Page 132 of Best Man
There wasn’t a whole lot of room in the chalice for the two cousins, but they made it work with the help of their dads. The two baby girls were gently lowered into the chalice. For some reason,everyoneseemed to gather around to witness the spectacle—even Parisi, who’d youthinkwas too drunk to care—but that was the power of two adorable babies, Paulina guessed. The crowd wentaaaaawand busted out their cell phone cameras came out to document the moment.
“Stanley Cup babies!”
“They’re both so friggin’ cute!”
“Hashtag Cup cousins!”
“Mom, Dad!” Sasha said, waving Paulina’s parents over. “Let’s get some pictures with you guys in here, too!”
Yup—that’s right, Sasha called Laurie and Kevin “Mom and Dad” now. It was so cute how much he liked them and wanted their approval. In fact, it wasSasha’sidea to invite her parents to his Cup party in the first place.
Although she’d been honored, Paulina wasn’t totally sure why Sasha had requested that her parents come to his Cup party. She warned Sasha not to get his hopes up, because she was sure they’d say no. It wasn’t easy to pry her parents away from the farm for any amount of time. Farming was a twenty-four-seven lifestyle, and farmers didn’t really get to take vacations.
Sure enough, when she called her parents to extend the invite, they politely declined for all the usual reasons: it was right in the middle of growing season, they couldn’t takemoretime off after taking two weeks off to be in Texas for the births of Yana and Ivy, and they’d just gotten back to Montana anyhow.
Sasha, sensing how the conversation was going, gestured for the phone. “Let me speak to them.”
“Uh, Mom? Dad? Hold on. Sasha wants to talk to you,” she said.
Sasha took the phone and went outside to talk to them. Paulina was stumped why he needed privacy, but she couldn’t argue with the results. Because whatever he said worked. Sasha hung up and came back inside with a big smile on his face.
“They’re coming,” he announced.
“What?! No way. What’d you say to them?”
“I asked them very nicely?” he said with a shrug. “And I told them how important this day will be to me.”
“Aw! You’re so sweet!” She laughed, touched but still a bit confused. “I don’t think there’s anything I could’ve said to lure them out here. You’re like the parent whisperer. Remember when you thought they hated you?”
“Notthey,” he corrected. “Your mom, she always liked me. Your dad? Ehhh.”
She giggled. “He loves you, too.”
“Not yet,” he said. “But maybe soon.”
“Soon?” Paulina asked, wondering what he’d meant.
But Sasha never explained.
Regardless, they were here for the party, and that’s all that mattered to Paulina.
“Get in here, Mom! C’mon, Dad!” Paulina said, waving her parents over.
Together, the three generations posed for a picture. Ormanypictures, as the whole Dallas Devils team and their loved ones continued to snap pics. Paulina had a funny feeling as she stood there and posed for the cameras. Everyone else looked so happy and smiled so big … sure, this was a cute moment on a festive day—but why did it feel like there was more to the story? Why did it feel like everyone was waiting for something to happen? It almost felt like there was some kind ofsurpriseparty.
“Okay, I think that’s enough,” Sasha said, and the boys lifted the babies out of the Cup.
Sasha handed Yana over to Paulina, and Jax handed Ivy over to Piper. Having handed their daughters off, the boys returned to dote over theirotherprecious baby—the Cup. Jax lifted the Cup to raise it over his head, but stopped short when something in the chalice rattled. “Huh?” He peeked into the bowl with an expression of surprise.
“Hey, Niko!” Jax yelled. “I think you dropped something in the Cup, dude!”
“Did I?” Sasha asked with a sneaky grin.
Paulina noticed that the crowd hadn’t thinned after picture time. Everyone remained, standing around with similarly sneaky smiles, their phones still out, recording and snapping pictures.Somethingwas definitely up, but she didn’t know what it was.
“Yeah, bro,” Jax said, grinning wide. “You better come get this, man. It looks valuable.”
Jax passed the thirty-five pound trophy over to Sasha.
