Page 10 of The Engagement
“Hey, little man,” Mack says as he holds out his palm.
Luke jumps up to give him a high-five. “Mama’s rocking Sissy. She’s a cranky butt today.”
Shane lays a gentle hand on his son’s head. “Please don’t call your sister a butt. It’s not nice.”
Luke gazes up at his dad. “But she’s cranky.”
“You would be, too, if you had a tooth coming in.” Somehow, Shane manages to refrain from smiling. “Still, it’s not nice to call your sister a butt.”
“Okay,” Luke says with an exaggerated huff. Then he runs back down the hall yelling, “Mama! Erin and Mack are here.”
Shane shakes his head. “Come on, guys. Beth is dying to see you.”
We follow Shane down the central hallway to the kitchen and family room at the back of the house. Beth is seated on a rocking chair, holding their year-old daughter, Ava, whose head is nestled in the crook of Beth’s shoulder. Ava’s got her thumb in her mouth.
“Hey, guys!” Cooper says from the kitchen across the open floor plan. “What’s new?” It’s obvious from the tone of his voice that he already knows.
He and Sam are standing at the kitchen island assembling what looks like an elaborate charcuterie board. Apparently, they were expecting us. There are plates and glasses out, as well as an ice bucket. There’s even a cake on a cooling rack. It looks like we’re going to have a little dinner party.
“Let me see it!” Sam cries as he skirts the kitchen island and heads right to me. He grabs my hand and holds it up so he can see my ring. “Oh, girl, it’s fire!” He pulls me into his arms for a bear hug. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Hey, what about me?” Beth says from the rocking chair, laughing softly as she waves me over. “I just got Ava to stop crying, so you’ll have to come to me.”
After I show Beth my ring, she gazes up at me with tears in her blue-green eyes. “Oh, Erin. It’s gorgeous. I’m so happy for you, sweetie.”
Shane joins us and gazes down at Ava. He reaches down to gently touch her soft brown curls. “Erin, I don’t know if you and Mack have a wedding venue in mind already, but we’d be honored if you’d have your wedding at our home in Kenilworth.”
My mouth falls open at his generous offer. Shane’s Kenilworth estate is huge and gorgeous, but most importantly, it’s private and isolated.
“It’s become a family tradition to hold weddings there,” he adds. He nods toward Cooper in the kitchen. “And I’m sure Cooper would be happy to officiate.”
“You consider me part of thefamily?” I ask, his statement taking me completely by surprise. We’re friends, yes, butfamily? I don’t think he realizes how much that means to me.
I don’t have any biological family left. I was raised by my grandmother after my parents died, and my grandmother has since passed away. I don’t have any other relatives, at least none that I know of. True, I’ve always considered Beth and Sam, and of course Mack, my found family, but Shane, too?
“Of course I consider you family,” he says. He steps around the rocking chair and opens his arms wide. “Is it okay if I hug you?”
Tears spring to my eyes, and when I nod, he wraps his arms around me and gives me a gentle squeeze. Shane has always been so careful around me, especially since the assault. He’s probably sensitive to what I’ve been through because his wife has suffered trauma of her own.
“What do you say?” he asks, looking first at me, and then at Mack. “Are you interested? It won’t hurt my feelings if you say no.”
“It’s up to Erin, of course,” Mack says. “But I’m all for it.”
“I would love to get married at the Kenilworth house.” And I mean it. Pretty much everyone I know and love has gotten married there—Shane and Beth, Lia and Jonah, Jake and Annie. It really is a McIntyre family tradition, and now, apparently, I’m an honorary member of the family. “Yes, I think we’d love to get married there. Thank you, Shane.”
Luke, who’s oblivious to the talk of wedding venues and couldn’t care less, walks up to Mack and raises his little arms up in the air. “Can I sit on your shoulders?”
“Sure, little man.” Mack picks up the boy and settles him on his broad shoulders. Luke clutches Mack tightly around the neck and grins as he towers over everyone in the room.
Mack glances up at Luke. “How would you like to be one of the ring bearers at our wedding? You and your cousin Aiden.”
Luke makes an uncertain face as he leans down to look Mack in the eye. “Do I get cake?”
“Of course you do,” Mack says. “You can eat all the cake you want, assuming Mommy and Daddy say it’s okay.”
“I’ll do it!” Luke says.
“Speaking of cake,” Cooper says from the kitchen. “I just made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Who’s interested?”
