Page 103 of Full Mountie

Lachlan gestures to the dance floor as the DJ invites everyone to join the families. Gavin’s love of Canadian music is going to affect the playlist heavily tonight. Right now it’s Spirit of the West, “And If Venice is Sinking.”

It’s an upbeat, sexy song, but Lachlan still pulls me into his arms, one hand firm in the small of my back, the other holding my fingers close to his chest as he spins me around. A thrill twirls inside me. Only at a wedding could we dance in front of everyone we know, and nobody clue in to how special this feels for us.

Maybe not nobody. When the song ends, Lachlan hands me off to Hugh, whose gaze is bright.

“Were you watching us dance?” I ask as he squeezes my hip.

“I was. You two look good together.”

“He can dance, eh? I wasn’t sure…”

“Yeah.” Hugh dips his head, closing the space between us. His breath brushes my temple. “Our boy likes to move his hips.”

“Did you used to go dancing?” I don’t want to be too curious about their relationship, because there’s still a lot of unresolved stuff there, but I can’t help it. I adore them both and want to know everything.

“Not anywhere like a club. But he likes to listen to music when he’s cooking, and sometimes we’d dance in the kitchen.”

“That’s adorable. I want to see you dance at the cabin.” He doesn’t say anything, and I turn my head just enough press against his jaw. “Please?”

“Yeah.”

I take a deep breath as he turns me around the dance floor, then I let my question spill out, fast and without overthinking it. “What else did you do? Back then, when you were together?”

He laughs roughly. “Not much, really. We spent a lot of time in bed. There wasn’t that much to do, and we had a lot of chemistry.”

I smile. “I bet.”

Hugh strokes his hand up my back, and for a second I think he’s going to change the subject, but he surprises me by opening up—all the way open. “When I met Lachlan, he was dating someone. A woman. It was casual, and there wasn’t any chemistry really, but it was Moose Lake. It’s not like there were a ton of single twenty-somethings to choose from.

“But he was off-limits, technically. And from the second I laid eyes on him, I wanted him. It was actually terrible.” Another laugh, this one dry. “Maybe that’s why we didn’t work out, because it started in a weird place.”

“Oh.”

“He didn’t cheat on her. They broke up a few weeks before we did anything. I don’t even think he…He didn’t get it then. He’d get it now, though. He’d understand. But back then, he didn’t, and that meant that we fought at first.”

Hugh’s all tense, and I squeeze his shoulder. “He wouldn’t get what?”

He shakes his head. “I dunno. How I felt, I guess.”

“Why do you think he’d get it now?”

“Because how I felt about him ten years ago…that’s how he feels about you.”

“Us.”

He gives me a tight smile.

“Hugh…”

“Tonight,” he says. “At the cabin. We’ll dance and we’ll talk.”

The Prime Minister Ties The Knot

June 24, 2017 / Squamish, B.C.

At eleven in the morning, Prime Minister Gavin Strong married Eleanor Montague, a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa.

The wedding was attended by friends and family, and took place at the Summit Lodge at the top of the Sea to Sky Gondola. The groom’s family has hiked in the area for generations and the location is said to have been chosen for sentimental reasons.

---