Page 113 of Meant to Be

CHAPTER 26

Cate

That stormy weekend in the Hamptons, Joe and I talked endlessly about the future. He made the final decision to quit his job, and I resolved to get my GED, attend college, and help with his campaign.

We also decided to keep our engagement a secret from the press. To that end, I would wear my ring on my right hand and deny its significance—which would be more believable because of the ring’s nontraditional design. We called a few close friends and family with our news, including Elna, Wendy, Peter, and Genevieve, who already knew of Joe’s plans, along with his grandmother, mother, Berry, and Curtis, swearing them all to secrecy. Sadly, I did not call my own mother. With Chip in the picture, it just wasn’t safe for her to know. In the back of my mind, I wondered if we could even invite her to our wedding. When I mentioned this to Joe over coffee on Sunday morning, he looked horrified.

“What? Your motherhasto be there,” he said. “We’ll find a way to get her there safely without him.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible. It might be too risky,” I said,envisioning Chip calling the media and blowing everything up. Or worse.

“We can do it,” Joe said, stirring more sugar into his mug. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Or…we could just elope?” I said.

“Is that what you want?”

I hesitated because in some ways it always had been what I wanted, even before I knew I would be marrying into the highest-profile family imaginable. There were just too many things missing in my life for a traditional wedding, including a father to walk me down the aisle. Weddings also cost a fortune. I had some money saved, but it still felt like a waste. “Well, eloping sure would be easier,” I finally said.

“Forget about what’seasier,” he said. “Is that what youwant?”

I sighed, then shook my head and said no, mostly because I knew that wasn’t whathewanted—and I didn’t think it was fair to him to have any of my issues cloud our decision. That wasn’t the way to start a life together.

“Good. Because I want to see you walking down the aisle. So badly.”

I smiled. “Okay. But I don’t want ahugewedding, either,” I said, thinking of Wendy and Genevieve and how the planning sometimes seemed to take away from the underlying sentiment of marriage.

“I agree. I’d rather have something small,” Joe said.

“Will your mother be okay with that?”

“She’ll have to be,” he said. “It’sourwedding.”

I smiled.

“So…what do you envision?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, looking down at my gorgeous ring, feeling overwhelmed. I looked back up at Joe and said, “Something intimate and very private.”

He gazed into my eyes and said, “Go on.”

“Well…let’s see,” I said. “I picture just two attendants. A best man and maid of honor.”

“Elna and Peter?”

“Yes. Elna and Peter,” I said, thinking Wendy might be hurt, but she’d get over it.

“Will we be in a church or outside?” he asked, like a little boy at story time.

“Either one. But maybe a church would be nice,” I said, thinking that it would also eliminate the possibility of the paparazzi filming our ceremony from a helicopter. We wouldn’t have to worry about weather, either.

“Where is this church?”

“Somewhere remote and secluded…maybe a small wooden chapel with only a few pews inside,” I said. That would be the last place anyone would suspect that Joe Kingsley would marry.

“Ohhh, yes. I like that. A lot…What else?” he said, his expression growing softer by the second.

“Well…let’s see…. We’ll exchange vows after dark…by candlelight…because there might not be any electricity in our little church.”

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