13. Atticus #5
“I forgot they were grilling. Be warned, Lemon. My mom is an experimental cook. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s not. If it’s awful, don’t try to eat it, and we’ll get burgers on the way home,” Tori says with a laugh.
“Saturday is pot roast, not burgers,” Felix grumbles, his expression souring.
“Don’t worry, bro. If the food is a disaster, I’ll find you a pot roast,” I assure him.
His lips are still downturned, but he nods as we move as a group toward the back of the house. By the time we step into the backyard, Mom and Dad are wrapped in each other’s arms, dancing to music that apparently only they can hear.
For a moment, we all just stand and watch until Mom lifts her head and remembers that we’re here. “My babies,” she shrieks, batting away Dad’s hands in her haste to get to us. She reaches for Tori first. “Darling,” she coos, hugging my sister tightly.
“Hi, Mom,” Tori says.
Once she’s released Tori, she makes a beeline for Felix. “Felix, sweetheart, I missed you so much,” she gushes, wrapping her arms around my twin like an anaconda. Felix tolerates it, patting her lightly on the back until she finally lets him go.
When Mom turns to me, she sees Lemon and literally skids to a stop. “Hello, dear.”
“Hi, Mrs. Hoffman. I’m Lemon,” Lemon says sweetly.
“Pah! Amanda, please,” Mom corrects her. “Atticus, you said you were bringing someone, but you didn’t mention how stunning she was. You lucky, lucky boy,” Mom says as she pulls first Lemon, then me in for a hug.
Once Mom releases us, Dad steps forward. “It’s nice to meet you, Lemon. I’m Ron.”
“Hi,” Lemon says, leaning into me slightly, like she needs my support.
Before anyone else has a chance to speak, the front door crashes open, and moments later the twins burst into the backyard.
A new round of hellos starts with Jude scooping Tori off her feet and spinning her around while she giggles loudly. Without putting her down, he passes her to August, who spins her in the opposite direction. “Put me down. I’m going to throw up,” Tori exclaims, still laughing.
Jude hugs and presses a kiss to Mom’s cheek, then gives Dad a one-armed hug before he reaches Felix. Unlike the hug my twin gave my mom, when Jude wraps Felix in his arms, he hugs him back tightly, repeating the action again with August.
Once they both step away from Felix, they turn their identical faces on Lemon and me.
“Oh, you’re identical,” Lemon exclaims.
“Well, helllooo,” August purrs, elongating the word. “I’m August, this one’s better-looking brother.”
“Hi, August. I’m Lemon,” she says, relaxing a little against my side.
“Actually, I’m the better-looking one,” Jude says, checking his twin out of the way as he grabs Lemon’s hand and lifts it to his mouth, pressing a kiss against the back of it.
“Mine,” I growl, dragging Lemon’s hand away from my brother and pulling it to my chest.
Both twins’ eyes go wide before they glance at each other and start to chuckle. “Daddy Bear found a mate,” August says, his words full of amusement.
“Now that we’re all here, I have an announcement to make,” I say.
Lemon stiffens again, but I’d rather tell everyone our news now than wait.
“I asked Lemon to marry me, and she said yes. The wedding is in six weeks.”
For a moment there’s complete silence, then Tori starts to giggle, her lips split into a wide grin. “Congratulations, you guys. That’s incredible news.”
“Holy shit,” Jude exclaims. “Daddy Bear didn’t just find a mate, he found a wife.” Rushing toward us, he pulls both Lemon and me into a hug. “Welcome to the family, sis.”
Just as I expected, the twins and Tori are more than happy for us and immediately claim Lemon as their new sister, while my hopelessly romantic parents take our announcement in their stride and start asking questions about the wedding.
“So where are you going to get married?” Mom asks Lemon.
“We only got engaged yesterday. I haven’t really given the actual wedding much thought,” she admits, looking a little shell-shocked.
“How about the country club? I doubt you’ll be able to get a Saturday at such short notice, but people get married any day of the week these days.”
“Oh, a country club,” Lemon says, her eyes wide and clearly overwhelmed.
“They have security follow me around like I’m going to steal the pictures off the walls any time you drag me there,” I tell Mom. “I was thinking more like a flower meadow at sunset or something low-key.”
“A flower meadow?” Lemon gasps.
“Yeah?” I ask.
She nods, her eyes going glassy.
“Hal Williams’s ranch is absolutely gorgeous, and there are a few beautiful fields the county pays him to keep full of wildflowers to attract the bees. I could ask him if you could get married there,” Tori suggests.
“Do you think he’d let a bunch of strangers get married on his property?” I ask.
“I’ll introduce you both to Bonnie, his daughter, and her husband, Beau. You’ll be family within an hour of meeting her. You’ll also double your wedding guest list because there are so many Barnetts it’s insane. But you’ll love them. They’re the best kind of people,” Tori assures us.
After the shock of our news has passed, dinner is easy.
The twins flirt with Lemon while my parents ask semi-interested questions about mine and Felix’s warehouse and the twins’ temporary condo home.
I know they don’t mean to be disinterested, but ultimately, they only have eyes and real interest in each other.
I suppose it should be nice that they’ve rekindled the kind of love that brought them together in the first place, but watching your parents make out at the dinner table is just kind of creepy.
By the end of the night, we’ve all witnessed as much PDA as we can handle.
“Goodbye, my darlings,” Mom says, hugging us all again as we head for the door. “Goodbye, Lemon. It was so lovely to meet you, and congratulations. Love works in mysterious ways, and you and Atticus are so lucky to have found each other.”
Once the six of us are at the end of the drive, I exhale. “Jesus, were they worse than usual?” I ask my siblings.
“Yes,” Jude groans. “Dad had his tongue in Ma’s mouth at one point.”
“She licked him,” Tori grimaces. “She leaned over and licked his neck. God, why are our parents so gross?”
“Why are we not talking about the boner he had the whole night?” August asks with a pained chuckle.
“No child should ever have to see their parents that horny.” Tori mock-shudders.
“I think it’s kind of cute that your parents are so in love,” Lemon says quietly.
“Oh, you think it’s cute today, but will it still be cute when they’re dirty dancing at your wedding?” August asks.
Lemon grimaces a little. “Surely they wouldn’t.”
“Oh, they would. Our cousin got married a couple of years ago, and they were practically dry humping on the dance floor. Everyone was so uncomfortable that the DJ put one of those songs on where everyone lines up and does the dance moves just to split them up. It was that or throw a bucket of water over them,” Jude tells her.
“Oh god.” Lemon giggles.
“We’ve got an early skate in the morning, so we should get going,” August announces.
“When is your next home game? I’ll bring Lemon to watch,” I ask him.
“We’ve got one the day after tomorrow, then we’ve got a long away series. We’re playing our last home game before the playoffs in a month. You should come and watch then. The atmosphere will be crazy because it might be our last game of the season,” Jude tells us.
“We’ve got family seats a few rows from the front. We only get two each this season because we only recently got traded, but as we’re tied for the top scorers since we joined the team, they’ll probably allocate us more next season,” August says.
“Oh, my friend Verity is a huge hockey fan. If you have any home games in the playoffs, I might see if she and her husband, Warrick, want to come watch with Nero and me. He’s still never seen you play,” Tori suggests.
“Hell yes. You guys can party with us and the rest of the team afterward. They’re mostly a great group of guys,” Jude says.
“Mostly?” Lemon asks quietly.
“The Marauders are an expansion team, so most of the players were picked from other NHL teams. We never really have a choice about being traded, but the expansion draft that took place was completely out of even the other clubs in the league’s control too.
For people like Jude and me, it worked out perfectly.
We wanted to come to Montana, so we had our agent negotiate a trade for us outside of the draft.
But others on the team were just given a few days to pack up and move out here.
One of our players was in the middle of a nasty divorce when he got the news that he’d been selected.
His ex has used the fact that he’s now on the other side of the country to file for sole custody of their kids,” August explains.
“That’s awful. And there’s nothing he can do?” she asks.
“Not unless he quits or becomes a free agent. But that’s a huge risk and could be a career ender. Plus, the team he left in Chicago will have replaced him already,” Jude says.
“Hopefully he has a good lawyer,” I say.
“And a good prenup,” Tori interjects.
“Come on then, bro. Let’s get back to the condo of misery,” Jude says on a sigh.
“The condo of misery?” Felix asks, speaking for the first time in a while.
“The team condos are the most depressing things in the world. They’re all identical corporate rentals, which I get because the team had to house us all pretty quickly.
But they’re beige and boring, and I can’t fucking wait until we have time to start looking for a place in Rockhead Point with you guys,” August says on a sigh.
“Are you thinking of buying or renting?” Tori asks. “You can always move into the apartment above the shop until you find somewhere.”