Page 35 of Finding the Forward: Part Two
I couldn’t help but smile. “Grif said he likes weddings. You basically had my dream wedding, so I trust you to help me execute my wedding vision.”
“It’ll be so much fun. If you’re getting married in the hockey off-season, let me know as soon as you can. It doesn’t give me much time. Where were you thinking? Greece, in a field of your lilies?” Grace took a pull from her bottle of beer as she leaned into Spencer.
“Oooh. That’s a great idea. I’ve always wanted a garden wedding. A field of my lilies would be lovely,” I agreed, imagining it.
“Considering your research, Greece would be quite fitting. There are many lovely places.” Spencer nodded as he had a sip of red wine.
“Absolutely. Were you thinking of a formal reception, or more of a summer picnic, where we could bring in tulle tents and big cushions?” Grace started typing things into her phone.
“I’m up for whatever, as long as there’s dancing and good music.” I nodded.
“Grace, don’t push them. Isn’t that fast?” Creed frowned at her.
I shrugged, enjoying the wedding planning conversation. “Part of our fight was we’re not moving fast enough.”
“I know to you it’s practical and makes sense to wait, but as an omega, Dean’s going to have quite the time waiting until after Grif. Especially since you don’t want to mate Grif until summer.” Evan nodded as he took one of Grace’s fries.
“I know.” I sighed. “Mercy likes them, but she’s enjoying it being just the two of us instead of a houseful.” What else did we do other than wait or move in?
“That’s why the integration team would be useful,” Evan pushed, his brown eyes glowing with concern.
Not sure we needed an integration team, which helped out when new members joined a pack.
Creed looked at me and held out his hand. “Come with me to get food?”
I looked up at the giant TVs in the food court and saw that the Maimers were still warming up. “Sure, I have time.”
He draped an arm around me as we got in the burger line. “You’re really going to stay with Grif? Mate him? Marry him? You talked it out? What happened?”
“We haven’t had the big talk, because we wanted it to be in-person. But…” I lowered my voice. “Based on our non-conversation, my earlier hypothesis might be correct. If so, that explains everything.”
“Fuck.” His look stayed pensive. “It would.”
I sighed as I leaned on my crutch. “I was trying not to rush things. But I don’t want to take things so slow that they hurt people. Mercy could be amenable to moving in with them. There’s a lot to work out.”
“That there is. I’m here if you need to talk.” He squeezed my shoulder.
Creed placed his order and got his food. Then we started walking back toward everyone else.
“I’m proud of you for getting on the ice with the team the other day,” he told me.
“The entire time I worried about falling and getting more injured.” I grimaced. “I never used to worry about stuff like that,” I replied.
“We’re adults. We no longer believe we’re invincible,” Creed replied as we rejoined the group. “But you can’t let it stop you.”
“I know. One of these days I might join the mascot on the ice with my snack cannon. I miss skating.” Even after I stopped taking lessons and competing with Creed, I’d still skated for fun–and had taught most of my younger siblings how to skate.
Riley’s eyes lit up. “Ooh. I want to shoot snacks at people. Is the cannon yours? Can I have it?”
“It’s the teams’, and not unlike the potato guns Creed and I used to make,” I told her. Usually, I shot it from the bench. It had been Sonny the social media manager’s idea to shoot pre-packaged snacks instead of T-shirts to go with myTeam Momtheme.
“What’s a potato gun?” Riley asked.
Grace sucked in a breath. “I remember those. We’d shoot them off in the back field. Yes, let’s make one.”
Evan rubbed his temples, probably imagining the calls he’d get from Riley’s school about the aforementioned snack cannon. On the TV screens, I saw the teams skating off as warmups ended.
“Duty calls, but I’ll see you all second period?” I gave everyone hugs.
