Wylde (Arizona Vengeance 7)

We’re somewhere in between the newly married couple’s first dance and the cutting of the cake, a mellow time for people to mingle and digest the glorious meal we just had. Clarke sits to my left, looking lovely in a peach-colored dress that hugs her body, has only one sleeve, and is cut fairly low. Not that I mind her glasses in the slightest, but she went with her contacts tonight and is wearing her hair down. But rather than her normal wavy curls, she did something to straighten it so it’s sleek and hanging even farther down her back than normal. I expect when we make it back to our room at some point, I’ll have it wrapped around my wrist, perhaps while taking her from behind.

I immediately banish that thought, not wanting to sport wood in front of my friends, and take the moment to talk to Rafe. He and his new fiancée, Calliope, flew in yesterday and I’ve not had a chance to catch up with him yet. Merely some brief introductions right before the wedding, so I was happy to see us seated at the same dinner table, along with Tacker and Nora.

Rafe is someone I got close to toward the end of the season, but for reasons I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Just as the playoffs were gearing up, Rafe’s dad got diagnosed with an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer and was given only weeks to live. Through some wrangling of deals between Dominik Carlson and Gray Brannon, the general manager of the Carolina Cold Fury, Rafe got traded to that team to be near his dad as he faced his end-of-life journey.

And now, Rafe is here with a fiancée.

“So, what’s the deal?” I ask, shifting to peek past Clarke. I drape my arm casually across the back of her chair, then give a sly wink to Calliope, who sits on his other side. She grins back. “You leave, then, a few months later, you show up with a beautiful new fiancée. Dude… fill me in.”

Rafe throws a little shade my way, nodding at Clarke. “I’m not the only one with surprises.”

Chuckling, I nod back as if to say touché. “My story is probably much simpler than yours.”

“And way more fun if I tell it,” Clarke cuts in, her eyes sparkling from the fun of the evening and a few glasses of champagne.

She proceeds to entertain Rafe and Calliope with my antics of walking into her store and baiting her into a contest for a date she had no clue was rigged in my favor. She holds nothing back, not even her pure intentions of only ever attending the weddings with me before parting ways.

“I love it. What a great story.” Calliope claps her hands once, then sweeps them wide to indicate the festivities around us. “But you two clearly have a thing for wedding dates.”

Clarke tips her head, snorting with humor. “Yeah… maybe that’s our thing.”

“We definitely have a thing for weddings,” I concur, leaning over to brush my lips across hers. When my eyes slide over to Rafe, I find him regarding me with a mix of amusement and approval in his expression. He definitely knows me sitting here at a destination wedding with a woman I worked very hard to get to notice me is far and away from my normal. But enough about me. I give Rafe a pointed look. “Tell us everything about how you two got engaged.”

Clarke and I settle in, listening to Rafe and Calliope tell the story together. One starts, setting the scene, and the other takes over to put a spin on the story. Back and forth they go, two people who clearly know each other very well, which isn’t surprising given they grew up together. A true second-chance-at-love type of story, leading up to his proposal to her about a month ago.

“I hated you had to go through that with your dad,” I tell Rafe, bringing the mood down just a bit, but it had to be said. “I really admire your courage through it all.”

Rafe’s dad succumbed to the cancer just as the Cold Fury was starting the conference finals against the L.A. Demons. Rafe missed the first game, but because of a promise he made to his dad to see it through, he didn’t miss any others. They held the memorial service for his dad after the season was over. That happened when the Vengeance took the Cold Fury down in game seven of the series.

“I couldn’t have gotten through it without your support,” Rafe admits. “Having gone through it with your dad already made you such a valuable resource.”

And there’s the reason he and I bonded. We both went through the profoundly sad and exhausting experience of watching a loved one die from cancer. Throughout Rafe’s transition to the Cold Fury—while he was attempting to lead a normal life—I talked to or texted him daily to see how he was doing, give him moral support, and encourage his continued strength. I was able to take my experiences and translate them, offering what I hoped was at least the ability to make the terrifying just a little more acceptable.