Page 97 of Forever Fascinating

Jace’s face got grim, and the other men got extremely still, as if they were waiting on Matthew’s answer to see what happened next.

“Actually,” Matthew began. “I was thinking of taking her to Boston to meet my parents after Iceland, because I want to ask your father’s permission to ask her to marry me… even though we’ve talked about it already.”

“Nice…” Jace smiled, nodding. “I like that.”

“Good guy… he’ll do, won’t he?” Reaper said, patting him on the shoulder. “Take care of her, make her happy, do right by her, and you’ll be good. Family is always first… the rest comes later.”

“Weddings are a stressful thing,” Jace winced. “Don’t tell Karen I said that, because she did most of the work…”

“Not breathing a word, brother,” Handsy grinned, holding up his cup. “Very stressful, not the greatest memories for some of us, and starts things badly if you end up in debt.”

“Hear, hear,” Jace muttered, before pursing his lips. “We were both very happy, but the bills are coming now, and I need to start looking for a plane.”

“Flyboys?” Reaper asked.

“Yeah…”

“Why don’t you two elope?” Caboose asked. “I mean, Reaper and Sophie got married in an airport first time around – then Valkyrie’s back yard. Thanks for the invite, bro…”

Reaper chuckled.

“We saw the big shindig Hot Cakes and his bride had,” Caboose continued on, shaking his head. “Handsy… sheesh brother. Yeah. Nooo, thank you.”

Caboose snapped his fingers, eyes widening, before speaking again.

“Vapor, you two could elope and do a combo wedding/honeymoon at once. I’m sure ol’ Hot Cakes would be in full support of you putting a legitimate ring on his sister’s finger.”

“Yup,” Jace said bluntly. “In fact, I’ll call the house for you and get Dad on the phone, if it makes you feel better.”

“Really?” Matthew asked, stunned. “You would do that for me?”

“I’d do it for my sister,” Jace taunted, but the hard edge that had been there for the last several months was gone. No, it might not be so bad having Hot Cakes Sorensen for a brother-in-law.

“Looks like we’ve got a few things to get worked out, now don’t we fellas…” Reaper announced, holding up his cup of coffee. “First call needs to be to Dear Old Daddy, then we’ve gotta hit the exchange to see if they have anything remotely resembling a ring… then Reilly’s office…”

Most of the men groaned at this.

Reilly was a jerk – and several of them had been on the receiving end of his ire… including Reaper.

“Then I need to talk to Jana,” Matthew interrupted pointedly.

“Location, location, location… I’ll dig around online and see how hard it is to get married in Iceland,” Caboose offered.

“And I’ll let you dummies do all the work, while I sit back and watch this mess go down,” Handsy grinned, chuckling, as he tapped his cup of coffee against the other men’s.

Not less than five minutes later, Matthew was picked up bodily from under his arms and marched down the hallway to one of the empty offices where some of the men had a chance to use the telephones to call home.

The five men burst into the room, making quite a commotion.

“Make waaaaay!” Caboose announced. “Go! I’ve got the door.”

“You’re an idiot,” Handsy said bluntly, tapping him on the chin. “And we love ya for it, brother.”

Caboose blew him a kiss – causing Reaper, Hot Cakes, and Matthew to laugh uncomfortably.

“You… we need that phone for literally two minutes,” Jace snapped to one of the newest pilots that had arrived. Plopping Matthew down in a chair, Reaper handed him a calling card.

“Ten bucks.”

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