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dreading every
single bit of it.
     
    ***
     
    “ Tiffy!” her mom called out,
hurrying for her.
    Tiffany almost turned around as soon as
she saw that her parents had brought all of her other relatives
along, and considering there were twenty-seven of them, it was no
small gathering. What were her parents thinking in bringing
everyone here?
    “ Hey, where are you going?”
Tyler asked as he reached for her hand.
    Realizing she had actually turned
around after all, she forced herself to face her family again. At
least everyone else had the sense to stay back while her mother ran
straight at her. She braced herself the best she could as her
mother wrapped her in a smothering embrace. Now, she remembered why
she’d left Montana. Her mother had a tendency to be “too motherly”
and that didn’t give her a chance to be her own person.
    “ Nice to meet you,” her
father called out to Tyler. He extended his hand, and Tyler shook
it. “So, you’re the new man my daughter’s been dating?”
    Tyler glanced over at her, and she
would have shrugged if her mother still hadn’t had her in a death
grip. “Yes, sir,” Tyler replied.
    “ What’d I tell you?” her
father called out to the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents
who had gathered all around them. “He’s a polite young man, isn’t
he?”
    “ He’s not so young,”
Tiffany’s sister called out. “How old is he?
Forty-five?”
    “ Forty,” Tiffany
clarified.
    Tiffany’s mom finally let go of her.
Her mother then proceeded to ambush Tyler. “He’s still young, Zoe,”
she said. When the hug ended, she told him, “You’ll have to forgive
my youngest daughter. She’s twenty-seven. Everyone under
thirty-five is old to her.”
    Zoe rolled her eyes but didn’t say
anything as her fiancé came up to her and wrapped his arm around
her shoulders.
    “ Oh that’s nothing,” her
grandma called out. “All you kids look young to a woman in her
80s.” She chuckled and gave Tiffany a hug. “It’s nice to see you
again, dear.”
    “ It’s nice to see you, too,
Granny,” Tiffany replied. And it was. Of all the people in her
family, she felt that her grandmother understood her the
best.
    “ Well, we’re so happy you’re
finally dating,” her dad told Tiffany and Tyler. Turning to the
others, he added, “They’ve been friends for years. How long has it
been since you met him, Tiffany?”
    “ Oh, um,” Tiffany did the
mental count in her head, “thirteen years.”
    “ Thirteen years and suddenly
you’re in love,” her mother said with a sigh. “How romantic. Of
course, Zoe and Brad are quite the romantic pair, too. They’re
getting married, Tyler. Zoe, show them your ring.”
    “ I saw the ring in the
pictures you sent in the email,” Tiffany said, though it did her no
good.
    Zoe was right at her side to show off
the sparking large diamond.
    “ Saved up a whole year for
it,” Brad said. “Zoe almost fainted.”
    Zoe giggled. “I sure did. When I put
the thing on, it weighed a ton.”
    “ I wanted you to have the
best, Zoe.”
    While the others expressed their “ahhs”
for the endearment, Tiffany forced down the urge to gag.
    “ He’s so good to me,” Zoe
told Tiffany and kissed Brad’s cheek.
    “ That’s wonderful,” Tiffany
replied, not sure what else Zoe wanted to hear.
    Then, one by one, all of her relatives
came up to welcome her and Tyler to Montana, and soon after that,
they finally made their way down to the baggage claim.
    “ You’ll ride with us,” her
mother told her and Tyler. “We already made up the guest rooms for
you.”
    “ Oh, you didn’t have to go
through all that trouble for us,” Tyler said after he grabbed their
suitcases.
    Tiffany’s dad winked at them. “It’s no
problem for someone we’ll be seeing more of in the future, eh
Tiffany?”
    Okay, now it was official. She wanted
so much for the floor to open up and swallow her. She’d been afraid
her parents might throw not-so-subtle hints about