“Tomorrow night, and you know it.” Her chuckle was a bit rough. She didn’t want to make love with Cal while Sammie was home until after they were married. But that didn’t make her immune to his ability to make her crazy with needing him.
“We still on for steaks and wine in bed tomorrow night?” he asked, a warm smile on the lips she so craved.
“The wine and steaks are negotiable,” she told him, smiling, too.
Her response earned her another long kiss at the front door. “It won’t be long before you won’t have to go,” she told him.
“It won’t be long before we move into our new house, you mean.”
A home she and Cal and Sammie had all chosen together. The home he was buying for her as a wedding present. It was centrally located between Sammie’s school, the day care where Morgan had been officially promoted to full-time teacher and Wallace. Cal had grabbed the resignation letter from his outbox and shredded it.
“Your mom called my dad today.”
Morgan’s stomach dropped. “She did?” What was her father up to now? Or more accurately, what had he put her mother up to?
“Wipe the frown off your face, worrywart,” Cal said, running his finger along her lips. “Grace seems to be a new woman now that she’s learned to stand up to your father some. She called to apologize for any stress or discomfort they’d caused him and to ask him if he’d like her to help him plan our rehearsal dinner.”
“Frank’s giving us a rehearsal dinner?”
“He is now. She also wanted to invite him over for Sammie’s birthday dinner.”
“His birthday isn’t until November and we can have our own birthday dinner.”
“Which we will, but we’ll still have to have a dinner with them.” With his arms around her, his hands locked at her back, he grinned down at her. “She also invited him for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.”
“She’s afraid she’s going to be cut out, but if she gets your father on board…”
“Kind of what I was thinking.”
“She’s as bad as my dad, trying to manipulate us.” She’d never, ever seen her mother be that way, though.
“I think she’s desperate. She can’t bear the thought of losing you and will do whatever it takes to be a part of your family. Truth be told, I feel kind of sorry for her.”
With her mother’s voice in the courtroom still ringing in her ears, Morgan wasn’t as ready to forgive. But… “I’m not going to cut her out. I’m letting Sammie go over there, aren’t I?” Because it was right. They were his grandparents. “It’s just going to take some time, Cal.”
“I understand. I just don’t want you to fall into my trap and close your heart. People aren’t perfect. They get hurt and make mistakes and—”
“So you’re ready to let your dad call Rose Sanderson, then? You’re ready to forgive her?”
Her response was a tight hug from her future husband. And then, a barely discernible whisper in her ear, “Thanks to you, I might be willing… .”
“Soon?”
“I want to give them some time to contact us first. I really believe it’s the right thing to do, considering the circumstances.”
And because she didn’t disagree with him, she let the subject drop. For now. But she wouldn’t let it go indefinitely. Cal needed to come to terms with his past.
To let hurts heal.
And she loved him enough to help him get there.
Just like he’d helped her.
She pulled back, staring up at him.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Not a ghost. Just my father in me.”