*~*~* Cate *~*~*
“Then, on Dad’s side there’s my aunt Rachel and her husband,” I tell TJ through the bathroom door as I apply mascara to my eyelashes. “So, they have three kids called Levi, Asher and Myka. Myka is a girl, by the way.”
TJ had come over to pick me up an hour ago but we were still at the house because I kept poking myself in the eye with the mascara wand and ended up with red eyes as a result. I check the time on my cell and see that I’ve still got another forty minutes before I am officially late for my sister’s engagement party.
“Where does Nathaniel fit in to the picture?” TJ asks from where he’s lying on my bed.
For a while he was pacing the room, and then he was at my desk chair, then at the edge of the bed, now he was lying in a cross shape in the center of the bed. To say he was bored would be an understatement, but I’d kept him occupied by giving him the lowdown on my family. I’d already warned him that a lot of people would assume he’s my boyfriend, and told him to go along with their assumptions because it would be easier than explaining the whole just friends thing to them.
“Nathaniel is my cousin from Dad’s side,” I tell him as I dab some cover up under my eyes. “There’s also my cousin, Hugo, too. They’re both really nice.”
“If they’re so nice,” TJ starts and already I know how he’s going to end. “How come Georgie hates Nathaniel so much?”
I know TJ’s been dying to ask me this question since last week when he found out that Georgie hates my cousin. I’m actually amazed it’s taken him this long to ask me, but now the question is out there, I suppose I’m going to have to explain.
“Nathaniel is a bit of a ladies man,” I say in the politest way possible. “He and Georgie had this one-night thing that she thought could be more, but I know my cousin, and that was never going to happen. In Georgie’s defense, Nathaniel did lead her on and broke her heart. I think that’s why she was wary of Greyson at the start because he reminded her of Nathaniel, and Georgie didn’t want her heart broken again.”
There was silence from the bedroom. “Makes sense, I guess,” TJ finally said.
Having dabbed some shimmery gloss on my lips, I move to the mirror to take in my reflection. The dress, strapless navy lace, hugged my curves and fell to the floor. I skimmed my hands over my hips and turned to get a sideway view, checking that neither my stomach nor my butt was sticking out too much. I smiled at how well the dress fit, and had to give Vivian and Margarita props for knowing what style would suit me best.
I wobbled a little in the gold strappy heels but managed to stay on my feel long enough to hook the gold skull bracelet around my wrist. I knew Mom and Vivian would flip their lids when they saw the cuff, but I didn’t care. It was the only part of the outfit that was decidedly me. I’d let them put me in a dress I hadn’t chosen and shoes I couldn’t walk in, so the jewelry had to show some of my personality.
All morning and for the better part of the afternoon I had been in girl Hell and had been pushed and pulled, waxed and threaded to within an inch of my life, but seeing the final product, I had be stand back and be amazed that it really was me that I was looking at. My hair had been put in a Gibson tuck and looked effortless, although it had taken almost an hour to get it to look so un-put-together.
I gave myself a little pep talk and rolled my shoulders back to relax myself before I headed out for TJ to see. Granted, he’d already seen me in the dress, but it was all the little details that he hadn’t seen that made him sit up and gawp at me with his mouth hanging open.
“Do I really look that bad?” I ask nervously when, after a minute had gone by, TJ still hadn’t said a word. “It’s the bracelet, isn’t it? I should take it off.”
“Don’t!” TJ shouts as he clambers to his feet. “Don’t touch anything.”
His eyes travel the length of my body and slowly make their way up the dress, to my wrist, to my neck line, to my earrings, to my hair and then finally come to a rest on my face. He scrutinizes every inch of me, and then smiles widely.
“Cate,” he breathes out my name. A shiver goes down my spine and my skin tingles. “You look… breathtaking.”
I blush furiously at his compliment. No one had ever said I looked breathtaking before, and hearing it come from TJ made my knees go weak. Not wanting TJ to see how embarrassed I was, I turned and started to gather my things to put in my clutch. I threw in my cell phone, my lip gloss and my cover up wand, and then turned back to TJ who was still staring at me.
“Are you ready?” I ask him.
“Yes,” he whispers with a nod of his head.
TJ looked amazing, I noticed as he walked me towards the car. He wore a navy suit with slim fit pants and a white shirt that was open at the collar. He didn’t wear a tie which for some reason I found comforting. TJ had obviously gone for comfort over formality and it helped me to relax and be at ease that he wasn’t taking this seriously.
When we stepped out of the door, I looked around expecting to see TJ’s SUV, but the familiar black Jeep wasn’t here. Instead, a sleek grey Mercedes coupe sat on the driveway. TJ offered me his arm and directed me to the passenger door, opened it and helped me get in. Once I was seated, he closed the door and rounded the hood.
“Whose car is this?” I asked as he started the engine and backed out of the driveway.
“Mine,” he says flatly. “My step-father bought it for me on my eighteenth birthday. No doubt it was my mom’s idea. I don’t like to drive it often because it’s a little ostentatious.”
“It’ll fit right in at The Grange,” I laugh as we start our way up to the exclusive hotel just outside Hastings. “So, just remember what I told you, ok?”
TJ frowns. “Which part? You gave me a lot of instructions.”
“Try to remember most of it,” I smile playfully. “But the biggest thing is to just ignore my nut-job family, and if you wind up meeting my grandparents, don’t believe a word of what they tell you.”
When my grandparents met Georgie for the first time, they told her every embarrassing little detail about my life. It went the same way when they met Adam, so I was more than a little nervous about TJ bumping in to them. If Grandma dares tell him about Mr. Higgledy, then I won’t be held responsible for my actions. My love affair with my childhood teddy bear was not for public consumption.
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.
I’d met her father’s parents, Philip and Evelyn, who were very nice. They had flown in from Aspen to be here and they were more than a little shocked that Cate had brought a date to the party. Evelyn had quickly corrected herself when she said that it was a good shock because Cate rarely made new friends. I nodded politely and said that Cate and I had had become close since meeting.
With hindsight this was probably the wrong thing to say, because as soon as I had uttered the words, more and more of Cate’s family had come to seek me out, wanting to meet Cate’s friend. The last three hours have consisted of me meeting all her aunts and uncles, as well as eight out of nine of Cate’s cousins. The only one I hadn’t met yet was…
“So, you’re Cate’s new friend,” a tall guy with a shock of dark hair and bright blue eyes said as he moved to block my path. He held out a hand for me to shake. “I’m Nathaniel, her cousin.”
“TJ,” I introduce myself as I shake his hand. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Nathaniel grimaces. “From who? Cate or Georgie?”
“Cate,” I answer.
“In that case,” he laughs. “Believe everything she told you.”
“Including the part where she said you were a player?” I ask in a challenging voice.
Nathaniel shrugs. “Why not. Cate puts it much more eloquently than Georgie does,” Nathaniel muses. “If you ask Georgiana, she’ll tell you that I’m a-”
“A heartless prick who likes to fuck girls and then ditch them without an explanation?” Georgie’s voice comes from behind Nathaniel. He moves to include her and Grey in the conversation, but Georgie just rolls her eyes and dismisses him. “Get gone, Nat.”
Nathaniel bows down to Georgie and salutes her before he wanders back into the crowd. Georgie watches carefully to make sure that he’s gone and sighs out a breath of relief. For a brief second, I swear that Georgie looks vulnerable, but just as soon as the emotion appears, it disappears and she’s back to being her usual self.
“Where’s Cate?” She asks me.
“I’m not sure,” I shrug. I look around the room, but there’s still no sign of her. “I haven’t seen her since her aunt Jillian stole me away to interrogate me.”
You know what they say about red-heads? That they’re fiery characters? Well, if my encounter with Jillian Chambers is anything to go by, then the rumors are true. I thought Anna had been scary but she was a kitten compared to Cate’s aunt Jillian.
I had been talking with Cate and her cousin Hugo when suddenly a woman approached, took me by the arm and dragged me to the dance floor. Forcing me to dance with her, the woman introduced herself as Jillian Chambers, the sister of Cate’s mother. I had already guessed that from the hair and the eyes, but I wasn’t about to back-chat Cate’s family.
Throughout the excruciating dance, Jillian had interrogated me about every aspect of my life. Where had I been born. My family. My education. My plans for the future. My intentions towards her niece. She’d been very thorough with her questioning until eventually she’d heard all she needed and deposited me with Cate’s uncle Andrew.
Surprisingly, Andrew wasn’t that interested in my friendship with Cate. Instead we talked sports, but as soon as he found out that I was more of a soccer type of guy and not all that in to football, the conversation died and he made his excuses.
I tried to look for Cate then, but I was pulled into another conversation with some drunk dude that I’m pretty sure wasn’t related to Cate in any way. He ranted on about stocks and shares and I just played along, agreeing with everything he said until he ran out of scotch and went to get himself a refill.
After that, I met Marina. The least said about that conversation the better.
“I’m gonna go look for Cate,” I tell Georgie and Grey as I round them and run for the terrace, narrowly avoiding another member of the Westbrook family that I’d yet to speak to.
I sucked in a fresh breath of air and exhaled slowly.
“Ah, another refugee,” a man’s voice came from the shadow of the terrace. I spun and found two men sitting with lit cigars in one hand and bottles of beer in the other. “You’re that TJ kid, right? Cate’s friend.”
I nod. “That’s me.”
The man who spoke made a ‘come over’ gesture with his head and despite my better judgment, I headed over to where they stood. The man that had spoken to me was about twenty-seven and had a mischievous look in his eye while the other guy was a little more reserved.
“I’m Sawyer,” the first man introduced himself to me. “I’m Anna’s boyfriend. This here is David. He’s the poor shmuck who’s marrying Libby.”
“Hey,” David reached over and knocked his beer bottle against Sawyer’s head. “That’s my future wife you’re talking about, you asshole. A little respect, please.”
Sawyer laughed and pushed out the chair opposite him, indicating for me to sit. “Shall we initiate the kid into the club?” He asked David who shrugged in response. “May as well, seeing as we’re all out here for the same reason.”
“And what reason is that?” I ask carefully.
“Escaping the clutches of the Addams family,” Sawyer laughed as he took a gulp of his drink. “Did you meet the wonderfully weird Marina yet?”
I nod. “Yes, I did.”
“Well, Hell,” David muttered as he set his bottle on the table and handed me a full one that had been hidden at the side of his chair. “You’re gonna need a drink after that.”
I take the bottle from David and drink a mouthful of the liquid before setting it on the table. I was driving tonight- not to mention that I was underage- but I didn’t want to offend the men seeing as they were being so nice to me.
“Not to freak you out or anything,” Sawyer said suddenly as he leaned forward and looked me dead in the eye. “But Cate is like a little sister to us, and we don’t want to see her hurt. Now, seeing as David lives in Boston, it might be a little difficult for him to come out here and kick your ass if you break Cate’s heart, but me? I’m only a half hour drive from Hastings, and I’m the one who has a white belt in karate.”
I laugh. “You know white belt means you’re a beginner, right?”
“It’s still a belt,” Sawyer smirks. “Doesn’t mean that I’m not afraid to use it.”
The door of the terrace opens and three identical looking women come over to where we sit. Libby nestles on the chair next to her fiancé, while Anna drops herself on to Sawyer’s knee. Cate hovers at my side and I hold my hand out for her to come and sit with me. She takes the space on the chair and drapes her legs over mine as she reaches for the bottle of beer that’s in front of me.
“Did you meet my family?” She asks, gaining Libby and Anna’s attention as well as David and Sawyer’s too.
“Yep,” I nod.
“Including my gran?” Cate groans.
“Yep,” I nod again.
“And you’re still here?” Cate shakes her head disbelievingly.
“Always,” I smile at her.
From across the table, I hear Sawyer mutter, “Just friends, my ass.”
*~*~*
It's unedited, so... yeah. There will be mistakes.
Sarah, xx
How do you think it's going so far?
To the side ---> is a picture of Cate's dress. I've also pinned it to the Pinterest Board I have for this story. Here's the link
http://www.pinterest.com/sianiflewog89/leap-of-faith/