Here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it. We are getting close to the end, only a few more chapters left. Thanks to all of our guest reviewers!
Several months later, it is the week of Bill and Sharon's wedding. It is the Thursday before their wedding and also the day of Sharon's bachelorette party.
"Mom, it's time to go! We're going to be late picking up Amy and Andrea," Katie calls from the front door.
"I'm coming!" Sharon says as she slips on her shoes. Making her way out of the bedroom, she swings her purse over her shoulder. "So, are you going to tell me where we are going? I have been in the dark about this for a week now. I've tried to make Amy and Andrea slip about it at work but they won't."
"Mom, it's called a surprise for a reason. It's your bachelorette party! As your bridesmaids, it's our job to keep it a surprise." Katie picks up the small gift bag and then they both walk out the door. As they are about to get into the car, Katie looks at her mom and says, "Hand me the keys."
"What? I'm not even allowed to drive!" Sharon says as she is about to get in to the driver's side of the car.
Katie is standing next to her mom and has her hand held out for the keys. "Nope! Because that would mean I would have to tell you the address and then you would know where we are going. So that's not going to happen. Nice try though, Mom. Now, hand over the keys. I can be just as stubborn as you."
Sharon sighs and hands the keys to her daughter. Walking over to the other side of the car, she climbs into the passenger's seat. As Katie starts up the engine, Sharon says, "You do realize that you don't know where Andrea and Amy live?"
"Yes, that's why you're going to give me directions to get to their houses." Katie pulls up to the exit of the parking garage and drives out, following the directions to get to Andrea's house first since it's the closest.
Twenty-five minutes later, they arrive at Andrea's house. Sharon gets out of the car and walks up to the front door, ringing the doorbell. From inside, she hears, "Just a minute!" As the door opens, she sees Andrea slipping on her earrings.
"Hi Sharon! Sorry, the kids were crazy this morning and I was running a little late. So I'm glad that you got here a bit later than you said you would." She slips on her shoes and then turns back away from the door. "Alright kids, I'm heading off. Dad will be back in probably about ten minutes. See you later." Shutting the door behind her, she locks it and then follows Sharon back out to the car. As she gets in to the back seat, she says to Katie, "Hi Katie! Nice to see you again!"
"Hey Andrea! Same to you." Katie then turns to her mom. "Alright, now I need directions to Amy's house."
As they pull up to Amy's apartment complex, Sharon sends a text to Amy telling her that they are there. While Amy is coming down, Andrea says to Katie, "Has she tried to persuade you to tell her where we are going yet?"
"Not quite tried to persuade me. She did try to get me to slip the information though. When we were getting in the car, she thought she was going to drive so she could be told where we were going and how to get there. I caught on pretty quick though. For being a Captain, Mom, you're not very sly in trying to get information."
"Are you kidding? I've been trying to get information for the past week. These two have kept a super tight lid on it all."
At this point in the conversation, Amy walks out of the apartment building and up to the car, carrying a small bag and a box. Sharon gets out of the car and opens the door for Amy, allowing her to place the things on the seat and get in. Once they are all in the car, Amy says hello to everyone and then sneaks a glance at both Katie and Andrea, giving them both a small sly small, barely managing to hide it from Sharon.
"Alright, now that we are all here, let's get going," Katie says from the front.
Forty minutes later, they enter Ventura County and drive through acres of citrus groves. As the citrus groves break, they enter the town of Fillmore. Katie continues driving until they reach Giessinger Winery. She parks the car and says, "We've reached our destination."
Sharon looks out the window and says with a smile, "You know me so well."
"Well, I know you're sophisticated and not one to go barhopping. But since it is your bachelorette party and you do like wine, we thought this would be the place to go," Katie says.
"Plus, it's just so beautiful," Andrea says.
As they get out of the car, Amy opens the box and pulls out a 'Bride-to-be' classy, lace sash. "As the bride-to-be, this is for you," she says, laying it across Sharon's shoulder. Closing the box back up, she then says, "And the rest of the box is going to be opened later."
They all walk into the winery carrying their things. Making their way into the tasting room, they each try eight wines. They try two whites: Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, three reds: Pinache, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec, two desserts: Forgiveness and Muscat Alexandria, and one port: 03 Port. Out of all of them, the whites were definitely Sharon's favorite. She's always been more of a white wine kind of person.
Once they are done tasting wines, they order a bottle of Chardonnay and a plate of assorted cheeses and bread, and make their way out to the covered patio which is overlooking the Los Padres National Forest. As they sit down, Amy opens the box once again and pulls out four large, painted wine glasses. The one for Sharon has a wedding dress on it, her initial, and curly-cues around the dress. The others are almost exactly like Sharon's but they have their own initials on it and the bridesmaid dress color of navy blue instead of the white wedding dress.
"These are gorgeous! Where did you find them?" Sharon says.
"Katie actually found them on Etsy and then emailed me and Andrea the link," Amy says.
"I just thought they were perfect. And I had Amy order them so they wouldn't have to fly with me from New York."
"Nice job picking them out! And it was an absolutely wonderful idea to come here." Just as she is saying this, their cheese and wine come out.
Andrea pours the wine into each of their painted glasses and then lifts her glass. "A toast to the woman who is going to be the best bride and to the man who is going to make you happy." They each clink their glasses.
Amy is the next to speak. "So, what does it feel like to be two days away from not being single anymore?"
Sharon chuckles at this and says, "It feels wonderful. You know, I have been single for most of my life, even when I was still legally married to Jack, and it feels great knowing that I'm going to have someone by my side for the rest of my life. Getting married when you're my age is a lot different than getting married when you're young. When you're young, you still have your entire life ahead of you that you have to plan for, when you're my age, you don't have to worry about any of that. It's so nice to be able to get married and not have to worry about having kids or new financial matters. I am ready to get married again."
"It's like you're trying to make me wait to get married," Katie says teasingly and laughs.
"I'm just saying it like it is. Though getting married while you're young also has its perks. You get to spend your entire life with the man that you love, hopefully, Jack and I excluded. You're able to have kids with the man that you love. As a mother, and I'm sure Andrea would agree with me on this, being a mom is the most rewarding and the best job a woman could have."
"Yes, I do agree. I wouldn't give my kids up for anything," Andrea says.
"See!" Sharon says to Katie. "But I'm glad that Bill and I both had our separate lives. We were able to do the things that we wanted to do and we were both able to have our wonderful kids. And now that we're together, we're able to just have fun and do what we want to do together."
"That's true. You can go on vacations and you don't have to worry about the kids and you don't have to worry about money because you two already have big jobs," Amy says.
"Exactly!" Sharon takes another sip of her wine and says, "I'm glad we got this one. This was my favorite from when we did the tastings."
"I know, this was my favorite too," Katie says.
"This was actually my second favorite," Amy says. "I really liked that port we had. That was really good."
"Yes! My favorite was one of the red wines we had, Cabernet Sauvignon. But I'm also a huge fan of all red wines. Though I do love most white wines as well," Andrea says.
As the conversation continues, it moves back over to the wedding. They decide that it's time to open the gifts and as Sharon starts opening the one from her daughter, she gets a little worried. For the past couple of days, her daughter had been teasing her about what was going to happen on their wedding night. Opening it, she reads the card and laughs, pulling out the penny to put in her wedding shoe. She then looks through the tissue paper. There is a Victoria's Secret ruby wine Very Sexy Chantilly Lace Babydoll Slip along with a satin kimono. Inside the one from Andrea, she pulls out a Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Floral Embroidered Garter Slip in ivory and pixie pink. And in the one from Amy, she pulls out a set of handcuffs and a tube of dark red lipstick. "You girls think I'm so naughty."
"Mom, that's because we know you are!"
Sharon chuckles at this and her cheeks turn rose colored. "Thank you all!"
They continue drinking and when the sun is starting to set, they head home.
Hope you enjoyed it! As always, reviews are appreciated and loved.