Page 90 of Possessive Ink

“Holy shit,” Jude exclaims. “Daddy Bear didn’t just find a mate, he found a wife.” Rushing toward us, he pulls both Lemon and me into a hug. “Welcome to the family, sis.”

Just as I expected, the twins and Tori are more than happy for us and immediately claim Lemon as their new sister, while my hopelessly romantic parents take our announcement in their stride and start asking questions about the wedding.

“So where are you going to get married?” Mom asks Lemon.

“We only got engaged yesterday. I haven’t really given the actual wedding much thought,” she admits, looking a little shell-shocked.

“How about the country club? I doubt you’ll be able to get a Saturday at such short notice, but people get married any day of the week these days.”

“Oh, a country club,” Lemon says, her eyes wide and clearly overwhelmed.

“They have security follow me around like I’m going to steal the pictures off the walls any time you drag me there,” I tell Mom. “I was thinking more like a flower meadow at sunset or something low-key.”

“A flower meadow?” Lemon gasps.

“Yeah?” I ask.

She nods, her eyes going glassy.

“Hal Williams’s ranch is absolutely gorgeous, and there are a few beautiful fields the county pays him to keep full of wildflowers to attract the bees. I could ask him if you could get married there,” Tori suggests.

“Do you think he’d let a bunch of strangers get married on his property?” I ask.

“I’ll introduce you both to Bonnie, his daughter, and her husband, Beau. You’ll be family within an hour of meeting her. You’ll also double your wedding guest list because there are so many Barnetts it’s insane. But you’ll love them. They’re the best kind of people,” Tori assures us.

After the shock of our news has passed, dinner is easy. The twins flirt with Lemon while my parents ask semi-interested questions about mine and Felix’s warehouse and the twins’ temporary condo home. I know they don’t mean to be disinterested, but ultimately, they only have eyes and real interest in each other. I suppose it should be nice that they’ve rekindled the kind of love that brought them together in the first place, but watching your parents make out at the dinner table is just kind of creepy.

By the end of the night, we’ve all witnessed as much PDA as we can handle.

“Goodbye, my darlings,” Mom says, hugging us all again as we head for the door. “Goodbye, Lemon. It was so lovely to meet you, and congratulations. Love works in mysterious ways, and you and Atticus are so lucky to have found each other.”

Once the six of us are at the end of the drive, I exhale. “Jesus, were they worse than usual?” I ask my siblings.

“Yes,” Jude groans. “Dad had his tongue in Ma’s mouth at one point.”

“She licked him,” Tori grimaces. “She leaned over and licked his neck. God, why are our parents so gross?”

“Why are we not talking about the boner he had the whole night?” August asks with a pained chuckle.

“No child should ever have to see their parents that horny.” Tori mock-shudders.

“I think it’s kind of cute that your parents are so in love,” Lemon says quietly.

“Oh, you think it’s cute today, but will it still be cute when they’re dirty dancing at your wedding?” August asks.

Lemon grimaces a little. “Surely they wouldn’t.”

“Oh, they would. Our cousin got married a couple of years ago, and they were practically dry humping on the dance floor. Everyone was so uncomfortable that the DJ put one of those songs on where everyone lines up and does the dance moves just to split them up. It was that or throw a bucket of water over them,” Jude tells her.

“Oh god.” Lemon giggles.

“We’ve got an early skate in the morning, so we should get going,” August announces.

“When is your next home game? I’ll bring Lemon to watch,” I ask him.

“We’ve got one the day after tomorrow, then we’ve got a long away series. We’re playing our last home game before the playoffs in a month. You should come and watch then. The atmosphere will be crazy because it might be our last game of the season,” Jude tells us.

“We’ve got family seats a few rows from the front. We only get two each this season because we only recently got traded, but as we’re tied for the top scorers since we joined the team, they’ll probably allocate us more next season,” August says.