“I told him that I wanted to wait. I’m already almost at the end of the first trimester, just like you. I have no time to arrange a wedding. And there is no guarantee on my health situation, so I told him that I wanted to wait until after the baby was born.”

“Okay.” Jenna nodded. I knew she would agree. It was best to wait. “When are you due?”

“Actually...we’re due around the same time.”

Jenna squealed. “You’re going to tell Nicole and Kate, right?”

“I’ll tell them at your wedding.”

“We can have a baby shower together.” Jenna was too excited. Her smile was big and her eyes twinkled under the light of the lamp. “I never imagined that we would have a child at the same time and marry into the same family. What are the chances?”

“I know, right?”

“Did you tell your parents?”

“They don’t know yet. We will be visiting my parents the day after your wedding. I’ll tell them then.”

“How about Matthew’s parents?”

“We’ll tell them after your wedding, but before we leave for San Francisco.”

“Okay.” Jenna smiled. “Our lives have changed so much in such a short amount of time.”

“Yup,” I agreed. “Did you start packing for San Diego?”

“You know me so well. I did. I think I’m packing too much,” Jenna laughed. “Did you?”

“I sure did. One can never pack enough.”

Chapter 25

Jenna

After I helped my parents settle into their hotel, my mom came with me to the bridal shower dinner and my dad waited to be picked up by Max. Max and the men had dinner plans. Though Max and I had agreed that we would stay away from each other this week and finally be face to face on the wedding day, it was extremely difficult to do so. We even purposely avoided each other during work hours as well. I missed him so much, especially when he would send me texts.

I’m thinking of you.

I’m thinking of you, too.

I hope they are naughty thoughts.

I laughed out loud.

“What’s so funny?” Becky nudged me during dinner.

Everyone was in their own conversation when I took the moment to read Max’s text. “It’s Max. He’s making me laugh.”

“I think he also made you blush.”

“Shhh.” I laughed again. Although Ellen and my mom were having their own conversation and couldn’t hear us, there was that discomfort of knowing I was flirting with Max in front of his mom.

Nicole and Kate were in charge of the games. We played a game where one person wrapped their teammate with toilet paper and created the most creative wedding dress. It was hilarious. The second game we played was unscrambling a list of words. That was difficult since most of us had no clue. Ellen won that game. For the last game, they had to hold a paper plate on top of their head and blindly draw me in a wedding dress. It had simple instructions, but was difficult to do. We all laughed like crazy. Unexpectedly, my mom won a prize for that game.

Due to Max and I having a small wedding, I had asked Becky not to invite a bunch of our friends. I only wanted a few good friends to join me tonight. Now, it was cake and present time.

“I’ll write down who brought what,” Nicole said. “Kate will take the pictures and Becky will help you.”

“Thank you,” I said, since all of the attention was now on me. “First of all. I want to thank all of you for coming out tonight. A few of my cousins flew all the way from New York. A few of my college friends came from Texas. And I’m so happy my mom was able to join us for the bridal shower.” I turned to my mom with a smile. “And I would like to thank Ellen, my soon to be my mother-in-law, for all her help and for suggesting this wonderful restaurant.”

Becky stood up and handed me my first present. I unwrapped it and gave Becky the wrapper, which she shoved it into the trash bag.

It was a crystal vase from Tiffany’s. “Thank you, Tanya,” I said to my cousin. Kate took our picture and Becky gave me the next one.

“Thank you, Mom.” Mom brought me some kitchen utensils that Max and I had registered for with Bloomingdales. That wasn’t all. My eyes started tearing when I saw an engraved bracelet from Tiffany’s. It read:

Max and Jenna

Forever

“Oh, Mom,” I gushed and hugged her. “This is beautiful.”

“Now you have something new.” Mom started getting teary-eyed, too. “I can’t believe my little girl is all grown up and getting married.”

“I can’t believe it, either,” I said softly.

Mom gave me big smile and sat back down in her seat after Becky took our picture.

“This is from your mother-in-law,” Becky said, handing me a huge box.

When I took it from her, it was so light I wondered what was inside it. After I unwrapped it, I opened the lid and pulled out an envelope.

“Max already knows about it,” Ellen started to say. “Robert and I are paying all expenses for your honeymoon. Inside is the information for the hotel that is paid for. That’s not all. Max doesn’t know this yet, but I’ve transferred money to your joint account to help pay for your future house. Max told me that you were both thinking of moving to a house close to us.”

“Yes.” I nodded. I thought my bottom jaw dropped...I was in shock for sure. I knew Mr. and Mrs. Knight were generous people, but this was way too much. “I don’t know what to say, Ellen.”