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  “I thought you said that you were too full to move?” Tyson whispered in her ear and he noticed how good her hair smelled. But the spell was broken as Ally sat up quickly no longer laughing.

  “We should probably finalize the details for the party,” Ally said grabbing her notebook.

  “Yes, we should probably do that.” Tyson already missed how it felt to hold Ally in his arms. Being just friends was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Ally was nervous. It was the first fancy fundraising dinner she would be attending with Justin and his family. She hoped she could remember the etiquette dinners she had attended in Young Woman’s years ago. She knew that his parents and everyone would be scrutinizing her every move. Justin had given her a few tips and told her he would guide her through the evening, but she was still worried she would mess up.

  As she finished zipping up her dress, she heard the doorbell ring. She glanced at her phone to check the time and ran to answer the door.

  “You’re early,” Ally said when she opened the door to find Justin standing there.

  He stepped inside and held out a large box with a bow on it. “I know. I just had to make sure you had time for this.”

  “You want me to open this now?” Ally asked as she took the box from him.

  Justin nodded his head as Ally opened the box to find a long, black, fitted lace dress. She held it up in front of her. “Wow, Justin. It’s beautiful.”

  “I figured you might want something nice for tonight. I’ll wait here, while you change.”

  “Okay. I’ll be just a minute.” Ally hurried off to her room.

  Ally topped off her outfit by putting on the necklace Justin had given her and stood in front of the mirror. She was surprised at how much confidence an amazing dress could bring. She grabbed her clutch and walked out to Justin.

  He stood up from the couch and buttoned his suit jacket. Justin wrapped an arm around Ally’s waist and pulled her in for a kiss. “Ally, you look amazing. Watching what you are eating is really paying off.”

  Ally felt a little deflated at Justin’s comment about watching what she ate, but at the same time she smiled. Justin had no idea how much she had eaten two nights before.

  “How did you know what size to get? This dress fits perfectly,” Ally asked trying to keep the memory of Tyson holding her in his arms from entering her mind.

  “I just have good intuition when it comes to sizes or something.”

  “Well good guess then. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. We should probably get going.”

  Ally didn’t know what she was so nervous about as they walked into the lobby of the Grand America Hotel. Justin took the lead and guided her as they entered the ballroom. He ordered their drinks and grabbed appetizers off trays for her. As they mingled with his family’s acquaintances, she was grateful that she didn’t have to say much since Justin did most of the talking.

  As they perused the items available in the silent auction, Justin asked for Ally's opinion on which things they should bid on together. Ally definitely couldn't afford the donation amounts, so she insisted that Justin write his name down even though he had offered to foot the bill for her if she won. As they moved down the row of tables, they settled on bids for a photoshoot that they could use for their engagements, a Chef's Table experience at a local restaurant, and a cruise for seven days to the Caribbean which would be great for their honeymoon.

  As they approached his parents, the knot of nervousness returned inside Ally. The Hawthorne's were definitely intimidating. Justin greeted them while Ally smiled.

  She was surprised when Justin's mom was actually nice to her, "Allison, your dress looks lovely on you."

  "Thank you, Mrs. Hawthorne. Justin actually picked it out," Ally replied. "Your dress looks beautiful as well."

  "Please call me Terri. You are practically part of the family, so no need to call us Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne anymore. Right, Richard?"

  "I agree," Justin's father replied with a short nod. "It looks like it is time to sit down, shall we?"

  Justin and Ally followed his parents to their assigned table. Ally followed Justin's lead as he pulled out her chair for her then took his seat, placed his napkin on his lap and reached for the menu.

  Ally did the same as she noticed how many plates, glasses, and utensils were in front of her. Justin must have sensed her hesitation, since he squeezed her hand under the table and leaned over to whisper, "Just follow my lead."

  The waiter came around and took their drink orders. Ally was happy to see that Justin was just drinking water tonight, since most of their table had ordered wine. It was probably because his parents were there, but she really hoped that he was keeping his promise to her.

  “What are you going to get?” Justin asked Ally.

  “I’m thinking the Chicken Cordon Bleu,” Ally responded. “What about you?”

  “Steak,” Justin said with a smile.

  “Of course,” Ally said with a wink. “I should have known.”

  Once Justin had ordered for both of them, she listened in on the conversation at the table. She had been introduced to everyone sitting at the table while they were mingling earlier that evening. They were all in high positions at Justin’s father’s company or their spouse and she didn’t know much about them. She didn’t plan to say anything unless a question was directed at her, but she wasn’t able to avoid it for too long.

  “Miss Parker, Justin tells me that you are studying to be an accountant,” a man across from her asked. If Ally remembered correctly, his name was Mr. Downs. “Is that correct?”

  “Yes, sir,” Ally responded. “I’ll be graduating this coming spring.”

  Mr. Downs opened the floodgates as questions came in from all around the table. They asked about her family, what her parents’ occupations were, where she had grown up and where she had gone to high school, what her hobbies were, and what her plans for the future were. She felt like by the end of the interrogation session they could have written her autobiography for her.

  As their food was arriving, Mr. Downs spoke again. “Miss Parker, we could use a lovely woman like you in our accounting department, don’t you think Richard?”

  Justin’s father nodded his head.

  Mr. Downs turned to Ally and said, “Make sure you let us know when you have your degree. Justin, you will see to it that we get her resume?”

  “Yes, sir. I will.”

  Justin smiled at Ally and squeezed her hand again. Luckily, their food arrived and the conversation was directed toward other topics. Once Ally was no longer the center of attention, she was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. They even won the photoshoot they had bid on.

  As they waited for the valet to bring Justin’s car around, he asked, “Now, it wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  Ally laughed, “No, I guess not. But I couldn’t have done it without you. Who would have thought there was a separate plate for your bread?”

  “You did great. No one would have guessed it was your first fundraiser event. You are a natural,” Justin said as he pulled Ally close and kissed her. The valet arrived with the car and Justin helped her in the car. As they headed toward home, they talked about his parent’s shift in attitude toward Ally and Mr. Downs’ surprising job offer.

  When they were almost to Ally’s apartment, Justin suddenly pulled onto a side street and put the car in park.

  “Why are we stopping here?” Ally asked.

  “Because I don’t want tonight to end quite yet,” Justin said as he leaned over and kissed her. “I also think that we should set a wedding date.”

  “What?” Ally asked, surprised that Justin was bringing it up. He usually avoided the topic whenever she tried to get him to settle on a date.

  “I know I had said that we should wait until the end of next summer. But I don’t want to wait that long anymore. What do you think about March? I was thinking the Friday before spr
ing break.”

  “Really?” Ally asked as Justin leaned in again.

  “Mhmm,” he mumbled kissing Ally again. “Also, I think you should go try on some wedding dresses. Isn’t that little store you were talking about in Park City? Why don’t you go look at a couple of dresses while you are up there for the engagement party?”

  “But aren’t you going to be up there too?”

  “I won’t be able to come up until right before the party starts. So maybe you could take Kylie and your mom Saturday morning? That will give you plenty of time to focus on the party.”

  “Okay,” Ally said kissing Justin back. “I think I will.”

  Ally was on cloud nine when she fell into bed that night. The evening had been perfect. Justin's parents had seemed to have accepted her into their family. They had settled on a wedding date and Ally couldn't wait to go try on wedding dresses.

  Her phone vibrated and she picked it up to find a text from Justin. She set her phone back down and decided that she would just read it in the morning. She really wanted to go to sleep. She was exhausted.

  A couple seconds later, her phone vibrated again. She opened one eye to see it was from Tyson. She smiled and opened the text.

  "Our plane just landed in Salt Lake and I got cleared to play in the next game!"

  Ally's tiredness quickly disappeared as she sat up and called Tyson. She tiptoed out to the living room so she wouldn’t wake Kylie. She was so excited for him. She knew he had been waiting for this day to come. Maybe she could go meet him when he gets home and celebrate. She would need to go wake up Kylie and call David. On their way, they could stop by the store to get some cookies and cream ice cream, which was Tyson’s favorite.

  Ally stopped in her tracks and realized that she couldn't do any of that as Tyson’s voice came on the line, "Hey, Al.”

  "Ty, that is so awesome! I'm so happy that you get to get back out on the field."

  Tyson told her how it all went down and they talked a little bit about the Utah game that Tyson had watched from the sidelines and Ally had been able to watch on tv before the fundraiser dinner.

  "Well I just wanted to say congrats,” Ally yawned, realizing she should probably be in bed. It was well after midnight.

  "Thanks. Good night, Al."

  "Night," Ally said as Tyson hung up.

  Ally climbed back in bed and plugged her phone back into the charger. It lit up and she noticed that she hadn’t looked at Justin’s text message. Questions began to flood her mind. She had just had a wonderful evening with Justin, yet she had been eager to read Tyson’s text, not Justin’s. She had even jumped out of bed to call Tyson and congratulate him when she could have simply sent him a text instead. Why had she been so eager to call Tyson? In that moment, Ally realized that once she was married, she would no longer be able to talk to Tyson. To be honest, after she was married, she wasn’t even sure she would have time to catch up with Kylie.

  Ally thought about her interactions with Tyson over the last few weeks. She had enjoyed every moment she had spent with him and looked forward to their upcoming plans. That couldn’t be said for her time spent with Justin. She found herself feeling anxious before every date and she couldn’t explain it. They had both declared their love for her, yet she had stayed with Justin. What if she did give Tyson another chance?

  She pushed her head into the pillow and closed her eyes tighter begging sleep to overcome her. What was she thinking? She would never find out what could have happened, because she loved Justin, right? But now that Tyson was back in her life, did she really want to let him go?

  Chapter Forty-Five

  “Kylie, have you seen my umbrella anywhere?” Ally hollered as she checked the coat closet by the door. “It’s pouring out there and I really don’t want to get soaked on the way to the car.”

  “I haven’t,” Kylie said as she took another bite of her cereal. She glanced at the clock to see that they still had 5 minutes before they needed to leave for church. “We can share my umbrella?”

  “You know that that never works,” Ally said as she gave up on the coat closet and headed back to their room.

  Less than a minute later, Kylie heard a loud crash and yelled, “Ally, are you okay?”

  “Ya,” she heard Ally say. Kylie sighed a breath of relief and went back to finishing her breakfast.

  Five minutes passed and Kylie was ready to go but Ally was nowhere to be seen. She headed back to their room to see what was taking Ally so long.

  Kylie was about to ask Ally if she was ready, but stopped when she saw a bunch of boxes and pictures strewn all over the floor with Ally sitting in the middle of it. She picked up one that was close to her. It was a picture of Tyson and Ally after the football team had won the state championship in high school. She picked up a couple more and realized that these must have been the pictures that Ally had printed off when she was planning their wedding.

  “Ally, are you ready to go?” Kylie asked, startling Ally.

  “Oh, ya.” Ally quickly put the pictures that were in her hand in the box. As Ally went over to her bed to grab her scriptures, Ally kept her back to Kylie and Kylie could tell that she was trying to be discreet about wiping away a couple tears. They had been friends for too long for her not to notice when Ally was trying to hide the fact that she had been crying.

  “Everything okay?” Kylie asked, trying not to smile as she hoped that Ally was crying over the pictures of her and Tyson.

  “Ya,” Ally said and held up her umbrella. “I found it.”

  Kylie was distracted all during sacrament meeting. She kept sneaking glances at Tyson on the other side of David and Ally who was sitting on the other end of their group next to her. She couldn't believe that her plan could actually be working. She wished she could be a fly on the wall to see what had been going on between those two over the last couple weeks.

  She had noticed that they had been acting normal around each other. In a way, Kylie was surprised, since Tyson had told her that Ally had turned him down and said they could only be friends. She had to give Tyson props for not giving up and his determination to be Ally's friend. Kylie hoped that what she had witnessed today was a sign that Ally was starting to question her future with Justin and maybe she was realizing she had made a mistake.

  After calling the wedding shop to make an appointment, Ally called her mom to let her know about the plans for Saturday morning. They decided that it would probably be best to go up Friday night and spend the night, then her mom would go home after the dress appointment. Now she just had to talk to Kylie and everything would be set.

  Monday night she found David and Kylie playing a round of Uno and figured now was as good a time as ever. "Kylie? I have a favor to ask of you."

  "What's that?" Kylie asked.

  "I know that I promised that I would focus solely on your wedding until after it was over. But there is a little wedding dress shop up in Park City and since we are going to be up there, I was thinking that maybe we could stop by, if that was okay with you?"

  Ally crossed her fingers as Kylie responded hesitantly, "I guess so."

  "Awesome! Also, David would you mind if my mom, Kylie and I go up Friday night to the cabin. Then we will already be up there in the morning since the appointment is at 10?"

  "I don't see any problem with that," David responded. "I'll let my parents know."

  "Thanks guys. I'll see you later," Ally said as she walked out the door to head over to Justin's condo. That went a lot better than Ally expected. Things were going well with Justin. All she had left to do was figure out where or if Tyson fit in her life.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  The party was only a few days away. Ally had spent all Thursday afternoon at Tyson’s apartment putting together decorations and party favors. Ally was grateful that they had decided to order sandwiches and salads for dinner, because she definitely didn’t have time to make those too. Tyson had been a trooper, not complaining once about helping Ally with all that sh
e had decided to take upon herself to do for the party.

  Ally couldn't deny how comfortable she felt around Tyson. Over the past few weeks, she had probably told him more about what was going on in her life than she had told Justin. They laughed and joked around just like they had when they were dating. Which had caused them to have a few moments that were borderline more than friends. She hated that she still liked it when Tyson had held her in his arms. It just came so naturally.

  What if she did give Tyson another chance? Would their relationship work out? Or would they find that they had both moved on? Most of all, what would she do if they broke up again? Justin wouldn't take her back. She would have to start back at step one in finding her future husband. Was that a risk she wanted to take?

  She had been praying to know if she was supposed to stay with Justin or give Tyson another shot. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life wondering what could have been with Tyson. But she also didn't want to throw away the relationship she had with Justin. She knew that while they may have some ups and downs, he would at the very least take care of her.

  She knew that she had a long way to go to fit into Justin's lifestyle and be fully comfortable among his friends and family. But their future together was all planned out and it looked pretty perfect to Ally. Justin already had a steady income from working for his dad. Once he graduated, he would be a partner in his dad’s company and eventually take over for him. They would stay in Utah and she would get to be a stay-at-home mom.

  Her future with Tyson was never set in stone, even when they were dating. Ally knew she would have to work while Tyson went to school. But once Tyson graduated, that is where their plan had ended. Would Tyson get drafted to play in the NFL? Would they have to move across the country? Or would he get a job in sports marketing? Could he get the job he wanted in Utah? If he could, would Ally still have to work? She hadn't been afraid of the uncertainty when they were dating, so why was it bugging her now?