Chapter 182 - The Dress
*Selecting a wedding dress is more than just a fitting… it’s a process – a memory in the making. - Olivelli Cape Town*
Reese woke up and found himself alone in the large bed. He rolled out of bed and found his sweatpants where he had dropped them before crawling into bed the night before. If his wife was downstairs in the kitchen making more cookies, he was going to haul her deliciously plump ass back to bed.
Bypassing the house shoes, he was grateful that the company here agreed to the radiant heating in the floor, he headed to the door and then down the hall. He peeked into the nursery where all four babies were sleeping soundly. Then he continued his way down the hall towards the faint light that was coming from the floor below.
Approaching the stairs, he heard the soft voices of the women.
“Dad lived in barracks the whole time.” Cheryl laughed. “Drove a god awful old beat-up pick-up and squirreled away the majority of his check.”
“But it paid off for him.” Bunny pointed out. “I mean, he started his first business with a little over a million in the bank.”
“He knew what he was doing.” His daughter agreed. “One of the first college courses he did was finance and investment. Let’s be honest, his dad had a lot of money, but he didn’t want to make it the same way that Grandpa did.”
Dean chuckled. “And yet, of the two, I can see O being more of a kingpin than Grandpa ever could be.”
There was a clink of glass and Reese stepped around the corner and saw that Cheryl and Dean were moving their glasses apart. “I didn’t realize that I was a kingpin.” He chuckled.
“Nah.” His niece said over a wine glass. He cocked an eyebrow at her, and she tipped her glass to the sparkling grape juice on the table in the center of the group. “Just that you give the air of one.”
Cheryl smirked at her dad. She knew a few of the things that he dabbled in. He himself never got his hands dirty. He *facilitated* the contracts. He knew who could handle what and how to clean his hands.
She was pretty sure that the two bodies that were found in the warehouse that caught fire were not killed in a drug deal gone bad. No matter what the evidence said. There were just a few too many coincidences for her liking.
Not that she was going to ask. He kept his family away from that side of the business. Although he knew that she was aware of it, he never discussed it with her. The less she knew, the safer she was. Her one and only request was that Wayne never know, never be exposed to it. So far, he had obliged – on the condition that she did not tell Helen or any of her kids about it.
There was no way that Cheryl would ever betray her father.
“Great, start that rumor and then it can be filed away with the one that your house used to belong to the mafia.” He chuckled.
“I loved Tony Soprano!” Dean grinned.
His chest rumbled with his soft laughter as he remembered her fascination with the TV mafioso. To her young mind, she didn’t understand why she couldn’t grow up and marry a character from a TV show. When he had to break the news to her that the actor who portrayed the love of her young life, he thought she was going to go to California and dig the poor man up.
“I know. You had a plan to get rid of his wife and marry him.”
“It would’ve worked too, if it wasn’t for you rascally kids.” Cheryl interjected and they all laughed.
“It didn’t matter since the character was already dead. Stupid writers.” Dean pouted with a small smirk on her face.
“And how does that make you feel?” Bunny asked in her doctor’s voice.
The room erupted in laughter and Dean tossed a small throw pillow at her.
“Sad. I even had our wedding all planned out. But what makes it worse, my mother never once told me he’s too old, he has kids older than you, the man doesn’t really exist. No, that crazy bitch bought me bridal magazines!”
“Oh, my god!” Cheryl threw her head back and laughed until tears were rolling down her cheeks. And then the tears changed, and the laughter faded.
“I still have the dress that mom bought me.” Dean said quietly. “When I get married, I want it to be in that dress. That way I have mom with me.”
“Does it fit?” Reese asked.
“It did. I haven’t put it on since mom died.” She admitted.
Cheryl hopped up and sat her glass on the table before sprinting upstairs. Everyone was still in shock when she ran back down with a white garment bag.
“I heard a rumor that we might need this, so I stole it out of your mom’s closet.” She said as she shoved the hanger into her dad’s hand and then unzipped the bag.
“Why would I need…?” Dean’s eyes went wide as Reese and Helen simply smiled at her. “No! No! No! What the hell is he thinking?”
“You want me to be honest?” Reese asked and she nodded. “He’s thinking that he’s in love with you and wants to marry you. He’s thinking that you’re looking for an excuse to run and he wants you to know that he’s in it for the long haul. He’s thinking that he doesn’t want you to run.”
“He’s also thinking that in the state of Mississippi,” Helen told her from her spot on the sand-colored couch, “you have to have parental consent to get married if you’re under the age of twenty-one.”
“Twenty-one?” Bunny asked with a slight shake of her head. “Damn, they really want to make sure that you know what the hell you’re doing when you get married here.”
“I think it probably has a lot to do with the military bases that are here.” Reese replied as he watched his daughter pull the dress out of the bag.
The first item that she pulled out was the black petticoat that went under the dress. “Dad, get the hell out. This is going to be girls only.”
“Fine.” He grumbled and headed for the kitchen. “Let me know when you have it on.”
He grabbed a bottle of water and stepped out onto the back deck to wait. Out here he could still hear the laughter and conversations. There were a few times that the voices got louder, and the words were carried out through the glass doors.
While they laughed and enjoyed each other’s company, Reese sat outside and thought about when his sister decided to take her eleven-year-old daughter wedding dress shopping. Not because she didn’t think that she would not be there for the real event. But because Mary thought that memories were more important than anything else.
The salesclerk had played along and had brought out the bridal looking bridesmaid dresses. But then *the dress* caught Dean’s eye and she had to try it on. It didn’t fit her still developing figure, but it did fit her mother. When the dress finally fit. it became part of their tradition that on Valentines Day they would put on wedding dresses and watch sappy rom-com movies.
The dress that Dean had picked out so many years ago was always tried on, pictures were taken, and then it went back into the bag and the closet.
Then they would put on the secondhand wedding dresses and start with Mary’s favorite movie of all time. Of course, anything with Sidney Poitier ranked at the top of Mary’s favorites list. *To Sir, With Love* had her considering becoming a teacher, except for one minor problem. Kids.
*Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner* always started their annual movie marathon.
The door behind him opened and Reese swiped the tears off his cheeks as he stood up. Turning, he saw his niece in her wedding dress. The white organza A-line skirt with the short court train was resting over the black petticoat with the lace trim just peaking out from the bottom. The sweetheart cut, corset bodice was pulled tight with the black satin ribbon. The bodice was covered with black lace, appliques and beads that artfully dripped down onto the skirt.
The older she got, the better it fit her. Both in how it looked and her personality. It was still very traditional, but it was also extremely modern. Thinking of how old she was when she got it, he thought that she still looked like a little girl. And yet, she now looked very grown up and like a bride. She also looked so much like her mother.
“You’re beautiful.” He whispered.
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