“I never liked sitting on that end.” She nudged Joe with an elbow.
“I hated sitting in front of that damn china closet. I was always afraid I’d break something.” Joe admitted as he draped an arm around Cara’s shoulder and kissed her cheek. “You’re the only normal one.”
“Can I sit next to Cara?” Ava asked. Luke looked over at Cara as she patted the seat next to her signaling for Ava to sit.
“Go ahead.” Luke said and took the seat on the end near his daughter, placing him at the head of the table.
Joe looked up at Nick and Sam. “Are you two going to join us?”
Nick shrugged his shoulders and sat on the other side of Luke, patting the seat next to him for Sam. She followed Nick’s lead and sat down. All eyes turned towards Deb and she stood with her mouth gaping open in shock.
“If you can’t beat them join them.” She muttered and took a seat beside her daughter.
“Now that that’s settled, who else is starving?” Joe said quite proud of himself.
“I’ll set the table.” Sam offered.
“I’ll help.” Cara said and rose to help Sam as Deb went into the kitchen to bring the food to the table. Joe watched the women scurry into the kitchen and then turned to the two men.
“And that boy’s is how it’s done.” He said making his way towards the liquor cabinet and pouring himself a glass of wine.
Luke shook his head and watched his daughter run off chasing the dog. He felt Nick staring at him.
“What?” He exclaimed.
“You bought Cara a dog.”
“So?” He said shrugging his shoulders, refusing to make a big deal out of it.
“You’re playing with fire.” Nick whispered, making sure Joe didn’t hear them.
“It was Ava’s idea. You’re reading too much into it.”
“Somehow I don’t think I am. You forget I know you better than you know yourself sometimes.”
“Leave it alone, Nick.” He said warningly and decided at that moment he was better off helping the ladies serve dinner than sit at a table and get lectured by his best friend.
*
“Dinner was delicious.” Cara said, walking back into the dining room with two freshly brewed espressos. She placed one in front of Joe and took the other for herself.
Joe took the first sip and then grinned up at Cara. “You’ve got the magic touch.”
She laughed and sat down beside him and looked over at Sam. “Okay, so where were we?”
Sam bit her lip and hesitated for a moment. “We were talking about the wedding.”
Cara nodded and took a sip of her coffee. “You’re not going to make me wear a dreadful frilly satin dress with bows are you?” She shuddered at the idea of bows.
“I actually had some dresses picked out that I wanted to show you. I’ve been making a scrapbook of things that I like.”
“Do you have it with you?” Cara asked.
“Yeah… are you sure?” Sam asked, knowing it was a touchy subject.
Cara smiled at her. “It’s okay. I want to see.” She said genuinely. Sam smiled and hurried to grab her scrapbook in the living room. Cara turned around and looked over at Ava and Luke, who were playing with the dog. Luke lifted his eyes towards her.
“I still can’t believe you bought me a puppy.” She said thoughtfully, realizing she really hadn’t had a moment to process the idea.
Luke smiled as he petted the little guy.
“Why don’t we call him Benny?” Ava said, looking back at Cara.
“Benny.” She repeated and then smiled at her. “I like it.”
“Ok so here is what I was thinking…” Sam said, returning with a fat binder full of all her ideas for her wedding. Cara put Benny on hold for a little while longer and gave her friend her undivided attention. The excitement that radiated off of Sam was amazing. Cara felt guilty that she hadn’t been around the last month to be a part of all her plans, but marveled how much Sam had thought of. They decided that Cara would wear a short blue dress that reminded them of the ocean. Cara learned that Sam’s friends Mallory and Phillip would also be a part of the wedding party. They planned to go looking at dresses the following day and Cara would get a sneak peak of the dress Sam had already chosen for herself. By the end of the night Cara’s anxieties of being around the ones she loved left her and she was excited for all the wedding preparations that lay ahead of them. After saying goodbye to everyone, Luke drove her home. Ava had fallen asleep in the back seat and the drive back to her apartment was quiet. Even Benny had fallen asleep on her lap. She looked over at Luke as he drove with one hand on the steering wheel, the other cupping the back of his neck as he worked out the kinks.
“It just crossed my mind, that, I have no idea where my car is.” She said softly.
“I had it towed to the shop after the accident. I fixed it all up and it’s running like new.” He said as he turned onto her block. “I’ll drop it off to you in the morning.”