Surprise!

Thank you guys again for your patience and kind comments this past week.  Also, a reader just pointed out to me that today is my one year blogiversary!  I'm surprised, it snuck up on me.  In honor of that, I will do my damnedest to get you guys some bonus posts this week to thank you for your loyal readership and making a year of Olivia's story possible!  I'd love to post every day this week but it's not practical.  I will post as much as I can, though!  Most of the posts will probably come more towards the end of the week/next weekend.  Thank you all so much for reading, commenting, and helping me keep this story going!
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After we paid for the dress and made arrangements to have it shipped out to me in Denver, because that seemed easiest, I hugged Amy and Lynn, promising to see them tomorrow, and my mom and I headed home.  Brody and my dad were still gone when we got there.

I was exhausted after the long day of trying on dress after dress.  I took a quick shower, because I was sweaty and gross after all the hot, heavy dresses, then laid down to take a quick nap.  Who knows how long after, I woke up to someone pushing the hair out of my face and rubbing my arm.  I rolled over and blinked sleepily, completely disoriented.  Hell of a nap.

"Good morning, beautiful."  Brody's voice.  I sighed and rolled back onto my side; I wanted to go back to sleep.  "Or, evening, rather."  He squeezed my arm and leaned down, kissing my forehead.  "Come on, your parents sent me in to wake you up.  They want to take us out to dinner."

I yawned and stretched, then curled into a ball.  "Not hungry," I replied.  Brody laughed and climbed carefully over my body, settling himself in bed with me.  It was relatively dark in the room, and when I squinted at the clock, I realized I had been sleeping for almost 3 hours.  No wonder I was having such a hard time waking up.  Brody wrapped an arm around me and I snuggled back against him, letting my eyelids droop shut again.

He stroked my arm gently, his fingertips running from my elbow to wrist, then wrist to elbow, over and over.  "I heard you found a dress," he said softly.  I nodded.  "I had a feeling you might.  Do you love it as much as your mom does?"

"I do," I answered.  "I can't wait for you to see it."

"Luckily for both of us, we won't have to wait too long."

I nodded again, slowly waking up.  "How was kayaking?"

"It was fun," he replied.  "I'm glad we went."

I smiled to myself.  "I am too.  Thanks for hanging out with my dad."

Brody threaded his fingers through mine and said, "He's a pretty cool guy."  I smiled again.

We laid there for awhile longer until I was finally awake enough to get up.  My hair was a disaster from my nap and I fought with it for about 10 minutes before I just threw it up in a high, messy bun.  I changed into a light summer sundress and decided to have some fun with my makeup.  I smoothed my favorite BB cream over my skin, used just a hint of a coral cheek stain, and set it with a light dusting of a perfecting finishing powder.  Then I pulled out my eye makeup.  I did a subtle smoky eye with a variety of matte gray shadows, then lined my top lash line with a navy blue liquid liner, and the bottom with a sparkly teal shadow.  Two coats of mascara finished it off.

"You look beautiful," Brody said when I walked back into my room from the bathroom.  He was rolling up the sleeves on his casual button down and I walked over to help.  He let me take over, and I felt his eyes traveling my body.  "It's not fair for you to look so good when there's nothing I can do about it."

I smirked up at him.  "Just imagine how much fun we'll have when we get home then," I replied, before I turned and walked out, knowing his eyes were following me right out the door.

When we got out to the living room, only my dad was there.  "Your mom went ahead to try to get a table," he explained.  I gave him a weird look.  That didn't make any sense.  We could have just called.  "Brody and I had a great time kayaking today," he continued, as the three of us walked out the door.  "I hear you had a successful day dress shopping, too."

"We did," I agreed.  I tried to sit in the backseat so Brody could be comfortable in the front, but he insisted on me sitting in the front.  We drove into Madison and parked near one of my favorite restaurants.

"Mom texted that she got a table," my dad said as we walked inside. "She said she's towards the back."  We wove our way through, looking around for her, but didn't see her anywhere.  "Maybe she's downstairs," he said.

"She's not downstairs," I replied, shaking my head.  "The only thing down there is their private party room."

"Well, I think we should check," he insisted.  I started to argue, but he started down the stairs anyway, leaving us now choice but to follow.

When we got downstairs, I continued to argue with him as he headed towards the door to the private party room.  "You can't just go in there!" I said.  "What if there's a party in there?"

"There is," he replied.  I looked at him in confusion, but when he swung the door open, my mouth dropped open.  There certainly was a party in there.  The room was full of my family and friends, plus Jack, his girlfriend, and Jen.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, looking around.  Next to me, Brody looked just as surprised.

Amy came skittering out of the crowd and hugged me, with Lynn following behind her.  "It's a surprise engagement party!" she said excitedly.

"I see that," I replied, still in awe.  I turned to Brody.  "Did you know about this?"  He shook his head, then squeezed my hand before walking over to Jack, Alyssa, and Jen.  Lauren and Alex appeared and my eyes widened.  "What are you doing here?" I squealed, throwing my arms around Lauren.  She hugged me back quickly and then disentangled herself.

"Get a grip," she said, shaking her head.  Then she laughed.  "When your mom called, we changed our plane tickets so we could be here to help surprise you."  She shrugged, like it had been the easiest thing ever.  We'd only been engaged for two weeks, I was completely overwhelmed by all the people that had made last minute plans--including buying plane tickets!--to be here for this.

"We helped your mom get a hold of Jack and Jen, because she didn't want it to only be your friends and family," Alex chimed in, hugging me.  "And Jen got a hold of Ken."

"Whoa, what?" I asked.  "Is he here?"  I looked around, but there were too many people in the room.

"Yeah, somewhere," Alex replied.  "I saw him earlier.  Jen introduced me to him."  I was both shocked that he had come, and nervous about how he'd act.

I didn't have much time to think about it.  My mom came up next to me and put her arm around my shoulders.  "Mom!" I exclaimed.  "This is amazing."  I hugged her.

She grinned at me.  "I'm glad you think so, because it was quite the scramble to make it happen."

"I'm sure.  I had no idea."  She kissed the top of my head, and I looked up at her.  "And thank you for making sure to get a few of Brody's people here too, that was really thoughtful."

"Thank Lauren for it.  She and her boyfriend tracked them all down.  He's a nice guy too."

"Alex?  Yeah, he is," I agreed.

I started to say more, but my cousin Celeste came screeching through the people and almost ran me over.  "Oliviaaaaa!" she shrieked.  "You didn't tell me!"

I hugged her back and then eased away.  "Sorry, Celeste.  We haven't been engaged very long and I haven't done a great job of telling people."

"Clearly," she retorted.  Then she grinned and hugged me again.  "I don't even care, I'm so excited!"  I laughed.

I made the rounds, saying hi to family members and friends.  We'd been there almost 45 minutes before I finally made my way over to Brody, Jen, Jack, and Alyssa.  I saw Ken had joined them, as well.  Jen threw her arms around me, and then I hugged Jack as well.  I had lost track of how many people I'd hugged at this point.  "I can't believe your parents did this," Brody said, slipping an arm around my waist and pulling me in close to him.

"I can't either," I said.

I caught Ken watching us, and I blushed and smiled shyly at him.  "Congratulations," he said sincerely.

"Thank you," I replied.  "And thank you for coming."

"Yeah, well I owed you guys one," he said.

I was about to reply when my stomach growled loudly.  Brody and Jen both laughed.  "Let's get something to eat," Brody said.  He pointed to a buffet table that was set up along the wall.  I hadn't even noticed it.  He kept his arm tightly around me as we walked over there.  "This is crazy," he said, as we grabbed plates.  "Your parents are amazing."

"I had no idea they were planning something," I replied, shaking my head.

"It was really great of them to invite my family and Jack."

I smiled at him as we filled our plates with food, and sat down at the table where Lynn had parked herself.  Within a few minutes, we were once again surrounded by family and friends.  We chatted with them, spreading the word about our October 3rd wedding date.  Luckily, everyone that was at the party was also on the tentative guest list we'd made.  Most people were surprised, and more than a couple glanced suspiciously at my glass of wine.  I wanted to hang a sign around my neck that said, "No, I'm not pregnant."  Even so, it sounded like most people wanted to try to attend.

Ken approached us as the crowd of people around us began to dwindle.  He sat down and said, "I know you guys probably have plans tomorrow for the 4th, but if you have some time, I'd love to take you both out to breakfast or lunch before I fly back, if there's somewhere that's open."

Brody looked at me.  "What's on the agenda for tomorrow?"  I read in the look he gave me that this was my out.  If I didn't want to, all I had to do was say we were booked all day.

I nodded.  "There will definitely be some places open.  We'll go to the parade in the morning, and my parents have their annual cookout that starts at about 2, but we should have time for lunch if that works for you."  Under the table, Brody squeezed my knee, a silent "thank you."

Ken agreed to lunch and we settled on a time and place.  Brody turned to say something to me after Ken had said goodbye and walked away, but we were interrupted by some of my family members coming to say goodbye.

We stayed and tried to help my parents clean up, but they shooed us away.  My mom gave us the keys to her car and told us to stay as long as we wanted.  We ended up heading up to the bar area of the main restaurant with Jen, Lauren, Alex, Amy, Jack, and his girlfriend Alyssa.  Lynn had headed home a little earlier.  We found a table to cram into in the bar and ordered drinks.

"I just can't believe you guys came," Brody said to Jack, Jen, and Alyssa.  I agreed and immediately extended the invitation to my parents' cookout to all of them.  Jen promptly informed me that my parents had already invited them all.  They really did think of everything.

We stayed until Brody started yawning.  Since he was driving, seemed like a good time to leave.  We thanked everyone again for coming and walked out to my mom's car.  Once we were settled in the car and on the way back to my parents' house, Brody said, "Thank you for agreeing to go to lunch with my brother.  You have no reason to like him, and I don't know what's going to happen with my relationship with him, but I'm really happy you're willing to give him a shot."

I shrugged, though Brody probably couldn't see.  "It says something to me that he was willing to come all the way here, especially on such short notice.  It's really cool that Jack and Jen came too."

"Yeah, it is," Brody agreed, glancing over at me and smiling.  We made the rest of the drive in comfortable silence.

We came in quietly, so as not to wake my parents.  We got ready for bed quickly and settled next to each other under the blankets.  "Are we going to have a wedding party?" I asked, realizing that this was one thing we hadn't talked about.

"I'd like to," Brody replied.  "It seems silly to have a big wedding party with such a small wedding, though."

"Well, who would you want?" I asked.

He answered instantly, without any hesitation.  "Jack and Alex."

"Lauren and Lynn," I replied.  "Looks like we're set.  Two and two."

Brody pressed a kiss to my shoulder and then tightened his arm around me.  "Looks like it," he agreed.