The sun was beginning to set before the party dwindled to just a few family members and some of the ducks. Madison had already headed to bed and Portman was getting ready to follow her but to tell you the truth I really wasn't tired yet. Maybe I was still too excited from the party and all the cool stuff we got or maybe it was all the presents we still had to open in the hall. Maybe it wasn't the presents at all but the fact that I was marrying the greatest guy in the world in less a than a week. He loved me, I mean he really loved me and there was no explainable reason why, he just did. After everything that I put him through he still loved me and only me. I sat quietly at a table observing what was left of my party. Averman, trying to get one of my Aunt's daughters to laugh at him as he pretended to be a mime. Julie shaking her head at him as Adam draped his arm over the back of the chair to, in manly way say, I'm with her. Connie, being the obsessive friend, was beginning the clean up of the food, while Guy tried to reason with her that that's why we hired a server. I laughed a little, turning my attention elsewhere as their usual fight started. Dean stood at the backdoor steps, a cup of punch in hand and his hands going everywhere, trying to, no doubt, tell the story of how he went to California and swept Madison off her feet with his witty charm, I still could not believe he was going to be father. How did things change so much from the way they were less then a year ago. It was getting cold for November and people were beginning to retreat inside the house for coffee to warm up, it had been a nice day but this would be a very cold night. I stood, walking down to the lake, it was frozen over with the cold. I stared out across it and couldn't see anything in the distance. Was it really so horrible of me to feel just a little bit empty that my parents never showed up, I had understood that Fulton's Mother hadn't been here, not that I particularly missed her but still, she had an excuse. I looked down at the lake and felt it with my foot to see if it was solid enough to step on. It was so I stepped out on it just feeling what it was like to be back on the ice. I closed my eyes half way and started humming a tune to myself, the same song that was playing when Fulton and I danced for the first time. I was alone for a minute when I felt arms wrap around me and pull me close.

"What are you doing?" His deep voice asked. I smiled, turning in the embrace,

"Just remembering…" He softly kissed my forehead, pulling me to him and beginning to slowly sway to my song.

" Are you ready for next week, I mean dancing in front of at least 250 people?" He smiled against my hair.

"I don't know, I may have to sneak some Godsmack in there.." I laughed against his chest and tucked my head under his chin,

"When did I get so short?" He laughed,

"Since I've known you.." We laughed again. The moment was absolutely perfect, Fulton holding me to him so close and swaying back and forth on the ice to a tune only the two of us to hear. It was in that moment that I felt completely at peace, all the stress that had been plaguing me from the wedding was suddenly no problem. I closed me eyes just as a drop of something wet and cold landing on my nose. I opened them to see the snow begin to fall, the first snow of the season.

"Well, I guess you'll be getting that white wedding after all." Fulton smiled down at me as I leaned in to kiss him.

"I haven't seen snow in 8 years." I smiled at him. That's when I heard someone clear their throat. Quickly pulling apart, we both looked to the shore to find my Father staring back at us.

"Dad?" I questioned, moving out of Fulton's embrace but still holding unto his hand.

"I heard you guys were throwing a party. It seems I'm a little late." He laughed nervously.

"You're by yourself." His eyes were worn and glassy like he was in some emotional distress. He shook his head slowly,

"Yeah, your Mother….she's a tough woman and she won't admit she's wrong, you know that." I nodded in agreement, believe me, I knew how my Mother could be.

"So, what are you doing here?" He looked down a little, like he was trying to find the right words before he spoke.

"I'm here to say I'm sorry." Fulton shifted from one foot to the other.

"I think, I'm going to go inside and help clean up." He said nervously letting go of my hand.

"Now, wait Fulton, you should hear this too." Fulton stopped just a few steps in front of me. "Look, I was wrong to prejudge you. We come from different backgrounds….not that there's anything wrong with that…but still, I let that get in the way of seeing how much you truly love my daughter….my only daughter. You'll understand when you two have kids." He laughed a little to himself before becoming serious again. "It was different with Scott. I knew you wouldn't be gone long. He was all wrong for you, your Mother and I couldn't let you, you seemed so happy but this. I knew the first time you brought Fulton home that that was it, you were done. Your Mother couldn't stand the idea of it, that's why she sent you away to that school. I told her it wasn't going to help anything, you would come back hating us and love Fulton even more than you did before. She wouldn't listen and did things her way as usual, robbing you of the last few years with your brother. God, there's not a day that goes passed that I don't miss him." My Father's eyes started to tear up a little, making my chest tighten with the impending tears from my own eyes. My face began to heat up in the cold night air and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold me emotions for very much longer. Reaching out, I took Fulton's hand in mine and came to stand next to him as my Father felt he could continue.

"I realized something today. You kids aren't kids anymore and your Mother and I can't tell you what to do anymore.. There's nothing I can do but sit back and watch you get married in a week, I just hope you'll still let me. I can't think of what would be worse than to miss my daughter's wedding. I came here to beg for your forgiveness and to ask if you would still let me have the honor of walking you down the aisle and giving you away." I smiled, finally feeling the tears spill over my eyelids and trickle down my cheeks.

"Of course, Dad. I can't imagine my wedding without you." I walked quickly up to him and let him envelope me into a hug before crying on his shoulder. Fulton stood back, just observing the scene before my Dad looked up at him.

"Fulton, I'm…"

"Nah, it'd cool Mr. Duncan." He assured him with a nod of his head. I let go of my grip on him and turned to my future husband, taking his hand back in mine.

"You have no idea what this means to me, Dad. To us..' I sighed, wiping the tears from my own eyes. "I've been worried you and Mom weren't going to show up." He laughed slightly as we heading up to the house.

"Well, I'll be there, I can't promise your Mother will be."

The next morning I woke up with a renewed confidence that everything was going to turn out right for the wedding. The opposite side of the bed was empty so I assumed Fulton had already gotten up and was doing his morning routine. The gently breeze from the coming winter drifted in the window that had been left slightly open the night before and blew across me face. I rolled over, finding Tigger, the fluffy orange cat staring back up at me with intensity.

"What do you want?" I asked, as the cat cocked it's head to the left and continued to stare up at me. Thinking about it now, this was the first time I'd seen him for couple of days, Madison must have been feeding him the night earlier, because he hadn't come to get his food the night before.

"You always did like Madison better." I teased as the door to my bedroom swung open and Madison came bounding in as fast as she could.

"Are you up yet?" She asked excitedly. How can one person be so happy in the morning, it was unnatural.

"Maddie, what's going on?" I asked rolling over to face her. I had to admit, I did miss her waking me up in this annoying fashion when she was gone.

"Come on, get up. Connie and Julie are going to be here any minute…!" She stressed, crunching up her face in frustration.

"And why are they going to be here in a few minutes?" I asked.

"Because it's a cold winter day and the guys all took Fulton out to celebrate and Dean promised they wouldn't be back before dinner, I guess they're going to the mall of America to ride some roller coaster, it's some tradition I guess with Charlie." I sighed. "So, Connie and Julie are coming over and they maybe bringing Linda. We were going to do a girls movie day, you know watch movies and paint each other's nails… Come on, you have to be up for it, you don't even have to get dressed. You need to relax." I was going to take offense to that but Madison didn't give, me the chance she was and up and out the door before I could say anything. I wasn't even out of bed when the door bell was ringing. I thought had had gotten enough of everyone yesterday now I'd have to deal with everyone again. Well, I guess not everyone but still didn't they think I might need a day to myself to prepare myself for this next week, this next week was going to be the most stressful than any other time in my life. I yawned as I moved to the window to see if it was still snowing. It was, the white powdery flakes, falling softly and covering the entire yard in a blanket of white, I'd forgot how much I'd missed this simple event. California was so dry and snow wasn't even a possibility, I'd missed the Minnesota winter and I hadn't even realized it until the night before. Throwing on my robe, I moved away from the wedding and towards the door, taking a deep breathe before I opened the door. The house was suddenly cold as I stepped into the hall and I realized, I didn't think Fulton had turned the heat on yet since it had been such a mild winter so far. I quickly reached the downstairs hall and hurried to the dial to turn on the heat. It came to life with a click and the heat started to rise from the floor vents but it still remained cold. I entered the kitchen thinking it was a little too quiet from the girls to be here and instead found someone else sitting at the counter, accepting the chocolate milk that Madison offered. Scott turned on the stood and looked at me with red puffy eyes. My heart just about melted for the my former fiancé,

"What happened?" I quietly asked, coming to stand next to him at the counter. His eyes began to tear up as he was talking.

"Viktor left me. He didn't believe that I was over you and that there was nothing going on." Scott began to cry uncontrollably. I hugged him tightly as he cried into the soft fabric that covered my shoulder. The doorbell rang and Scott looked up,

"You're not excepting anyone important are you? I don't want people to see me like this." He asked nervously.

"Just Connie and Julie." He sighed with relieve as they burst into the kitchen carrying bags of spa creams and nail polishes. They immediately dropped the bags upon entering.

"Is everything okay?" Julie asked suddenly surprised. Scott nodded before a small smiled played on his lips.

"You got room for one more?" He asked, finishing his milk. Julie and Connie looked at each other just before Madison re-entered the room with Linda talking about baby names. They stopped fast,

"What'd we miss?" Linda asked confused before she looked at Scott, "Who are you?" There was a silence before the room sounded of laughter.

"Oh, he was always so insensitive anyway.." Scott reasoned, finishing up braiding Madison's hair into two long red braids on either side of her head.

"You know, no matter how many men I've dated, they all have the same problem, they will never grow up." Connie commented sighing. I laughed a little from the other side of the room where I was laying on the couch, my face covered in mud.

"Yeah, you've dated like one guy in your entire life."

"That is so not true. I've dated more than one guy." I opened my eyes and looked at her from across the room.

"When I left you were dating Guy and when I came back you were dating Guy."

"Yeah but we broke up a few times and dated other people." She reasoned as Julie cut in,

"Yeah for like 5 minutes until you could finish the fight and make each other jealous." The room burst out into laughter again. Connie looked insulted,

" All those relationships were meaningful." Connie stated, still applying some Aloe Vera face scrub to Linda's face.

"Whatever, either way she'd right." Madison cut in, "I mean look at me, I had to go all the way to California to get Dean to realize that he was going to be a Father and he needed to take responsibility. They don't want to commit." Everyone but I nodded, I didn't have that problem, Fulton wanted to marry me, if we were having kids didn't have to worry about him taking responsibility for them. H was the perfect boyfriend and he would be the perfect husband, I thought laying back down on the couch and closing my eyes as the men bashing continued.

"So guys what movie do you want to watch me have Message in a Bottle, Titanic or I rented a couple new ones.." Julie said pulling a couple of DVDs from her bag. " Rent or in honor of the events of this next week, we have The Wedding Date and Monster-in-Law." Everyone started laughing again,

"Wait, they let Eve star in a movie?" Madison joked, coming to sit on the couch with me as Julie grabbed the Wedding Date and began to put it in.

"I love this guy. He's so cute…" Scott said, lifting my head to sit on the other end. I suddenly became crunched in between the two Evans siblings. I sighed, letting my head fall back on Scott's lap and I let my eyes close for a moment. Everyone settled in a comfortable spot to watch the movie and we were silent as the movie started.