmly, drawing her into a hug. The blandness of her words glossed over the fact it had literally been months since they'd seen each other. Allison's smile was a little frozen, especially when she saw her father coming down the hall from over her mother's shoulder.

He looked older than when she'd last seen him, somehow, more worn. The circles under his eyes seemed darker, and it looked like he had a few more wrinkles. Of course, he didn't have makeup or other alternatives like her mother to help him cover the tracks of age. Even knowing the signs of stress and age came from the amount of time he spent working and not from her absence, her heart twinged a little at the sight of him. Surely, her absence hadn't helped, although she didn't regret taking her leave rather than making her father's life less stressful by doing everything he wished.

"Allison," he said as her mother released her from their embrace.

"Father." Her mouth dry, she stood there for an awkward moment, unsure what to do. Then, a little stiffly, he held out his arms, and she stepped into another hug, feeling his body relax a little once she was hugging him back. Behind her, she could hear Todd and her mother exchanging a greeting.

The initial awkwardness was eventually smoothed over with small talk and drinks before dinner, her mother blithely assuming control of the conversation and catching Allison up on all the gossip about the many acquaintances she'd had no reason to hear about for months. On the one hand, it was a little annoying, but on the other, there was something soothing about letting her mother chatter aimlessly, keeping the conversation light.

It wasn't until they moved into the dining room the conversation turned to more serious matters. Of course, her father started by asking how Todd was doing at work, and from the questions he asked, she could tell they'd already had a conversation about Todd's career when Todd had talked to him before. To her surprise, her father didn't seem to condescend or patronize Todd, although he was perfectly willing to offer his advice. It seemed Todd had made more of an impression on her father than she'd realized.

"And how is your job?" her father asked, turning his attention to her. She gave a little start of surprise, not so much at his wanting to involve her in the conversation as the subject matter. In the past, her father had been more supportive of her working than her mother, but he hadn't shown any real interest to hear about it. "Do you think you'll stay where you are after graduation?"

"I'm not sure," she said slowly, trying to get her head around the fact she was now talking about her career with her father. Her mother looked on attentively rather than trying to change the subject or gently scolding Allison. Maybe they really had changed their views on her in the months she'd been gone. "For a little while, probably. I like what I do, but I don't think they need me full time and don't think I want a career in Human Resources, even though I enjoy it. I've been thinking about sending in some applications to publishing houses to see if I can get an entry-level position in one of those."

"Are you going to do that before or after graduation?" he asked.

"I was thinking I'd start before I graduate. I've already started looking at websites to see if they're hiring and keeping an eye on the major job sites to see if they advertise any openings. I'm sure there are other people who will also be sending in their resumes before graduation, but there's a lot of people who procrastinate. I'd rather be in the earlier group."

Her father nodded approvingly. Allison was taken aback at the expression of pride on his face; he was almost glowing. What on earth had changed while she was away? Before, he'd been supportive but not like this. Not only was he much friendlier and more open with Todd than she'd ever expected, but the approval fairly emanating from him wasn't what she was used to when it came to talking about jobs.

"Would you like me to look at your resume?"

It wasn't just her father. Her mother was beaming at both him and Allison, as if they were having a very clever conversation. Was it the fact Allison was engaged, and her mother was happy with whatever else she chose to do, or had Patrice truly missed her daughter so much, she didn't care what Allison did anymore?

"Yes… I would appreciate that," she said, trying to cover her surprise.

"Oh, surely, you can do more than that, dear," her mother said, reaching out to touch her father's hand. "Aren't you friends with?—"

"No, it's okay, that's perfect," Allison interrupted."I really appreciate it." She smiled at her mother to take any sting out of her words.

Although it would definitely make her life easier to use a little nepotism, that's not how she wanted to get her job.Right now, she felt like she had a bit of a leg up on most people in school, working part-time and getting experience to go along with her degree. If she really couldn't find something she wanted, maybe she'd allow her parents to help her with their connections. After all, a big part of the business world was connections, but she really wanted to try to do it on her own. More than anything, Allison was touched her parents wanted to help.

Her mother made a little face of disappointment but subsided without a fight, then brightened again. "Can we talk about the wedding now?"

Allison giggled at the pained look on her father's face. Listening to party planning wasn't his favorite thing, and she couldn't imagine a wedding would be any different. Todd smiled encouragingly, reaching out to cover Allison's hand with his own. She smiled back, giddy.

"When are you thinking?" her mother asked, her eyes glowing with approval as she looked from Todd to Allison.

"Ah..." Allison shot a glance at Todd. "We hadn't really talked about that yet." They'd been too busy having mad passionate sex, fighting, then having more mad passionate sex. While the fighting hadn't been pleasant, she could say she preferred the mad passionate sex to sitting down and trying to think about wedding planning particulars.

"Well, spring is always nice, but very busy... That would give us a full year to plan, though, which is just barely enough time."

"A year is barely enough time?" Todd looked amazed. Allison wasn't surprised, but then again, she was a girl. She'd watched enough wedding shows to know a lot more went into planning a wedding than most men realized. Okay… and researched it a little herself, although she was no longer particularly interested in having the giant wedding, she'd planned in her head when she'd done things like look through bridal magazines at dresses and venues.

"Oh, my, yes. Places book up a year in advance, sometimes more! Especially the best venues," her mother chirped, her eyes brightening as she warmed to her topic. "Allison will need to pick out her dress at least six months in advance, although more would be better, so there will be plenty of time to have it made, then altered if needed. We'll need to do a tasting for the food from at least three caterers for comparison, and the same for the cakes, then the flowers, the invitations, the officiant… Do you know if you want to be married in a church or somewhere else? By a member of the clergy or a judge? Oh, and you'll need to pick out a wedding party and tuxes and bridesmaid dresses, but before that, you'll have to decide on your colors. Oh, we can't forget we need to pick out favors. Something unique but not tacky. Announcements… we'll have to send out an engagement announcement and write up something for the wedding announcement for the paper…"

The expression on Todd's face started to match Allison's fathers as her mother chattered on, and it was all Allison could do not to laugh. Her mother was babbling on so quickly, no one would have been able to get a word in edgewise if they'd wanted to, but at least Allison knew there wasn't a chance in hell she'd forget anything important during the planning process—not with Patrice Bradford as her mother.

"Oh, and dear," her mother put her hand over Todd's, beaming at him with all the happiness of a future mother-in-law hellbent on planning a wedding. "I'll need your mother's phone number."

"Um… of course."

Stifling her giggles, Allison decided she'd better step in and save the menfolk. Her father looked more and more pained the more her mother spoke, obviously finding it all too easy to envision the upcoming months of event planning.

Besides, Allison knew they needed to change topics if they were ever going to move on to dessert. Her mother seemed to have forgotten the purpose of dinner was eating.

"We'll have to talk about the rest of it and get back to you," she said smoothly as her mother paused for breath between explaining all the myriad of details that would need to be considered. "I think we'll focus on the big things first—date, budget, and guest list, then move on from there."

"Budget first," her mother trilled. Allison was a little surprised she wasn't bouncing in her seat, she was so happy. Obviously, she'd considered containing herself during the first part of dinner to be a duty well completed and was perfectly happy to commandeer the conversation, now that the end of dinner was approaching. "That will determine the venue and the number of people on the guest list. I can already tell you, I've put aside an account, and you have at least $60,000 to spend, although I'm sure your father and I wouldn't have a problem if you needed more."

Allison couldn't help but notice her mother completely ignored the way her husband's jaw clenched. Todd's jaw dropped, and Allison shook her head.

"That's way too much, Mom. I don't want or need a wedding that big."

Her mother waved a negligent hand as Todd blinked, still looking adorably stunned at the idea a wedding might actually cost that much. Allison knew all too well, weddings could cost even more, although she'd seen weddings just as wonderful without going to all that expense. At a certain point, no one cared if you spent two-hundred or two-thousand dollars on your flowers. Either way, the flowers were beautiful.

"Well, it's there for you to use. I thought you should know. And you might be grateful for it when you see our side of the guest list."

"Todd and I will talk about it," Allison said firmly. "But I want a small wedding, and by small, I don't mean less than three-hundred, I mean less than one-hundred-and-fifty people." Now Todd looked slightly horrified at the idea a small wedding could be up to one-hundred-fifty people, and Allison was having the hardest time not laughing. Her father's attention had obviously wandered. He had a blank look on his face that said he was thinking about anything other than the conversation at hand. Well, she really couldn't blame him.

"But how will we invite all of my friends and your father's business associates?" Her mother blinked, looking disappointed and confused.

"We won't."

"But—"

"Can we not talk about this now, please?" Allison pleaded a little. "Todd and I haven't even discussed a date, much less anything more detailed."

"Well... well, yes, of course," her mother said, obviously regrouping. The little furrow that appeared in her brow indicated she wasn't done arguing.

Allison wanted to talk with Todd, so they could get on the same page before her mother ended up taking over the entire planning process.Although she was sure her mother would plan a lovely wedding, it would end up going far beyond the original budget she'd indicated. The guest list would be enormous, with most people neither she nor Todd knew.Which, at one point in her life, Allison had assumed would be the wedding she would have.Now, it sounded overdone and unnecessary, not to mention, she'd rather have people she cared about than literally hundreds of people she would barely recognize.

"So, what about the honeymoon?" her mother asked, and Allison tried not to groan.

* * *

By the timeAllison and Todd returned home, she felt a bit like a wrung-out rag, but happy. For the first time in a long time, there wasn't any negativity hovering over her head, nothing that made her feel angry or sad.Although neither she nor her parents had actually apologized during the evening, it was pretty clear both sides were ready to silently compromise and move on. Part of her still wished they'd apologized, but she could live without it. And it had been really nice to see them again.

"Thank you," she said, throwing her arms around Todd's waist as they walked up to their house. "I'm really glad we went."

"Good," he replied as he unlocked the door and pulled her inside. "Your mother is terrifying."

"You didn't notice that before?"

"I mostly talked to your dad when I went over there to talk about proposing to you. Your mother just dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. I thought the crying was frightening but good God, when she went into planning mode...."

"Ah," Allison said, smiling as she went up on her tiptoes to kiss him. "You'll get used to her."

"Apparently, I don't have much choice," he teased, shaking his head. Standing in the entryway to the house, he put his arms around her, looking down at her with an incredibly soft expression in his eyes. She tilted her head back for the kiss she was sure was coming. "So, when do you want to get married?"

She burst out laughing. "We don't have to decide on everything she talked about right now."

"But what if she calls tomorrow?"

"Oh, my goodness." Allison rolled her eyes. "You're actually terrified of my mom. I always thought my dad was scarier."

"He and I understand each other," Todd muttered as he pulled away and moved into the house, pulling her behind him. "Come on, let's go watch something mind-numbing, then you can explain to me what the hell she meant about wedding colors."

While Allison was picking out a movie, Todd listened to a voicemail his mother had left while they'd been at dinner with her parents. Although his mother had known he was going to propose, he hadn't actually had a chance to talk to her during the day because of everything that had happened. And, of course, he'd had his phone turned off while they were having dinner with Allison's parents; anything else would have been impolite.

Groaning, he collapsed onto the couch, looking absolutely harried. Holding a DVD case in her hand, Allison arched an inquisitive eyebrow at him.

"She asked every single question your mom did," he said testily. "When, where, how many guests... what colors? What is it with you women and wedding colors?"

The poor man looked absolutely daunted. Allison launched herself onto his lap, giggling even harder as she wound her body around him. Apparently, the poor thing hadn't realized what a tizzy a wedding could send mothers into.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'll protect you."

"You'd better," he growled. "Or I'll tan your bottom."

"Hey, you asked for it. Literally."

He rolled his eyes, then grunted as she poked him.

"Like, literally, you asked me to marry you."

Their eyes met, shining with the same teasing love, and Allison felt as though she could melt into a puddle of blissful joy.

"Yes, yes, I did."