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“I can’t believe we’re finally dress shopping,” Grace squealed as she, Abigail, and Stephanie walked into a local boutique. “The wedding is starting to get so close that it finally feels real.”
“I know, right?” Stephanie gushed. “I can’t wait to see your mom’s dress, I can’t believe she won’t let us see it,” she pouted.
“I live in the same house as her and yet Grace is the only one who’s seen it.” She eyed Grace. “What can you tell us?”
Grace smiled. “Just that she looks beautiful in it.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes playfully. “Well we knew that. But never mind, it’s time for the three of us to find dresses that we look beautiful in.”
“But not as beautiful as the bride,” Abigail pointed out. She gave Stephanie a soft look. “Though, if you ask me, you’re always the most beautiful woman in the room.”
“You sap,” Stephanie retorted, wide smile on her face.
Grace made a gagging noise, “get a room.” She giggled as Abigail shoved her playfully. “Now come on, let’s find our dresses.” She took off into the racks, Abigail and Stephanie sharing a look before following her.
It took Grace only a few minutes to locate what she called the perfect dress. Stephanie raised an eyebrow at Abigail as they trailed after her, her leading them to the fitting room. “Is dress shopping with her always like this?”
Abigail nodded. “It’s like she has a dress radar, she always hones in on a single dress and nine times out of ten it’s the only one she tries on and the one she gets.”
Stephanie whistled. “Damn, I need some of that energy in my life.”
Abigail chuckled. “She can help you look then. I’m sure this will be the dress she gets which means she’ll be free to help us look.” The fitting room door squeaked as Grace came out of it. “Oh, Grace,” Abigail breathed.
“Whoa,” was all Stephanie managed to get out.
“So, do you guys like it?” Grace asked somewhat shyly.
“It’s stunning,” Stephanie responded.
“She’s right,” Abigail chimed in. “Grace, you look absolutely beautiful.”
“Is that emotion I hear in your voice?” Grace spoke with mock incredulity.
“Shut up and let me be proud of my little cousin.” Grace grinned. “But seriously, it’s perfect, you should definitely get it.”
“I think I will.” Grace admired the dress in the mirror a moment more before turning to address the couple once more. “Now, time to find the perfect dress for each of you.” She clapped her hands together, going back into the fitting room to change out of the dress.
Stephanie glanced at Abigail. “Should I be scared?”
Abigail pretended to think, “probably.” Stephanie rolled her eyes in response as Abigail pulled her into the racks.
They searched the racks for a short while, Abigail making her way into the fitting room after about ten minutes, Grace shoving Stephanie in with a dress after only a couple minutes more. She eagerly awaited the reveal, wincing as the two women opened the doors and stepped out.
In the same dress.
“Well then,” Stephanie said.
“This is unexpected,” Abigail stated.
“It really is.”
Grace looked back and forth between the couple standing in an awkward silence before deciding to break it. “So…”
“I’ll find something else,” Abigail interjected. “It looks better on you anyway.”
“Are you kidding me? It looks way better on you than it does on me. I can find something else.”
“Seriously? It works way better with your colouring than it does with mine.”
“Who cares about that? It looks so much better with your figure than with mine.”
Grace watched them go back and forth for a moment before rolling her eyes and heading back out of the fitting rooms and into the racks. Within a couple of minutes, she had new dresses for each of the two women and she went back in and shoved them into their arms. “Here you go, different dresses for each of you. Now, go try them on.” She pushed them towards the doors.
“Okay okay, we’re going.” “Yes, ma’am.”
They came back out a moment later, each in a dress that couldn’t be more different from the first dress or from the other’s dress.
Stephanie felt her jaw drop. “Abigail, you look amazing.”
Abigail looked down at the emerald gown Grace had picked out for her. “Thanks. I do like this, though maybe not for this occasion.” She gave Grace a guilty smile.
“Understood, I mostly just needed to get you two out of the identical dress.” Grace shrugged.
“Don’t blame you.” Stephanie also grinned guiltily. “And I have to say, this dress isn’t really my colour.” She gestured towards the very pale pink dress she had on.
“I think it looks good,” Abigail complimented her.
Stephanie gave her an exasperated look. “Well you’re biased.”
“Okay, okay,” Grace interrupted as Abigail opened her mouth to retort. “Why don’t you both change out of those dresses and we actually make an effort to find ones for the wedding. We really do need to get them today after all.”
“Agreed,” Stephanie responded.
“Let’s do this,” Abigail said, heading into the fitting room.
With the growing excitement for the wedding, the last thing Abigail expected was to have a tearful Grace knock on her door a couple evenings later as she was getting ready for bed.
Her mind immediately went to the worst. “Grace? What’s going on? Are you hurt?” No definitive response. “Is it Cassie? Noah? Nick?” Still nothing. “George? Sam?” That last one seemed to pull a response out of Grace as she let out a choked sob, but instinct told Abigail nothing was wrong with Sam himself. So instead she pulled Grace down onto the bed with her and wrapped her in an embrace, letting her get the tears out she so desperately needed to.
“I just hate that I’m feeling this way,” Grace finally said once she’d calmed down enough to speak.
Abigail brushed a stray lock of hair away from Grace’s face, a tear away with her thumb. “Feeling what way?” She asked softly.
“I mean I really like Sam, I do. And I’m so happy that he and Mom found each other,” Grace babbled, trailing off.
“But?” Abigail prompted.
“I guess the concept of Mom being married to someone that isn’t Dad just hit me.” Grace cast her gaze downward, tears threatening to fall again.
“Oh, Grace.” Abigail tightened her hold on the distraught girl.
“Everything that’s gone wrong these last couple of days… What if it’s my fault?” A few tears slipped down Grace’s cheeks.
“Now what on Earth would make you think that?” Grace causing things to go wrong? The thought was almost laughable to Abigail, but she didn’t laugh as she knew Grace was being serious.
“I’ve just been exuding all this negative energy the last couple of days since it hit me and that’s when things started going wrong, and I just can’t help but think that it’s my fault.” Grace paused to take a breath and seemed to be about to continue before Abigail held up a hand to pause her.
“How is thinking about your dad such a bad thing?” Grace shrugged, seemingly out of things to say. “Grace, there is absolutely nothing wrong with thinking about your dad. He’s just that, your dad. He’ll always be an important part of who you are. Sure, you might feel sad sometimes but that doesn’t mean bad things are going to happen. Sometimes things just happen and there’s no explanation for them, you are not at fault.”
“Then why does it feel like I am?” Grace’s voice broke and Abigail felt her heart break as well.
“Because you’re a good person.” The two sat in contemplative silence for a moment before Abigail spoke up again. “I have to ask. Usually for this sort of thing you go to Cassie. Why me tonight?”
Grace shrugged. “Mom’s so happy and so excited that the wedding is finally happening that I didn’t want to drag her down with this and upset her.”
“You know that she’ll sense that you’re off and will worry until you talk to her, right?” Grace shrugged again. “I’m not saying you need to go talk to her right now, but you do need to at some point, okay?” Grace nodded but Abigail sensed a hesitancy behind it. “What else?”
“Could I maybe stay here tonight?” Grace asked in a small voice, looking up at Abigail hesitantly.
Abigail just smiled. “Of course.” She stood, pulling Grace up with her, before turning the blankets down and beckoning for Grace to climb in. She followed suit, allowing Grace to snuggle into her shoulder.
“I’m gonna miss this when you move out,” Grace murmured, already lulled halfway to sleep.
“I’ll be right next door, we can have sleepovers all the time.”
Grace seemed to perk up slightly. “You going to ask Stephanie to move in with you?”
The question took Abigail by surprise, but she was still prepared for it. “Not yet, right now isn’t a good time but I do hope to soon.”
Grace yawned, settling down again. “You should, it would be nice to have both of you so close by.”
Abigail turned her head to look at Grace, smiling softly when she noticed her drifting off. “As soon as the time is right.”
Abigail blinked into consciousness the next morning, the events of the previous evening coming back quickly as she looked over to see Grace also waking up. “Feeling any better this morning?”
Grace nodded sleepily, rubbing her eyes. “Thanks for last night.”
“Of course.” Abigail sat up and stretched. “Now I’d hate to be that person, but we’ve got a lot to do today in preparation for tomorrow.”
Grace also sat up. “You’re right.” She paused. “Hey, Abigail?”
Abigail’s brow furrowed in concern. “Yeah?”
“You knew my dad, right?”
“Yeah, he and your mom had just gotten married when I first met them. Why?”
Grace took a deep breath, steeling herself. “Do you think he would have liked Sam?”
Abigail smiled somewhat sadly, reaching over and brushing a stand of hair from Grace’s face, cupping her cheek. “I think he would have liked that your mom is happy. And if Sam was who was making her happy then yes, I think he would have liked him.”
Grace smiled small but genuinely. “Then let’s get them married.”
“You weren’t answering your phone last night,” Stephanie remarked as she and Abigail finished setting up the reception hall, flowers being put into place and catering supplies where required. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, sorry, I meant to respond but fell asleep. Last night was a bit rough for Grace so we had something of an impromptu sleepover.”
Stephanie looked up sharply, concern clear in her eyes. “Is she okay?”
Abigail nodded, “she will be. The concept of Cassie being married to someone who isn’t her father just hit her, she’s been missing him.”
“Oh, poor dear. She doing better this morning?”
“Yeah, I think talking it over helped. I told her she should talk to Cassie, but she didn’t want to upset her.”
Stephanie chuckled humourlessly. “Of course, she didn’t. She’s Grace, she’s always looking out for everyone else.”
“That she is, but it’s what makes her her.” Abigail smiled. “She’s also looking forward to having sleepovers once I move out of Grey House and made it clear that she would like you to be there too.”
Stephanie smiled bashfully, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Really?”
“Yeah.” A loving smile came over Abigail’s face. “I want you to be there too.”
“Then I will be.” Stephanie leaned over to kiss Abigail. “Now, come on. We need to finish this.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Abigail smirked, bumping Stephanie with her hip.
The wedding had been truly beautiful.
No one could believe that Sam had managed to find the Forever Tree at the last possible second yet at the same time no one was surprised. This was a Merriwick wedding after all.
And, of course, with a wedding comes the bouquet and garter toss. Surprisingly Sam had rolled his eyes at such traditions, but Cassie had insisted upon it, a familiar knowing glint in her eye.
And so, the women – Abigail and Stephanie included – gathered for the bouquet toss. Cassie expertly tossed the bouquet –
Right into Stephanie’s arms.
She and Abigail caught each other’s eye, immediately looking away and blushing deeply, both unable to come up with anything to say.
Sam and Cassie exchanged a knowing look as he went to remove her garter. Sam took it off with nimble fingers, took aim, and flicked it straight at Abigail.
If possible, both her and Stephanie’s blushes deepened, Abigail clearing her throat somewhat uncomfortably as the crowd around them cheered.
It was only a short time later that the couple acknowledged what had transpired as they danced. “So,” Stephanie started. “I guess lore would have it that you and I are the next in this room to get married.”
“Guess so,” Abigail concurred.
“And what do you think of that?” Stephanie asked somewhat timidly.
“I think you and I both need a bit of time before either of us proposes if I’m being honest.” Stephanie relaxed subconsciously at Abigail’s words. “I do have a different sort of proposition though.”
Stephanie gave her a confused look. “What sort of proposition?”
“Well, I’m moving into Sam’s old house once he and Cassie get back from their honeymoon. I was going to move in after the wedding, but they asked if I could stay in Grey House with the kids while they’re gone just to help hold down the fort.” Abigail sort of trailed off, unsure of her next words.
Stephanie’s confusion only grew. “You don’t have to ask, you know I’ll help you move.”
“That’s not what I’m asking actually.” Abigail exhaled. “Actually, what I’m trying to ask is will you move in with me?”
Stephanie startled, stopping mid-step. “You want me to move in with you?” She breathed.
“Yeah,” Abigail gave her a watery smile. “We may not be at the point of marriage quite yet, but I know that I want to wake up next to you every day.” She searched Stephanie’s eyes for her feelings on the matter. “So, what do you think?”
“I think I better give my landlord my notice.”
Abigail’s smile widened. “For real?”
Stephanie nodded, tears in her eyes. “For real.”
It took every ounce of strength in Abigail to not do a little happy dance in front of everyone, instead settling for kissing Stephanie deeply. “I love you.”
Stephanie responded with another quick peck, leading them back into the steps of the current dance, the music surrounding them. “I love you too.”
Maybe they were indeed going to be the next to get married.