Page 27 of Pucking Strong

I said what I said.

A few moments pass before she responds.

RACHEL:

Fair enough. How’s Karlsson holding up? Everything going okay?

I glance over to where he stands with his back still turned. We haven’t told anyone back home what we’re doing yet. We’re not going to implode our lives until we know temporary custody of Karolina is secured. Elin assured us that the super invasive family history portion of the adoption process will come later.

TEDDY:

All good here. She’ll get discharged in a day or two.

My phone pings with her response as Karlsson turns and says, “I need your passport.”

Fumbling, I put my pinging phone back into my pocket as I try to extract my passport at the same time. “Sure. Here it is. Need me to fill out my own form? I can help.”

He raises a brow. “Do you read Swedish?”

“Shoot, not on Tuesdays,” I reply lamely.

He takes my passport and turns his attention back to the electronic form. “Nearly finished,” he mutters with his back to me.

I feel completely useless. He’s working, Elin is working, and I’m just standing here.

Wait …

It hits me all over again that this is technically my wedding day. What am I even wearing? I glance down. Oh, fuck me. Seriously? I’m wearing sneakers, athletic pants, and a white Nike Swoosh T-shirt. Sighing with frustration, I search my pocket for a band to pull back my locs.

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