Chapter Eleven

A Week of a Wedding

I found out that At World's End comes out on my birthday! Happiness :D

Thank you to my reviewers!

Oh, and sorry if this sort of seems like a filler chapter. It's because it kind of is...haha.

Kate hadn't actually been inside Fort Snelling for more than five years. The last time she was here was when she was on a field trip in seventh grade for history class. She never really cared for this place. She never liked history. She found herself wanting to actually go inside now that Will worked there, but she never actually did go in.

Now, with her chestnut brown hair tucked inside an ebony newsboy cap, knee-length shorts, and a denim vest over a white t-shirt, she knew today was the day. If she did her math right, this would be Will's last group of visitors for the day. She shuffled into the group of visitors, which appeared to be a group from summer school. She shop was small and stuffy. How did Will work like this?

He explained what a blacksmith did, which Kate already knew. He then demonstrated how to make a nail. He sculpted one in front of the group, probably just for show.

Show off, she thought, a smirk appearing on her lips as the children showed great interest in it.

"Alright, does anyone have any questions?" he asked the group.

"Why do you have an Australian accent?" one boy asked.

"What's Australia?" Will asked.

"Try English, dear," the group leader said.

"Why do you have an English accent?" the boy asked. "Is it real?"

There was a slight pause before Will said, "Yes, I was born in England. Any other questions?"

Kate saw two girls elbow each other, appearing to be thirteen or fourteen. Finally, one with brown hair gave in.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" the brunette asked.

"And what is a 'girlfriend', miss?" Will asked.

"Now, Crystal," the group leader said, "this is the nineteenth century in Fort Snelling. The blacksmith is not familiar with our language."

The brunette known as Crystal sighed. "Do you have a lover?"

This resulted as a laugh from the group. She had never thought of herself as Will's lover. Had she even said that word in her life? For some reason, she was about to burst with laughter.

"I have something better – a fiancée," Will said, a smile playing at his lips. "Due to be married in September."

"Now, isn't that romantic, children?" the group leader said. "We have to hurry off, otherwise we'll miss our bus. But what do you say to the blacksmith?"

"Thank you," the group said, monotonously, leaving the shop. Kate stayed behind, waiting for Will to notice her. He was cleaning up his workspace, softly singing a song to himself. After a few moments, he looked up and frowned. "Your group–"

She let her hair down from the hat, laughing lightly. "You were asked by a thirteen year old whether or not you were single. What has the world come to, Will?"

Will smiled. "Kate! You came here! What a surprise."

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, now would it?" She walked over to him and greeted him with a kiss. He lifted her onto the counter, her legs wrapped around his waist. They were now eye level.

"I missed you," she murmured. "I was so busy with planning the wedding, which made me think of you..." She placed a hand gently on his cheek.

"Sixty days," he said softly, his lips but an inch from her's.

She had a strong desire to continue kissing him. Was it really just sixty days when they'd be married? It's was already July 17!

"Sixty days until we're man and wife." He laced his fingers through her's, both of their hands raised.

Sixty days until she would become Kate Turner. Sixty days until she would be walking down the aisle to Will.

Sixty days would not get here soon enough.

Kate ripped off another page of her page-a-day calender. She had never been so eager to separate a piece of paper from a glue binding before. Each page she crumpled up signified that she was one day closer to being Will's, now and forever.

July 18. Fifty-nine more days.

The two of them had figured out that they would be leaving for Florida September 12. The rehearsal dinner would be September 13, then the wedding would be on the fifteenth. The color changed last minute was green: both thought it would go better with the palm trees. Jacuqes, the photographer that Kate worked with often, agreed to do their wedding pictures.

"Alright," she said, when they were out in the living room. She put in her James Blunt CD and went to You're Beautiful. "This is what I think our first dance is going to be at the reception. After all, it's our song. And it's the first song you and I danced to."

"And the song where we first kissed," he said, pulling her to him.

"Many firsts with this one," she said.

Will held her close, his hand on the small of her back. Her hand was on his shoulder. She wanted to keep dancing with him until the end of time. She really loved Will, more than anyone that she had ever loved before. She felt so different around him.

"And Aerosmith," Kate said. "What about I Don't Want to Miss a Thing? I love that song."

"Then we'll have it played. Whatever you want." He kissed her forehead.

"And Michael Buble, definitely. I was thinking of How Sweet It Is for the cake-cutting."

Will gave her a smile that said "Whatever makes you happy." Kate couldn't help but smile, too.

"And even though some might think it's going to be a curse, but I think This I Swear would be perfect for the last song."

Will frowned. "Why would it be curse?"

He had yet to learn about the Jessica and Nick breakup. She decided not to talk about a divorce while they were in the process of planning a wedding.

"Never mind."

It was nearly noon on Thursday afternoon. Business was picking up pace now. It got rarer for her to sit down and just think – it seemed like the bosses always kept her busy doing something. The phone rang; Melissa picked it up while printing out a record for one of the animals.

"Elm Creek Animal Hospital, this is Melissa," she said.

"It's me," Kate said. "How are you?"

"Oh." Melissa was a little surprised. So Kate wasn't mad at her? "I-I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm stressed out and need to talk to you." It sounded like Kate plopped herself down on a couch. "Say something funny?"

"Something funny," Melissa said, handing the printed record to one of the vets. She sat down on her chair.

Kate let out a small laugh. "Don't make me do it anymore!"

"Is planning a wedding really that hectic?"

"It wouldn't be if I didn't have two month's time! God, Mel, I'm being driven to insanity doing this! It's nuts!"

Melissa felt sorry for her. She knew that it had to be pretty bad – Kate was one to handle stress very well.

"And I'm guessing you called me to not talk about what's causing your stress?" Melissa asked.

"I was actually calling you so I could schedule more stress in my life. Tell me your schedule."

"My schedule? Why?"

"Bridesmaid dress shopping. What's the closest weekend you have available?"

Melissa pulled up the calender on the computer. She always was one to be organized, after all. "I'm going to 'Live Free Or Die Hard' with Jack this weekend."

"But that's a guy movie," Kate said. "You hate action and blood."

"I know. I told him that if he took me to 'Hairspray' next weekend, I'd take him to 'Live Free Or Die Hard' this weekend. So that cancels out the twenty-first and the twenty-eighth."

"Hairspray – I knew you'd love that. It's a musical. But I'm looking at houses online with Will this weekend," Kate said. "We're scheduling showings, so this weekend wouldn't work. What about August 4? Oh, wait, we're going to New York that weekend. Never mind. Tell me about August 11."

Melissa was getting confused with all the dates that Kate was throwing at her. She was never this discombobulated.

"What about Sundays?" Melissa asked.

"I like to take a day off, just so that I don't completely lose it."

"You're not losing it." She picked up a pencil and drummed it against the gray-colored counter, then looked at the calender. "Yeah, August 11 is fine."

"Ah, so we're waiting three and a half weeks for this."

"It's fine," Melissa said. "You'll be so busy, the time will just fly by!"

Truth be told, from what Kate showed her, she wasn't scared to try on the bridesmaid dresses. That was proof alone that she hadn't completely gone crazy yet: when Kate's sense of style went (which was yet to happen), all hope was lost.

"Don't remind me," groaned Kate.

"What about your wedding dress?" she asked, trying to cheer her up. "Maybe you can break a Sunday rule? It'd be fun!"

"No. No, I don't think it would."

"Okay, then." Melissa backed off.

"Can we do both dresses the same day?" Kate said in a small voice.

"If that works for you."

"Oh, and, um, by the way?"

"Yes?"

"We changed the color theme to green."

Melissa stopped drumming the pencil against the counter in horror. "Green? I look like a rotten celery stick in green!"

"You do not!"

"You said that you like a popsicle in yellow!"

"I think that green looks beautiful on you. Hardly anyone can pull it off. Please? I'll wear whatever God-awful dress you want me to wear when you get married."

"The dress you showed me wasn't awful. But I'll wear it, anyway; I just won't like the green. But you won't suffer on my wedding day. I'm not that mean."

Kate scoffed. "And I am?"

At the expense of seeing a bridezilla in Kate, Melissa said, "No."

The minute that she turned off her laptop Friday afternoon, Kate let a wave of relief wash over her. Two days of no wedding planning. Now it was house hunting! Well, they would at least schedule the showings. She had spent a while today buying tickets to New York for August 3-5. In just two weeks, they'd be out east, looking for a home of their own.

Could she be in the fast lane anymore than she was already? She was moving out of state at eighteen with her fiancé – fiancé! – for her modeling career. And probably by the time that they arrived at the house that would be theirs in New York, they'd be married.

Kate wasn't necessarily planning her life to go this, but she wasn't exactly expecting to stay in Minnesota her whole life, either. She had told herself that whatever came her way, she would be willing to take that path. And, now that her life was changing, she wasn't going to fight it. It was just another adventure for her to take – something she couldn't resist.

For just two days, she could stop looking at all those wedding sights and trade those in for real estate sites, something she had wanted to do all week.