Chapter 23

"I'm glad that I'm making her happy. Meeting Cassie has completely changed my life and I will be forever glad that I did. I'm also glad to have met you and Grace and am looking forward to meeting Lori as soon as she can come home."

"I think that she'll like you too AJ and I hope that you get to meet her soon."

"As do I Brandon," AJ told him as Cassie popped her head around the corner to tell them she and George had finished locking up.

"Please turn the last of the lights off before the two of you come to bed," she added with a smile as she wished them good night and turned to leave.

"Cassie wait," AJ told her. "We're done talking."

They turned off the lights and the three of them went up the stairs together. At the top Brandon turned to them and said, "Good night you two, see you in the morning."

Cassie kissed him on the cheek and took AJ's hand to go down the hall with him. They went into her room together and made love before turning in.

Over breakfast the next morning Cassie and AJ talked about the how that day would be the calm before the storm. The next day would be filled with people flying in from all over and the day after would be the wedding itself. So they would take the day and relax as much as possible before the insanity of the weekend started.

However, the day did NOT go as planned. They had no more arrived at the shop and opened for the day when it started. The days Middleton Gazette had an announcement that neither the bride or the groom had called in. The first customer of the day told them about the story of their oh-so romantic meeting, very brief courtship, and the fast approaching wedding date that was in the paper. Cassie and AJ opened the copy of the paper that was on the front doorstep of the store every morning. There headlining the society page was pictures of the two of them, Cassie's from some town function she'd attended fairly recently and AJ's was his service picture that had been on the JAG website while he'd been the JAG himself.

From the gushing proes that graced the story it was clear to Cassie who had submitted it. The story had to have come from none other then Mayor Martha Tinsdale herself. By noon they had lost count of how many people had stopped in to congradulate the two of them or to ask if the story was true.

Cassie later told AJ that she could tell some of them had been hoping for an invatation to the wedding, but because they wanted to keep the ceremony small she knew if she'd invited one she would've had to invite them all so she'd carefully avoided inviting anyone.

Grace came in after school demanding, "Mom why didn't you tell me you're your announcement was going to be in the paper?!"

"I wasn't the one that put the call in to the paper. I think Martha was the one that did that."

"Why would she do something like that mom?! She must've thought that you wanted it that way?"

"Maybe," Cassie answered Grace with a sigh.

"Why would she want to do with something she hadn't talked to you about first?"

"Sweeite, it's Martha, would she really need a reason?"

"I guess not," Grace gave a dramatic sigh of her own.

Deciding to close the store a couple of hours early, the three of them walked back to Grayhouse together. When they got there Cassie put a green bean casserole along with scalloped corn and another of potatoes. For anyone other than Harm there was also BBQ pulled pork in the crockpot to make sandwiches out of.

Grace suggested another card game night so the UNO cards came out and everyone had a wonderful game. Brandon was the big winner that evening. The only one to win more than one game, he proudly taunted Grace with his triple win.

Before bed AJ told Brandon and Grace that he was planning to go running in the morning if they'd like to go with him. Both turned to look at him as if he had lost his mind. Even his finacee' shook her head 'no' when he glanced her way.

To Be Continued…