A/N:  I hate to do this, but I need to backtrack a little!  I've realized I don't quite have enough 'up in the air' and need some more drama.  So, Pippa and Lin are not married yet.  They're engaged and in the process of planning their wedding.  I'll go back and edit past chapters.

I sat at the kitchen table one afternoon, my Excel spreadsheet opened up on my laptop and a variety of papers spread around me.  I was too cheap to hire a wedding planner, so I was doing it all myself.  Lin was mostly indifferent about what the wedding would be like.  He kept saying 'whatever you think' or 'whatever you want', which was nice in a way but also somewhat frustrating.  I didn't want to make all these decisions by myself.

Lin was in the middle of a phone call, walking around the kitchen area as I worked.  I rubbed at my temple, trying to decide on some seating for the reception.  Lin hung up and sighed.

"Lin, which of your cousins would be okay to sit with some of my friends?" I asked him.  "I can't get all them at the same tables."

Lin walked over with his coffee mug in his hand, looking over the collection of circles with names written in pencil.  Many had been erased multiple times.  I was probably overthinking things, but that was my nature.  That's why I needed Lin to decide this.

"Whoever," he said.  "They're all cool."

I sighed.  "Lin, please just tell me," my voice was showing my frustration.  "I need you to make some decisions."

I felt his hand on my shoulder, giving me a squeeze.  "Okay," he told me.  He rattled off a couple names and I wrote them in pencil on a fresh circle.  I then added some names of some of my friends who I knew were easy-going.

"You want some more tea?" he asked me, sensing I was stressed.

"Sure," I told him, setting down my pencil.  I stretched my arms over my head, cracked my neck, and then stood up.  I'd been at this for a couple hours and probably needed a break.  I wanted our day to be special but it was really starting to stress me out.

As my tea brewed, I let my torso bend back a bit, letting my hands rest on my head.  Lin came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle.  "Hey," he said gently, giving me a quick kiss on the back of the neck.  "Don't stress out.  It'll be great."

I sighed, letting my hands rest on his arms.  "It won't be if we don't get the arrangements right."

"If it's stressing you out so much, we should get a wedding planner," he said again.  He'd wanted to get one from the beginning.  "We have the money."

"No," I told him.  "Elliott's in college and Joey's not far behind.  We've got two more.  I'd rather spend our money saving for college."

He didn't respond, just held me a bit longer.  The kettle started screaming so he wandered off to pour my tea.  "Take a break," he told me.  "Go for a walk, maybe."

He set my fresh mug on the counter and wandered down the hallway to our bedroom.  I hoped I wasn't being bitchy.  It's just that everyone would expect things to be perfect.  I wanted the day to go off without a glitch.

I sighed as I collapsed on the couch with my tea.  I tried to push out the thoughts as I blew on my hot tea and relaxed for a few minutes.  The daytime when Jack and Alex were both at school, and late at night was the only time I could work on it.  I felt pressure to be productive and get a lot done.  The kids were going to their grandparents for the weekend so I was hoping to make a lot of progress.

Friday rolled around and Joey was beside herself with excitement about her sleepover for the weekend with her new friend Jada.  I'd met her a couple times when she'd been over and seemed like a good kid.  Apparently they had some big project they were working on.  As Joey was rushing around getting her things packed, the little kids were in high spirits because their grandparents would soon be picking them up.  I realized as the doorbell rang that Lin and I would have a kid-free weekend.  We hadn't had one of those in a very long time.

Alex squealed in excitement at the sound of the bell and rushed over to answer.  She had to use her body weight to pull at it, but she managed.  Jennifer smiled widely and immediately picked her granddaughter up.  Jack was a few steps behind and was scooped up by his grandfather.

We had a brief conversation and then the littles were off.  It was always suddenly too quiet when they left.

"Pippa, have you seen the toothpaste?" Joey asked me, setting her duffle bag on the kitchen counter.

"Oh, yeah," I said.  "I put it in Alex's backpack.  Sorry."

"That's okay," she said.  "I'll just use Jada's."

She gave me a quick hug goodbye.  Lin was out at dinner with a few friends, so I was all of a sudden left completely alone.  It was bliss.  No one needed anything from me.  I poured myself a glass of wine, ordered pizza, and turned on a chick flick.

Lin got home a couple hours later and I may have been a little tipsy from too much wine.  I laughed ridiculously at the movie as he walked in.  He walked up behind the couch and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

"You're drunk, Soo," he accused, but I could detect amusement in his voice.  I turned around on the couch so I could see him, grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him to me for a kiss.

"You have some catching up to do," I told him, biting my lip.  Instead, he impressively jumped over the couch, landing next to me with a bounce.  Soon, our lips were connected in a passionate kiss and I forgot all about the wedding stress.

____

The next morning, Lin and I slept in which hadn't happened in a very long time.  We lazed around in bed all morning and didn't get out of our pajamas until mid-afternoon.  Lin was checking his email that afternoon when he got an email from Jada's mother about something school-related.  He decided just to call her because he had questions.  That's how we discovered that Joey had lied about the sleepover.  She wasn't there and was most likely with Elliott.

The one thing that ticked Lin off the most was lying and Joey knew that.  He immediately called her up.

"Hey," he said, pacing the kitchen.  "How's the sleepover going?"

She answered him and, by his reaction, she continued to lie.

"That's interesting," he said, pursing his lips, "Because I just got off the phone with Jada's mom.  She says you're not there and she knows nothing about a sleepover."

I couldn't hear what Joey was saying, but knowing her she was probably ticked that she'd been caught.  She hated disappointing her dad but it came off more as argumentative sometimes.  Lin cut her off.

"Get home now," he told her firmly.  "I'll see you in an hour."

He hung up and shook his head, pacing.  "I have to be able to trust her," he mused as he paced.  "I thought she was past lying to me at this age."

"Well, Elliott is lying to us too," I pointed out.  I didn't know if we were being too strict with them about being together.  It's not like we didn't know they were sexuall active.  We'd had talks with them and knew they were being safe.  "Lin, do we really need to be this strict with them about it?  I mean, you were sexually active at her age weren't you?"

"It's the sleeping over that bugs me," he said, opening the fridge to get a drink.  "At her age it's not appropriate."

"They've lived together for two years," I reminded him.  He looked at me and realized I was trying to defend them.  I was a teenager not that long ago. They would find a way to be together, and, really, was that bad?

"You're not seriously defending this are you?" Lin asked me.  Lin and I rarely disagreed when it came to parenting.  We wanted to raise kind, smart kids who made safe decisions.  Our kids weren't perfect, but I felt we'd done a pretty good job the last two years with Elliott and Joey.

"I don't see why we need to lose our minds over them trying to be together," I told him honestly.  "They've already been together."

"I will not have my sixteen year old daughter sleeping over with a guy in a college dorm," he told me.

"He's my son!" I reminded him, getting a bit agitated.  He scoffed and twisted off the cap of a Gatorade.  With that, he disappeared down the hallway to our bedroom.  I sighed and rubbed at my temple.  Lin and I seemed to be on edge today.  I'd gotten snippy with him about the wedding plans and now I'd called him out on this.  It really didn't feel good.

I busied myself with some laundry, knowing I wouldn't be able to focus on wedding planning right now.  A while later, Joey walked through the door hesitantly, looking annoyed.  Lin was still in our room probably listening to music.  I gave her a sympathetic look.

"Pippa, my dad is going to drive me crazy," she complained as she toed off her shoes.  Her overnight duffel bag was dropped to the floor.

"I understand why you're upset, but you can't be lying to your dad," I told her.  Though I disagreed with Lin we always presented a united front with the kids.  We could not have them playing us off one another, especially in this situation.  We did agree on the lying, though.  That wouldn't fly.

"I know," she groaned.  "It's just he's being so suffocating.  I don't see what the big deal is.  Is he here?"

I nodded and she sighed, closing her eyes, knowing she was in for a big lecture.  "He was pretty upset you lied."

She groaned and went to her bedroom with her duffel bag.  A while later I heard Lin in the hallway, then he went into Joey's room.  When Joey felt wronged, she could get a bit argumentative, especially when she didn't see the logic in the other person's argument.  I heard some raised voices and then Lin appeared again in the kitchen.  He tossed his empty Gatorade bottle in the recycling bin.

"She's grounded for two weeks," he told me.  "No phone."

I nodded as I started to make myself a sandwich.  I was about to apologize and hoped we could talk more when Lin grabbed a bar from the pantry and went straight back to our bedroom.  I guess he was still upset with me.

I sat at the table with my sandwich alone, wedding plans sprawled out nearby.