I admit to taking my time getting ready. It's not just my parents and siblings I wanted to prepare for tonight. I want to put a good foot forward when I get to know Meadow's family too.
When Plum is up from her nap, she tells me I look very handsome. "Did you shave?" she asks.
I laugh. "My neck. I'm not going to shave this beard."
"What should I wear, Daddy, if I'm going to meet Meadow's whole family?"
"Everything you have looks great," I tell her. "But if you need fashion advice, you're going to have to ask your Auntie Fig. I'm not the one to give it."
"I know, but Daddy, I want you to pick what I should wear."
I walk to her closet and I pull out the dress she made last night with her aunt and her grandma. "You've got to wear the princess dress," I say. "It's the prettiest thing I've ever seen you in."
She beams up at me. "Thanks, Daddy. I didn't know if you would let me wear something so fancy."
"It's family dinner, baby. If you can't wear your pretty clothes there, where can you wear them?"
When we get to Mom and Dad's, I'm feeling nervous. I haven't had this kind of feeling in my whole life. Beth didn't have a family. She was a foster kid, so when she died there wasn't another set of grandparents or aunts and uncles to fill in the gap. I never had to go and meet her dad and ask for her hand in marriage because Beth was a girl who'd been blown in the wind.
Now, with her gone, I'm having to put myself out there in ways I never anticipated doing in my whole damn life.
"Are you okay?" Mac asks when he sees me.
"I'm all right," I admit, "just a little nervous."
"You really like her?"
"Just wait till you meet her," I say. "She's special."
"She must be if you're willing to bring her here, with her whole family?" He gives a low whistle. "Damn, you two are kind of crazy."
"You guys aren't that bad," I say. "At least, you didn't give Anchor too hard of a time."
He chuckles. "Are you kidding me? Remember that day at the lake house, walking in on him and Lemon?" Mac cracks up. "Damn, that was something else."
"Please don't remind me," I say with a chuckle as a van pulls up on the property, along with a Jeep. They hitch a vehicle to the back of each of their RVs when they travel and now I can see why – they need more than one car to travel in town.
"Their family's so big, they need two cars to get anywhere."
"Like we should talk," I say. "Our family's no better."
Dad walks over and gives me a pat on the back. "I don't think you're the only nervous one. Your mom's in the house in a tizzy. She's fussing over the food like she doesn't do except on Thanksgiving morning."
I laugh. "Well, at least that means she's taking it seriously."
Dad looks at me. "You're really serious about all this?"
"Yeah. I'm going to marry that girl."
12
MEADOW
When we pull up to Reuben's parents' house, the smile on my face couldn't get any wider and the butterflies in my stomach couldn't flutter any faster.
Lulu reaches out and squeezes my hand. "Don't worry," she says. "It's going to go great." As we climb out of our vehicles, Reuben jogs over to greet us.
He gives me a quick hug then reaches out to shake my father's hand. "It's good to see you again," he says. The way he says it makes me think they’ve spoken more than when Reuben picked me up before our date yesterday.
"You too, Reuben. Wasn't quite expecting a dinner out on our last night in town, but I appreciate the gesture."
"Of course," Reuben says. His eyes fall back on mine. "I really wanted you to meet my family."
My dad nods more stoically than normal. He must sense how serious everything is right now, how intent both Reuben and I are on seeing this through.
Our parents introduce themselves to one another. And his mom, Annie, tells me she's so happy to meet me. Then she pulls out a marker and a box of labels from her pocket. "I know there's going to be a lot of new names, so I thought if everyone used a name tag it might help."
I smile. "And that's a great idea," I say. "Especially since the triplets are hard to tell apart." I look over at my brothers, who are standing there awkwardly.
Reuben, though, seems to know just what to do. "Hey guys," he calls out to them. "My brothers were thinking of playing a game of kickball before dinner's served. How's that sound?"
Jasper immediately perks up. "Awesome," he says. The group of them run over to Reuben's older brothers. Nate excuses himself and says he's going to play too.