You wouldn’t enjoy drinking ocean water.
I had to address the fears he’d mentioned last night. “I’m with you every step of the way on this pregnancy journey.”
I dipped under the water, allowing it to cover my shoulders as my panther shivered. I was worried Bronson felt so alone because he was the one carrying our child. And though I couldn’t take that burden from him, as his mate, I would listen to his concerns and do my best to soothe them away.
“I know, but somehow having you there… but not there at the same time, made it easier to confess.”
That was understandable. Dale used to say the same thing, and my folks ranted to their mate’s beast about wet towels on the bathroom floor and sticky socks.
“I’m apprehensive too, but we both had happy childhoods, so we have good examples to follow.” Though Bronson’s parents had divorced when he was a toddler, he had no memory of his father leaving. It’d always been him and his mom.
“And the great thing about having a beast is they can babysit while we nap.”
I pulled my mate into my arms, and we kissed as the waves splashed over us.
“I love you.”
“Love you too.” I held him close and placed a hand on his wet belly. “Both of you.”
“And I love all three of you. Baby, mate, and beast.”
20
BRONSON
As a shock to no one, my mother wanted a big-ass wedding. She wanted everybody she ever met to show up and celebrate our union… or less to celebrate our union and more to show us off. And while I appreciated that it was my mother’s dream, it was not mine. And the deeper we got into the planning trenches, the worse my dread of them became.
At first, I thought I’d go with it and let her plan the whole huge thing. What harm was there in giving her the magical wedding she’d always envisioned for me? But everything quickly got more complicated than that. She made lists, arranged fittings, multiple cake testings, and tours of far more venues that I’d known existed in a half-hour radius of our home. I’d had enough.
It was abundantly clear that this wedding was 100% about my mother and no one else. She wasn’t doing it on purpose. In her way, she thought she was helping. And if this had been my dream too, her help would’ve been immeasurable. But it wasn’t my dream, and it was adding a blanket of stress over me that I didn’t need, especially not when growing a baby.
Yes, I loved the idea of my mother accepting my mate fully and this was her way of showing it. That was great, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. But we didn’t need a big, fancy party with a thousand million gazillion people to see her acceptance. And yes, I was feeling dramatic about the entire situation, but I was allowed. I had quite a few more months where “hormones” was a complete excuse with no other explanation needed.
When I woke up this morning, my decision had been made. The wedding was off… at least that one. I still wanted to marry my mate. As much as I loved wearing his mark, I wanted to legally be tied to him too. Not only for myself, but also for our child. That was old-fashioned thinking, but so be it.
After getting dressed, I found Lincoln in the kitchen making us breakfast and announced, “We’re getting married today.”
“We’re what?” He set the spatula down. “Married?”
His response was fair. I’d sprung it on him.
“I don’t want to do the big wedding,” I said. “I don’t want to deal with my mother’s four thousand meetings with random people over details neither one of us will ever remember and that don’t matter even if we did. I just want to get married, kind of like how we just mated. It makes more sense.”
“I’m not turning you down, but... your mother. Would she be okay with that?” They’d gotten along really well after the whole flash mob engagement, and I thought he’d gotten past worrying about her. But then again, maybe he was worrying for me.
“Maybe. But it’s not her wedding.” I was going to stay firm on this. If I didn’t, it was going to keep chipping away at me, and that wasn’t good for my relationship with my mother or my baby.
“I know that.” He turned off the burner and put the pan to the side. “I’m willing to get married right this second. Not just willing. I’d love to. I’m already more committed to you than any piece of human paper could ever make me. If you give the word, I’m there, after I put on a pair of non-pajama pants. But I want you to know with certainty that you’re okay with this, for your mom.”
I loved how Lincoln was always looking out for me. When he said that mates always came first, that wasn’t a figure of speech. He meant it. I tried to give the same back to him.
“I can’t do the big wedding. I just... I don’t want to. And there’s no talking her out of it. I hinted that we didn’t need to go to a cake tasting, that any cake would be fine, and she cried.”
And that had turned into adding three more bakeries to our list of places to try. I’d been to a bunch of weddings in my life, and I never once thought about how good or bad the cake tasted after the event was over. Why she put such value in it didn’t make any sense to me.
“What if we have her come?” he asked.
“You think she’s just going to show up to the courthouse and not throw a fit?” Because I had a very vivid image running through my imagination where she was being escorted out by the security guard after shouting that she had a reason why we shouldn’t get married.
