Leap of Faith

Day Seventeen

TJ expertly directed us towards The Grange, and patiently waited behind a long line of cars that were dropping off other guests. Mom and Dad had gone all out for this party and had invited everyone they had ever met. Plus there was some of Libby and David’s friends here, too, which meant that the guest list had run well into the hundreds.

I hope the wedding will be a smaller affair, because if I had to go through this Hell twice, I’m pretty sure my nerves wouldn’t cope.

Soon enough TJ parked the car at the rear of the hotel. When the parking attendant heard my name, he directed us to the rear parking lot. We parked next to Anna’s familiar Prius and TJ helped me navigate the steps up towards the entrance hall of the hotel.

I saw a few recognizable faces, but there were two people here that I really hadn’t been expecting to see. Stood just inside the lobby was Georgie and Greyson and they were talking to my twelve year old cousin, Myka. When Georgie saw me, she smiled nervously and waved.

I ran over to her and wrapped my arms tightly around her. We didn’t need to say anything because we both knew that the other was forgiven. It’s how our friendship worked. It didn’t matter how bad out falling out was, or how long we’d gone without talking, we could just slip back into our friendship like nothing had ever gone wrong.

“Girls?” Greyson tried to get our attention. “Shall we go inside now?”

Georgie and I pull apart and not simultaneously. Greyson walks Georgie inside and TJ moves to follow, but I pull him back and give him a quizzical look.

“Was this your doing?” I ask.

“Maybe,” TJ answers with a worried look on his face. “I hope you don’t mind. I thought you could do with the back up.”

I reach up and pull him in to a hug. “Thank you.”

*~*~* TJ *~*~*

“And then of course,” Cate’s grandmother smiles wistfully. “There was Mr. Higgledy. Catherine wouldn’t go anywhere without that stuffed cat. Very bizarre, but that’s our Catherine.”

I had just spent the last fifteen minutes stuck in conversation with Marina Reid, Cate’s maternal grandmother, who herself was a little bizarre. She wore very colorful clothes that made her look like a throwback hippy, and I’d lost count of the amount of rings she’d stacked on her fingers. And let’s not even mention the eccentricity of her hair. I know Cate’s mom and sisters are red-heads, but there’s a difference between red, and orange. I was pretty sure Marina’s color was from a bottle, and not from Mother Nature.

I look across the expansive room, searching for Cate who had disappeared long ago. I could see Grey and Georgie talking with Cate’s cousins, Sarah and Audrey, and I spotted her sister, Anna, in conversation with a man she seemed to think was hilarious, but I couldn’t find Cate.

I excuse myself from Marina and start to circulate the room, hoping to find Cate’s familiar face. She’d told me to try and avoid as much of her family as possible, but for some reason they all seemed to be attracted to me.