Page 222 of Pucking Strong

I smile. Ah, the mind of an eleven-year-old boy. What a delightful and silly place.

Ryan has his back turned to me, laughing at something with Tess. The pair of them hold bouquets of pink roses as they wait for Emma.

“Your girl is really good,” Novy says over my shoulder, patting Henrik’s back. “How did she get so tall? Was your sister really tall?”

“I’d say she was average,” he replies.

“I’m sure she’ll start slowing down and let the boys catch up,” I say. “My sister, Nat, was 5’11” by the end of middle school, but then she never grew another inch.”

“If Karolina gets any taller, you’ll have to try her out for volleyball,” Poppy teases. “I always wanted to play, but I’m a bit too vertically challenged.”

All at once, it’s chaos as the dancers begin slipping out from the sides of the stage, trying to find their families in the crowd. Gracie Morrow comes prancing down the aisle, still dressed as a snowflake. “Did you see me, Fi?” she calls to her little sister.

“Baby cakes, you did so good!” Poppy hugs her daughter, passing her around from Novy to Colton. Bennett is the one to hand her the flowers. She takes them, giving him a side hug.

“Morbror, Teddy!”

I spin around to see Karolina darting through the crowd, hand in hand with Emma.

“Daddy!” Emma shouts.

“Hey, there she is!” Ryan sweeps Emma up into the air, making her squeal, as Tess smothers her with the flowers.

Karolina is more sedate as she hops like a bunny to come stand in front of us. “Well? Did you see me?”

Henrik hands her the flowers. “You looked so beautiful, mitt lamm.”

She looks to me, smiling from ear to ear, clutching her giant bouquet of oversized red roses. “Teddy?”

Finally breaking, I let the tears fall and pull her to me. “You were fantastic!”

“Don’t cry,” she mumbles against my chest.

I snort a laugh that sounds like a sob. “Just try and stop me.”

She pulls away, her smile shifting to more of a mischievous grin. She glances to Henrik. “Did you tell him?”

“I told him nothing,” he replies stoically.

“Tell me what?” I glance between them. “Guys, tell me what?”

She clutches to her flowers, her cheeks blooming pink. “We have a surprise for you.”

My brow furrows, even as my heart starts to race. “What surprise? It’s not my birthday, and Christmas is still, like, two weeks away.”

She bounces on the balls of her feet. “Should we tell him now?”

“Yes,” I say as Henrik says, “No.”

I groan.

“Get your stuff,” he says at her. “We’ll meet you right back here.”

Shoving her flowers at my chest, she darts away in search of her lost duffel bag. She may not be mine by blood, but apparently the propensity to lose things is more a nurture-over-nature thing.

“Is dinner the surprise?” I say as Henrik pulls the SUV into the parking lot of High Tide. We’ve been playing the world’s most unfun game of Twenty Questions, where I try to guess the surprise and they give me nothing.

“It’s part of it,” says Karro from the back seat. She’s out of her costume now, dressed in a comfortable purple sweat suit set. But she still has her hair braided and her show makeup on. “Morbror said this restaurant was special to you.”

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