“I need forty bucks to get my nipples pierced.”
“Can we go to Disney World?”
“Let’s have a tea party!”
“Oooh, he should definitely wear a tutu for that.”
“Can you go to the store and get us super-extra-plus tampons for our heavy flow?”
I just shake my head at the girls with a smile when they finally finish and then throw their heads back and laugh.
“Smartasses,” I mutter when their laughter quiets down, and they both reach over the table and each grab one of my hands.
“Welcome to the family.” Wren winks at me.
“We love you Daddy Uncle Dean,” Birdie adds with a smirk.
“You’ve gotta stop trying to make that happen.” I shake my head at her as they let go of my hands with more laughter and get up from the table as Laura makes her way over here. “Can we at least vote on it?”
My shout after them as they walk away with their plates to join their men is completely ignored, just like I knew it would be.
“Can we vote on what?” Laura asks, tucking the skirt of her dress between her legs as she straddles the bench next to me.
“Don’t ask.” I smile at her, leaning in to give her a kiss.
“Hey, Ryan!”
Our kiss is interrupted with a shouted greeting from a few of the family members, and we look over at the table next to us to see Emily getting up and giving the newcomer a hug. When they pull apart, he lifts his hand and waves at Laura.
“Didn’t mean to crash the party. I was just walking by and thought I’d say congratulations.”
“Who’s that?” I lean in and ask Laura after she thanks him, and he starts talking to Palmer seated next to Emily.
“Oh, Ryan and Emily dated off and on for years until he finally broke things off because he met someone,” Laura tells me quietly as I look at the man.
He’s dressed in a crisp polo shirt with the Summersweet High School mascot over his heart and neatly pressed khakis, with clean-cut, perfectly styled hair and a big, eager smile on his face as he happily chats to the table with his hands in his pockets.
He looks like a thirty-something, innocent boy scout who could in no way handle the fiery, redheaded Emily, and it just makes me chuckle.
“So, yeah, when he broke things off to date someone else, it let Emily stop feeling guilty that she was falling for Quinn,” Laura finishes her explanation. “He’s just the sweetest. His dad is the mayor of Summersweet, and Ryan is the high school bowling coach and algebra teacher. Kind of like an eager-to-please puppy. Nicest young man you’ll ever meet. Oh, there’s Danny. Hi, Danny! We’re back here!”
Laura raises her hand to wave and shout across the patio to a young woman who just walked up to the stand.
“Remind me again who Danny is?” I ask under my breath as the woman starts weaving in and out of people and picnic tables to head back here.
“The one I ran into yesterday in the hotel lobby when I was dropping off the ice cream order, remember?”
It all comes back to me when Danny stops behind Ryan to shift something under her arm, and he starts to turn around to see who Laura was yelling to. I notice she’s carrying a large, framed canvas, and I remember Laura called me as soon as she left the hotel, to tell me she bumped into “the most adorable artist ever” while she was there. Literally. They ran right into each other, causing the stack of canvases Danny was holding to all go tumbling down to the lobby floor. I don’t know the first fucking thing about art, but Laura told me she was so obsessed with one of the paintings that she had to buy it off of her immediately for our living room.
“She was checking out of the hotel today to move in with a roommate later this evening. After she had it framed, she asked if she could drop the painting off before she got busy with that, so I told her stop by here anytime tonight,” Laura finishes, right when Ryan gets turned around.
“Nerd?” Danny asks in shock as soon as Ryan is facing her.
“Nutjob?” he replies in just as much shock, making me press my fist against my mouth before I bark out a laugh.
“Do you two know each other?” Laura asks. “Wait. This isn’t your girlfriend that we’re finally meeting, is it?”
“What? No! Oh my God, no! Ha ha, that would be crazy! No. Nope. Definitely not.”