Another chapter for you.. thanks for reading and enjoy...

Steph's POV

It was a little after dinner time when Carlos and I got back to the beach house. Neither of us felt much like cooking so we hopped back into the car and drove to a restaurant on the shore that sold takeaway. Carlos placed an order and we sat on the edge of the boardwalk, looking out to see until our order was ready.

We were sitting on the sofa watching something mind numbing a little while later when my cell phone rang. Carlos handed me my purse and I rummaged through it looking for the ringing phone. I looked and saw that it was my mother. I groaned and then answered.

"Hello dear. I just wanted to tell you that I met with Maria and Ella today. We went to the park and all agree that it's a lovely place. We're glad you are getting married there."

"Thanks Mom."

"We talked and we've pretty much worked out exactly what we want. The only part now is to make the actual arrangements and sent out invitations for the party. Some will be done via the phone, but more local people will get them in the post or have them hand delivered. Ella is going to check with you about colours and try to get them ordered on Monday. She has a friend who owns a print shop that can rush the order and give us a discount. Did you know that Ella can do calligraphy? I always wanted to learn, but never quite got around to it. She said she'd teach me."

My mom chuckled a little and then said, "Maria is a lovely woman. We got on really well. We have decided that the food offered for the party wasn't really what we wanted, so we have decided to get back together on Wednesday and present a list of appetisers and other finger foods that we can make for the party."

"Mom, that's a lot of work. Are you sure you don't want to use a caterer?"

"The menu options were a bit limited for our tastes. There weren't many Italian options and there weren't any Cuban options at all. Maria seemed quite sure that she wanted to make some authentic Cuban food. I've never had Cuban food but Maria assured me that I'd like it."

"Oh you will Mom. I had some at her house on Friday and it was delicious."

"That's good to know. I was worried it might be too spicy for me. My only worry now is that there won't be enough storage space in our freezer or in our kitchen to make everything."

"We'll figure something out Mom. Carlos and I went to look at a house today, and if we can move in soon, you can use the kitchen there. There is plenty of room and it has a huge freezer and a deep chest freezer in the garage. There should be heaps of space."

"Oh how lovely. I can't wait to see your house. Did you buy it or will you just rent it until your other house is built."

"Carlos wants to buy the house. It will take a while to build our house and we can always sell it afterward."

"That makes sense. Paying rent is like throwing your money away. You have roof over your head, but you aren't investing in anything. You have nothing to show."

"Yes Mom, I know what you mean."

"I know dear. How did your surprise go today? Carlos wouldn't tell me what it was, but I could tell it was something big."

"It was huge Mom. Do you know who Brigitte Travis is?"

"Isn't she a famous fashion designer?"

"Yes. She's designing my wedding dress and the dresses for the girls. She's also going to make the waistcoats and the ties for all the guys. "

"That is amazing. How did Carlos pull that off? Does he know her?"

"It's a funny story actually. Brigitte was being stalked and two RangeMan guys went out of their way to help her. They saved her life and put a very dangerous criminal behind bars. She offered to do the interior decorating for the new RangeMan buildings free-of-charge but Carlos hired her to design our wedding instead."

"That's wonderful dear. I can't wait to hear all about it. Maybe we can go out for lunch one of these days and you can show me what you have already planned. I know you want to do things yourself, but I'd still like to be involved. I actually have a great checklist and wedding planner that I bought you when I thought you might marry Joseph. I should give that to you so you can keep track of your plans."

"That would be nice Mom. Carlos and I will be pretty busy in the next few weeks just getting back into the swing of things with RangeMan, but I'm sure we can swing a lunch or two. I have fabric swatches for all of the various garments. At first, Val was a bit concerned with the colour I had picked out. It didn't really suit her colouring. Instead of changing the colour, Brigitte suggested we try the same colour, but a few shades lighter. That worked much better for Val and since she's my Matron of Honour, a different coloured dress won't be too bad."

"I'm glad you are both happy. I remember how uncomfortable you were with your eggplant coloured dress. Can you tell me what colour you chose?"

"Sure. I chose a greyish purple for all of the ladies except Val. Her dress will be a lighter, more lavender grey colour."

"That sounds lovely Steph. I can't wait to see swatches."

"I will check with Carlos and see what our schedule is like during the week. I will call you and we can make plans to meet up for lunch one day. I'll bring everything I have so far about the wedding and share it with you. I want to keep my plans under wraps as much as possible. If everything gets out to the Burg, all our hard work will be wasted."

"I can understand that. If you show me your plans, I promise not to breathe a word of it to anyone. I can't say the same for your Grandma though."

"I thought of that as well. It might be best to hold off telling her any of the plans this early."

"Let me know when and where to meet you dear. I have to go and get the kitchen cleaned before bed. I'll talk to you soon."

I got off the phone with my Mom and turned to see Carlos staring at me. "What?"

"I just don't remember ever witnessing you smile when you talked to your mother before."

"Yeah, I think this is a first. She was excited to tell me about meeting your mother and Ella. It sounds like they had a lot of fun."

"That's good. As long as they don't interfere, I'll be happy to include them in our plans."

"Me too."

"I don't know if you noticed Babe, but while you were talking to your mother, I went into the other room and called the real estate agent. She says that our offer was accepted and we can exchange keys as soon as my lawyer sends over the necessary paperwork to Olivia's lawyer. I called my lawyer and he's going to hand deliver it first thing on Monday. That means that we can move in next week."

"Wow, that is soon. We'll need to arrange bedroom furniture at least."

"Would you be OK if I got Ella to do that? She picked out all the furniture for my old apartment at Haywood."

"Sure. I just don't want her to go to too much trouble."

"I'm sure she won't. She'll probably love the challenge. She doesn't have too much on her plate at the moment."

"Actually, Ella has been put in charge of the invitations for the party. I was also going to call her and ask her to see if she could find something suitable for the wedding invitations. I want to match our colours, and if we can match our colours for the engagement party that would be really cool."

"Let's call Ella first thing in the morning. I bet the printers will be closed tomorrow, but all of the furniture stores will be open. Maybe we can meet Ella for lunch and go shopping together. She would know the best places to get furniture."

"That sounds like a great idea. Do you think it's too late to call Ella now?"

Carlos looked at his watch and shrugged. It was only 8:30, so she'd probably still be awake. He pulled out his phone and dialled.

Carlos' POV

"Hello Carlos, what can I do for you?"

"Hi Ella. We bought a house today and we were hoping to bribe you with lunch tomorrow in hopes that you might consider helping us furnish the house. We want to move in this week and we need somebody who can organise delivery and know what we need. Stephanie also talked to her mother and she mentioned that you were in charge of the invitations for the engagement party. Steph wants to show you our colour scheme in hopes that we can have the engagement party invitations match the wedding invitations."

"Hold on a second. I'll just go talk to Luis for a moment."

Ella put the phone down and we could hear muffled voices in the background. A few moments later, Ella came back on the phone and said, "Luis and I would be happy to help. Luis' eyes lit up when I explained that you needed our help. I think he's a bit bored. When I mentioned that you bought a new house and that you needed our help, he started to go through his tools to make sure everything was in working order."

"Thanks Ella. We won't get the keys until Monday or Tuesday, so whatever we buy tomorrow, we'll have to have delivered or take with us."

"That should be fine Carlos. We both are driving SUVs that can store a lot of stuff. What time and where should we meet tomorrow?"

"Where would be the best place to get what we need?"

"Um, we can definitely get furniture and basic things here in Trenton. At a later date, I'd suggest going to Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth for finishing touches."

"OK, we'll stay local tomorrow. Why don't we meet at Rossini's as 12? I'll make a reservation under my name in case you beat us there. Steph will bring her wedding notebook and show you what we've chosen so far."

"That sounds fine. We'll see you tomorrow."

After I got off the phone, I turned and looked at my Babe. She had cuddled into my side and was practically asleep. I contemplated picking her up and carrying her to bed, but I knew it wouldn't be good for my back. Instead, I gently kissed my Babe until she groaned and woke up.

"What's wrong Carlos?"

"Nothing is wrong Babe. I just didn't want to carry you upstairs. I was afraid I'd hurt you because my back is not at full strength. Come on, let's go to bed."

I helped Stephanie climb the stairs and after a brief trip to the bathroom, we both climbed into bed and fell asleep within moments of me wrapping my arms around my Babe.

Steph's POV

I woke up the following morning and found Carlos splayed across me and the bed. I turned my head and saw that it was a little after 9AM already. If we were going to be in Trenton at noon, I needed to get up and get moving. I'm not the fastest person in the morning, but my cast means that showers take even longer.

I tried to roll away from Carlos, but he just mumbled and held me tighter. "Carlos, wake up. It's time to get up."

"No Babe. Stay. We don't have to get up for hours yet."

"Carlos, it's 9:15 already. We don't have hours."

Carlos' head popped up and looked at the clock. He was surprised that he slept so late, but he didn't complain or anything. He just sat up, pulled on a pair of sweat pants and said, "I'll go get breakfast started. Have a quick shower and come down as soon as you're ready. I'll have a shower after you."

I nodded and walked into the bathroom. Who am I kidding? I hobbled into the bathroom. I quickly wrapped my cast and had a quick shower, or as quick as I'm capable of showering. I decided to wait until after breakfast to worry about my hair and makeup, so I hurried down to the kitchen to find an omelette and some fruit salad waiting for me.

I looked around and didn't see Carlos anywhere. I assumed he was outside, so I carried my breakfast out onto the patio. There, I found Carlos' empty plate and no Carlos. I heard a splash and saw that Carlos was in the pool. He was swimming lengths as best he could with his sore back and the short pool. He looked up when he saw me sit down and said, "I'll just do a few more and then I'll run up and take a shower."

I smiled and watched his muscles move under the water. I probably drooled as I ate, but I didn't care. The man was hot, that's H - O - T hot. Carlos climbed out of the pool and kissed me on his way past. I watched him leave and then focused on finishing my breakfast without spilling it all over myself. That happens to me a lot, especially when Carlos is half naked or kisses me. Unfortunately, my wardrobe is rather limited at the moment, so I had to focus and be careful.

Carlos came down just as I was putting my clean and dried dishes away. He looked around and said, "You didn't have to wash mine Babe, I was going to do it when I got down."

"That's OK. I washed them when I washed mine. It wasn't a problem. I'm going to run up and finish getting ready. I have about 25 minutes right?"

"Yes. We should get to the restaurant on time if we leave in 25 minutes."

I ran upstairs and spent the next 20 minutes taming my hair and putting on some basic makeup. When I hopped down the stairs, Carlos was at the bottom waiting. He helped me with my purse and practically dragged me out to the car. "What's the rush Carlos?"

"I just got a call from Olivia. She said that if we could meet her at the house before lunch, we could have the keys today. She is going back to Philadelphia and doesn't see the point in waiting for the lawyers to give us the keys since we're paying cash for the house."

"Oh, OK. Do we need to call Ella and let her know we're running a few minutes late?"

"Let's wait until we're closer to Trenton. We might just make it in time if we don't hit too much traffic."

The traffic gods must have been smiling down on us because we made it to our new house in record time. We picked up the keys from Olivia and exchanged contact details before making it to the restaurant with 3 minutes to spare. We walked in hand-in-hand and a little out of breath to find Ella and Luis already seated.

They stood as we approached and greeted us with hugs and handshakes. "Thanks for joining us," Carlos said. Luis leaned over to Carlos and asked questions about the house and Ella looked at me and said, "Carlos tells me that you have chosen your colours for the wedding. Is that true?"

I smiled at Ella and pulled out a folder I have been collecting all of the wedding details in until I get that book from my mother. I opened the folder and pulled out both pieces of purple fabric from the bridesmaid dresses. "This darker colour is being worn by 4 of the bridesmaids. The other colour is for Val. The guys will wear purple accented damask waist coats and matching ties. Carlos and Diego will wear silver and cream waistcoats and matching ties."

"So I take it that your wedding colours are this dusky purple and silver?"

"Exactly. The men will be wearing charcoal suits and Diego's will be slightly lighter."

"I have an idea for the invitations. Does your phone have internet access? I could show you what I mean."

"No, but Carlos' does."

Without me even having to ask, Carlos reached into his pocket and handed me his phone. He had obviously been following our conversation while he talked to Luis about the new house. I opened the web browser and gave the phone to Ella. For a woman of her age, she navigated the phone like an expert. Moments later she showed me an image of the perfect wedding invitation. The envelopes were cream and there were several cards included. The actual wedding invitation had a silver embossed damask pattern and there was a purple ribbon across the packet. I looked up at Ella and said, "These are perfect. Do you think you can get a matching invitation for the engagement party?"

"Probably. My friend owns a store that prints wedding invitations and this is one that she's just added to her catalogue. You'll be the first to order them so I'm sure we can work something out. Do you have any preferences on what it says?"

I looked over at Carlos, who was still talking to Luis. I really wanted his input on the invitations, so I said, "I will leave it up to you and our mothers for the party invitations. Carlos and I will come up with something for the wedding invitations and try to give it to you before you visit your friend."

"I was planning on going tomorrow afternoon. Is that enough time?"

I looked at Carlos and he nodded to me so I confirmed that we'd have time to discuss the invitation text before tomorrow.

Ella took one last look at the invitation on Carlos' phone and then handed it back. She looked at me and said, "If I could take part of that swatch with me, I could see if they could better match the ribbon colour."

I looked at the swatch I had. I didn't need the whole thing so I rummaged around in my bag until I found a pair of nail scissors. I cut the swatch in half and gave part to Ella. She carefully wrapped the fabric in a clean tissue and placed it in a side pocket inside her purse.

A few minutes later, our food arrived and we talked about the new house while we ate. Luis suggested that we go to the house beforehand and take a few measurements to ensure we didn't buy anything that wouldn't fit in the space. Carlos agreed to this and when we were finished eating, we headed to our new house. Luis and Carlos went off to measure the master bedroom and the office.

While the men were off doing practical things, Ella looked around the kitchen and said, "My, this is a lovely kitchen."

"It is indeed. I told my mother that if we were in the house on time, she could come over and use the kitchen to make her portion of the food for the party. There is a large chest freezer out in the garage."

"Oh, that's good to know. I can cook easily enough at my place, but there is nowhere to store any of the food. Most of it can be made ahead of time, so if there's room in your freezer, that would be helpful."

"I'm sure there's plenty of room. My mother also has a large deep freezer, so between the two of them, there should be loads of space."

The men rejoined us and Luis had a notepad in his hand and a pencil behind his ear. He looked at me and said, "Carlos tells me that the master bedroom is the priority furniture-wise. If we can find a bed and some other bedroom furniture today, we can get you moved in as soon as the legal paperwork is out of the way."

"That sounds great," I said. We followed Luis as he drove to the nearest furniture store. While we were driving, Carlos looked at me and said, "We're also going to need bed linens and towels and stuff. I'm not sure we will have the strength to get everything today."

"We can get what we absolutely need today. As long as we have bed linens, towels, pillows and a duvet, the rest can wait."

When we stopped, Carlos helped me out of the car and then held my hand as I hobbled around the furniture shop on a single crutch. We looked at several bed frames, but we both came back to a relatively simple looking solid oak frame. We sat on a few mattresses, but ended up buying the same one that was on the bed in Haywood. We also bought two dressers, a dressing table with mirror and stool, two bedside tables and a tallboy cabinet that matched the bed frame. This took us less than 45 minutes in total and Ella was really impressed with how quickly we were able to dismiss things and come to a common decision.

We arranged for the furniture to be delivered on Tuesday afternoon. Luis volunteered to be at the house when it was delivered because Carlos and I had a client meeting that afternoon. Now that we had the minimum bits of furniture, Ella suggested that we look around to see if there was anything that jumped out at us for the living room and the dining rooms.

Carlos and I walked around and came to the same conclusion. We liked the oak furniture and ended up picking out a TV cabinet, a coffee table, end tables and a few matching book cases. We then walked down to the other end of the showroom and both moved towards the same sofa. It was relatively plain. It was made of a grey woven fabric and it looked very comfortable. We sat down and immediately smiled. This sofa was perfect.

The sales assistant told us that there was also a matching recliner chair and a normal chair. We ordered two of each. The sofa could be delivered on Tuesday with the rest of the furniture, but the chairs would have to be ordered and they could take up to a month. We were fine with that. The last thing we did in that store was pick out a dining set. Again, it was oak and it extended and could seat up to 8 people. The set only came with 6 chairs, so we ordered another two. The extra two were the only ones with arms.

After 1 hour and 30 minutes, we had enough furniture for the house to feel like a home. Our next stop was to go and buy some of those sheets that I used to love so much. That and to buy some fluffy towels, some pillows and a duvet. Ella led the way and before we knew it, we had a few bags of essentials that would get us through until we had a chance to get out and get some more.

Ella promised that she would help us out as much as needed in between her work at the new office and Ron's house. She assured me that she would have plenty of time and that shopping for us was one of her favourite things to do. She even offered to top up our wardrobes, but Carlos only wanted some RangeMan uniforms and some new boots. I also needed some new uniforms, but I quietly told Ella that both Carlos and I needed some jeans, t-shirts and other basics. Ella winked and said that she'd get us sorted out.

Ella and Luis ended up taking all of the purchases with them and Carlos and we headed back to Point Pleasant. We stopped along the way to buy a few things to have a nice relaxing meal. We baked some low-fat Brie and dipped fruit, raw vegetables and bread into the soft gooey cheese. We had some olives and beet root as well as a green salad. It was a relatively healthy meal that was followed by some of Ella's date, cashew and chocolate health bars.

Carlos did a bit of work on his laptop as we sat in front of the television. At 10:30, I decided it was time for bed so I went up and got ready. By the time I exited the bathroom, Carlos had come into the bedroom. We both climbed in and had a brief conversation about getting up in time for our meeting the following morning. Carlos kissed me goodnight and pulled my back to his front and we both fell asleep within minutes.

Thanks for reading and all of your encouragement.