"Let me see the ring, oh it's so pretty!" Ellie sighed as she gazed at it.
I hadn't wanted anything too fancy, so he'd gotten me a two carat square cut diamond on a silver band. "It is, isn't it?"
"So, when's the happy day?" Owen asked as we resumed eating.
"We've been talking about that…" Brian said looking at me.
"I don't want anything fancy, just a simple ceremony with friends and family there. We were thinking Christmas Eve."
"Oh, wow, so soon! Was I right? You're pregnant?"
"No, Owen, geez!" My cheeks turned pink.
"I just told you we were waiting, dude! You've got babies on the brain!" Brian laughed.
"We just want to be together and we want to make it a real commitment to each other!" I added.
He chuckled. "Okay, okay. So, do you have a venue picked out? I mean most places are probably booked for Christmas Eve."
"Not yet, and we're still working that out."
"You could use my bar. I'm normally closed Christmas Eve."
I looked at Brian and we both smiled. "That would be great! Thanks, Owen."
"So, save the date, Ms. Maid of Honor." I grinned at Ellie.
Ellie reached over and took my hand. "You know I will." She smiled back and raised her glass of wine. "To the happy couple! May your days together be blessed and plentiful!"
The next morning, I was still grinning as we headed to the airport to pick up my parents. I was a little nervous, I hadn't told them of our engagement yet. We waited for them in baggage claim and Brian wrapped his arm around me.
"Are you nervous?" he asked.
"A little. It's their first time to New York, so I'm more worried about that than telling them of our engagement." I laughed.
A few minutes later, the overhead speakers announced that their flight had arrived. We waited for another fifteen minutes and then people from their flight started coming into the baggage claim area. I searched for my mother's tiny frame and light brown hair or my father's big burly body and curly red hair and finally caught sight of them. My grin widened as I pulled Brian forward to greet them.
"Daddy! Mom!" I said.
"Pumpkin!" My dad grabbed me and lifted me up in a hug. "I've missed your smiling face," he boomed and then set me on my feet. His eyes strayed over to Brian. "Is this the young man you've moved in with then?"
"Dad, meet Dr. Brian Chase. Brian, my dad, Jake Adams and my mom, Callie. Hi, Mom." I hugged her.
She hugged me back. "So many people here, I've never seen so many people in my life!" she exclaimed and then grabbed my hand and stared down at my ring. "What's this then? Are you two engaged? Not just living in sin then, are you?"
Brian cleared his throat. "It is a pleasure to meet you both and yes, Jane and I are engaged. We are getting married next month. On Christmas Eve. I hope you both will come back for the wedding."
My mother blinked and then smiled. "Young man, you can bet your boots I will be there to see my daughter get married. What church are you having it in?"
"Er… Mom, we can talk about that later, let's pick up your bags and get you and Daddy settled in at the house. You're going to love it. It is simply beautiful."
The next several days were a whirlwind of Thanksgiving, visiting all the sites in New York City, seeing the lighting of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center and Brian getting to know my parents and they him. He'd taken the whole week off so that we could present a united front to them and by the time we dropped them back at the airport, Dad was calling him 'son' and Mom was saying he was a 'sweet boy'. He'd managed to wrap the two of them around his finger. So much so that Mom hadn't even batted an eye at the mention that we were getting married in a bar and not in a church.
"I don't know how you did it," I murmured as we waved goodbye to my parents.
"Did what?"
"You got my mother, my religious mother, to agree to a wedding in a bar on Christmas Eve."
He laughed. "I did promise we would go to midnight mass with them afterwards, before we left for our honeymoon."
"Honeymoon? Why is this the first I'm hearing about us going anywhere?" I glanced over at him in the driver's seat. "Where are we going?"
"I booked us on a Hawaiian cruise."
"Really?" I gasped.
He grinned. "It will be sun, surf, and sand for us this holiday, along with a lot of making you mine over and over again."
I laughed and replied, "I can hardly wait!"EpilogueJaneDecember 24thI'd spent the night at Ellie's because Mom insisted that Brian couldn't see me the day of the wedding — that it was bad luck. So, while she and Dad had stayed at the house with Brian, I'd stayed at Ellie's. I was going to be wearing my mom's wedding gown, which was my grandmother's gown as well, so I'd kept it at Ellie's since Mom had brought it earlier that week. It had tight, lace sleeves, a sweetheart neckline, and a full satin skirt with lace trim. Mom, being an excellent seamstress, had made a few minor adjustments to it, so it fit me perfectly. Ellie was going to be wearing a long, red velvet dress that looked simply stunning on her.