“I’ll fix you a plate,” Teddy told her mom.
“It’s all right, I can get it.”
The room was full of happy voices. Teddy’s mom took a place and made her own breakfast. They sat around the table for nearly an hour.
“I have to go or I’m going to miss my plane,” Sienna said.
Traveling activity filled the house with each of her siblings getting their suitcases and travel bags.
“What time is your flight?” Teddy asked Sienna.
“I have a ride,” she said.
“With who?” Teddy asked.
Sienna only smiled. “He’ll be here soon and I need to go put my makeup on.”
Sienna didn’t need any makeup and rarely wore much. Teddy was in no doubt that Galen would be arriving to pick her up.
As it turned out, Teddy didn’t have to take anyone to the airport or train station. Apparently, they’d all made arrangements for themselves. She waved goodbye and hugged her sisters and brother as they climbed into a car that Galen Sullivan was driving and headed to the airport.
Forty minutes later, her parents were climbing into their SUV for the trip home.
“Mom, did I hear you say the painting was wrong?”
Gemma Granville nodded. “You didn’t look at it?”
“When he brought it out, it was already packaged and ready to go. Not that I would know it wasn’t the right one anyway. You never told me what it was a picture of.”
“I’m sorry, but don’t worry about it. I’ve made arrangements to go to the city and do some Christmas shopping. I’ll return it and get the right one.”
Teddy thought she was going to get away without a discussion related to the engagement, but she should have realized that was a fool’s logic.
“Have you and Adam thought about a wedding date?” her mother asked from her seat in the SUV.
“We only got engaged less than twelve hours ago.”
“June is a good month,” her mother said as if Teddy had given her a date.
“You realize it takes a year to plan a wedding. June is an extremely popular month. We could be talking about a year from June.”
“You’re in the business, Teddy. I’m sure you won’t have to wait that long. Call in some favors.” Her mother waved away her argument as if it meant nothing. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll come up in a couple of weeks and we’ll begin planning it.”
“Mom, I have four weddings this month. I won’t have time for another one. Why don’t we make it after Christmas?”
Teddy knew the entire business would be over before any planning was necessary.
Her mother looked as if she was thinking this over. “I suppose that would be better,” she agreed. “I’ll just book the church and the reception. Think I can do that with a couple of phone calls.”
“Don’t, please.” There was pleading in Teddy’s voice. “Adam and I need to discuss it first. Then I promise, we’ll give you a date and you can go crazy with details.”
That seemed to placate her. Her smile was huge. She reached through the window and gave Teddy a tight hug.
“Bye, dear.”
“Bye.” Teddy waved to her father and he backed down the driveway.
She should be angry with Adam for putting her in this predicament, but she couldn’t. She remembered last night. And if an engagement could result in that, they should get engaged more often.
* * *
Teddy loved her family, but she was so glad to see them go. Her mother and sisters extracted a promise from her to send them photos of the engagement ring as soon as she got it.
By Monday, Teddy had spent two days washing sheets, towels, clearing away dishes and restoring her home to the place where she lived. The city was in full shopping mode. Roads were constantly clogged with drivers in pursuit of Christmas bargains. Getting anywhere on time was purely coincidental.
It was also a busy time for Weddings by Diana. Teddy had four weddings in December. And there was the annual winter fashion show that the office sponsored. In the beginning, she and Diana established two shows a year to bring in business. The two had morphed into huge events with SRO attendance and sales to match.
The van was packed and ready for her and Diana. Renee and several other associates left yesterday to get everything set up and ready. Only two people would remain in the office and Teddy should also be gone, but she was still in her office going over the final details, searching for a particular veil that Renee had called and asked her to bring.