“I can’t tell you more than what I’m about to, and the only reason I’m calling is to ease your worries, so please don’t ask me anything. Can you do that?”
“Is this about Meredith?”
“Yes.”
There’s no hesitation. “I can do that.”
“She’s told me everything. She’s talked to me. You don’t have to worry so much about her.”
A moment of silence and then, “She’s okay?”
“She’s okay. I think she’s going to share with you and Harold, but I can’t say when she’ll be ready for that.”
Hope’s sigh is full of relief. “Thank you, Noah.”
“No thanks needed. Oh, and one more thing. I haven’t asked yet, but we’re planning to get married this summer. I figured you’d want to know, so you can get her to start planning the wedding she wants.”
“You want us to plan a wedding when you haven’t proposed?”
“Yes,” I answer simply.
“And Meredith knows about this?”
“She knows my plan, yeah.”
“Well, okay.”
I talk to her for a few more minutes before hanging up. It’s not my place to explain to her parents what happened, but I wanted to let her know she can stop worrying about her one and only daughter. The hardest hurdle for Meredith was talking about it. She’s done that. Meredith isn’t as lost as she was when she first came here. She’s found a new passion, she’s with me, and she’s tackling her past so she can move forward.
She’s close to being back to normal. That’s all I want.
“Why are we here?” Meredith asks when I pull into a parking lot the next evening.
“Because it’s Halloween and I forgot to tell you sooner. We need to find costumes for Brayden’s party. We have an hour, so let’s get this done.”
“An hour? Why didn’t we do this when you got back from the arena?”
I turn my head to raise an eye
brow at her as I pull the key from the ignition. That’s all the response I need. Her cheeks turn a little pink as she remembers how she attacked me the moment I walked into the door. She did the same thing last night when I got home from the game. I’m not complaining one bit either.
“Right, well, ah, let’s go.” She opens the door and gets out, so I follow after her. Mere takes my hand when we meet at the back of my SUV, and we walk into the Halloween store. “Are we matching?” she asks.
“I don’t care.”
“What kind of party is this?”
“It’s just a party,” I reply, not sure what she means.
“Are we going for something fun? Something sexy? Something simple? What?”
“Sexy, definitely sexy.” I want to show her off. Unfortunately, my answer makes Meredith picky. For thirty minutes, I follow her as she shifts through the clothes hanging on racks. “You need to hurry up,” I repeat what I’ve been saying since we hit the fifteen-minute mark.
“Say that one more time, Noah,” she says without even looking at me. “I’m trying these on.” She holds up four costumes. I follow her to the dressing room, and since there isn’t enough room for the both of us, I’m left sitting outside in a chair.
The store is busy, appearing as if we weren’t the only ones waiting until the last minute to get our costumes. The problem is there isn’t an awful lot to choose from due to waiting.
“Noah?”