She turned and started wiping down the countertop. A germophobe, she constantly sanitized everything. She was cleaning out the coffee pot and refilling the water when she heard someone walk in the door behind her.

“Hey, Mom,” Meg said.

“Oh, hey, honey! I didn’t know you were coming by today.”

Her daughter looked a little nervous, and that was never a good thing. As a mother, Julie never wanted to have difficult conversations with her daughters. She wanted everything to be all rainbows and unicorns, but life was rarely like that.

“I just dropped Vivi off with Christian. They’re going to go down to the marsh to look at the birds.”

“He’s a good dad.”

Meg smiled. “Yes, he is.”

“And, he’s going to be a wonderful husband. Which brings me to something I forgot to ask you yesterday. About the centerpieces…”

Meg held up her hand. “Mom, stop.”

Julie was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“Can we sit down?”

“Sure,” Julie said, walking over and sitting down at the bistro table. Meg slowly joined her, not making eye contact. She placed both the palms of her hands on the table like she was trying to stabilize herself.

“I want to say that I am so thankful for all of the work that you’ve done on this wedding. I know it hasn’t been easy, and you’ve been exhausted. I want to say that I’m sorry for putting so much responsibility on you.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it! My daughter is getting married!”

“That’s the thing…”

“What? You’re not getting married?”

“No, I am getting married. But we’ve made a decision about something.”

“What is it?”

“Mom, I’ve decided that I don’t want a big wedding. All of this planning and trying to make this into some grand event just isn’t me or Christian. We just want something really small with our family out by the ocean. That’s it.”

Julie stared at her for a long moment. When the shock finally wore off, she spoke. “Oh, thank God!”

Meg laughed. “What? I thought you’d be disappointed?”

“Are you kidding me? I felt like I was trying to plan a royal wedding. I’m so glad we’re not doing that because it felt like it was way too much.”

“Right? It started to feel like somebody else’s event and not mine. I don’t care about flowers and music and seating charts. I just want to marry Christian and get on with our lives.”

Julie reached across the table and held her hands. “I am so glad that you’re mature enough to know what’s right for you and Christian. So we will do whatever you need us to do, but you make your wedding your own.”

Meg smiled broadly and jumped up to hug her mother. “Thanks for understanding! All we need is to have our family there and maybe for grandma to make us a cake. Oh, and Lucy to make us some of her shrimp and grits!”

“You want shrimp and grits for your wedding meal?” Julie asked, laughing.