Mail-Order Brides For Christmas - Frankie Love Page 0,28
Hattie,” Mom says, pulling her into a hug. “You have no idea how good it is to meet you.”
Hattie smiles back at my parents. “I feel like the luckiest girl.”
“Good,” my dad says. “Because Hartley may act like a bit of an ass, excuse my language, Pastor, but he is a softie. Always remembers to call his mom and makes it to Sunday dinner every week. He can’t be all bad if he does that.”
“Okay, enough with all that,” I say, chuckling.
“I don’t mind. I like your parents telling me all about you. After all, I hardly know you.”
Mom smiles at Hattie. “And I hardly know you. We’re gonna need to change that. I need your Christmas list, asap!”
“Mom, I thought we agreed to doing our own Christmases this year?”
Mom laughs. “I know, but it doesn’t mean I can’t get my new daughter-in-law just a little something.”
“I hear you have six new daughters-in-law,” Hattie says. “Have you met them all?”
“Not yet,” Mom says with a twinkle in her eye. “But come New Year’s Eve, you better be at my house — all of you boys and your girls, don’t forget.”
Pastor Monroe clears his throat and we turn to him. I take Hattie’s hands in mine. This may be her first introduction to my parents, but this moment isn’t about them. It’s about us.
“Hattie, Hartley,” he says. “We’ve come together today to join your lives together as one.”
Hattie squeezes my hands, I squeeze hers back. I am diving into unknown territory, head-first, but I’m not alone in it. I have her by my side.
And yes, it is scary — but it’s also really incredible.
The pastor reads through the ceremony, we exchange rings and vows. And when it is time to make my promise, I don’t hesitate. This girl is mine.
“Do you, Hartley, take Hattie as your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.”
“And do you, Hattie, take Hartley as your lawfully wedded husband?”
She beams up at me. “I do.”
“Then I now pronounce you husband and wife. Hartley, you may kiss your bride.” The pastor lifts a finger, pointing above us.
I laugh as I pull my wife close, kissing her under the mistletoe.
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Download their epilogue and see where they are in five years!
Last Christmas was the first one I spent without my parents, and I promised myself that by the next one I’d have someone to spend the holidays with. I’ve been in a mood lately, unsure of what I need to do but knowing that I need to do something. With Christmas not too far away, I’ve taken a look at my life and am sad to see what a lonely existence I’ve been living in since I lost my parents. It is time to do something. Something drastic.
I can’t keep doing the same thing day in and day out. Get up, go to work at my job as a cashier at the local Piggly Wiggly, come home, watch television, and go to bed just to get up and do it all again.
Sure, I probably shouldn’t have had a few drinks. Especially since I was under the drinking age and had to use a fake ID to get them. And I probably shouldn’t have made such a big decision for my life after having said drinks. But it’s too late to back out now. I signed the paperwork. Of course, I could probably get out of it. Say I was under the influence when I signed them or something. But I don’t want to. The more I’ve thought about it, the surer I’ve become. And besides, it worked for my parents. So why can’t it work for me?
Of course it was a different time and circumstances then. My mom and dad were promised to each other before they even met. Their families wanted to join. My dad’s family wanted to join with my mother’s family’s land. It was the seventies then, so things like that weren’t common. The days of arranged marriages were something of the past, or at least I thought so, and so did my mom and dad. And my mom told me that she was going