Page 72 of Married into the Mob
Odell sat in silence. “Not sure. We met and mated, so a check mark. But it brought us in contact with Stefan again, so that’s abig red X. But mating is more important than marriage, so do we need another wedding?”
I took both his hands. “It’s up to you, but I want to celebrate our mating, and by marrying you, it will cancel out Stefan’s involvement. Wash away any trace of him.”
“We can’t do that, remove him from our past, but I get your point. It would be nice. But I refuse to go to City Hall.”
“You don’t have to. Uncle Arnie is now a registered celebrant. He can perform the ceremony.”
My mate closed one eye. “How about that? Your uncle just happened to get licensed so he can marry people. What are the odds?”
The longer we were together, the more Odell could suss out my departures from the truth, the whole truth. “I might have mentioned my intention to Uncle Arnie.”
“Shocker!”
I fell to my knees and extended a hand to grab a rose from a vase. “Would you do me the honor of marrying me, Dellie?”
“You had to do it. Using that pet name.”
“Gotta bring out the big guns.”
My mate slid onto the floor so we were both kneeling. Clasping my hands in his, he replied, “I will marry you.”
I traced over his paper clip ring. If we were not eliminating memories but maybe incorporating them into our lives with additional layers, I had to come up with a solution.
“What about these? Toss, keep, or reinvent?”
My mate removed his hands from mine and twisted the ring on his left hand. “I can’t throw it away.”
“Hold that thought.” I raced to the desk and got two paper clips, and from the kitchen I grabbed a ziplock bag. “Trust me?”
“To not bring a killer to marry us? The verdict is still out. But to love me forever and protect me? Always.”
We removed our paperclip wedding bands and placed them in the bag. I fashioned the two new ones into rings, and we placed them on each other’s fingers.
“These are temporary. On our wedding day, I’ll return our originals in adifferent form but still the same.”
“Makes perfect sense. As always.”
Today is the day.
Cake might be nice for you, but I’d prefer a juicy rabbit. My beast was peeved that a human wedding didn’t offer anything for a wolf.
Tomorrow, I promise.
Dad and Uncle Arnie had taken care of the food, the guests—it was just family—and the decorations. My mate and I chose our outfits.
I’d worried that Odell’s aunt might not want to come, but her altered lifestyle had changed her outlook. While she might never “warm” to me, she no longer tried to get Odell to leave, and she stopped mentioning having Stefan annul the wedding.
She’d come to dinner once every couple of weeks and was pleasant enough.
I couldn’t ask her for more than that.
She was getting on with her life. Having been a receptionist at a real estate company, she had decided to get her realtor’s license and work for herself. She had plenty of contacts.
I stood in the guest bedroom observing the activity outside. The sun would set in an hour, and my brothers and their families had arrived and the kids were racing over the grass between the white chairs and under the archway, decorated with pink roses from the garden.
On the terrace there was a huge table with fairy lights intertwined with foliage from my garden and Dad’s. My dad was scurrying around checking off a list on his tablet, while Uncle Arnie was fussing over the table, saying he’d need help bringing out the food after the ceremony.
“Being the celebrant and the caterer is a huge responsibility,” he said to his grandson Treyton who’d helped prepare the food. My uncle caught my eye and gave me a big grin and a thumbs-up. I hoped I was as energetic and spritely when I got to his age.
