Real laughter filled the room and I even had a stupid grin on my face. So, I glanced over my shoulder and said, “You heard her. Hush.”
Coop shot me a subtle middle finger, but we were all grinning too hard to care.
“With that in mind, and with the vows you’ve taken, and by the power you’ve vested in me,” Sara continued. “I now pronounce you wife-husband-and-wife. What you three have put together, let no one else tear apart.”
Dad swept Mom right off her feet and into a kiss. I put my fingers up to my lips and gave off a shrill whistle as they straightened and she went to Klara, and it was Klara who dipped Mom this time. Dad gave them a whistle before it was his turn to kiss Klara.
“You know,” Sara said dryly. “I was getting to that part.”
At another round of laughter, I applauded, as did everyone. The timing was perfect because outside the glass-paned wall, the sunset was visible over the lake. It really was a new beginning for them.
After a few more rounds of hugs, kisses, and congratulations, we did wedding photos. Thankfully, Archie and Coop stuck around for those, and we were all heading to the reception.
Dinner and a live band turned into free-flowing drinks and dancing.
“You know,” Becca said, as she dropped into the chair next to me. Her shoes were long gone. “I thought it would be all kinds of gross, but it wasn’t.”
“What? The three of them dancing together when Dad lacks serious rhythm? Or the ceremony?”
“Eh, Dad’s cute, and the wedding was really lovely. No, I’m talking about how loved-up they all are. Mom and Klara went to the ‘bathroom’ earlier,” she said, making air quotes. “And they were gone way longer than a normal trip, and Mom was all—”
“Nope.” I put a hand over her mouth and her eyes turned wicked as she fucking laughed at me. “We do not need to discuss this ever. Let them have their privacy and go find yourself a wedding date hookup or something.”
“Jake,” Blake said as she smacked my shoulder and took over the chair on the other side of me. Frankie was currently dancing with Archie or—no, she wasn’t. I frowned as I scanned the dance floor. “Frankie had to go to the ‘bathroom,’ too,” Blake told me with a smirk. “Don’t worry, Archie went with her.”
I’ll just bet he did. Bubba was near one of the doors to the hall and he caught me looking and just gave me a thumbs up. Okay. Bubba knew they’d gone, and either he was covering or making sure no one bugged them.
Good call. Still made me paranoid if I couldn’t track her in a room like this.
“You can butt out of our sex lives, too, Blake,” I informed my sister and she wrinkled her nose.
“I never want to discuss your sex life. That’s disgusting.”
“Thank you. Same.”
“So why are you telling Becca to go hook up with someone?” She eyed me, and she wasn’t alone. Becca had a wine glass she’d stolen from me, but since it had barely more than two swallows in it, I didn’t care.
“Cause I’m right here and it’ll be fun to embarrass her,” I said with a grin, and they both groaned. Louisa, on the other hand, ignored all of us and was out on the dance floor with some kid who was not quite as tall as she was, but he kept his hands in the right places.
He could live.
It was a half-hour later when a slightly disheveled Frankie returned and I helped fix her tie before tugging her out onto the dance floor with me.
“Having fun?” I asked as she looped her arms around my neck.
“I am,” she admitted. “I thought it was a lovely ceremony. Give you any ideas?”
“Yep, I’m joining Archie’s camp and say we elope and throw a party later. That way, we can get to the consummating part super quick.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they already took care of that.” She nodded to where Mom and Dad were dancing alone.
“Don’t want to know,” I told her, even if I was grinning. If they’d managed to sneak off, then good for them. “I’m talking about us, Baby Girl.”
“I know you are,” she said as I swung her around and then pulled her right up to me. Her arms tightened. “I loved how they did this—it was simple but elegant. It reminded me of a lot of them. But it’s not—”
“It’s not legal,” I whispered. “The three of them are going to go and flip a coin on who gets to marry Mom this time. It was her and Dad before and I think he wants that again, except Klara also wants to do it and since that is legal, they might do that. Either way, they want Mom protected by their benefits.”
Which made sense to me. I also loved that they loved her enough to make that concession. It also kind of explained why they didn’t marry each other all those years of the separation. They were missing Mom.
“I don’t ever want to do that,” I said, locking eyes with Frankie. “No matter what happens with all of us, even if we fight—especially if we fight, cause let’s face it, I’m me—I don’t want to spend years apart. Those months between junior and senior year sucked.”
“Agreed. Now stop worrying and kiss me. Ian and I are going to sing for you guys tonight, then as soon as the wedding trio leave, we can go back to our hotel.”
I grinned. “I love the way you think.” I loved everything about her. When her lips parted under mine, I sighed. Yeah, elopement was looking better and better.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TEENAGE DREAM
FRANKIE
Christmas was quiet and relaxed. In some ways, it was like the calm before the storm. It seemed unreal that we were already in the last semester of college. Well, undergrad anyway. Coop had already begun to fill out his applications for graduate school and gather his recommendations. The excitement in his eyes when he told us about the program at Long Island University via their Brooklyn campus was magical. NYU also had a master’s program, but it didn’t lead to licensure.
I loved it for him. Though he kept saying if I get in and it threw me back to all those months of college prep and sweating over applications and essays. “You’ll get in,” I told him. “You have two other schools already lined up, you know what you need to do and you want it. You’ll get in.”
“They prefer candidates to be bilingual.”
“Well, you have a wonderful tongue,” I promised. “I can help you with that. Does French count?”
His groan just made me laugh. “You start tutoring me in French, then I’ll never get anything done.”
“I can teach you the dirty words,” I said with a wink. Then I spent an afternoon doing that. Granted, it didn’t get his applications done, but he seemed to feel better afterward. If he decided to work on his bilingual skills, then I’d just take a Spanish class with him.
I’d taken a lighter course load this semester. I only needed one class for graduation, so I’d added a couple of history courses for the hell of it. Jake had a hole in his schedule, too, so now we were doing film History of New York. It was going to be so much fun.
We had time to add basic Spanish if he wanted to get started.