Page 85 of Hot Response
“One, I’m not having sex with you in my mother’s house. And Michelle and Noah are staying in my old room.”
Across the yard, she saw her sister chasing her young nephew, who’d managed to snag a cupcake from the table. Her brother-in-law hadn’t been able to get the leave time, but when Michelle had told her there was no way she was missing her engagement party, Cait had burst into tears. They’d had a good cry together via FaceTime and were closer now than they’d been in a long time.
“I guess I’ll make it until we get home,” Gavin said, his voice heavy with exaggerated sorrow. “And thereiscake.”
“I know which bakery your mom ordered the cake from and, trust me, we want to stay.” She tugged at his hand. “Come on. Let’s go mingle before you talk me into doing something we’ll never live down.”
It wasn’t easy to keep track, but Cait did her best to make sure they talked to everybody at their party. Derek, who’d fit right into the Ladder 37 crew, was there with his kids. Grant was also there, of course, but this time he’d brought Wren with him. She was a pretty blonde who was reserved, but seemed friendly.
“Grant wanted her to meet everybody, but Kincaid’s isn’t really her thing,” Gavin whispered to her as they watched Grant handing Wren a soda.
“He looks happy.” It was harder to tell with his girlfriend.
“Not as happy as I am.”
She slapped his arm. “Not everything’s a competition.”
“Wrong,” Scott said as he walked by them carrying a plate of food. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, but everything’s a competition.”
“And someday you’ll win one,” Aidan called from a few feet away.
“Cait!”
She heard her mom calling her name and finally spotted her on the back deck. She was sitting in a lawn chair next to Gavin’s mother and, if she had to guess, she’d say the two women had nailed down 70 or 80 percent of her wedding plans since setting out the fruit punch.
“I’ll be right back,” she said to Gavin, who was deeply involved in a six-way argument with the other guys about who’d done a better job of manning the grill.
As she walked, she watched the two women with their heads together, over-talking each other in their excitement. Yeah, she thought. Definitely wedding plans.
She didn’t mind. Her mom was happy. Carter had achieved average teenager attitude. They still had rough patches and Cait still got phone calls. But she’d learned she could talk them through things and rarely had to show up in person. Gavin encouraged them constantly and now that they only called her when they really needed her shoulder to lean on, he was a lot more patient about it.
She knew the family therapist was a huge help, but she also suspected Carter showing up to Saturday morning basketball had also made a difference as he and Gavin grew closer. Nobody could ever replace Duke, but having a solid brother-in-law in his life would help.
“What are you two whispering about up here?” she asked when she reached them. After pulling a chair up next to her mom’s, she sat.
“Okay, we know it’s alittleearly yet,” Gavin’s mom said, “but we were talking about wedding gowns and we might have been looking at them on our phones and...”
“We don’t know what kind of wedding you plan to have,” her mom finished. “I know you don’t like dressing up, but you’re not going to do the courthouse thing on us, are you?”
“I always thought I’d be happy to have a small wedding and maybe wear a skirt or something.” Cait laughed when their faces fell in unison, and then she looked across the yard to her future husband. He was looking back at her and he winked. “But I remember the look on his face when he saw me in that red dress on Valentine’s Day and I want to see that again. I want that look on his face when he sees me at the end of the aisle.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Gavin’s mom said, while her own mother actually clapped her hands together.
“Mom, you know what suits me better than I do. You two can dress shop to your heart’s content and once you’ve narrowed it down to a few choices, we’ll have a girls’ day out—us and Jill, if she can make it, and maybe Michelle by FaceTime—and try them on before we splurge on desserts and wine.”
“You’re definitely going to be my favorite daughter-in-law,” his mom said, and they all laughed.
Tony’s kids went running by, screaming and waving water guns in the air, with Carter on their heels.
“Carter,” Cait called, stopping him in his tracks. “Tell me you didn’t put water in those.”
He just grinned and took off after the kids again, just in time to hear a high-pitched yelp from somewhere in the yard.
“It’s just water,” her mom said when Cait started to get out of her chair. “Let Carter be a kid with the little ones for a while. People will dry.”
Thirty minutes later, the moms decided it was time for cake. Gavin’s mom smiled at her, before holding up her hands in anI don’t knowgesture. “When I said I ordered the cake, what I really meant was that I ensured that ordering the cake was checked off the list by giving the name of the bakery and the number of guests to Grant.”
“Oh, no.”
