Page 2 of My Orc Package Deal

What?

I laid all that out, and that’s your response? I’m over here lying in the dark, saying stupid shit to you about impossible dreams…

And I’m agreeing with you. Jay deserves a little brother like Milo. Milo deserves a brother like Jay.

Kesha, it’s not impossible.

Hear me out…

Chapter One

Kesha

Surely, I’m not the only woman who used to dream of her wedding day when she was a little girl?

I had this whole plan; my dress was going to be one of those slinky numbers that made my ass look amazing, then flared out to a mermaid skirt around my knees. I was going to carry white roses—I’ve always looked damn good in white—and wear a flower crown instead of a veil.

Yeah. It was going to be gorgeous.

But then.

But then life happened, yeah? I met a guy I liked, got pregnant, realized he wasn’t the kind of guy I wanted to deal with for the rest of my life, and I kicked him to the curb.

So that dream wedding? It never happened. My dreams changed—totally okay with it, don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t trade Milo for all the white roses in the world.

It’s just that now, on my actual wedding day…

Well, I never expected to be escorted down the aisle by my ten-year-old son, with me wearing the only white dress—a strappy little sundress whose built-in-shelf bra was working overtime on my size-F boobs—I owned.

It wasn’t even a proper aisle, either, just a row of chairs set up on the beach, because Milo’s bestie always wanted his dad to have a sunset beach wedding. The fact that the kid planned it was impressive as hell, but⁠—

“Kesha?”

I turned, wide-eyed, to my best friend, Jocelyn. Besides Milo, she was the only one here on Eastshore Isle on my side. She’d driven here just to support us, and⁠—

“Honey, breathe,” she hissed, her eyes darting to Milo—whom she’d more or less helped raise these last ten years—as if to tell me not to freak him out. “You okay?”

No, I wasn’t okay. I was marrying a stranger and moving to a new place surrounded by my husband’s friends, and the sun was setting and the music was starting and everything was going a little black⁠—

Oh. That was likely because of the lack of oxygen.

I sucked in a deep, shuddering breath and groped for Joss’s hand. She squeezed it as she turned to call Milo down from the dunes. In a daze, I helped remind him what was expected of him tonight, and frankly, I was glad for the distraction.

Anything to stop me from dwelling on what was about to happen.

I was going to marry Korrad, a complete stranger, just because our sons were best friends.

And because the healthcare policy he has will cover Milo’s therapy, and the school here on the island is exactly what Milo needs, and this stability will be a lot healthier for him than scrambling to make rent each month.

Milo.

The reminder of why I was doing this made it a little easier to breathe.

Yeah, I would do anything to make sure my son has a better future, and marrying an incredibly hot single father wasn’t a hardship at all.

When he’d suggested it, all those weeks ago over text, I’d thought he was bonkers. But his arguments were compelling, and I’d found myself slowly coming around. I still didn’t understand what Korrad got out of this marriage, but I couldn’t deny Milo was going to win at life with this move.

And that was enough.