Here Comes the Bride, page 18
She remembered secretly signing Cate Blakely on pieces of paper that promptly went to a shredder, in the days when she’d fantasized about becoming engaged. During her marriage fantasies she’d never considered how strange it would be to actually change her name. Cate Blakely. The name repeated itself over and over again in her head, and the more she thought about it the more she wanted to cling to Padgett for dear life. She thought about dropping her middle name and being Cate Padgett Blakely. Agnes wasn’t the most appealing name anyway. Would her mother freak out if she lost her middle name? It was, after all, her aunt’s name too. Maybe she’d never really change her name. She could go by Blakely when she was with Ethan and be Ms. Padgett at work, instead of Miss Padgett. That seemed so confusing.
“So, I know you must be having some stress about the wedding, so I’ll be happy to do as much as I can around the class to help out.”
“Thanks,” Cate said, snapping out of her thoughts. “Let me show you what I’m thinking about doing for the first day.” They went over some of her lesson plans, and Cate discussed ideas for the following week.
She thought about the name change the entire way home. Maybe she’d just conveniently never get around to going through with it. Ethan would be devastated if she didn’t change her name. Then she thought about her kids. Did she really want to have a different last name than them? No. Being a Blakely would probably take some getting used to. She’d just gradually start going by his name, and then eventually she’d have to drop Padgett for good.
When she returned home, Oscar was still howling. She could hear him from the street while she grabbed the mail. A champagne-colored envelope stood out from the junk mail. She saw her sister’s return address, and she knew it had to be her shower invitation. She quickly looked at it while heading to the bathroom. The invitation was everything it should be for a shower—cute and bridal and flowery. She already knew most of the details surrounding the event. Emily’s townhouse wasn’t very big, so it would be hosted at their parents’.
Oscar’s howls were so loud that she quickly abandoned the invitation to let him out. She was positive that he’d be in the same exact spot until she opened the door. Shambles was what she found. Their bathroom had been toilet-papered, literally. As he jumped all over her calves in excitement she looked at the empty cardboard roll resting on the toilet paper dispenser. He’d apparently gotten in his teeth on a dangling strand of paper and had unraveled the entire roll of toilet tissue. It wasn’t the only thing he’d ripped to shreds. All the towels that had been hanging from the walls had been pulled down as well, and shreds of cream-colored cloth were scattered all over the floor like old rags.
His tongue hung from his mouth when she looked down at him, and he was out of breath. As she expected, he’d peed all over the linoleum, but it didn’t take much to clean it up, as most of it had soaked into the paper and towels that already covered the floor. It took an entire garbage bag to collect the mess he’d made. Grease watched through skinny eyes while she picked up the mess. She almost expected the cat to clear his throat to tell her what an idiot she was for getting a dog.
She was starting to wonder if she’d done the right thing. Perhaps a gift certificate from Home Depot would’ve been the best bet. She looked down at Oscar’s face watching her. His good looks were his only saving grace.
The rest of the week went by quickly. She juggled her time between keeping Oscar out of trouble and preparing for school. In between staff meetings and setting up her classroom she took him to the vet for shots and spent time trying to train him. Ethan spent a lot of time working out of the house, so they traded off dog responsibilities. She wondered if they would ever get a full night of sleep again, or if their lives would ever be the same. The dog was like the Duracell bunny. He never ran out of energy.
He ate Grease’s poop straight from the litter box. Other favorite snacks included rotten vegetables, paper towels, and week-old lunch meat from full garbage bags that he tore apart. Naturally, after filling up on all these treats, he never had room for his expensive puppy food. Rather, he filled the house with the foulest-smelling gas Cate had ever caught wind of in her entire life.
For as much of a nuisance as Grease had been, she was beginning to think that cats were the only way to go. She’d only had to show Grease once where his litter box was, and he hadn’t gone to the bathroom anywhere else. Except for the occasional bud vase and his animosity toward the French doll, he really didn’t destroy much. Oscar, on the other hand, destroyed anything that came near his teeth. Ethan’s sandals had become rubber mincemeat. She’d seen three pairs of sunglasses turn to plastic confetti. Trash had to be placed on countertops, and table legs were covered in little teeth marks. For as monstrous as he was, he was still adorable, and Cate couldn’t deny her maternal feelings for him. When she was busy at school she worried about Ethan taking his eyes off him and Oscar chewing through an electrical cord and shocking himself to death. It made her sad when they both had to leave, and he howled like they were wounding him.
The Sunday before school began she had some free time and decided to go to the beach. She hadn’t been in a while, and her chances of seeing the ocean again would be nonexistent once she went back to work. Ethan had to cater a birthday party, and she felt terrible about leaving Oscar. Dogs weren’t allowed on most beaches in San Diego, so she decided to settle on a walk down the Pacific Beach boardwalk. She made plans to meet Jill.
“Is that the same dog?” Jill asked as soon as she saw them. “He’s grown so much!”
“I know. I think he’s going to be huge,” Cate said, tugging on the leash. Ever since she’d buckled the leash onto his collar, he’d struggled to get loose. He pulled so hard that he choked himself.
Walking down the boardwalk was impossible. Oscar pulled so hard that he dragged Cate behind him, and she found herself breathlessly chasing after him. Furthermore, they stopped every five seconds for someone to pet him.
“Look at that!” A voice would screech every ten steps. “He’s so cute! Can I pet him?” It was usually women, and the occasional child, and Cate always felt horrifically sorry for them as they knelt in front of Oscar and laughed happily while he covered their faces in trashy, cat poop-laced licks.
They weren’t even ten minutes into the walk when a small crowd had formed around him.
“He’s just the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen!” a woman Rollerblading in her bikini said.
“Can we get one?” a little boy asked his mother.
“I want a puppy,” another child whined.
“Where did you get that dog?” A girl riding a bike asked.
She was about to answer when she noticed a pair of familiar sandy feet standing next to Oscar. “So you got a puppy?” Nate said, leaning down to pet the dog.
“Yes.” She wanted to tell him it had been a gift for her fiancé, but for reasons she didn’t understand, the words wouldn’t form in her mouth. “This is Oscar.”
“He’s a good-looking pup,” he said but wasn’t looking at the dog. His eyes were focused on her. “I’ve missed you,” he said, revealing a sly smile.
He missed her? She felt her heart race with excitement, and butterflies flocked to her stomach. She hadn’t felt the excitement of a hot guy flirting with her in years. It was wonderful. “You er . . . uh, you did?”
He nodded. “I kept wondering where my friend from the beach was, but I haven’t seen you around for a while.”
“Well, I’ve been busy with . . .” Say it. Say it, you cheating bitch! Say you’re getting married! “I’ve been busy with Oscar, and going back to work.” It was all true. It just wasn’t all of the truth.
“The offer’s still open for surf lessons.” She almost wished the offer wouldn’t be open. Knowing that the offer even existed made her heart ache for some reason. It would just be easier if he moved to Tahiti, so he could surf there. That way she’d never have to see him again nor be constantly reminded of what she was missing.
“Thanks. That’s really sweet of you.”
“You know where to find me.” His dimples were almost impossible to resist. He nodded before he walked away holding his surfboard. She watched water trickle down the muscles on his tan back.
“Who the hell was that?” Jill asked as soon as he was gone.
Cate looked at her and realized that she’d been in a world of her own since she’d started talking to him. Someone could’ve kidnapped Oscar, and she wouldn’t have noticed.
“No one,” Cate said, weakly.
“That was not no one. That was the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Yeah, he is pretty cute.” She watched as Oscar tugged on a woman’s towel.
“He was flirting with you,” Jill said. “He offered you surf lessons.”
She debated telling Jill how she’d seen him every time she’d come to the beach, and how she thought he was gorgeous and her heart sank a little every time she realized that her days of making out with hot guys she met on the beach were over. However, feeling this way scared the hell out of her. She felt like an evil, horrible person. She couldn’t imagine what Jill would think if she told her that she wished she could experience the excitement of discovering someone new while her wedding was only weeks away.
“He’s just some guy that I happen to run in to every time I come to the beach. I could care less about him. Really, I forgot he even existed.” After she said the words she sensed that Jill knew she was full of it.
• 23 •
Back to School
She woke up early the first week of school. Wide awake at five a.m. It was the first week of school jitters, and they plagued her every year. She knew within a couple of weeks she’d be fighting off the alarm clock and desperately wishing for a few more minutes of sleep. Until she fell into the swing of things her body would be on overdrive.
Despite her anxiety she was also a little happy to get away from their house all day. Each day that she came home from school she’d hoped that, by some miracle, Ethan would’ve worked as if he were on a Trading Spaces episode. She had visions of walking in and seeing hardwood, having a couch to lie on and a kitchen table to even just look at. But each day she came home and found him sitting on their bed, Oscar chewing on something expensive at his feet, while he chatted on the phone with a client. She was tempted to hire a team of contractors to come in and finish the work for them. But then she remembered she lived on a teacher’s salary, and they’d be lucky to afford a teenager to come help.
The first couple weeks of classes were mostly just orientation for the kids. A way to put the kids at ease and get to know them. She gave them a tour of the school and told them about her summer. She showed them pictures of her puppy and Ethan and explained that she would be getting married. They asked if she could bring the puppy to class one day for show-and-tell. She had visions of Oscar tearing through the school, knocking over everything in his path, digging a trench the size of a swimming pool in the playground sandbox, and eating her kids’ lunches while they weren’t paying attention.
“No, I don’t think Oscar will be able to come visit. But if anybody has a hamster they’d like to bring in, maybe we can arrange for that.”
She figured out early on who her most interesting child for the year would be. His name was George Franklin, and he was the only boy who’d come to class with his lunch in a pink and black Lancôme makeup bag. It was one of those gift-with-purchase giveaways. Cate recognized it from a summer sale. His mother, a large woman with meaty hands and a poofy shag haircut, sent him through the front door of the classroom then bolted before he could notice her leaving.
“That’s a neat lunch bag,” Cate said.
He nodded. “I locked my lunch pail in my parents’ new safe this morning, and they don’t know the combination.” His chubby cheeks looked like they were stuffed with cotton balls when he grinned at her. “My mom just recycled all the grocery bags, so she said I had to take this.” He held it up.
“Oh. Well, you get the best fashion award for the day. Would you like to draw a picture or read a book?” Every day on the first day of school the kids came in, and she gave them the option of a book or a drawing. It was a good way to distract them from having a complete meltdown when they said good-bye to their parents, plus she needed the time to introduce herself to all the parents and kids.
“Read a book.” He was the only child who had chosen to read a book. She sent him to the rug to pick out a book and read quietly until class began. His chubby thighs connected to his knees, and she watched him waddle away.
Several days later they went to recess, and when they were finished playing, she asked all the kids to line up so they could head back to the classroom. Everyone got in line except George. He sat against the wall, his knees against his chest and his arms wrapped around his ankles.
“George,” she called. “It’s time to line up.” He looked away.
“George, please get in line,” she asked again.
He turned his head even farther away from her.
She walked over to him. Her voice was soft and kind when she spoke. “George, why aren’t you getting in line?”
He was quiet for a moment. “I can’t.”
“George, of course you can. You’ve been doing such a great job all week. Setting a good example for all the other kids. I know you can get in line.”
“No I can’t.”
“Did you hurt yourself?”
He shook his head. The other kids waited in line, and Simone was doing a nice job of keeping them preoccupied by singing “The Wheels on the Bus.” Cate knew it wouldn’t be too long before they became antsy and Simone ran out of ways to entertain them. It was going to be a long year if George required this much attention. She stooped down to his level and touched his arm. “George, tell me why you don’t want to get in line.”
“Because I can’t.”
Perhaps he’d wet his pants and was embarrassed to stand up. There was always one child who left school holding soiled underwear in a Ziploc bag the first week of class. “George, is there something you want to tell me?”
“I can’t get in the line.”
“Did you have an accident?”
He shook his head, and she wondered if this was all a cry for attention.
“No, I really can’t get in line.” Then he lifted his hands and revealed his shoes. The graying laces of his sneakers had been tied together in a million tiny knots. She watched as he attempted to pull his feet apart. While the other kids had been playing handball and pushing each other on the swings, George had been sitting against the wall tying his shoes together.
“I see.” She tried to undo the first knot, but it was too tight. She realized she was going to have to stick something sharp in there to loosen them.
“Okay,” she said. “You’re going to take your shoes off and walk back to the class in your socks.” It was the only alternative. There was no way she could hold up the rest of the class while she untied his shoes. They’d be singing all afternoon. It was required that all the children have a spare set of pants in the classroom in case of accidents, but no one brought a second set of shoes. A difficult task, she yanked his shoes off. He’d made the knots so tight that the laces were as tight as one of Scarlett O’Hara’s corsets. He’d practically cut off his circulation.
The rest of the day, he sat in his socks, singing songs and finger painting. She sent him home with his shoes in a grocery bag.
On the way home from school she listened to a CD by the string quartet who would be performing during their ceremony. The disc had arrived in the mail a few days earlier with a note asking her to select all the music she wanted for the event.
She’d always wanted to head down the aisle to Canon in D, but just hearing the first low notes of the song made tears fill her eyes. She’d never felt a similar emotion and couldn’t describe exactly how she felt. They weren’t tears of sadness, but they weren’t tears of joy either. It was a bittersweet feeling, similar to visiting relatives and feeling sad when it was time to say good-bye. She felt as if she were saying good-bye to something, but she couldn’t exactly pinpoint what. She was thrilled to be marrying Ethan. She loved him more than anything in the world, but she still felt like she was saying good-bye. Maybe it was her name and the fact that flirting with hot surfers would be forbidden once she was married. Or perhaps it was the fact that her father would be giving her away, and she’d never be his little girl again. It was so many things.
In all her wedding dreams and fantasies she’d never realized that she’d be so emotional. She was bawling by the time she reached the freeway, and she wondered if she should pick a song she didn’t like. Maybe something that annoyed her would keep her from blubbering like a fool the entire way down the aisle.
Again, she was shocked by herself. It was hard to believe that she was even worrying about being the kind of bride that cried. She’d never been one to even shed a tear during movies.
She’d managed to control her emotions by the time she arrived in Escondido. Any sadness she felt vanished the moment she saw Ethan standing on a ladder with a paint roller. He was painting! Their walls would no longer look like white cardboard, and after nearly two months of living in shambles they could have their floors back. The chorus of one of the classical songs she’d just listened to in the car ran through her head. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
“Wanna help?” he asked. She noticed a dried ecru streak of paint across his cheek.
“Sure,” she said, smiling.
“Why don’t you go into the bedroom and change into some paint clothes.”
“Okay.” She carried her schoolbag and purse into their room. She almost screamed for joy when she opened the door. He’d painted the entire master bedroom. The construction paper was gone, and he’d even painted the chair rail white. She wanted to lie down and touch their honey-colored wood floors. Grease was asleep on their down comforter and cracked his eyes when she gasped. In the corner, stood a beautiful antique Louis XIV chair. Rose-colored velvet upholstery covered the oval back and square seat. Ornate details were carved into the amber-colored wooden arms and legs.
