“You look done in; couldn’t you pay for someone to do this?”
“I’m just tired. I stayed up until midnight last night addressing the invitations and writing thank-you notes.”
“Did it have to be done then?”
Grace nodded wearily as she stifled a yawn. “The invitations have to be mailed this week.”
“But the thank-yous—couldn’t you have written them later? The shower was just three days ago.”
“I know, but there is so much to do. I’m so glad that my dress is almost finished. In one week, I’ll have one thing completely done. Mom’s veil is airing out now and will be ready to wear in time. I’ve found a pair of shoes that match, and I think I know what I’m doing with my hair.”
“You’ll look lovely, Grace. Of course, I’d think so if we went right now and stood before the justice of the peace as we are.”
Grace began searching for a new package of egg roll wraps. Peering into the fridge, she groaned. “I knew I’d need more wraps. Would you mind getting me some more? I could check my email while you were gone and then be ready to roll again. I’m so tired.”
“Why didn’t you just buy them? This looks like an enormous amount of work. The Mandarin House would have been able to handle an order for a couple hundred egg rolls, but you can’t handle it all by yourself!”
Grace pulled money from her purse and handed it impatiently to Nolan. “Because I’m almost broke, and I can’t afford it. Please, go get the wraps. I’m stuck until I have them, and I’ve got to get these frozen.”
Before Nolan could answer, the phone rang. “Can you answer that for me? I need to use the bathroom.”
Nolan answered the phone. He asked to take a message and, snatching up a pen, wrote it on the pad that Grace kept near the phone. “Thank you—yeah, ok. I’ve got it.”
Grace dragged herself into the room moments later to find Nolan trying to wrap an egg roll. “This is hard work. Everything squishes out of the sides or it splits down the middle.”
“I know what you mean. I wasted a whole package before I figured out how to do it right. Who was on the phone?”
“Paige. She said that she’s looked at all the warehouses, and there aren’t any cheaper flowers than carnations, unless you wanted to go with just baby’s breath.”
She sighed. As she reorganized her ingredients in preparation for further rolling, she began talking to herself. “I wonder how pretty you can make baby’s breath. It might be pretty original—some sheer ribbon, and maybe a silk flower or two…”
“Grace?” His voice was tight and somewhat stern. “What’s going on? I think we need to talk. Living room perhaps?”
Grace absentmindedly followed him to her favorite chair and wearily sat down. “Can we make this fast? I’ve got to get those egg rolls in the freezer.”
“Ok. Spill it. What’s going on? You’re killing yourself making egg rolls, you’ve got Paige searching for the cheapest flowers available, and then you’re willing to do without all together? What else are you skimping on? Who have you hired for our photographer?”
Grace sat up a little straighter and tried to clear her face of exhaustion. “I love cooking, I don’t want to waste good money on flowers that will just be dead in twenty-four hours, and I have Todd Mercer lined up to do the photography. He’s the in-house photographer at the police station when the regular is off duty.”
“Grace! You’re out of your mind! I do not want Todd Mercer doing my wedding pictures.” Nolan’s voice edged up a notch with each irritated word.
She smiled slightly. “You really are jealous of him, aren’t you?”
“This has nothing to do with jealousy. It does, however, have everything to do with me not wanting to explain to our children why our wedding pictures look like
mug shots
!”
“Don’t be silly. Todd doesn’t even do mug shots. He takes pictures of crime scenes—”
Nolan lost all control. Grace, however, didn’t know it. She’d yet to discover that when Nolan shifted from visibly angry to absolute silence, that his anger level had reached the breaking point. In a matter of seconds, Nolan was in danger of saying something that they’d both regret.
“Grace Lynn Buscher-almost-Burke. That is worse. I refuse to have someone who is skilled at taking pictures of shot up corpses taking pictures of the day that is supposed to be the best day of our lives.”
Grace stood to face him. “Well you don’t have to talk to me like a child! Calling me by my full name— almost anyway. What is so bad about saving a few dollars and having someone who knows something about a camera take the pictures?”
Nolan’s voice dropped to dangerous sounding levels. Grace realized after the second word that she’d misjudged his reaction. Nolan wasn’t calming down, he was beyond livid. “This is the day that brings us together as husband and wife; the day in which the Lord takes two independent people and melds them into one. Do you really think so little of it?”
Seeing Grace’s features start to crumble, Nolan pulled her to the couch and sat beside her. Mustering all the inner strength that he could, Nolan tried again. “There’s something under all of this, but I don’t understand it, so help me. What is the problem? Why are you doing this? Your brother gave you money for the wedding…”
“That’s just it, Nolan! I’ve done everything I can think of to stretch that money. Egg rolls aren’t marvelous, but they were the easiest things that I could do myself! If I had someone else do it, it would have been triple what I spent. I still have the fruit, vegetables, sparkling grape juice—and that’s just the food! The cake is five hundred dollars!”
Nolan spoke before he thought. “I’m surprised that you didn’t make that too!”
Not catching the sarcasm in Nolan’s tone, Grace answered defensively. “Well, I would have! I just don’t know how to decorate cakes! I had to cut corners somewhere! Three thousand, two hundred and twenty-three dollars doesn’t
go
very far these days. Not with wedding stuff. It’s all so expensive! I shouldn’t have paid for the girl’s dresses—I didn’t have to—”
Nolan’s jaw visibly dropped at the announcement of her wedding budget. From what Mike’s wife had told him, her father had spent over five thousand on her dress alone. It dawned on him that Grace would work until the wedding was a perfect tribute to the fact that you can have an exquisite wedding on very little money. Then, she’d sleep through their honeymoon and into the following month just to recuperate from the work.
All his angst fell away as the vision of what she would put herself through to make this day happen appeared in his mind’s eye. “Grace. I need to thank you. Really. What you’re doing is amazing. I don’t want to throw in any ‘buts,’ but I am. You look ready to collapse.”
“I think those pills aren’t working. I don’t feel any better since I’ve been taking them.”
“Let me take care of the reception. I’ll find someone who can cater it. You know, one of those places that does everything. You can give me the name of your cake decorator so they know what to expect.”
Grace started to protest, but he stopped her short. “By the time the reception arrives, we will be married. Why shouldn’t I pay for my wife’s first meal after we’re married?”
“Craig…”
Drawing Grace to him, Nolan began praying. Grace found the gesture irritating. How do you argue with a man who is standing before the throne of Almighty God in prayerful petition? She considered his move a dirty trick and was determined to let him know it.
As he finished his prayer, Grace seethed. Unaware of the brewing storm beside him, Nolan stood, gathered his coat and gloves before kissing Grace’s nose, and opened the front door. “I’m going to go to Craig’s office and discuss this with him. I’ll call you from the city.”
Grace stood, watching him leave, fury mounting with each step. “Does he think he’s God incarnate? Does he have any idea what a low down rotten—”
Trying to take her mind off the situation, Grace grabbed her jacket and purse and hurried to meet the two o-clock bus. She wasn’t about to waste ten pounds of egg roll stuffing, and if Nolan insisted on hiring a caterer, then fine. He could just eat every last one of the egg rolls himself—even if it meant she served them on their fourth anniversary, freezer-burn and all. She made a mental note to wrap the rest of them poorly and then put them at the bottom of the freezer so they’d get nice and ugly by the time he could eat them.
Late that afternoon, Cade and Grace rolled the last of the three hundred egg rolls. The kitchen resembled the carnage of a disaster movie and Grace was exhausted. Nolan called to see how she was doing, but Grace’s short responses seemed to discourage his desire for conversation. The call was brief and Cade noticed.
“You didn’t talk very long to Mr. Burke. Don’t you like him anymore? Are you still getting married?”
Grace, still exhausted from the day’s work, forgot that she was speaking to a child and spoke her mind freely. “Just because he is being an overbearing, manipulative, irritating, controlling fiancée doesn’t mean that we don’t love each other, or that we can’t work it out. After I throttle him, all will be well…”
Grace continued to clean her mess as Cade watched in fascination. He’d seen Grace angry occasionally, but it was usually directed at small furry rodents. When his mother got angry with his father, the silence in the house was so loud that it hurt his ears. Grace was talking and even joking, and she was mad. He finally decided that adults were simply weird.
Mrs. Crenshaw arrived to pick up Cade. Grace could hear the young boy chattering all the way out the front door about how she was mad at Nolan. Shaking her head at the bluntness of children, Grace went back to repack her freezer, trying to squeeze in just a few more packages.
Craig arrived shortly after six-thirty. She wondered what Nolan had said to send over her brother before he went home to his family. Sitting together in the living room where each had taken their first steps brother and sister just looked at each other with understanding.
Craig spoke first. “Melanie reminded us to remember that Nolan loves you and only wants the best for you.”
“Well, I love him too. The dirty rotten low down scoundrel, and those are his good points, I’ll have you know.”
Craig’s low laugh brought back memories. Before Grace could travel too far down memory lane, Craig’s voice brought her back to the present. “Care to tell me about it? Are you really set on doing everything yourself?”
“It’s not that, Craig, really. Honestly, I’m furious with him right now, but it’s only because he snuck out of a perfectly good argument by praying. What a cheese.”
“He did what?” Craig knew Grace made sense to herself, but he was clueless as to what she tried to convey.
Sighing, Grace relayed the events of the afternoon in precise detail. Relating what each party had said, almost verbatim, she worked her way past the egg rolls to the flowers and finally to the catering comment that sparked the impromptu prayer. As Craig listened, he was both amused and intrigued.
“Sounds like a smooth way to get out of an uncomfortable situation. Maybe I should try that with Mel.”
A murmur of indignation erupted before Grace realized that her brother was teasing her. She stuck her tongue out at him in a very juvenile fashion. “I’m gonna warn her, brother mine.”
Moving back to the subject at hand, Craig started over. “Tell me. Why do you only have thirty two hundred dollars? I know that’s all that was in Dad’s account, but I know for a fact, you’ve saved five thousand dollars in the past couple of years. What about that money?”
“I thought I should have that to give Nolan. I mean, he’s taking on a lot of responsibility…”
Craig’s laughter filled the living room and annoyed her. “Listen, little sis, if you put that five thousand into one of his bank accounts, it’d be the equivalent of someone adding five bucks to mine. It’s a drop.” He saw her dismay and rushed to clarify. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing thing you’ve done. I know he was impressed when I mentioned it to him, but saving your dollars to fill his coffers when you need it to save your health and sanity isn’t a very wise use of your money.”
Thoughtfully, Grace relaxed in her favorite chair and thought about Craig’s words. He was right. Nolan would have a hard time appreciating the gift of five thousand dollars if their wedding was an embarrassment to him. He was accustomed to a much more upscale lifestyle—his friends were accustomed to a different kind of affair than the potluck receptions so popular at The Assembly.
“I think you’re right. I honestly never considered that money an option. It was saved for the future—whenever that is, and now certainly wasn’t it.”
“If you had ten thousand dollars to use to cater the reception, what would you serve? Would you hire the work out, or would you do it all yourself?”
No answers followed. The fire crackled in Grace’s wood stove as she tried to think reasonably. “Well, I’ll be honest. If I wasn’t as tired as I am, I’d probably still try to do it, but it seems like every day I get colder, more tired, and more irritable.” She yawned. “If I had six months, I’d still try to do it, I think, sick and all. But honestly, if I had ten thousand dollars right now, I’d pay to have it done in a heartbeat. This is very hard work, and I’m just tired, Craig. I’m not used to feeling so tired.”
“Have you called your doctor recently? I think he needs to know this. I want you to call him tomorrow.”
“I will. You think he can do something? I feel worse than I did before.” Grace’s voice was as tired as her face looked.
“I think he just needs to give you a stronger dose or something. Meanwhile, we have to settle this food thing. What do you have done?”
“Egg rolls. That’s it. I have to work on some kind of punch, and the day of the reception, I’ll have to cut veggies and things. I wonder what kind of difference five thousand would make in catering options. If I had ten thousand, I wouldn’t care. I’d just spend it and let someone else do the work while I agonized over extremely important details like silver or gold for attendant gifts.”
Craig pulled a check from his breast pocket and laid it on the coffee table. When Grace saw the name on the account, she looked quickly up at her brother. “You? When I saw you pull that check out, I—”