A Sense of Guilt ✔

Chapter 9

Katherine was struggling not to feel overwhelmed with all the wedding preparations; they seemed to have taken on a momentum of their own. She'd already given a lot of ground to Joe's family since they were paying for most of it but she wasn't going to have his mom completely take over. She'd conceded control of the guest list, however, she had some ideas of her own and she was going to stick to them. Her dress, hair and makeup were strictly off-limits, there was no reason whatsoever for the mother of the groom to get involved with them.

Smiling she entered the salon where she was having a consultation about her hair and makeup; Joe's mom had tentatively offered up the services of her own stylist but Kat had politely declined. Joe had insisted she meant well, and probably she did, but Kat didn't want her encroaching on every aspect of the wedding.

'Would you be able to do my bridesmaids as well?' she asked Kelly, the owner/manager/senior stylist. She wanted to be able to get ready with Danielle and Eva on the day.

'Sure, how many do you have?' Kelly asked.

'Just the two, I wanted to have a small wedding but it's sort of snowballing into something else,' she admitted rolling her eyes.

'Weddings tend to do that,' Kelly said knowingly.

'I guess you've seen it all.' Katherine let out a weary sigh. 'To be honest, it's my future mother in law who's the problem. I thought my mom would be hard work but so far she's been pretty laid back.'

'Oh, she's probably upset that she's losing her little boy,' Kelly said with a small laugh. 'In my experience, it's the mothers' of the groom who act up the most.'

Katherine nodded. 'He's her youngest as well.' She'd thought her mom might have demanded they get married in California but she'd barely made a murmur, maybe because she still had her younger sister at home.

'Losing the last one is probably the hardest,' Kelly said.

'You might be right there cos she's being quite difficult,' Kat said opening up. 'I've tried to be tolerant, I've let her take over the guest list and I've even agreed to her inviting my boyfriend's ex!'

'Wow you are tolerant,' Kelly said after a pause.

'Oh they were over years ago so I'm not that bothered, it's more the principle of the thing.'

'She might not go, I wouldn't.'

'She will, their families are old friends so I get the impression she has no choice in the matter,' Katherine admitted. 'To be fair I met her at my engagement party and she seemed nice.'

'Right,' Kelly said her brows furrowing. 'Well, at least she's nice.' She cleared her throat. 'So how does your fiance feel about it? It's Joe, isn't it?'

Katherine frowned, thinking there was a definite change in Kelly's demeanour and surely she remembered Joe's name? He had been the one to recommend her.

'Yes, he's called Joe,' she said stiltedly. 'I guess he's happy about it, he doesn't want to cause any ructions in the family.'

Kelly smiled tightly. 'Yeah, sometimes you've gotta suck these things up.' She passed her a bridal magazine to start looking through.

'I've been biting my tongue a lot,' Katherine admitted. 'But I don't want to put my foot down and turn into a bridezilla.'

'No, that's a trap too many brides fall into. You really don't want to sweat the small stuff because the resentments people have over weddings....it's not a great way to start the marriage.'

'I won't, it's one day, that's what I keep reminding myself,' Katherine said as she looked through the magazine for hairstyles. 'What do you think of this one? Do you think it would suit me?'