“He really wants you to be there.”
“I guess so,” he agreed. “It’s not going to be a very formal thing, but he also wants me to stand up with him.”
I thought again of my dream of being a bridesmaid. Ronan was living it. “Are you worried about what you’re going to wear?”
He put a plate in front of me, and one piled higher in front of himself. “No, I wasn’t until you said that. I have a suit somewhere and it should still fit me.” He complained about ties for a moment before he continued to describe the plans. “My parents will be there, too. My brother lives in Chicago and they’re already on the way in their RV from Montana. They like to take their time,” he explained. “Cormac told them that they’re not allowed to bring any other guests with them, if they pick up people along the way.”
“Would they have done that?” I wondered.
“Absolutely. One Christmas, we had sixteen extra people and there was no way to stretch the food for so many.”
So, they were foolishly generous and also unable to calculate portion sizes. It was a good thing that I wouldn’t be meeting them, because I had a strong sense that we wouldn’t get along.
“Do you have something to wear?”
“What?” I looked down at my Wilder jersey, not understanding.
“Will you come with me?”
“You want me to come to your brother’s wedding?” I asked, and he explained more details about it. We’d be able to fly in, on a regular-sized plane, and attend the ceremony and dinner on Saturday before returning home later that night.
“Would you mind? My family is weird but not that bad. I promise the food will be good, because Cormac likes to think of himself as a gourmet. Or do I mean gourmand?”
I shrugged. I was already considering my wardrobe and worrying a little about the flight. The trip coming back from Salt Lake City had been easier than the way out there, but it was still not something I’d enjoyed.
“Let’s call him a foodie,” Ronan said. “You’d have a good dinner and meet everyone. You’ll like my parents.”
I would not, but I didn’t say that. “I’ll definitely go,” I told him instead.
“Good.” He looked relieved. “I’m still not happy about all of this. He has time to change his mind, though.”
“If he leaves his pregnant fiancée—”
“No, that won’t happen.” He sounded almost sad about it. “Cormac wouldn’t do that and I wouldn’t want him to. But there’s still time.”
That was lucky, because I had to find something to wear. There were also two more games and they were both away, so Ed and I watched together at my house. Ronan did get to play, not as much as I would have liked and not as much as what was good for the team—but each time he was out there, he only seemed to improve. It was like he was getting into the rhythm or something, and it fit him. We yelled so loud that I thought the neighbors would get mad, before I remembered that they were all Woodsmen fans, too.
Soon enough, it was the bye week. Victoria had said she was busy, but Kiya and Taylor went with me after work to pick an outfit for the wedding. That had been hard because Ronan had given out different signals about the dress code.
“He said ‘semi-formal,’” I told them as we glanced through a rack. “But then he said, ‘What you have on is fine,’ and I was wearing his sweatshirt and leggings.” It was already colder up here.
“But he’s wearing a suit,” Taylor confirmed. She’held up a dress that looked like it would be a little tight. And short, and bright.
“Oh my God, Tay! She can’t wear that when she’s meeting his parents,” Kiya scolded her.
“It’s not like I’m ‘meeting his parents.’ I am meeting his parents, but it’s not what you’re thinking it is,” I reminded them both.
“Right, he wants his ‘friend’ to go to a family wedding.” Kiya rolled her eyes.
“I’ve been to a family wedding with a friend. He didn’t want to go alone because his relatives gave him crap about being single,” Taylor informed her.
Kiya muttered something.
“What? What did you just say?”
“She said, ‘Friend zone,’” I told Taylor and then both of them got mad, Taylor at Kiya and Kiya at me. They’d been having some issues—not with hearing, as you might have thought, but about Tay and her friendships.
“You know you want that guy for more than just sex!” Kiya stated. “No, Cate! That color is not right. Remember the analysis we did?”
