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“How many more days until the end of April?” Pearl asked, turning to her mother with an impatient grin.
“Not enough.” Caitlin laughed. “We still have too much to do!”
Pearl patted her mother’s shoulder reassuringly. “It’s going to be okay, Mom. We’ll get it done together. I’ll help you.”
Caitlin grinned at her daughter. “Thanks, honey. That makes me feel better about everything.”
“What else do we need to decide on?”
“Well, tablecloths. We need to decide if we want crushed satin, or plain satin, or this embroidered sheer overlay?—”
“Oh, pick that one!” Pearl said, clapping her hands. She pointed to the sheer overlay. “That one with all the roses embroidered into it.”
“You’re right, it is really pretty, isn’t it?”
For the next half an hour, Caitlin and Pearl continued to look at the wedding pictures, making all kinds of important decisions about decorations. None of the decisions were final—Caitlin wanted to run everything by Michael first—but she felt great about what they picked out. It was fun to spend time with Pearl and get her opinions on things—Pearl’s choices were always for the prettiest options, and Caitlin found that she agreed with her daughter most of the time.
“There’s one more thing we need to pick out,” she said as they were organizing the remaining pictures into a discard pile.
“What’s that? The rings?”
“No, Michael and I already picked out the rings,” Caitlin said, thinking about the rings that they had chosen together with a rush of excitement. Both rings were elegant, and hers was studded with small pearls, beautiful reminders of her daughter and the oceanside town where they lived. “What we need to pick out right now is something else. Something very important.” She stood up and went to get her laptop from where it was resting on the dining room table.
“What?” the little girl asked eagerly, turning around on the carpet.
“Your flower girl dress,” Caitlin answered, and Pearl clapped her hands with excitement.
Caitlin sat back down next to her daughter, opening her laptop. “We can look for dresses online,” she said. “That way we have the widest variety of options to choose from.”
“Oh, I can’t wait,” Pearl said as Caitlin started to search for dresses. “Can it be pink?”
Caitlin chuckled. “It can absolutely be pink. The bridesmaids are going to be in a sea blue, so that will go nicely with pink. You’ll look like a pink flower at the edge of the ocean.” She winked, and Pearl grinned.
They didn’t have to look long before Pearl gasped at the sight of one of the little dresses. “Oh, that’s it!” she exclaimed, leaning forward and peering at the screen. “That one’s perfect.” She was gazing at a pink, frilly dress with a full skirt. “It looks like a princess dress.”
“I agree,” Caitlin said, also finding the dress absolutely charming. “You’ll look adorable in that, Pearl.”
“Thank you, Mom!” Pearl hugged Caitlin tightly. “I love it!”
At that moment, they heard the back door open, and Pearl let out a squeal of excitement.
“Michael!”
The little girl scampered off to meet him, and Caitlin stood more slowly, smiling to herself as she set her laptop down on the dining room table.
Michael and Pearl appeared a moment later—the little girl was dragging him along by the hand, intent on showing him the dress that she and Caitlin had just picked out.
“Look what we found!” she said, leading him up to the laptop and gesturing to the picture. “That’s going to be my flower girl dress.”
Michael shared a quick grin with Caitlin before giving his full attention to the dress. He leaned forward and looked at the dress with a genuine smile of excitement. “Pearl, that’s so pretty! Good choice.”
He fist-bumped the little girl, who giggled happily.
“Now we need to show you everything else we picked out for the wedding,” Pearl said. “You’re going to love all of it.”
She skipped over to the pile of pictures that she and Caitlin decided on, bringing it back to the dining room table. Michael turned to Caitlin with shining eyes.
“You two were picking stuff out?”
