Page 103 of The Wedding Ranch
“I’ll teach you some of your favorite dishes too, so someday you can pass them on to your daughter.” Mom came over and hugged her again. “I hope you never felt slighted.”
“Never. We were lucky to have such wonderful parents always there for us.”
Mom handed her a bowl of potato salad. On the top, deviled egg halves made the center of two flowers with chive stems and red bacon bit petals.
“Remember how you and Jeff would fight for the flowers? That used to make me laugh, because there were always two. One for each of you.”
“I can’t believe we never realized that.” They’d practicallycome to blows to dig out the first portion. Lorri carried the bowl and set it on the table.
Mom carried a chicken pot pie and a basket of rolls. The menu was a real hodgepodge, fried pork chops, pizza, homemade potato chips, ham, baked beans, and enchilada casserole. Each dish held memories. Welcome ones.
Dad blessed the food and said a few words about Jeff and expressed his thanks for the rest of the family being together to remember Jeff.
“I feel like I need a nap after all that food,” Lorri said after the meal was finished.
Mister laid down in the doorway, looking hopeful they might get to take a nap.
“You can lay down in the guest room if you want.” Mom picked up the empty plates and started moving them to the kitchen.
“No. Let me clear the table. Maybe you could find the old family albums. Let’s look through them. Can we?”
Mom and Dad exchanged a glance, then a smile. “I know exactly where they are.” She hustled off.
“You’re making your mother a very happy woman today.”
“I never realized—”
“Don’t explain. I was serious when I said no more apologies about this. It’s life. There’s no instruction booklet, and Lord knows it isn’t easy. Are you happy in Dalton Mill?”
“I am. I think I’m finally figuring out who I am. It’s funny how you can kind of lose yourself when you’re married. It’s been a year of discovery. Some good. Some bad.”
“It’s not always a bad thing. You have to be aware enoughto hold on to the real parts of yourself, and then you mesh and learn from each other. Growing in positive ways. I don’t think you and Craig really did that,” Dad said. “You outgrew him, and he kind of stayed the same.”
“Yeah. You might be right.”
Mom came into the room carrying three large albums. “Here we go!” She plopped down in the middle of the couch. Dad sat on one side and Lorri grabbed her glass of tea from the table and went to sit on the other side, tucking her feet beneath her.
Mom flipped open the first book. “We can skip to the back of this one. Mostly wedding pictures of me and your dad.”
“No! Let’s look at them too.”
Mom looked pleased. She placed her hand on the picture of her and Dad in front of the church.
Lorri had forgotten how young they looked in these pictures. Or maybe she hadn’t really noticed before. “Your gown was so elegant. Look how long that train is.”
“I had no idea how heavy it would make the dress. It was like pulling an anchor behind me.”
Her dad laughed. “And the girls had to keep running behind her and straightening it out.”
“It was a pain, but that was my dream wedding gown. Each one of those pearls on the bodice were hand-sewn.”
Dad leaned closer to Mom. “You were the prettiest bride in the world. I still can see you when you stepped into view at the end of the aisle. Took my breath away.”
Mom blushed. She flipped forward to the baby pictures of Lorri. There were a ton, and lots of her and Jeff together.
They spent hours going through old family photo albums,taking a break for dessert. German chocolate cake and banana pudding.
There were a few pictures from the shows she and Jeff used to perform on the patio. Magic shows, tumbling, and there was that one time they did turtle races. Her turtle refused to come out of his shell. Jeff had painted a number three like Dale Earnhardt on his turtle’s shell after that.
