Page 82 of From Ice to Grace
“Honeymoon?” EJ asks, now stepping closer. “This isn’t real. There will be no honeymoon.”
Brady pinches the bridge of his nose. “To the rest of the world it’s real. So you’ll accept this wedding gift from your new sponsor. You can’t turn it down.”
Avah surprises me by waving it off. “It’s fine. Let’s just do this, so we can get Declan’s reputation back where it needs to be so he can get back on the ice. And I can get my documentation figured out as soon as possible.”
“I hope you two have your stories straight,” Brady says with a grin. “Because I’m sure your friends will want to know all about your secret romance.”
Avah looks at Brady with a slight frown playing between her eyes. “I don’t think I like you.”
Brady’s smile widens. “Lovely to meet you too, sister-in-law. I look forward to our family dinner in a few weeks so we can properly get to know each other.”
With that, he answers his phone and walks off to take care of his other clients.
EJ steps up and pulls Avah into a tight hug. For a moment, I can’t look away. I love my siblings, but we never had that kind of open affection with one another. Our exchanges are usually filled with sarcasm and barbs. It’s nothing like their relationship from which she clearly draws strength.
When he lets her go, his eyes meet mine. The hardness from before is gone, though not completely. He steps forward and claps me on the shoulder, maybe a little harder than necessary.
“I’m here for both of you. You’re my teammate and my friend…and now, for all intents and purposes, my brother-in-law. That makes us family. I just hope this turns out to be everything you need it to be. For both of you.”
My throat tightens and I nod. EJ is a good man, I’ve always known that. When he took me to the side before the ceremony, he made it clear that he loves his sister and that he’d do anything to protect her. I have no ill-intention toward Avah, not even close. But his words only brought to the surface the fact that I tend to mess everything up without meaning to.
Avah’s hand slips into mine as we step into the private dining room Brady arranged, and for a moment I can’t decide if I want to punch my brother or thank him.
It’s on the top floor of a restaurant downtown, the kind with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. In the middle there’s a table with a white tablecloth that goes against my very nature. The table’s set for twelve, candles flickering in the glassholders, appetizers spread out in front of the people already sitting, waiting for us. Everything about it screams staged…polished, rehearsed, not meant for us but rather for the photos that’ll leak before dessert is even served.
Still, I can’t ignore the warm glow from the skyline outside or the way Avah squeezes my hand like maybe this isn’t the worst thing in the world.
For a second the whole room goes dead quiet. Every face at the table—teammates, friends and even the team’s PR team—just stare at us. They knew why they were invited, I’m sure Brady told them. But clearly they were waiting to see if it’s actually true.
The sound of Hannah’s chair scraping across the floor splits the tension.
“You look absolutely beautiful,” Hannah says, pulling Avah into a tight hug. “I know God will bless the two of you in this marriage.”
Her words sound a lot like Aunt Kat’s. Something inside me settles knowing we have their blessing and their prayers. Just because I don’t think it always works, doesn’t mean they don’t. And in my mind, there’s power in that.
“Thank you, Hannah,” Avah says, pulling back and giving her a smile. “If we didn’t decide to do this the quick way, I’d have asked you to be my maid-of-honor.”
Hannah smiles, hugging me too. “Well, you weren’t invited to our first wedding either, so I’m not in any position to hold a grudge. Maybe we can do a real wedding for the two of you when the season is over. That will give us more than enough time to properly plan it.”
Avah looks up at me, slight panic playing in her eyes. She doesn’t say anything and for that I’m grateful. This is a temporary thing and I’m pretty sure there will be no second wedding. Although, standing here with Avah by my side, I’m not sure how we’ll cut ties in two years. The thought of never seeing her, or talking to her again, doesn’t sit right.
“Sounds like a party,” I mutter. “You better let Lindgren plan it. I’m pretty sure he has the scrapbooking gene.”
Laughter breaks the tension at the table and Hannah smiles before returning to Lucas’s side.
I hold the chair out for Avah, before taking a seat next to her. There’s music playing in the background while a few waiters fill our water glasses. For a wedding we had to conjure up in two days, Brady did pretty well.
Leaning closer to Avah, her scent envelopes me. “So do we have a story yet?” I ask under my breath.
“A story?” she asks, looking up at me, her face so close, her nose brushes against mine.
Instead of putting distance between us, I lean a bit closer. “You know, the how-we-fell-in-love story everyone will want to know about.”
“So tell us how this happened?” Wyatt Lindgren asks, proving my point. I lean back and look at my teammate who’s practically bouncing in his seat across the table. “How did you keep it from us for this long? I knew something was up when I picked you up at her place the other day.” He points at me and from the corner of my eye, I catch a blush colouring Avah’s cheeks.
EJ looks at me with a small frown before practically growling.
“I guess we wanted to have as much privacy to figure out what this really is,” I say, sliding my arm across the back of Avah’s chair. “And once we knew, there was no reason to wait.”
