“The planning. The bachelorette parties. The–”
“We’re not doing that,” Lainey interrupted.
“Why not?”
“We live here; we’ve seen a million of them. We’ve also been pulled into a few somehow when we didn’t even know the woman getting married,” Lainey replied. “We don’t need a big send-off where we celebrate our last days of being officially single or something. We’re not single. We’ve been together for years. Besides, we actually like each other and love having sex with each other, so we don’t see that as some need to go and sow wild oats or–”
“It’s just a party, Lainey. It doesn’t have to mean strippers,” Dana interrupted. “It’s a chance for you and your friends to get together and–”
“You mean how we already do all the time? I saw Maisie this morning. We went out last night with her and India and had a nice dinner. India got us this really expensive wine. We don’t need a party, Dana.”
“She’s right. Aboutallof it,” Paige said and wiggled her eyebrows at her fiancée.
“That’s my sister,” Dana pointed out.
“We don’t need a party. So, no one has to worry about that,” Lainey said through her laughter.
“What about the rest of it?”
“The actual wedding stuff? I already talked to Linden. She’s going to help us and is giving us the friends-and-family discount.”
“Oh,” Dana said.
“Who’s Linden?” Samara asked.
“One of our friends,” Paige replied. “She and her fiancée own a wedding planning company, and they’re normally really expensive, but they’re going to do ours for super cheap. They told us it helps that we chose April, which isn’t a crazy busy wedding month. We’ve already booked the venue.”
“You didwhat?” Dana asked, and Samara squeezed her thigh under the table.
“The park by the high school,” Lainey revealed. “We worked together there,” she added to Samara. “We wanted to get married on the actual soccer field there, but they said no. Two women and a public school… They didn’t want the parents in an uproar, and we didn’t want people to ruin our big day, so we got the park next to it, which is owned by the city. Linden already locked it in for us, and it wasn’t expensive to rent for the evening for a few hours.”
“Oh,” Dana said, knowing she sounded disappointed.
“Dana, I know you wanted to help us plan stuff, but it’s going to be really simple. We’re getting a caterer – no, we’re not using your old company – and we’re going with a pretty basic cake because neither of us wants any of those crazy flavors or designs. Other than that, we don’t really need much. I’m going to wear a light suit and be barefoot. Paige is going to be in a dress and do the same. Casual for guests. That’s it.” Lainey wrapped an arm around Paige. “We love each other, but we already feel fully committed. This is just us making it legal because we want other things to be easier.”
“Other things?” Samara asked.
“Yeah, with taxes and the house we just bought, but also with…” She met Dana’s eyes. “Kids.”
“Kids?” Dana asked. “What?”
“You knew we wanted kids,” Lainey replied.
“You’ve gone back and forth on that for years.”
“Not exactly. But we’re ready now,” Lainey said. “We’re going to try adoption first.”
“You’re going to adopt? Oh, that’s great,” Samara said.
“We’re thinking about adopting an older kid, not a baby. We have the house now, and we want at least two kids, so we planned for that when we bought the place.”
“Adoption is expensive,” Dana noted.
Lainey looked at her in confusion and said, “We know that. Besides, I’m making decent money now. We had a winning season last year, so I got my end-of-season bonus. Plus, Paige is…”
“Leaving the high school,” Paige added after Lainey’s lead-in.
“What?” Dana asked, struggling to keep up with all of these announcements.
