as her own pride and joy for my entire life. An American flag hung proudly from above our stairs, waving in the gentle, Tennessee breeze.
I kept my eyes on that flag until I dug my phone out of my bag, smiling at the picture on the screen. It was Anthony’s smiling face, his arms around me in one of my favorite dresses, the picture one we snapped at his parents’ lake house that spring.
“Hey, you,” I answered.
“Hey, yourself. How’s my beautiful fiancé today?”
“Tired,” I answered on a sigh, putting the car in park. I held the button to bring the convertible top back up, the sun fading from my shoulders.
“More wedding planning?”
“All the wedding planning. But, the good news is, I have your wedding gift taken care of.”
“Oh, is that so? What’dya get me?”
I smiled. “Well, I can’t tell you, now can I? It wouldn’t be a surprise, then.”
Anthony laughed, and I let my head fall back against the head rest, picturing what he looked like then. I missed his laugh, his smile, his arms around me.
More than anything, I missed our conversations.
Before he proposed, we would talk for hours — about everything. We’d talk about our dreams, our plans for the future, our pasts, our families, our deepest fears. But after the proposal, all of our conversation shifted to the wedding, to me becoming his wife.
“Fair enough. I can’t talk long, but I wanted to see how you were doing. Dad’s got me working with this media crew covering my first run for State House Representative. It’s been madness over here.”
“I’m sure it has, but you’ve wanted this forever,” I reminded him. “Your dreams are starting to come true.”
“And you’ll be there beside me when they do.”
I smiled, but couldn’t help but notice the way my stomach dropped at his words. I was happy for him, and a part of me couldn’t wait to move back to North Carolina after the wedding. Of course, I wished I was going back to the university, but I wasn’t really sure why.
This was what I’d always wanted. It was what I’d always hoped would happen.
I was marrying someone with the same political heart as my father, and his father, and his father’s father. It was what my family had always wanted for me. If anything, Anthony was more — he didn’t just want to be mayor, he wanted to be president.
And I would be his first lady.
My smile grew a little more genuine at that, at being in a position where I could make a difference. That’s what had always appealed to me about living in the political circuit. I could help children, or battered women, or the homeless. I would have a platform, a goal, and a voice to raise.
And a husband who would stand beside me, just as I would him.
“I miss you,” Anthony said on a sigh, bringing me back to the moment.
“I miss you, too. But I’ll see you soon. Six weeks.”
“Six weeks,” he repeated. “And then you walk down the aisle to me.”
My stomach dropped again, and I placed a hand over it just as my mother appeared on the front porch. She hung her hands on her hips, her eyes hard on me.
“Well, the wedding planner is waiting on me,” I said. “Good luck with the media circus over there.”
“Thanks, babe. Talk to you soon. Tell your mom I said hi.”
I laughed. “If I can get a word in edgewise, I’ll do that.”
Mama was already down the porch and en route to my car by the time I pushed the driver side door open. She held the handle, eyes wide as she took in my appearance.
“I cannot believe you put that top down after I spent all that time on your hair this morning, Ruby Grace,” she tsked, but she offered a hand out to take my bag, anyway.
“I got it,” I said, stepping out and shutting the door behind me.
Mama looped her arm through mine, the other hand picking at my tangled strands.
“How’d it go?”
“Fine,” I answered as we climbed the porch stairs. “I still think it’s way too much to spend on a barrel of liquor.”
“It is,” she agreed. “But, it’s good to support the community, and your father has built a great relationship with the distillery over the years. Anthony will enjoy it, I’m sure.”
“I don’t even think he drinks whiskey.”
“He will once he’s in this family,” Mama said with a chuckle. “Your father will make sure of that.”