Chapter 17

Norman and Rita were very relieved to find Oliver and Shane back to normal the next day. Once they were working through the current lost letter box Norman brought up the wedding donation idea.

"Shane when I was reviewing some of the budget needs from Safe Haven last night, I had an idea about a way to put together and keep track of donations. Rita mentioned that sometimes people have a wedding website to keep family up to date on what's going on with the wedding and a way for people to upload pictures that other people have taken from the wedding. Have you thought about putting one together for your wedding?

"I hadn't Norman, but I think it's a fun idea and it wouldn't be hard to do."

"Well I thought that if you did put one together you could design a donation gift registry on the site. Just like if you were registered at a store but it would have a list of Safe Haven's current needs as well as their playground wish list."

Shane dropped what she was working on and hugged him. "Norman you're brilliant. It would make it so much easier to keep track of everything. Maybe we could even do follow up pictures so people could see how their donation looked after it was done."

She sighed, "I'm not sure how Oliver will feel about this."

"How I'll feel about what?" Oliver asked walking back in from a meeting.

"Norman had a brilliant idea about having a wedding website that we could put everything about the wedding on for family and friends. It would be great for people like my mom to be able to know what's going on even though she's out of town. But the best part about it, we can put a donation gift registry on it to keep track of gift donations for Safe Haven."

"That seems a little, uh, maybe, well," Oliver was clearly at a loss for words.

Shane interrupted the rambling. "Oliver, we could put password protection on it so it really would be just for our guests. We don't have to decide right now. Why don't you think about the idea? I could even do a sample one so you could see what it would look like."

"Let's finish discussing it this weekend," Oliver said clearly uncomfortable with the idea. "How are we coming with the Nevada box?"

"It looks like we may be able to wrap everything up except the pile at the end there," Norman answered. "Shane and Rita are still working on researching those. It looks like multiple kids wrote letters maybe as a pen pal project. The handwriting looks about the same age for all of them as well as the same envelopes being used."

They talked about what they were all going to do during the weekend. Rita and Shane were going dress shopping for the maid of honor dress. Oliver was going to sort out tuxes with his Dad, Bill and Norman.

Hazel popped in towards the end of the day. She excitedly told Rita and Shane about a date that she had planned with a guy that she met on her route that likes to go paragliding. By the time they answered her questions about the wedding, it was time to leave.

Shane and Oliver decided to order takeout on the way to her house. She had some work she needed to finish for Dale and Oliver had offered to finish boxing up her books. After eating she finished up reports and sent them off. Realizing she hadn't seen Oliver in a bit, she went looking for him and found him surrounded by her school yearbooks in between a couple boxes.

"What are you doing?"

"How did you never have an awkward stage?"

Shane laughed, "What are you talking about?"

"You know the braces, bad haircut, gangly time period that everyone has sometime between middle school & high school." Oliver pulled her towards him to sit on the floor next to him. "I can't find yours."

"You went looking for awkward pictures," Shane asked?

"I was curious, but evidently you were always cute."

Shane laughed. "I didn't always feel that way." She looked at the middle school book he had in his hand.

"You look sad in this one," Oliver pointed out a group shot with some of her classmates.

"That was the semester I finally accepted my dad wasn't coming back. We hadn't heard from him for probably 6-8 months. My mom had started packing up his things and putting them in the attic or the garage. That was when my sister and I knew she'd given up."

Oliver put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

"Shane, you still rarely talk about your family. Have you spoken to you mom about when she's coming out for the wedding?"

"I told her when we confirmed the date. I think I was afraid to ask when she was coming."

"Why?"

"Over time as Alex's addiction got worse, everything in our family became about what Alex needed. Either financially, emotionally or my mother's time. I stopped asking for anything from my mother because I could see how it hurt her to tell me no because of whatever Alex needed. It just became a habit to not expect anything from her."

Oliver suddenly understood why Shane rarely asked him for help. If you don't ask, you don't get disappointed. It was safer to rely on yourself. He was amazed at what it probably took her to ask his dad to walk her down the aisle. It said a lot about how strong her relationship with his father had become.

"Would you like her to be here the week of the wedding if she could be," Oliver asked?

"It would be nice for her to have time to get to know you and your dad better."

"Why don't you think about it and maybe we can talk to her together later."

Oliver noticed she didn't say anything about needing the support of her mother to get through what would be a busy time. He started closing the yearbooks and putting them in the boxes with the books.

"Let me take these out to the car. I can tell you're getting tired and it's been a long week."

She helped him take the boxes out to the car. He leaned against it and pulled her into his arms for a kiss.

"Any requests on the tuxes tomorrow," Oliver asked.

"I already sent your dad pictures of the wedding colors for the tailor at the shop."

Oliver laughed. "Of course, you did. I'll see you tomorrow night for dinner."