Chapter 11
Gregor
Talk about embarrassing and infuriating, too. I could tell my old man was pissed as he stalked beside me, taking the seat August’s Aunty Eunice specifically held out for him before she took her place at the head of the table beside his Aunty Clara.
“Pops, this is my mate, August,”
I said, shocked when my father stood to shake August’s hands and pull him into a one-armed embrace.
“Welcome to the family, August, I apologize for not meeting you on better circumstances.”
“I’m glad to finally meet you,”
August said. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
“Of course,”
Pops said. “Let’s get this mess dealt with first.”
August and I took the seats next to him as elders of the family gathered, while shooing the younger members back to the kitchen and counter to take care of their customers.
“When you say that’s Oliver’s mother, should we infer that she’s your wife?”
Aunty Eunice bluntly enquired.
“Oh, hell no,”
he said, nose wrinkling as he cast a glare in the direction he’d sent her roaring off in.
“She was a short-term diversion while my wife and I were taking a break, and a bit of an early midlife crisis you could say,”
Pops said while I got to listen to a topic of conversation that was rarely brought up in my presence.
Despite the fact that my siblings and I were grown now, there were still things our parents felt the need to keep hidden from us, for whatever the reason, though I supposed those reasons were their own and they were entitled to them.
“She and I had shared custody of Oliver until he determined that he preferred living with my wife and I,”
Pops explained. “About nine months ago he moved in to help his mother after she broke her leg and ever since then she’s been coming up with new issues she needs his help with. I’ve never known her to take an interest in Oliver’s love life, though, so I can’t speak to what’s going on there, but I intend to have a few words with her. I asked her to meet me at Café Caroline’s so I could find out what the hell is going on.”
“Well, when you do get some answers, I hope you’ll enlighten us, too,”
Aunty Eunice declared.
“You have my word.”
“Thank you.”
“I’d better get going,”
Pops declared.
“Yes, please do,”
Aunty Eunice said.
She wasn’t trying to be rude, but I could feel her concern radiating across the table. She wouldn’t be able to relax until she was certain Ever wasn’t in any danger.
“The sooner you get to the heart of the matter, the better for all of us,”
Aunty Eunice declared. “We’ve got a handfasting to plan, unless your people use a different sort of ceremony.”
“Nope, handfasting is our tradition, too.”
“Perfect, then we’ll proceed with the planning.”
“Gregor, make sure you give Eunice your mom’s number before you leave, she and your Nana will round up a group from our side to help.”
“I will, Pops,”
he replied.
They nodded before Gregor’s father left. Things had really settled down by then. Little of the crowd that had drifted inside with us still lingered in the room and those who did were sipping drinks and nibbling the treats from the bakery. Fine, if they were going to be nosy, then I was glad to see that they’d done the very least they could do and purchase something after the free show they’d been treated to.
“Gregor, it would be great if you could give me an estimated number of people you expect will attend from your side, as well as any dietary restrictions you might know of.”
“No one in my family has any dietary restrictions,”
Gregor replied. “Except if the buffet runs out. No one is picky, either. Everyone eats a wide variety of things and as I’m sure you can imagine, there are no vegans among our crew.”
“I’d be a bit tickled if there were,”
she replied, promoting a bit of laughter from everyone gathered, even him.
“As for the number, just put us down forty-five strong, but plan on closer to sixty once my mom and Nana get through reaching out to them. We’re a bit spread out along the coastline, but everyone is known for turning out when there is a celebration, even if all it boils down to is a lawn full of grumpy looking men and women glaring at one another while they listen to the few chatty Cathies in the family ramble on until the party breaks up. “
“Our family has several of those, too,”
Aunty Eunice explained. “I see us meshing together nicely.”
“Me, too.”
“Have you two given any thought to the date you’d want to hold it on?”
Aunty Eunice asked.
“Summer Solstice,”
we blurted simultaneously, though we hadn’t had the chance to talk about it yet. When I realized he’d picked the same day I did, I turned to him and caught him grinning at me. Shrugging, he inclined his head and arched an eyebrow.
“It seemed like the perfect day to commit myself to a mate who dresses like a field of wildflowers and smells like every color of the rainbow,” I said.
A collection of awes went up around the table, as Aunty Clara grinned at us and nodded.
“Phewww, August, you’ve caught a real charmer in this one,”
she said, fanning herself. “If you don’t wind up in the family way sooner rather than later, I’ll eat a bowl of your Aunt Petunia’s infamous Beef ‘n Bits stew.”
August’s shudder of revulsion echoed the look that played out across her face when she said it. Seemed like that shit was seriously dangerous and to be avoided at all costs.
“Now that’s a bet,”
August whispered, “Beef ‘n Bits is revolting, all of it, even the beef.”
I felt my lips curl up as his lips tickled my ear as he whispered to me.
“A few times she’s kind of hedged when someone had asked if it even was beef, which led me to believe that it wasn’t. It was a good thing I never had any interest in second helpings of her cooking anyway. Not when choking the first one down was practically a gastric insult.”
Now I really struggled to keep from laughing, and my cheeks felt tight from smiling so hard.
I glanced at August, wondering what he thought about having whelps this early in our mating, but I couldn’t catch his eye. I had to settle for raking my eyes over his belly as I pictured what it would look like swollen.
“Ohh, he’s picturing it, too,”
Aunty Eunice pointed out. “Mark my words, August, you will be playing with little hoglets come this time next year.”
Thinking about it, there was really nothing bad about the image her words conjured up in my head. With Olly running the showroom and a workshop at home to rival the one at the shop, I could work from either location and help care for our little ones while August was working in his shop. If the fates saw fit to make parenthood a part of our future, then I’d welcome it with open arms. From the look on my mate’s face, it seemed like August felt the same way.
He laced fingers with me beneath the table while we waited to hear what else Aunty Eunice had to say.
“I’m certain I already know the answers to the next two questions, but just to get them out there, indoor or outdoor, day, evening or moonlight?”
“Outdoor,”
we replied, but we turned to each other about the second question, August looking thoughtful while I already knew the time of day that would be perfect for us.
“Sunrise?”
he asked, inclining his head at me.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking, too,”
I replied, giving his hand a squeeze.
“Outdoors at sunrise it is,”
Aunty Eunice said. “Gregor, you know the lay of the land around here, is there a spot that overlooks the ocean that can accommodate the kind of crowd we’re expecting?”
“I know just the place,”
I replied, grinning when August locked eyes at me and nodded. “Our home is the converted lighthouse on Outreach Point. “The yard spans the top of the cliff. There’s plenty of room for everyone.”
And unlike my old man, I wouldn’t be grumbling about them being on the lawn, either.
“That’s your house?”
Aunty Clara squealed.
“It’s our house, yes,”
I replied, giving August’s hand another squeeze. “August’s things arrive this weekend, and we’ve already rearranged so everything has a place.”
She looked pleased at that, which actually made me feel a surge of joy and pride at having put that look on the elder woman’s face. I’d learned at the family supper that she was deferred to by almost every member in the family. The head elder, and the one who oversaw many of the family’s decision.
Beside me August nudged Everett’s shoulder and glanced over to where he sat on the other side of me.
“You’ve been awful quiet,”
August said. “What’s going on in your head?”
“Trying to figure out how a sweetheart like Olly can even come from a woman like that,”
Ever snapped.
“Lots of things can warp someone,”
Aunty Eunice said. “We don’t know her story, so we won’t judge, we’ll just make sure she doesn’t hurt you or Oliver or try and get in the way of the connection the two of you are forging.”
“I’d have closed up the shop and brought him with me if I’d known this involved him, too,”
I explained.
“I’d like to be the one to explain what happened,”
Ever said. “There are parts no one else was privy to, before she got loud and drew everyone’s attention. I’d rather I tell him what took place before she gives him a distorted version of it.”
“Head on over, let me give him a call and let him know you’re coming and to close up and go wherever you want to take him so you can talk,”
I said, punching the call button beside Oliver’s name.
“Hey, yeah, I know I tore out of there pretty fast,”
I said when he answered. “I’m sorry, you’ll understand in a few minutes. Everett is on his way over to talk to you, so lock up and be ready to listen when he gets there. Don’t worry about the shop, if there is anyone in there right now, just tell them that we had a family emergency and we’ll be open again at our normal time tomorrow.”
“But, but there are like five people in here, are you sure you want me to tell them that?”
“What did I just say?”
“Can I at least apologize for asking them to leave?”
“Yes, you can apologize for any inconvenience and anything else you’d like to apologize for if it will get them out of the door any faster.”
“They, um, sort of heard me and are heading for the door.”
“Oh, good. See, it all worked out and you didn’t have to say anything. Now lock up before someone else comes in and you do have to shoo them out.”
I ended the call and Ever got moving, leaving me to drop an arm over the back of August’s chair.
“I’m sorry for hijacking your morning,”
Aunty Eunice said. “But all of us seem to put in long hours, so I thought I’d take advantage of the fact that I had you both right here.”
“Sound strategy,” I said.
“I thought so.”
We inclined our heads toward one another as August’s cousin Denver brought over this morning’s breakfast sandwiches, which were a trio of biscuit and omelet sliders, each served with a different type of pepper jelly coating the inside of the biscuits.
“Is there a house attached to that lighthouse or do you just live in the tower?”
Aunty Eunice asked as we dug into our breakfast.
I loved that they were sliders, rather than full-sized breakfast sandwiches. Those miniature omelets were packed with flavor and oozing chunks and cheese.
“When I bought it, my uncle and I renovated it and we included a house with three bedrooms and a downstairs apartment, with plenty of room to expand along one side, which might be a good idea to start drawing up plans for.”
“Not might, you will need those rooms,”
Aunty Clara said. “We don’t tend to have just one or two hoglets.”
“And my family isn’t known for having a small number of whelps,”
I explained.
“All the more reason to get to it sooner rather than later,”
Aunty Eunice encouraged.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You should see the kitchen, it’s as big as the one back there,”
August rambled as he gestured to the bakery kitchen. “Gregor said I have free rein to experiment whenever I want.”
“Is he also requiring you to be in the kitchen whenever he wants you to be?”
Aunty Eunice asked. “A kitchen like that, either he’s secretly a foodie and hasn’t owned up to it yet, or he’s planning to keep his mate shackled to it whether they want to be or not.”
“It’s nothing like that second part, I swear,”
I explained. “I do enjoy grilling, that’s how I take most of my meals, but even grilled meats need side dishes, which I whip up down there. I just didn’t see any reason to do modifications on the kitchen a second time when my uncle had already drawn up one with a pizza oven and everything. I went with his suggestion to set up the kitchen for whatever sized family I happened to have. The only reason I rarely use it aside from making side dishes and soup in winter, is because I have a full grill station on the second-floor balcony connected to the den, and a smaller hibachi on the third-floor balcony that I use to make breakfast in the morning.”
“I get breakfast in bed when we wake up together,”
August explained, shooting a grin my way, my belly doing a flip flop when I saw how happy he looked.
“You’re damn right you do,”
I said. “I don’t know what it’s like to spend the bulk of my day in a hot kitchen, you shouldn’t have to come home and do it there, too, but you especially shouldn’t feel the need to start the day in one.”
“There is nothing like his steak and eggs still sizzling on my plate when he brings them to me,”
August declared. “One bite, and I knew I didn’t need ketchup or Heinz 57. He seasoned his eggs! And oh my gods, did he season the steak, it was amazing. He makes phenomenal caramelized bacon that he won’t tell me the secret of, and a breakfast burrito with a sweet and tangy barbeque sauce that he crumbles bits of caramelized bacon and onions in when he makes them. Talk about divine. You never have to worry about whether I’m getting yummy food or not. Gregor doesn’t play when it comes to making breakfast or boiling up some seafood, either. He made us lobster rolls for lunch, with a tangy chili lime mayo that made my taste buds sing. I do not have to worry about pulling together meals for us when we are at home if I don’t want to. Hell, last night, I forgot about dinner all together, until Gregor showed up with salads from Barnaby’s and urged me to have dinner with him.”
“Urged?”
she parroted, raising an eyebrow at him. “Not demanded.”
“Urged,”
he reiterated and I watched her lips lift into a smile again.
“As I said earlier, he’s a keeper,”
Aunty Clara declared, before pointing her butter knife at me. “Just don’t ever stop behaving that way, ya hear me? No matter how many years go past, you remember the joy of these first few weeks and that smile on his face, and you strive every day to keep it there, understood?”
“Understood and very easy to do when my mate is as remarkable as August.”
“I’m glad you see him for the treasure he is,”
Aunty Eunice said. “I hate when a mate needs some convincing to see that the fates know exactly what they’re doing when they choose a mate for someone. I’ve seen too many mates make problems for themselves by fighting against it, and sometimes it isn’t easy to move past that, which means it takes way longer for them to establish a connection with one another. There’s always a subtle disconnect there that they can never fully bridge. It’s a shame, but folks bring it up on themselves when they try to struggle too hard or question too much. Mates aren’t supposed to be the people you think you want; they are supposed to be the people you need and the people who need you. You were created to fill each other’s gaps and holes, be the strengths to each other’s weaknesses.”
“Two halves of a whole,”
I said, though it really felt like I was finishing some sort of declaration I didn’t fully understand.
As we sat there finishing our meals, I started to feel like they hadn’t had the best experiences with the younger generations who were just beginning to find their mates. Was it really so difficult to cherish a mate immediately, simply because the fates had entrusted them into your care? For me, just knowing he was mine was all it had taken. Full-stop, my wolverine said mine and immediately started pushing for us to learn all that we could about who August was, deep down. The things he liked, what he needed, and how he preferred to be loved. There was no purer faith in our beliefs and traditions than one could display as embracing the mate or mates you were given, at least in my opinion. Before tucking into the rest of my meal, I gave silent thanks to the fates for shining on me when they’d given me August.