Page 72 of The Ex Puck Bunny
“I didn’t either until now. I’ll see if I can find it. Might make good rehearsal dinner material.” Mrs. Rice winks.
“Derek must’ve hated that even more than the heart sprinkles.”
“Hated what?” he asks, sauntering into the room with Deborah.
We say hello and then Heidi relays his chicken pox birthday extravaganza.
He chuckles. “Yeah. I got worried I was going to lose my best friend to my bratty little sister who was too cute for her own good.”
Deborah says, “I find it hard to believe that Heidi was a brat.”
We all laugh.
“No, I promise. I was awful,” she replies.
Derek chuckles again. “Just wait until I give my speech as best man.”
Heidi pouts. “You will not embarrass me on my wedding day, Dork-ek,” she says, using what I thought was a retired nickname.
“Whatever you say, Hei-dork.”
Deborah turns to me and asks, “You put up with this and still stuck around?”
“You get used to it.” And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
As the engagement ring on Heidi’s hand catches the light, the notion of Bunny having a brother someday bursts into my mind.
“We’d better get this show on the road,” Mr. Rice says, eyeing the bags of decorations.
Many hands make light work as we string up streamers, fill more balloons, and set up a unicorn headband craft station and a pin the horn on the unicorn game.
Heidi fills a bowl for the grownups with jellybeans.
“Aren’t those Easter only?”
She replies, “This is a unee-corn-themed party with a side of Easter because a mom can only do so much with a holiday and birthday nearly back to back.” Then she pops one in her mouth and says, “Also, jellybeans are my weakness. You’vebeen warned. I only let myself have them once a year . . . and buy out the shelf at the market.”
Derek must overhear us and pipes, “And she’ll steal them out of your Easter basket. Bunny, be warned.”
“Mama eats my jellee-beebs,” she says in the cutest little voice.
“Still learning new things about my soon-to-be bride.” I kiss her temple, inhaling her spring rain and jellybean scent.
Later, everyone joins us for the party, including some of the team families, Aleeyah—Heidi’s friend from the Fish Bowl and her husband Booker I’m joining for poker night soon—and the Snoots. I mean the Schusters from a few doors down.
It’s a sparkle fest of yelling and giggling children, complete with a unicorn cake that has an upside-down ice cream cone for the horn and two candles on each side.
I get the honor of explaining to Bunny about making a wish before she blows them out. I’m not sure what she wishes for—probably a visit from a real unicorn.
But I don’t need wishes on candles. Wishes I didn’t even know I had have come true. I’m blessed beyond belief . . . until a dizzy kid during the pin the horn on the unicorn game gets confused and tries to stick it on my backside.
That was a rude awakening . . . and a reminder that Heidi and I have to get ready for the birthday grand finale.
We go to the TV and entertainment room and she sets up her phone to record.
“You really think Knights fans will enjoy this?”
“A defenseman getting into a plush two-person unicorn costume with his fiancée who they shipped, making us go viral? Yes, it’s a certainty.”
