1

You know how on TV there’s always this big to-do when both sides of the family meet for wedding planning, and there’s all this tension, and it usually ends disastrously?

Had I mentioned how glad I was that I didn’t have to deal with any arguing? Seriously, this wedding business was stressful enough. I couldn’t imagine throwing family drama on top.

Fortunately for me, all my family loved each other, and I was including the Havilis because Kanye and Alani were already parents to me. With all the love, support, and time I’d received from their family, how could I not? I knew it made Donovan super happy we all cared deeply for each other. I was just relieved I didn’t have the stereotypical mother-in-law from hell.

I looked around the back deck of the Havili house, taking everyone in with a smile. Mom sat next to Kanye on the deck, laughing at something he’d said. Adjacent to them sat Alan and Grant, and Grant said something I didn’t quite catch, but it set Mom and Kanye off all over again. Eight months had passed since our crazy Tree Case, as everyone called it. During those eight months, a lot of positive things had happened. My mom had bonded properly to both Alani and Kanye, much to their mutual delight. She was better taken care of now than she’d ever been, and honestly? She looked ten years younger. She glowed with happiness and health in a way I’d never seen. She told me she’d lost twenty pounds, and I believed her. She looked trimmer.

Also joining the family was Grant Walker, since he and Alan were firmly a thing now. Sometimes, Grant seemed a little bewildered about how he’d come by Alan and been sucked into the Havili clan, but he wasn’t protesting either. Honestly, Grant was a very welcome addition. I’d always liked him; he was one of the best men I knew, so being able to call him cousin was fine by me. He and Alan maintained they were “trying this out first,” but I could see from their lines they were solid. I had no worries about them.

The divine scent of barbecue perfumed the air, and I breathed it in with a smile, even though my stomach was past the point of rupture. I had definitely overeaten. I felt a food coma coming on, especially while sitting in the shade on this fine sunny day. A nap sounded great. Skylar sat opposite me next to her parents and shot me the same sleepy grin, patting her belly in an exaggerated way. Yeah, kid, I’m with you. Food coma incoming.

Donovan slid in next to me on the bench, putting an arm around my waist and kissing my forehead. “Don’t fall asleep.”

“Just a little nap…” I murmured, mostly teasing.

“Nope, main event is coming up.”

Ah. Right. The reason we were all here today. We had to set a wedding date.

I loved Donovan to hell and back, and I trusted him absolutely, so I wasn’t nervous about marrying him. I figured everyone got butterflies in their stomach when setting their wedding date, though. The anticipation was like a siren’s song to my desires.

Alani clapped her hands, coming to stand at the head of the large picnic table. She still wore an apron over her jeans and white shirt, dark hair up in a loose bun, looking quite excited as she spoke. “All right, everyone, don’t fall asleep on me. We’ve got things to discuss. Time to set a date for these two. Now, who’s got any major plans in the upcoming year?”

Now there was a good place to start. I knew Alani would be good at marshaling the troops. (No, I hadn’t asked her to take charge. She’d volunteered and I wasn’t stupid enough to say no.)

Kanye was the first to stir from his seat, picking up and sipping the last of his hard lemonade while he reminded his wife of something later this year. Another wedding, in fact, in Hawaii for his cousin. That got the ball rolling. People threw out a few things—vacations they’d already booked, other weddings they were set to attend—and what dates those spanned. Alani wrote them all down diligently, nodded, then lifted her planner in front of her. “Okay, that leaves us with a few possible months. July—”

Donovan immediately lifted a hand. “We want an outside wedding. No July.”

Oh, hell no. Nashville’s heat and humidity would kill us all.

Alani blinked at her son, head canting to the side. “Oh, you did decide on that?”

“We’d pretty much decided when I talked to you last.”

“Well, I know, but you weren’t firm on it, either.”

“If at all possible, we want one outside, as the venues we like are outdoors. If it’s not possible, we’ll be flexible and open to change.” Mostly because outdoor weddings were a lot easier on me. Being in massive indoor venues usually came with risks, and I didn’t want to stress myself or Donovan on our wedding day if I could help it.

Alani consulted her list and calendar again. “In that case…end of August? Last two weeks are free. Possibly September, too.”

Hmm, that did sound better, weather-wise. My concern was my new apprentice, who definitely wanted to be there for the wedding. She’d be back in school by that point.

It was like Donovan read my mind. “Abby won’t mind missing a day of school.”

I snorted because yeah, teenagers never did. “True. Although we could do a weekend, too, but I’m not going to be strict on the exact date.”

“My vote’s September.”

I had to agree that was likely the better choice. The weather would be cooling down some, and the rainy season wouldn’t fully hit until October. We should be in a better position.

Grant leaned around Donovan to give me a questioning look. “Abby? As in the girl from the Tree Case who’s like you?”

“That’s the girl. Abigail Moore is her name. She’s a Reader and has all the potential to be very, very good. She doesn’t run quite as hot as me, although electronics still suffer around her.”

“Sho’s working on EMP-shielded stuff for her,” Donovan threw in.

Thankfully. Her poor father would go broke replacing things at this rate. “But yeah, I’ve taken her on as an apprentice. Once school stopped, we started intensive training, and she’s really picking it up fast.”

“I still think it’s amazing another Reader is so close to us,” Mom said as she snitched another lemon cookie.

To be fair, the lemon cookies were amazing .

“It does beat the odds, doesn’t it?” Alan pushed his glasses up on his nose, the professor in him coming out strongly. “There’s not a set pattern to where psychics are born, although plenty of studies are trying to figure that out. But still, Readers are one of the rarer abilities, and seeing someone almost as strong as Jon is mind-boggling. The odds of this happening are rather astronomical.”

They were indeed. I was so achingly glad for Abby’s sake I was close. I remembered all too well having to figure out my abilities all on my own, and I didn’t wish the experience on anyone.

Except Rodger. I wished all evil and complicated things on Rodger.

Of course, Skylar had wholly different questions. “Is she cool?”

“She’s very cool.” I thought so, at least. Apparently, she also had a spine of steel, as she’d managed the whole craziness of the Tree Case like a trooper. “You’ll likely get to meet her soon. Anyway, September. What’s a good date in September?”

I could tell Alani was composing diplomatic phrasing. Her lines flared with a little caution. “Do you want an absolute set date? Or would you rather be flexible with the wedding venues?”

“Ohhh.” I hadn’t thought of that. “Some people probably locked in dates a year ago, right? Uh. Babe?”

Donovan shrugged. “I’d rather be flexible.”

“Yeah, me too. Let’s go with that option. I think even if we have to skirt up a bit, say…last week of August, or down to the first week of October, it’ll still be fine.”

“Agreed.” Alani looked visibly relieved we were being sensible. “Okay. Dates are good, then. Venue? Have you thought of it much?”

“I’d love to do Cheekwood.” Botanical garden weddings were always so pretty. “But I understand they’re quite popular for weddings.”

“They are, but we can try, Jon.” Alani noted down the venue.

Mom lifted a hand. “I will say, I know someone who has a farmhouse wedding venue. He’s right off the 840.”

That might be good. I checked with Donovan again and got a go-ahead nod. He was quite easygoing about all this. I got the impression he was fine with whatever, so long as it was a nice wedding and we were married by the end of the day.

“Mom, can you get details for us?”

“Sure. Farmhouse is a viable option, then?”

“Yeah, I think it’d be cool.”

Kanye, knowing his son well, pinned Donovan with a look. “You will not say ‘whatever Jon wants is fine.’ That’s too much pressure on Jon. Even if he can read you like an open book.”

Honestly, Donovan hadn’t been putting pressure on me. He just didn’t have strong opinions about most of the wedding. He was the one who had stipulated an outside venue, having foreseen trouble and wanting to enjoy a stress-free, happy day with me. We might have to do inside, though, and just find a low-tech venue.

I had my mouth open to say as much when Donovan spoke in a steady and somewhat amused tone.

“I actually have two very firm things I want in this wedding.”

See? He was actively participating.

Kanye grunted, satisfied. “All right, what are those two things?”

“First, any wedding colors you guys want to pick are fine, but not pink. I just can’t do the pink.”

His preference was completely fair. I had the right complexion to pull off pink, but I recognized not everyone did, and Donovan was not a pink kind of person. “I thought maybe classic colors? A black, silver, and white theme?”

Donovan’s eyes lit up. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

Alani scribbled that down. “I think it’s a great idea. Those are timeless colors and easy to match, too. What’s your second request, Donovan?”

“I don’t think we should be restricted by genders for our wedding party. With two men getting married, that means way too many groomsmen, and most of our groomsmen overlap.”

Ah. A wrinkle I had not thought of, but he was right.

“So I want bridesmaids, too.” Donovan nodded, sure of his own decision.

Well, if he wanted bridesmaids, then…I turned toward Natalie, who sat near the head of the table, and asked her, “Be my matron of honor?”

Her lines lit up with pure yellow joy, twined with golden love. “I’d love to!”

As expected of my sister. I got up from the table and scooted around so I could give her a hug. She hugged back, arms firm around my waist, body warm from the sun. I knew I could count on my sister. I’d always been able to.

I looked down at Skylar, who watched us with her own delight, and perhaps some wistfulness. Silly girl, I wasn’t done yet.

“Will you be my bridesmaid? Or I guess groomsmaid?”

Skylar immediately launched from her chair and joined in on the hug. “Absolutely!”

My best friend in the world was Donovan, but I could hardly ask him to be my best man, all things considered. Plus, I didn’t think I’d need one with Natalie as my matron of honor. That said… “Aaron, I want you as a groomsman.”

“Whole family’s getting involved.” Aaron grinned, white teeth flashing against his swarthy skin. “It’s my pleasure, Jon.”

“Thanks.” I had such amazing family, I really did.

Donovan pointed a stern finger at Garrett. “You can be my best man, but I swear to god, if you do something with a haunted theme, I will end you.”

Garrett laughed like the demented gremlin he was, not even remotely apologetic for his darker schemes. He put a hand over his heart, blinking those baby blues like he was innocent as the day he was born. “I can be good.”

“Ha! Fine chance of that.”

I knew those two had already promised to be best men for each other’s weddings, and I knew Sho and Garrett drew very close to the line of becoming engaged. After living with each other for over a year, they were a solid couple, and I didn’t see that changing in the future.

Mom fussed under her breath, “I wish his father was here for this.”

Dad and Neil were currently wrapped up in a case and hadn’t had time to make the drive over here. Being in the business myself, I completely understood.

“It’s fine. I promised to call them tonight and go over everything we decided. Um, speaking of, Alani? We do have one request.”

She gave me a go-ahead gesture.

“Can our grooms’ cake be your orange cake?” Please say yes. My taste buds were already singing. She generally only made the cake around Christmas and I neeeeeeded it before then.

Her lines lit up with faint surprise, then pride. “You really do love that cake. I’ll make it for you.”

Yaaaaaaaas! Victory~ “Thank you so much.”

Alani shot me a wink before going back to her planner. “All right, we’re making very good progress. Next thing we need to lock down is a venue and a guest list. I want you two to work on the guest list. I can work on the venue.”

“Sounds like a fair division of labor to me.” Donovan glanced at me. “Also, I’m saying this now, but I don’t want a huge wedding.”

Oh, fuck no. A big wedding sounded like so much work. “Guest list is one hundred people. Max.”

For some reason, everyone at the table gave me strange looks, like they were questioning my common sense.

Their reactions made me defensive. “What?”

“Jon,” Sho drawled, eyes rolling so hard they almost fell out of his head, “do you not understand how many friends you have? How many people will want to be there on your big day? Donovan, you as well, do you genuinely think you can get by with only inviting fifty people?”

Uh. The way he said that, it felt like I’d jumped to an assumption I should not have. “It can’t be that many. Can it?”

“How about you both make individual lists first, then combine them and see what the total is.” Sho shook his head fondly, but his lips were pursed in exasperation. “I think you’re forgetting that half the police station are good friends of yours.”

Ah.

Shit.

I kinda had? But Sho was right, there were a lot of work colleagues who were also friends, and I couldn’t discount them.

“Make the lists tonight,” Alani reiterated. “Then we’ll have a much better idea of what to plan for in terms of venue size.”

“Yup.” Donovan let out a low breath. “I think that’s the smarter plan.”

Mom, being an efficient person, already had a yellow notepad out and was jotting down names. Family members first, then friends we had in common, and I could see her list growing very quickly.

It didn’t upset me. Everyone needed a reminder sometimes of how much they meant to other people. This was such a reminder for me, and Donovan, as I could see the same sort of feeling in him.

Sitting here with my family and planning out my future, knowing I’d soon be surrounded by people who celebrated a huge milestone for me, I felt a euphoria like I’d never experienced before. A truly heady feeling, like I was so full of joy it threatened to spill over. It was such a beautiful moment, I felt it become a core memory in my head. I hoped I never forgot it.