A/N: So, here's chapter 12! Exciting stuff is coming! I'm currently writing chapter 18 and it looks like there's going to be close to twenty one chapters. So I'm almost finished! Also there's another poll up that closes Friday night! Get your votes in before midnight on Friday! Visit my profile to vote! :D

Happy reading!

angellwings


Chapter Twelve: Registering for Gifts


"One Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte for you," Nate said as he got back in the car and handed her a paper coffee cup. He shut the door and then put his in the cup holder. "And one Caffè Americano for me. So where are we off to first?"

"Tiffany's, of course," Ella said with a laugh. "Where else would we go?"

"Right," He said with a smirk. "What was I thinking?"

"We need to pick out china and flatware and anything else we might need for our dining room table. We could probably pick out a few picture frames as well, and we should probably try and figure out our wedding party gifts," Ella said as she took a sip of her latte. "Have you thought about what you want to get your groomsmen?"

"I was thinking money clips or cuff links. I'll have to have a look around when we get there," Nate told her. "What about you?"

"I'm thinking something for them to wear with their dresses. Probably something with pearls. They'll go with any color dress," Ella told him. "I'm thinking earrings. They'll wear them more, and they're cheaper than a bracelet."

He nodded. "If I follow that logic then I should probably go with money clips."

"Sounds perfect to me," She told him happily as he parallel parked.

He picked up his coffee and walked around to help her out of the car, and as they walked down the street toward Tiffany's Ella's shoulder bumped someone and she and the man stumbled. Nate caught her and steadied her.

"You okay?" He asked. She nodded and then turned to apologize to the man.

"I am so sorry," She said as she looked up. "I wasn't really looking where I was—"

"Ella?"

Her eyes snapped to his and they widened. She felt Nate's hand tighten on her arm just a little. "Darren?"

"H—Hi," he said with a warm smile. "How've you been?"

Ella pulled her arm out of Nate's hand and then wrapped her arms around Nate's chest to give him a light squeeze. He smiled softly at the reassuring gesture and put his arms around her shoulders.

"I've been good," She said with a small smile. "Work is busy, and on top of that I'm getting married in a couple of months, so—"

"You're…getting married?"

"Yes, she is," Nate said with a forced smile before he continued in a sarcastic tone. "To me, believe it or not."

Ella pinched his side lightly and he held back a wince. She held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger. "We're actually on our way to register at Tiffany's."

"I see," Darren said stiffly. "Well, congratulations. I'm very happy for you. I hope everything goes well."

"Thank you," Ella said with a small guilty smile. She felt a bit like she were rubbing her happiness in his face. "Um, my mother said your practice was doing well?"

He nodded. "Yes, I have three different locations now. Spend most of my time driving in between all of them, but it's good. The kids are worth it."

Her eyes widened. "The—the kids?"

He smiled easily at her. "I'm in pediatrics now."

"But…you hated kids."

He sighed. "I didn't hate them. I just…didn't understand them. Besides, didn't you always tell me you thought I would be great with kids? Turns out you were right. I actually am great with kids."

"Well, congrats on all your success," Nate said quickly. "Now, if you'll excuse us we actually have a meeting with our wedding planner in about two hours and we really need to get going. Right, Ella?"

"Oh, right!" She said as she shook herself back to reality. "Of course, sorry! It was nice seeing you again, Darren. Good luck with everything."

"You too, Eleanor," He said with a smile and a wink. Nate felt Ella tense, and he cursed inwardly. Darren had been the only one to call Ella Eleanor in her entire life. Nate felt it was extremely inappropriate since that was something playful Darren had done while he and Ella were dating.

She huffed and gave him a blank look. "It's Ella, Darren. Not Eleanor."

"Sorry," He said with a wince. "Old habits die hard, I suppose. Goodbye, Ella. Bye, Nate."

"Darren," Nate said with a nod as he tugged Ella down the sidewalk.

"Bye, Darren," Ella said as she allowed Nate to pull her away.

When they were far enough away from Darren Ella pulled Nate to a stop. He turned to look at her. "What?"

She bit her bottom lip and squeezed his hand. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay? He's your ex. Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Nate asked.

"Nate," Ella said slowly. "I know Darren bothers you. You've told me this before, so…are you okay?"

He smiled softly at her and pulled her to him slowly. "Just the fact that you're worrying about that makes me feel so much better."

"I just…I love you, and I don't want you to worry about Darren," Ella told him. "He's in the past. You're my future. Promise."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in for soft lingering kiss. "Then I won't worry about him. Ever again."

She smiled brightly at him. "Promise?"

He nodded and pressed another quick kiss to her lips. "Promise."

"Good," she said happily. "Now, let's get to Tiffany's, shall we? We don't want to be late for our meeting with Marlene."

He smiled warmly at the back of her head as she pulled him down the sidewalk.


Two hours later they showed up at Marlene's office. The door opened and Brown came out first. Ella smirked knowingly and turned to face Nate. His eyes widened as Marlene gave Brown a quick kiss on the lips. Brown looked over at Nate and smiled.

"Nate," He said as he reached over and ruffled Nate's curls. Nate scowled and ducked his head to get away from Brown's hand. Brown gave Ella a quick hug. "Ella."

"You're in a good mood, Brown," Ella said with a smile.

"I've got a very good reason to be in a good mood lately, Ella," Brown said happily as he winked at Marlene. "I'll see you kids later. I'll call you later, Mar."

"Bye, B," Marlene said with a goofy smile.

Ella laughed quietly at the uncomfortable look on Nate's face. She leaned toward him with a smirk. "I think Marlene might eventually be your aunt."

Nate sighed. "I really don't want to think about Brown dating, thank you."

"Oh come on," Ella whispered as she elbowed him teasingly. "You're happy that Brown's happy. Admit it."

"I'm happy he's happy. I just wish I didn't have to see why he's happy," Nate told her in a hushed tone.

Ella smiled at him in amusement. "You're a strange kind of grown up."

He smirked at her and glared playfully. "If that was your dad dating Marlene—"

Ella's face scrunched up. "Oh, gross. Don't even joke about that."

Nate laughed and nodded. "That's what I thought."

"But that's different," Ella insisted. "Brown looks right with Marlene. Petite, fiery, organized Marlene would just look all kinds of wrong with my grungy looking father."

"I really think the best thing for your dad is to just stay single," Nate told her with a shake of his head.

"I agree," Ella said with a sigh.

"You kids ready to start this meeting now?" Marlene asked as she motioned them inside of her office.

"Oh, of course," Ella said as she laced her fingers through Nate's and pulled him into the office.

"Okay," Marlene said as they sat down. "Let's talk about what's been done so far. Brown gave me a tour of Camp Rock, and it's a very nice space. For the size wedding we've talked about it will be perfect. I nailed down a florist and I called that bakery we looked at, Ella, and put in the order for your cake. And, Nate, I hired that band you suggested. Also, Connie just called to confirm that she will be catering your wedding. We picked out your invitations last time, and I should be getting those in this week. When I hand them over to you feel free to ask for help stuffing and addressing them. That's all the news I have for you two so far."

Ella and Nate's eyes were wide as they stared at Marlene in shock.

"I—isn't that everything?" Ella asked.

Marlene nodded. "Everything that I need your input on, yes."

"Wow," Nate said in shock. "You're good. That was fast, and relatively painless."

Marlene laughed, and nodded. "Like ripping off a band-aid. Now, I believe all you have left to do is pick out tuxes, dresses, and mailing out the invitations. And you've got plenty of time left for that."

"Oh my God, dresses," Ella said suddenly. "I—how did I forget about dresses?"

Nate laughed. "You forgot about dresses? Are you serious?"

"I haven't thought about them once. With everything with my family, and then all the other wedding things it just got lost in all the other stuff! I should have done that first. Now I'm going to have to match the dress to the centerpieces and the cake and all the other decorations, and then there's the bridesmaids' dresses…they have to match everything too," Ella said frantically.

Nate smiled softly at her and reached over to lace his fingers through hers. He soothingly ran his thumb across the length of hers. "Calm down, Ells. You've got time, and you've got the girls to help you. You'll figure it out. Take a deep breath, babe. There's no rush."

"That's right," Marlene said with a pleasant smile. "No rush at all, Ella. Don't stress."

Ella took a deep calming breath. "I'll just call the girls and the moms tonight and figure out a time to go looking for dresses. I have time in my schedule this week for that."

"And tuxes are easy," Nate told her with a grin. "Just need to decide on colors, and then we'll be done with that. Really, we're almost done with wedding prep. There's a light at the end of the tunnel."

"Alright," Marlene said. "I think that's all we needed to talk about today. I'll be in touch about the menu for the wedding, and if you need anything else at all don't hesitate to call me."

Nate and Ella nodded and stood up. They shook Marlene's hand before they left her office and headed toward their car.

"Can you believe we're almost done planning the wedding?" Ella asked as Nate opened the passenger side door for her.

"Yes, yes I can," Nate told her with a chuckle. "Thank God."


They walked through the front door of Nate's house and Vicky greeted them.

"Hello, you two. How was the meeting?" She asked as she picked up Maggie and then hugged them both. Ella hugged her and then took the puppy from Vicky.

"It was great. There are only three things left for us to do. Tuxes, dresses, and invitations," Ella told her. "How was Maggie?"

"She was a little angel. She had one little nervous accident, but she had it on the tile near the sliding doors. So, she knew to head outside," Vicky said with a laugh. "She's a very smart girl."

"Good," Nate said as he reached over and scratched behind Maggie's ears. "Just a couple more days and she should be officially house trained." Maggie licked at his hands as he petted her.

"Did she try and climb the over the gates?" Ella asked. "She's been doing that lately. She's determined to get on the stairs. Going up, I'm not really worried about. It's going down that scares me."

Vicky nodded. "She did try to climb over the gate that led downstairs to the studio. She didn't get very far though. She, sort of, slid off of it."

Ella laughed and petted Maggie's back as she held her. "Silly, silly puppy. You are not a cat. You can not climb up things like that."

Maggie let out a short bark and wiggled in Ella's arms. Ella set her down on the ground and she immediately ran for the sliding glass doors. Ella hurried after her and opened the door. Maggie ran out into the newly fenced in back yard and hopped around in the grass and sniffed around for a good spot.

While Ella was busy with Maggie, Vicky turned to her son.

"Nate, are you okay?"

He blinked at her. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" She asked suspiciously. "You seem worried about something."

"I'm fine, mom, really."

She continued as if she hadn't heard him. "Did something happen? Did you and Ella get into a fight?"

"No, Ella and I did not get into a fight."

She squinted at him. "Something happened. What was it?"

He looked away from her and didn't say anything.

"Nate," She said sternly. "What's bothering you?"

He sighed. "We ran into Ella's ex today while we were out registering for gifts."

"The ex? Darren?" Vicky asked in a whisper.

"That's the one," Nate told her.

"Oh, honey, I know that must have been uncomfortable for you," Vicky said as she patted his arm. "But I don't think you have anything to worry about. That girl loves you. I can tell. He missed the boat and she knows that."

"She said something similar," Nate told her.

"Well, there. You see? Nothing to worry about," Vicky said as she smiled and patted Nate's cheek. "Just forget all about it."