Page 77 of Mating of Convenience
Conner was in no hurry to respond to me, setting the wine glass down ever so slowly.
“Maybe there’s a reason he doesn’t want to talk about it,” my mate pointed out. I glared at him.
“I love you, turtle, but don’t ruin this for me. I’ve been trying to get this information out of him forever. If he won’t humor me on my wedding day,while I’m pregnant, he never will.”
“Sorry, angel. I’ll leave you to it.”
“You better.”
He snorted, gave me a kiss, and focused his attention back on shoving cake into his mouth while I turned to Conner, leaning in a little.
“So, how about it, share your secrets with me?”
“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I just don’t want to rehash it.” Conner picked at the cuticle of his index finger as he spoke. He never even raised his eyes to meet my gaze.
“You don’t have to tell me the whole story,” I encouraged. “Just the gist of it.”
“You know the gist of it.”
Did I? I shot my friend a dubious look. “You know what you said to me back when it happened? You said ‘things between me and Jake are over’ and that’s all the information I ever got.”
“Isn’t that the most important part?” Conner looked away from me to scan the crowd. “Oh look, it’s Adam and Lucas!”
“What?” My head whipped to the wedding guests who were approaching our table now. Apparently the two of them had managed to get through our guards, but I wasn’t mad about that at all. “Oh God, I haven’t seen you guys since college!” I jumped up from my seat to give Lucas a hug. The omega had gotten himself knocked up by his then roommate, now husband our second year of college. We’d kept in touch via social media, but it was good to see the two of them in person again.
“I’m so glad you could come!” Nathan added.
“I’m so glad you two finally got your heads out of your asses and got married,” Adam quipped.
“Yeah, we’re sorry we can’t come around more often. Our jobs keep us pretty busy, but we couldn’t miss this,” Lucas agreed.
“You’ll be happy to hear I’m pregnant too,” I pointed out.
“Shit, really?” Lucas laughed. “You guys will be so busy.”
“Yup.” I sat back down and shoved another piece of cake into my mouth. “Where’s your kid?”
“The little hellion is staying with his granddaddies,” Adam said. “He’s probably being spoiled rotten as we speak.”
“But that’s what grandparents are for!” another voice joined the conversation, making me look up again to spot Mrs. Rosewood wheeling toward our table—in the company of my very own grandmonster. And since my friends weren’t stupid, they took a few steps back as the ladies approached.
“Rafe,” my grandmother greeted me with a bright smile as she came to stand before me. “Congratulations on your lovely ceremony. I must say you made a fine choice in your husband. Wasn’t it a great idea to get married?”
I put on the most fake-friendly smile I had. “A super great idea.” Let the old lady have her ‘I told you so’ moment. Frankly, I didn’t care. I was happy with where life had led me, and if life had needed a little help from my grandma to do it, then I just had to suck up and deal with it.
“How have you been enjoying the party?” Nathan tried to take over the conversation.
“Yeah,” I piped in. “How did you like your seat at the ceremony? I thought you would get along well with Nathan’s great-grandmother.” And as if speaking of her summoned her, I spotted old Mrs. Rosewood wheeling toward our table. I was a little disappointed to see that she wasn’t carrying any gifts, but found myself hoping she’d deposited one with the others on the gift table. Unwrapping gifts and writing thank-you notes would be way more fun if we might chance upon one of Mrs. Rosewood’s creations.
“We got along splendidly, thank you.” My grandmother’s smile was just as fake as mine had been.
“I’m so glad to hear it.” If she could be sugary sweet, so could I. Especially because Nathan’s great-grandmother had rolled up to us now and I was super happy to see her. “Grandma!” I greeted her the same time as Nathan did--although he seemed just a little less enthusiastic.
“Raphael! Nathan!” Mrs. Rosewood showed us her widest smile, showing off all her dentures. “I’m so happy that you had this ceremony, and that you invited me! Thank you! I’ve left a few gifts for you on the table.”
Yes! Jackpot!
“Isn’t that great, turtle?” I turned to my mate.
