Page 224 of Broken Bonds
Maybe.
“More cake?” Todd asks, walking up with a plate.
“Uh, fu-frick yes,” I say, sitting up to take it. Vanilla with pink buttercream frosting.
He leans in. “Cake tax.”
I smile and kiss him, and he relinquishes the cake.
I didn’t want a big wedding. I wanted to go down to city hall, get a license, and then get married as soon as we could by a clerk.
Mom, Iris, and Alizée put the kibosh on that plan.
But I didn’t want to wait to get married, so we compromised. Todd and I legally got married two weeks after my father was confirmed deceased. Mike got ordained online and performed the ceremony for us in the pack’s park, next to the memorial.
The only reason we waited that long was because Mom was in Atlanta with Morning Caldwell, dealing with legal stuff, and I wanted her here, obviously.
So I let them throw us a baby shower/wedding reception, a twofer, with our family and closest friends, and the newly “adopted” found family who it looked like were going to be around for the long haul.
Mike and Pavin have pretty much adopted me, as has Caleb, and it feels…
Well, it feels damned good.
Shawn waddles over and awkwardly lowers himself onto the lounger next to me, a plate of cake in his hands.
I’m big, but he’s huge.
Oh, yeah, technically it’s a three-fer, because I wanted us to hold Shawn’s baby shower at the same time, which he was in full agreement with.
All the fucking cake we can eat.
Huzzah!
He stares at the separate pile of presents in the corner for him and Jax. “I cannot believe this.”
I grin around the fork already in my mouth because I’m taking a bite. “Hey, you’re the one who asked Alizée to make this a gender reveal, too.”
Does that make this a four-fer party?
“I don’t know what to do with girls!” he says, poking at his cake. “I didn’t have sisters!”
“I guess we get to learn together.”
He snorts, taking a bite of cake. “At least we’ll have Iris, Freya, and Alizée. Dad can’t even help us much.”
I drop my voice. “Guess he gets to practice on our babies, doesn’t he?”
Shawn jams another bite of cake into his mouth to disguise his laughter, because…yeah.
Pavin went into heat about three weeks after “the events,” as I euphemistically refer to them, and he and Mike rolled the dice.
Alizée was thrilled to confirm that they are now expecting their first daughter. They’re also living in one of the guest houses, for now, while they build a new house on the compound. Owen drove down with Elliot and Bobby for the baby showers for me and Shawn, the reception, and to visit with everyone before he returns home. Elliot and Bobby will return to the pack school and are happy they no longer live in the RV, and Elliot will be starting college next year.
Mom walks over and sits in the lounger on Shawn’s other side. It’s not just her new haircut that has her looking years younger; it’s her new life.
Morning helped her with the authorities and the paperwork to dissolve the pack’s business, sell off the house and other assets, and permanently relocate to Florida. She’s living in the little apartment now because I burst into tears when she talked about accepting Jax’s offer to have one of the guest cottages.
I get that she deserves privacy too, but…
