Katie In Denver (In Denver Series Book 3) (17 page)

I'm overwhelmed. It’s been four hours and we haven't settled on anything. I finally have had enough, so I shout, “Stop! I don't want a huge wedding; I want something simple. I want to wear a comfy dress and my cowboy boots I want to dance and drink. Elena, you know I love you, and I know how much you love weddings, but Michael and I have a son already, it's not like I could wear white.” I blush. “I don't want bridesmaids; I don’t want my friends to cater to me that day. I want us to enjoy it as a group; I want my parents to walk me to the front of Serendipity where I will marry the only man I have ever loved. After that, I want to spend the night having fun. I don't care about napkins or tablecloths or catering. I'm sorry, Mom and Elena, I know how much this means to you, I really do, but can we please just keep it simple?”

“Like hell you aren't wearing white,” my mom says. I can’t help but laugh. Out of that whole blow-up, she got stuck on me not wearing white.

Elena stands up and comes over to me. “Do you trust your momma and me to do the right thing?”

I nod my head. “Of course I do.” 

“Well, let us do this for you and I promise it will be amazing. All you have to do is show up on the day and everything will be set.” I look to my mom who gives me a thumbs up. 

“Ok, it's in your control.” Elena and mom slide off to a different table. I know they are serious when my mom leaves and comes back with a large sheet of poster board. The girls and I have a glass of wine, and I tell them all about Rita and why she is a recluse. 

Another two hours pass before Elena gets up and tells everyone bye. She walks out with the poster board with a giant smile on her face.

I can only imagine what's on it since she and my mother spent two hours cutting things out of magazines and gluing them to the poor thing all while drinking wine and giggling like silly school girls.

“Mom, what did you put on the board?” I ask once everyone has left.

“None of your concern. Elena and I have worked it all out. Go on to your house and don't worry about a thing.” I hug my mom and head home where MJ is sitting at the table doing his homework, and my dad is stirring something over the stove. 

“Dad, what are you doing here?” 

He huffs, “If you thought I was entering my house with the pack of crazies in there you are sadly mistaken. I know better than to walk into a den of lionesses. MJ and I were enjoying man time, safe from the likes of all of you.”

MJ snorts in agreement. “We were warned to stay clear, Mom.”

“MJ, you’re an amazing son, have I told you that today?”

“Yeah, Mom, you told me before school, but I never get sick of hearing it,” he says with a grin just like his father’s.

Chapter 24

MJ Blackwell

I knew my plan would work. All this planning and moving and we will be a family within the next couple weeks.

I always knew this day would come. They may have messed up a bunch of times but just like the old movie says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” That's when I knew that I could get my plan for Operation Family back on track. It's taken a year, but all good things take time and patience just like my grandpa always told me. 

My mom doesn't know, but I went to Uncle Rhydian to tell him about the phone calls him and his partner Ashleigh are going to keeping working until they find out who it is. I have a bad feeling they won't go away. I know my mom hasn't said anything because she doesn't like to worry anyone, but now the calls have started happening more, and I see the same car follow us a lot. I told uncle Rhydian all the details I have on what the car looks like. I just want to protect my mom.

Chapter 25

Katie

For the last three weeks, I have been spending my days with Ms. Fairchild. I spend my days listening to the stories of her past and helping her pack up things she wants to donate. She asks me all about growing up on the Reservation and what it was like to be a teen mother. I have talked in detail to Michael about my days with Ms. Fairchild, and I know it sounds strange, but I don’t want her to leave Serendipity. Not until she is ready to be reunited with Richard.

“Ms. Fairchild,” I say with a pause.

“Child, I have asked you to call me Rita a million times. You’re gonna make me believe we aren’t friends if you insist on calling Ms. Fairchild.”

“Ok, Rita, I know you were planning to move into an elder care facility, but I was wondering if you like to stay in your home. You’re already settled into the mother-in-law cottage, I was wondering…” I trail off, fidgeting and playing with the lid of the box I was packing in the main house. “If you would just stay… stay with me. MJ is at school, Michael is at work during the day, and I won’t be going back to work until next fall. I enjoy your company, and I would like to have someone to talk to during the day.”

I see Rita get up slowly and walk to the window. “I would love that, Katie,” she says, wiping her face. “I never had any children, but if I had I wish they would have been just like you, Katie. You’re forgiving and open-hearted; you give your love and devotion so freely. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend to have in my life.”

“I feel the same way, Rita,” I say with a warm smile.

“So are you ready to move your things into the house?” she asks.

“Yes, the movers are only bringing our clothes and some odds and ends from my place, and they are bringing some odds and ends from Michael’s condo. Michael and MJ are going to stay at the condo until the wedding, and my cousin and my mom and friends will be here in two days and stay until the wedding. I won’t see Michael until I meet him at the end of the aisle on Sunday.”

I see Rita smile. “Your wedding anniversary will be the same as Richard’s and mine.” 

“Really?” I continue wrapping things and placing them in the box.

“Yes, it was the single best day of my life,” she says as she watches me.

“I’m glad Michael and I will get to share it with you and Richard.”

I finish packing all the things Rita wanted to be donated, and I make my way to my house for some sleep. I dream but it’s not of Michael and me, it’s of Rita and Richard they are young, and you can see so much love in their faces. He is twirling her around as she throws her head back in glee. Then Rita disappears, and it’s just Richard and me. 

“Thank you for taking care of my Rita, she was the love of my life and even my love in death.” Just then, out of the shadows my Aunt Maggie appears, and I run to her and throw my arms around her. 

“I see the Kerrigan boy has come to his senses,” she says. “Katie, you were always meant to face three trials you have completed two, the third is still to come. After this last trial, you will be blessed with happiness and children and the love of your twin soul. Tell Percy that Ian is her one, not to throw it away like she is planning.”  I try to ask Aunt Maggie what the third trial is, but she fades away.

Richard steps forward, “Don’t worry, darling, everything is gonna be right as rain.”

I’m pulled from the dream by the sound of thunder. I’m covered in sweat and breathing heavy. I try it go back to sleep, but I’m too freaked out. To calm myself down, I head to the kitchen for a cup of sleepy time tea. Curled up on the sofa, I look around the place I have called home for the last ten years. There are so many great memories here. I fall asleep on the sofa and dream of Michael. He and I are sitting in the great room at Serendipity, surrounded by love and family. 

My palms are sweaty. I’m pacing the master bedroom at Serendipity. “What do you mean he isn’t here?” I ask my father. “I don’t understand.”

“No one has been able to reach him. He dropped MJ off with his parents this morning and told them he had a few things that he was picking up, and no one has heard from him since.”

“Dad, something’s not right, I can feel it in my heart. Michael, wouldn’t do this to me, not after everything we have already been through, not after he worked so hard to make things between us right. Dad, we haven’t even kissed since he started courting me, we were saving it for today. Please, Dad, you have to look for him.”

My mom comes in with a somber look on her face. She hands me a note.

Katie, 

You deserve better than me; I hope you find the happiness you deserve. Please don’t look for me, tell MJ I love him very much. I will always remember the first day we ever met. You were always my Katie, Katherine Blackwell.

Mike Kerrigan-

I read the letter over and over. 

“This isn’t from Michael.” My mom looks at me. I find myself yelling, “THIS ISN'T FROM MICHAEL.” I replay the out first conversation, I play over our meeting in my mind, this is a clue. 

Rhydian and Liam are rushing through the door with Killian hot on their heels, and I hand them the letter.

“This isn’t from Michael,” Rhydian and Liam both agree.

I know this is our third trial aunt Maggie told me about in the dream if we can make it through this we can make it through anything. I’m in a robe, and I excuse myself to throw on some jeans and a t-shirt. We all make our way to the living room when I’m changed.

“Katie, I hear Killian say. “Do you remember the first day you and Michael met?”

I go over the details memory by memory. I can’t handle it, my heart is breaking, I feel like my heart is going to shatter. I don’t think I can survive losing Michael. Not like this, not now. I try and get up, but I crumble to the ground. I’m trying to stay conscious, but I can’t.

I’m in the field again, but it’s strange because I’m alone. I walk into the house, and it seems so depressing, there is no life and no happiness. I don’t know why I am here, but I see Aunt Maggie again at the tree line of the property. I feel instant comfort. I know she is with me. I keep looking around the house, but everything looks the same nothing is out of order. 

Richard is sitting in the window seat. 

“I came from Pennsylvania with a friend named Kenneth,” he says. “He and I grew up together; I almost thought of him as a brother. When we went South with a group of Penn State students on a freedom ride, we had all these ideas about how we were going to change the world. Once we got to the South, I started to see a change in him. It was not a good change. When it was time to go back to school, he decided to stay. The next time I came to Tennessee was right after I graduated. I bumped into my friend again, and he was a proud member of the Klan. He told me the only reason he wasn’t putting me in a shallow grave was because his mother would never forgive him. He told me to leave the South and never come back. I didn’t leave. Instead, I worked harder to get people registered to vote. That’s when I met Rita. She dropped her glove, and I picked it up. When I spoke to her she was so scared she literally yelled out, ‘I’m colored.’” He stood up. “I didn’t care if she was green, the moment my eyes met her I knew she was my soulmate. She was it for me, and I didn’t care what we had to do to be together. Rita was going to be mine. We were together for almost a year when were out for a drive. We were out on a lover’s lane necking when bright headlights flooded the car. 

“It was only a second before we were pulled out the car. It was my Kenneth; he had been following us, and he and a Klan buddy decided to have a little
fun
, as they called it. Kenneth beat me unconscious and when I came to I could hear Rita’s screams. She was fighting off Kenneth, who was ripping her clothes off; his friend was holding her arms above her head. She got her leg loose and kicked Kenneth right in the face. He fell back and was stunned, but his friend went to help him and Rita ran. Almost made it their truck just as Kenneth managed to knock her down. They were just about to rape her when another truck pulled up. The guy in the truck saw Rita bloody with her clothes torn and reached in and pulled a shotgun out. He told his wife to get out of the car and help Rita. ‘She is just a colored girl, and you don’t think we would actually rape a white girl, do you?’ The guy pumped his shotgun and aimed it right at Kenneth and ordered him off his property. I remember the sneer on Kenneth’s face when he told Rita he would catch her later. Before getting back in his car, he kicked me in the face one more time and called me a nigger lover. 

“They loaded us in the truck and the wife drove my car back to their small home. They cleaned us up and gave Rita a change of clothes. The man went to town to get Rita’s parents, and that was the night we ran. We knew we couldn’t stay. We hid with the couple until Rita was well enough to travel. They drove us to the next state to get on a train. Once we got to Denver, we got married and lived our life.”

“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this.” 

“You will, you’re a smart girl. When you wake up, ask Rita to tell you about Kenneth. That will connect the dots for you. They say we can’t get involved, but storytelling isn’t really getting involved, is it?”

When I come to, I am on the sofa. My mom applies a cool cloth to my forehead. “Rita, I dreamed of Richard. He told me to ask you about Kenneth, that it would help me connect the dots.”

“Kenneth Randall was probably the evilest man I ever encountered. He became the grand wizard of the KKK in Tennessee. He was responsible for more lynching’s and church burnings than any other grand wizard in the history of Tennessee. He was responsible for the church fire that killed my parents.”