"Grace, can you come down please?"

Connie called up the stairs, her voice hoarse and painful in her throat. She swallowed. Grace had been ushered off upstairs to get herself ready after breakfast, and Connie was anxious to give her the once over before Rita's parents arrived.

She moved to stand in front of the mirror in the hallway, she could see the clock behind her in the reflection – 9:57AM. She looked back at herself and sighed. She looked tired, she didn't seem to be able to hide the fact that her eyes were vaguely bloodshot, and held the glassy look of a cold, and she had already worn away the make up that she had used to lessen the redness of her nose. She drew in a breath and sighed again. At least her hair looked ok...she'd tied half of it up, and it curled in elegant glossy dark curls about her shoulders.

She caught sight of Rita as the blonde made her way from the kitchen into the hallway and she half turned as she felt Rita's arms encircle her waist, her chin resting against her shoulder so that they could peer back at themselves in the mirror.

"You look beautiful."

Rita said quietly. She knew what Connie was thinking, she knew how much she relied upon her appearance as a means of protecting herself, to putting on a front – the perfect front.

Connie sucked in another breath through her mouth and tilted her head to the side to rest against Rita's and placed her own hands over Rita's at her stomach.

"Nervous?"

She asked. She could see the tension in the ever present frown between Rita's eyes, and the clench of her jaw.

"Terrified."

She whispered, laughing slightly. Her stomach ached and churned and her heart seemed to be beating only feather light beats that made her chest flutter.

Connie turned around in her embrace and slipped her arms about Rita's shoulders, pulling her close, close enough to kiss...

She kissed her softly and slowly, holding her close, letting her fingers stroke the short blonde hairs that curled about Rita's ear.

"Ughhh...get a room!"

The thump of Grace's feet on the stairs made them jump.

"Grace!"

Connie exclaimed, glancing to her daughter who merely grinned in response.

Connie looked her up and down, and then glanced to Rita to see if she too had noticed. Rita caught her eye, the twitch of a smile at her lips.

"Grace, you look...very nice."

She said slowly, she knew from experience that whatever she said, however nice it was, might cause Grace to flounce back off upstairs to change. But Grace merely gave a shrug of her shoulders. She stood before them wearing her skinny blue jeans, grey fluffy socks and the simple pale blue jumper that Connie had bought her last Christmas, the one that she had never worn...the one that she had left behind...and she glanced again to Rita as Grace made her way past them into the kitchen in search for something to eat.

Rita raised an eyebrow and bit her lip against a smile.

"Even down to the socks."

Connie murmured, looking Rita up and down – her pale blue jumper, her skinny blue jeans and her grey socks.

-.-

More later today/this evening. Thank you so much for the reviews!

: Who knows what Rita could buy for her! You may be right :)xxx

Wowstars: Thank you! I'm so pleased that you thought I replicated Rita's response correctly. Next chapter up soon xxx

LollyBlanc: The next update will have Rita's parents in...:) xxx

For the lovely comments about Grace – I'm basing most of what she says on what my daughter would say. (The amusing bits, anyway!)