Page 77 of A Dream for Daphne

“That’s so exciting,” Raine said. “We’ll figure out a time to meet him. How do you feel about meeting his mother? Aster says you haven’t dated anyone in a long time. Or that he knew of.”

“I haven’t,” she said. “No one long enough that I was meeting their parents. And I’m nervous about meeting his mother.”

“There is no reason to be,” Raine said. “But I understand too. I’ll be nervous meeting your parents for the first time at the wedding.”

She laughed. “There is no reason for you to be nervous over that. I hope they come.”

“Do you think they won’t?” Raine asked, sounding hurt.

“I’m sure they will,” she said. Because Aster was paying for their stay.

He wanted their parents at the wedding and he knew if it was a free trip to them, they wouldn’t say no.

Honestly, she was pretty sure Aster only wanted his parents here for Raine and no one else. She couldn’t blame her brother for doing that nice thing for his future bride.

Raine nodded. “Did you get a chance to look at the link I sent you for the dresses?”

“I did. You don’t care which color or style we get?” she asked.

They were given the designer and the material and told the three of them could pick any of the seven colors, but Raine only wanted one color each in the bridal party.

She loved the freedom she got with this.

“No,” Raine said. “I want everyone to feel good and comfortable in their dresses. And you want to look sexy for your boyfriend, right? You are going to bring him I hope. It’s not like he won’t know people there. Laurel and Easton will be invited.”

“I plan on bringing him if things are still good in a few months.”

Raine frowned. “Why wouldn’t they be good?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You never know anything.”

“True,” Raine said. “But if you think something bad is going to happen, it’s like you’re manifesting it. Think positive.”

“I never used to think positively before I moved here. Now I feel I do it all the time.”

“Just continue to do it then,” Raine said. “Good things are happening all around you. Including to you!”

27

NO OTHER WAY

“Mom,” Abe said, going in to hug his mother as she walked toward him at the airport.

He had to drive to Providence, Rhode Island, the closest airport for his mother to come in from Florida. Not a big deal. Less than an hour.

Sometimes living in beautiful tourist towns you had to make sacrifices.

If he lived in a bigger area, he’d have a larger company and more clients.

Or maybe not. Might be there’d be more competition too.

He liked his life the way it was now. Not sure he’d change much of it, even if there were times when what he did for a living cost him some happiness in his personal life.

If he was that unhappy, then it wasn’t meant.

That was what he tried to remind himself for years.

“Give your mother a hug,” Carrie Cooke said.

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