It was two days before the wedding and Rio had a cold. It was her own fault, really. It had been raining heavily and Rio was determined to get her entire harvest in before the next day; normally Neil or Rod helped her, but the boys busy with one of Neil's cows in labor. She didn't think harvesting everything would take long so she didn't throw on a raincoat—that was where she went wrong.

She snuggled deeper into her covers, trying to hide from Neil's disapproving gaze. "Neeeil, stop. I already said I'm sorry! Don't you think I feel bad enough without you being mad at me, too?"

He sighed and sat on the edge of the bed next to her, once again feeling her forehead for any improvements in her temperature. "Still pretty warm." He ran a hand through her messy hair and felt guilty at the sad look in her eyes. "I'm sorry Ri, I'm just worried. You were being stubborn and only thinking of yourself. You know I would have helped you as soon as I could but you went and did it on your own anyway. You're lucky you only have a mild fever and a sore throat, it could have been a lot worse."

"I know, but I wanted to spend today with you—without work getting in the way. I guess I just got a little too excited for our day off." She sniffled, missing the ability to breath out of her nose dearly. "Can we just stay in and watch a movie or something? I think if I just sleep and take it easy I should be okay for the wedding."

He nodded and went to put her favorite movie into the DVD player. After joining her in the bed and pressing play, she faced toward the TV, with Neil lying directly behind her. Before long she was fast asleep and Neil wasn't too far behind. He was just letting his eyelids flutter closed when he heard a knock at the door.

He checked to make sure the sound hadn't woken up Rio then went to meet whoever it was at the door. When he opened it, he was surprised to see Allen standing in the rain holding a relatively large package and what looked to be a pot of something.

Allen thrust the package into Neil's arms and motioned for Neil to let him inside. The men made their way into the kitchen where Neil set the huge box down and turned to face a soaking wet Allen. "What are you doing here? And what is this?" He lowered his voice, remembering Rio was asleep in the next room.

Allen took the hint and talked quietly. "That is your wedding gift for Rio, I picked it up today. This is from Hana—apparently it's her special chicken noodle soup for Rio, she says it will get her back to normal in no time."

Neil sighed in relief, he had been waiting for the package all week. "Thank the Goddess it came on time! Thanks for picking it up for me. How are all the preparations coming? Is everything in place?"

"Everything that can be done ahead of time is done. I'll be here at 7 that morning, so you'll need to be out of here then. As soon as I'm done with the first I'll meet you at Rod's house to get ready. Other than that leave the last-minute stuff to me and Felicity. You two have enough to do with your jobs without having to worry about the little details."

Neil slouched into one of the kitchen chairs and sighed. "Thanks, Allen. I can't believe I'm saying this but I don't know what I'd do without you guys. Between Rio having too much work to do on her own and my own businesses in high demand, we've had hardly an hour a day with each other. Let alone time to deal with the wedding!"

Allen nodded in understanding. Both Rio and Neil had been running themselves ragged and the whole town was starting to worry about them. "That brings me to my next bit of news. Dunhill says Rio's cousin is sending Mark over here permanently to help out as well as two other farmhands. She and her husband don't have as much land, I guess, so they don't need the help."

"That's the best thing I've heard all day, I didn't know what we were going to do without more help. And good luck getting Rio to ask for help. I swear, she will be the death of me."

Allen chuckled, shaking his head. "The women we love always are. Dunhill found someone for you, too. He'll work under you for a while and then you guys will split duties. It will give you more time with Rio and allow you to keep expanding without as much pressure."

Neil grimaced a little, he had a hard time getting along with people as it was; but he knew after training Rod to take over for him during his honeymoon that he was easily irritated if someone was a slow learner. "Great. The help is appreciated but I wish I didn't have to do the teaching part."

"It'll be a great lesson in patience! Anyway, I have to get going—Felicity is stressing about her gift for you guys and I want to get to sleep at some point tonight. See ya!" With that, Allen took his leave and Neil made his way back over to his sleeping fiancee.

She still looked flushed but her breathing sounded less labored, which was a good sign. When she woke up he would give her the soup from Hanna then send her right back to bed. If she was going to be okay for her last day of work before the wedding she needed to get as much rest as possible.

Hr crawled back into the bed in his place behind her and pulled her close. He was so stressed out and just wanted to make her his wife and spend a month abroad together. Work was satisfying but also required more effort than he was able to give right now. And more than anything he just wanted to be with Rio, but work prevented that too.

Before closing his eyes he thought happily, two days until I'm hers and she's mine. Two days...