Indelible Love - Emily's Story (40 page)

Are you smiling right now?
Only you could send me someone who would try to completely fill
your void. From now on, I’ll come here happy and leave happy. I’ll
miss you, but I won’t feel alone anymore. Thank you, Momma. Thank
you, Daddy. We’ll be back often and one day soon, I hope to be back
with a baby. Can you believe you’ll be grandparents? I love you
both.

As soon as I was done, Jake looked at
me, and all I could say was, “I’m hungry. Let’s go have
steak.”

He shook his head and
laughed.

Chapter 20 Wedding
Preparations

It was Sunday afternoon when we
arrived at Jake’s parents’ house. We got a warm welcome home. Jake
had me use his room while he took up residence in Nick’s room. I
unpacked, started laundry, and gave Sandy and Bobby their gifts. My
fiancé was fast asleep on Nick’s bed when I went to check up on
him. Kissing his forehead and placing the blanket on him, I closed
the door, wondering what I should do next.

Sleep did not seem to be a part of my
plan tonight so I went downstairs to the kitchen and started making
croissants for breakfast. Knowing that the dough needed to rise, I
started early in order to have it ready for Jake when he left for
his 6:00 a.m. surgery. After mixing the dough I let it sit as Sandy
came over to the barstool and chatted with me about life in the
Reid household during my five-month absence.

“Emily, Bobby, and I are both so
relieved you and Jake are back together. I wish I could have
videotaped Jake’s mood swings while you were gone. It felt like we
were living with a depressed teenager.” She laughed as she went
into specifics about Jake’s behavior.

Bobby came over and joined our
conversation as Sandy started her lively stories. “Right after you
left, Jake was so distraught we didn’t know what to do with him.
Here was a grown adult suffering like a little child. He
disappeared for about a week, and only through Laney did we find
out that he was searching for you in Japan. When he returned
unsuccessful, he barely spoke to us or anyone else for that
matter.”

“I’m sorry you had to suffer along
with us.” I gave them my most apologetic look.

“Well, it got better once he got your
letter. He smiled and spoke again like a normal human being. Then
came the angst-filled days of waiting for more letters that never
came.”

“Yeah, it got ugly again when you
didn’t write to him anymore.” Bobby laughed. “Poor Jane and Nick.
Jake hounded them daily, asking them if they had received one of
your letters. Jane would scan your letter and e-mail it to Jake
even before she got a chance to read it.”

Sandy chuckled along with Bobby. “What
about Nick? Jake forced him to drive your letter over whenever he
got one. Oh, and then there was the birthday card and present you
sent to our house.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Because he had been so full of
melancholy, I threw him a birthday party on the day of his birthday
to cheer him up. He protested but seemed to be having a decent time
with all his friends and relatives. In the middle of the party, the
mailman came with your card and gift. Jake was thrilled!” Sandy
started the story, and Bobby chimed in to finish.

“We saw him open the card, but he
instantly disappeared. Sandy and I went up to see what he was doing
and we found him at his desk crying.” This revelation immediately
brought tears to my eyes.

Sandy continued, “I hadn’t seen him
cry since grade school. Jake explained to us about your birthdays,
and how it grieved him to think about you being alone on your
birthday. He deeply loves you, Emily. I’ve never seen him so
affected by anyone as he has been with you.” Sandy had suffered
seeing her son so badly hurt.

I hugged Sandy. “I love him with all
my heart, too. I promise I’ll take good care him.”

“Anyhow, the party was pretty much
over, and Jake was in a foul mood the rest of the time till he
found you again.” Bobby finished the story. “Not till you left him,
did I realize how much of a sulker my son could be.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen firsthand Jake’s
childish tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. Although, to be
honest with you, I find it adorable.” A grin marked my
face.

“Only you find it cute. The rest of us
find him to be a pain.” Sandy shook her head. “He was a mess. You
need to take him off our hands. We cannot live with Jake, without
you now.” The three of us shared a hearty laugh.

After our conversation, I went
upstairs and checked my e-mail. There were eighty-seven e-mails
waiting for my response. Half of them were junk, but the other half
I needed to answer immediately. Many of my students from Japan
e-mailed telling me how much they missed me, and asked when I would
come back and teach them again. The feeling was mutual, but truth
be told, I wouldn’t trade my life with Jake right now for anything
or anybody. While online, Sarah and Max began chatting with me, and
we set up a dinner date for tomorrow night.

Looking at the time, I rushed back
downstairs and lightly floured the huge marble island. I shaped the
dough into a rectangle and covered it with a plastic wrap and
placed it back into the fridge. While waiting for the dough to rise
again, I surveyed Jake’s room and cleaned up all the clutter lying
around. I rearranged his closet, refolded his clothes in the
dresser drawers, and ironed all the washed, but wrinkled scrubs.
Jake had also thrown around his watches in the jewelry drawer so I
rolled them back up and put them in their proper place. His cuff
links got the same treatment. Color coordinated, the ties hung
neatly, and the belts hung right next to them. The men’s department
at Neiman’s didn’t look this good. The type A side of me shined
tonight. After two hours, I was finally satisfied with the closet
makeover.

The dough was probably ready to be
laminated so I went back to the kitchen. Unwrapping the dough and
placing it back on the floured surface, I rolled it out, folded and
refolded with insane amounts of butter. I hoped Sandy wasn’t
planning on using this butter anytime soon because it was all
consumed. I cut the dough into triangles and made a third of them
plain, a third had chopped Callebaut dark chocolate, and a third
had almond paste and sliced almonds in them. They looked delicious
sitting on the baking sheet while the oven warmed to 425
degrees.

Jake ran downstairs in his bathrobe
looking a bit frazzled.

“What’s the matter?”

“I came looking for you in my bedroom,
but you weren’t there so I got worried.”

“Did you think your bride got cold
feet and ran away?” What a ridiculous thought.

Jake’s wrinkled face smoothed out as
he came over and squeezed his arms around my body.

“Good morning, Beautiful.”

“Good morning. You fell asleep at four
in the afternoon, yesterday. Are you well rested?”

“Yeah. I feel good. Did you sleep at
all last night? I noticed that you ransacked my room, then put it
back together in a scary way. Are you normally this
neurotic?”

“No. I hope you don’t mind. I couldn’t
sleep so I kept myself busy between your room and these
croissants.” Though I hated to pull myself away from the love of my
life, the croissants were ready to go into the oven. “You have a
moment? I need to ask you something.”

“OK. Shoot.”

“My tenant e-mailed saying that her
job will keep her in LA one more year. She wanted to know if she
could lease my house during that time. What should we
do?”

“If you don’t mind her staying another
year, we could move into my house in the valley. We’ll kick
everyone out and refurnish it.”

“Well, I was thinking of asking your
parents if we could stay here for a year. You know I grew up
lonely, and I like the thought of living with your parents. Would
you mind?”

“I’m OK, but are you sure? Jane and
Nick might move back in for a while too.”

“I’d love nothing more than a big
family.”

Jake smiled and hugged me again,
partly because he appreciated my love for his family, and partly
because he felt sad when I talked about loneliness. I hugged him
back.

“Go change. I’ll have breakfast ready
for you.” I sent him back upstairs and began laying out my
spread.

The Sub-Zero fridge had a variety of
vegetables so breakfast included a veggie omelet in addition to the
croissants. Jake came down in his scrubs, ready for work. He sat on
the bar stool around the island and I handed him the veggie omelet,
a variety of croissants, and French pressed coffee. Moving into
Bobby and Sandy’s home was most definitely a good idea. We felt
like a married couple already.

As Jake ate, we heard the door open,
and Nick’s voice boomed across the large living room and into the
dining room. “What is this delicious smell?”

“Nick,” I exclaimed, walking over to
hug him.

“Hi, Sis. How was your trip? You’ve
gotten prettier since I last saw you in New York!”

“You’re such a charmer. I guess when
personality genes were handed out, they all went to
you?”

“Not just personality, looks and brain
as well. I don’t know what my siblings got. I obviously got all the
best.” All three of us laughed at his humor.

“What are you doing here so early in
the morning?” we both asked.

“I’m off on a camping trip, and I
needed my hiking boots. I see I came at the right time. These
croissants are delicious.” He took another mouth full.

“Emily baked these just now,” Jake
proudly declared.

“No way, from scratch? How long did
this take you?” Nick seemed pleased to have another cook in the
house.

“I’ve been working on them since
yesterday. Take some for your trip. I’ll pack them up for you. Do
you want some coffee as well?”

“You’re the best, Sis. I think I’ll
move back in the house if you’re cooking.”

Nick’s loud voice woke up Bobby and
Sandy and they, too, raved about the croissants. Sandy and Bobby
relived many more Jake, while Emily was in Japan stories, and we
had a very early but entertaining breakfast. We, in this case, did
not include Jake. He didn’t find any of these stories as comical as
we did.

Sandy and Bobby were more than
thrilled with the news of us living with them for a year, and Nick
said he might move back into the house as well since school was
done.

We walked hand in hand to Jake’s car
and dark clouds grew bigger with each step. With a huge sigh, I
stepped into his open arms and dreaded our separation. It reminded
me of my empty days in Japan.

“I’m sad to see you go,” I whimpered.
“How am I going to go the whole day without you? When will you come
home?”

“Probably not till late—maybe sometime
after midnight. I’ll know better as the day progresses.”

“Midnight?” My whine became even more
pronounced.

“The chief told me I’ve got a tough
three weeks before the wedding. You’re OK taking care of this
wedding without me?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll just miss
you!”

“I know, Love. I’ll miss you too.” He
kissed me a long good-bye and unwillingly we parted. I, too, had a
long day of wedding preparations.

Bobby, Sandy, and I left the house
early with the intent of getting everything started today. Our
first stop was to the print shop to pick out wedding invitations.
We thought these should go out immediately since many guests may go
out of town on a holiday weekend. Sandy had already contacted all
the family members to let them know of the impending wedding. I
didn’t have much of an opinion on the invitation and Sandy had such
impeccable taste, I let her make most of the decisions. I would
only assert myself if I really didn’t like something she picked
out. The designer would send a proof via -mail later today, and
they promised to print all the invites as soon as we accepted the
copy. Sandy and I, in turn, promised to send addresses so they
could label and mail our invitations for us. Our first stop was
successful.

From here, we went to the florist.
This was really Sandy’s area of expertise. The florist had worked
on the house before, so she already had a layout of what she wanted
to do. We explained that we wanted to get married inside the house
and then hold the reception in a tent out in the vast backyard. The
floral designer named off all the flowers that she would use in
different parts of the house, and Bobby and I just listened, as
botany was never my strong suit. My job from here was to e-mail a
picture of my wedding gown, as well as the bridesmaids’ dresses,
and she would e-mail back sketches of bouquets. E-mail was a
wonderful invention. It saved so much time for everyone.

Next we headed to the department store
to pick out bridesmaids’ dresses. Both Sarah and Jane would stand
as my maiden and maid of honor. I thought picking out a dress from
a large department store would be easy for Jane since she could pop
into the Manhattan one for a fitting. Sandy and I easily found a
cute green summer dress, formal but not so formal where they
couldn’t wear it again. I took a picture of the dress and sent it
to Jane and Sarah. They both gave it a thumbs-up so we bought two
dresses, one here and one in Manhattan.