Page 60 of Second Chance Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings #5)

Taylor leaned forward and used her finger to wipe off the excess lip liner.

She was starting to regret not taking Viv up on her offer to do her makeup.

She only declined because Viv was so very pregnant, and she looked very uncomfortable.

Taylor didn’t want to have her do anything like that when the ceremony was so small, and it wasn’t even a real wedding.

They were technically already married. So why was she so nervous?

Caleb had taken Owen to pick out a suit after school the day before yesterday; he was going to be giving her away.

Casper was serving as ring bearer, and Minnie was their flower girl.

Caleb’s dad was going to be officiating, and Taylor felt bad that his mom didn’t have a role in the service.

She’d mentioned it when they were over two nights earlier, when they told his parents that they decided to go ahead with the wedding, and she said that she had the best part of the wedding: she got to plan it.

Apparently, she was somewhat of a control freak.

As Taylor smoothed her hand down the silky material on the sides of her torso, she noticed her hands were shaking.

She shook them out and sighed. She had zero clue as to why she was nervous.

She and Caleb were already legally married, and this wasn’t a huge wedding; it was just a small ceremony in his parents’ backyard.

Still, it felt like the butterflies in her stomach had mainlined Red Bull.

There was a light knock on the door, and she jumped in start.

“Come in.” Her voice sounded two octaves higher than it usually did. It always went higher when she was nervous.

The door opened, and Caleb’s mom peeked her head in. “Is it okay if I come in?”

“Of course, yes, this is your house.”

She opened it just enough so her body could fit through the gap, she shimmied inside, and then closed it quickly as she said, “We can’t let anyone see you, especially Caleb.”

Taylor didn’t have the heart to tell her she’d asked Caleb to zip her up last night and also what he thought of the dress. Oops.

When Annie turned to face her, she gasped. Her lips pursed, and her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Sweet Pea, you are the most beautiful bride. Absolutely breathtaking. Caleb is going to lose it. He’s going to pass out.”

“I hope not.” Taylor smiled, feeling a little, no, a lot overwhelmed by the interaction.

All her life, when she’d imagined her wedding day, she’d envisioned her Imaginary Mom coming in and saying almost verbatim what Annie had just said to her, minus the groom passing out part.

To actually hear those words from the woman who was her mother-in-law, the only maternal figure she’d ever had in her life, was a lot to process.

She felt herself tearing up, but she sniffed back the emotion because, for once, she actually cared what her makeup looked like, and she didn’t want to ruin it.

“You look so beautiful, too,” Taylor returned the compliment.

Annie had texted her four dress options for the day, asking which one she thought looked best. Taylor immediately responded, telling her that the blue was her favorite, but she also really liked the light pink and the green, and she thought the yellow was probably beautiful in person but made her look a little washed out in photos.

She pressed send, not thinking anything of it.

And a few moments later she realized that what she said might have come off as rude.

She was crafting an apology when she received a reply from Annie with four crying emojis that read, Do you know how long I’ve waited for you?

I finally have my daughter! I have someone I can send four different dresses to, and they actually have an opinion on which one looks best. I have someone who will tell me if my hair doesn’t look right, or if I look washed out in a photo, or if the lipstick shade I picked out is too dark or light.

I prayed for you. You’re not just an answer to my son’s prayers, you’re also an answer to mine.

“You were right about the yellow. I looked at the pictures and I was Casper the Friendly Ghost.” Annie shook her head back and forth. “I had sent the same photos to George, and he picked the yellow , but I think that’s because yellow is his favorite color.”

“I think it also might be because he thinks you look amazing in anything you wear.”

Annie grinned. “Speaking of looking amazing, I have some things for you to wear, if you want to wear them; if not, you will not hurt my feelings. I am only going to show them to you if you promise me that you will be honest with me if you don’t want to wear them.”

“Okay.” Taylor nodded.

“I’m serious.” Annie put her hands to her chest. “It will break my heart if I do anything to ruin or even dampen your day; you have to be honest.”

“I will, I promise.”

She stared into her eyes, then took a deep breath. “Okay.”

Then she opened her hands, and in her palms there were teardrop sapphire and diamond earrings and a delicate necklace with a small heart and a diamond in the center.

“On my wedding day my mother presented me with these earrings and a necklace similar to this. These earrings were my great-great-great-grandmother's, and they are something old, borrowed, and blue, if you’d like to wear them.”

“Are you sure? Are they real? What if they fall off?” Taylor was sure that they were real; they looked real, and if they were, they had to be worth a lot of money.

“Yes, I’m sure. Yes, they’re real. They won’t fall off, and if they do, then they fall off being worn by the woman marrying my son.” She smiled as she handed them to Taylor, whose hand was still shaking.

“And this necklace is something new.” She handed her the necklace.

“It’s part of a set.” She put her hand on her neck, and Taylor saw that she was wearing a necklace with a larger heart that had a cutout the size of the heart pendant on the necklace in her hand.

She also had a gold necklace with a small heart that looked similar to the small heart pendant necklace she’d just given Taylor.

“My mom gave me this small heart and told me that everywhere I went, I would be taking a piece of her heart with me, and now, everywhere you go, you will be taking a piece of my heart with you.”

Taylor’s lower lip trembled.

“ If you want it,” she quickly amended. “You don’t have to take it or wear it.”

“No,” Taylor sniffed. “I mean, yes, I want it, and I want to wear it. Yes, thank you. Can you…”

Taylor pulled her hair to the side, and Annie clasped the necklace in the back for her. Then Taylor put the earrings on.

“How do they look?” she asked as she touched her neck where the heart fell flat against her skin.

“Perfect.” Annie beamed as two large tears fell down her cheeks. “You look perfect.”

“Mom, it’s time!” Owen shouted as the door flew open.

“Oh! It’s time! I gotta go get my seat!” Annie clapped her hands and rushed out of the room.

When she did, Owen watched her fly by him, and when Taylor stepped beside him, he asked, “Was Grandma crying again?”

“Yeah.” Taylor nodded.

He didn’t even ask why. It was funny how, over just a few days, so many things could feel so normal, like Owen calling George and Annie “Grandma” and “Grandpa,” and Annie crying at the drop of a hat.

“You look so handsome.” Besides the suit, he’d also gotten a new haircut, and she couldn’t quite get over how grown-up he looked.

“I know, right?” he agreed with a lopsided grin.

She rolled her eyes and smiled.

“You look really beautiful, Mom.” The sincerity in his eyes caused her throat to clog with emotion. “You really do.”

She scrunched up her nose to try and confuse her tear ducts into thinking there was a traffic jam or something. “Thanks, Bubbs. Ready?”

“Yep.” He held out his elbow, and they started walking down the hallway toward the family room, where she’d exit to the backyard.

They made it about halfway down the hall, and Owen stopped.

“What?” she asked, thinking he had to tie his shoe or maybe she had lipstick on her face or something.

He didn’t respond; he just looked down at the floor, so she waited. She knew he must have something he needed to say to her, but he just didn’t have the right words yet. When he finally lifted his gaze to her, the somber look in his eyes caught her off guard.

“It’s been just us for a long time,” he said.

“Yeah, it has.”

“Even when we lived with Martin, it was just us.”

Her tear ducts were no longer confused about clogging as they filled her lower lids with tears as she nodded. “Yeah, it was.”

“I love Caleb and Grandma and Grandpa, and I am happy that we have this family now, and they are our family, but…” Owen took in a deep breath and threw his arms around Taylor’s waist, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back even tighter as tears fell down her cheeks. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too,” she spoke against the top of his head as more tears dropped.

“Rrruff.” A loud bark interrupted their moment.

They both lifted their heads and found Casper sitting at the end of the hall. As the ring bearer, he was going to walk down the aisle with Owen and Taylor, so he was the only other person, or dog, in the house.

“Okay, we’re coming,” Owen told Casper.

Taylor patted her face, trying to remove the moisture. “Do I look okay?”

He nodded and held out his arm again. This time, they made it all the way down the hall. On the way to the back slider, Taylor caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror and was happy that she didn’t appear to have tear-streaked cheeks. She considered that a win.