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Nova lifted her head and sighed heavily before unwrapping her legs from around me and dropping to her feet. I turned to find her dad standing a few feet away with her mom, both of them grinning. Felicity handed her a bouquet of flowers and a cute little brown teddy bear.
“Congratulations, princess,” Jet said, enveloping his only daughter in a tight hug. “We’re so proud of you.”
“Thanks, Dad,” she murmured softly.
“I know you have plans with everyone tonight,” Felicity said with a sniffle. “But we would like to have a huge family breakfast in the morning before you leave.”
“That would be perfect, Mom,” Nova assured her with a loving smile. “Are you two all packed for your trip to Mexico?”
“You would think we were going for a year and not two weeks,” her dad grumbled, his lips twitching as he fought a grin. “But yeah, we’re all packed. Our flight isn’t until tomorrow evening, so we have plenty of time to spend with you in the morning.”
Nova’s fingers laced through mine, tugging me closer. I tucked her against my side and listened to the three Hannigans talking about the trip to Mexico and Nova’s summer plans before she started NYU in the fall. There was no wedding talk, however, and that put me on edge. Why weren’t they talking about her parents coming to New York so Felicity could go with her daughter to buy a wedding dress?
Noticing I’d been quiet during their conversation, Nova looked up at me with concern. This was a special day for her, so I pushed the whole thing to the back of my mind for the moment and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “Are you hungry?”
“I could eat,” she said with a smile.
“I’m starving!” Ciana complained as she joined our group. Dressed in a long, flowy skirt and matching top, she was dressed cooler than she had been the day before, yet the entire outfit looked huge on her, almost as if the clothes were wearing her and not the other way around. If she hadn’t been so hungry lately, I would have been worried that she was losing weight from how big her clothes were on her.
“You kids go on,” Felicity urged. “Have fun, but remember our breakfast plans.”
“See you in the morning,” Nova called after them as they walked toward the parking lot.
Samara skipped over to us, her long dark hair swinging back and forth over her shoulders as she grabbed Nova’s hands and started dancing around with her. “What do you want to eat? I could definitely go for some fries.”
“Yes!” Ciana exclaimed excitedly, licking her lips. “With chili and cheese and loads of jalapeños.”
The three of us stopped and gaped at her in surprise for a moment before she whined, “What?”
“Jalapeños?” Nova inquired. “You hate jalapeños, C.”
“Hate is rather harsh, don’t you think?” Ciana mumbled, tucking her arm through Nova’s as we walked toward the parking lot where the limos were parked. As we approached, Vito and Bennie stepped out of the back, already waiting on us.
“You threw a fit last fall that one time when our waiter forgot you said no jalapeños on your nachos,” Samara reminded her.
Ciana’s brow furrowed. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“She made him cry,” Samara whispered to Nova, making her giggle.
“Move your little ass, Ciana,” Bennie yelled, holding the door open. “We got shit to do.”
“Like what?” his sister snipped, slowing her pace just to piss him off.
The twins met my gaze over the girls’ heads and smirked. “This might be a small town, but there are still a few things we can do for fun.”
“There is plenty of fun,” Nova agreed. “But only Ciana and Ryan are technically old enough to enjoy it. Everyone knows who I am here. They won’t let me in the places that you two are used to sneaking in to have fun at. We should wait and celebrate the way you two want when we’re in New York.”
“But then I won’t get to go,” Samara pouted.
“We plan on taking you and Ciana out next week,” Vito assured Nova. “But tonight, we’re going to have a little excitement, and Sammy can go with us since it’s mostly PG-13 fun. Don’t worry, little cousin. We took care of everything.”
Nova looked up at me hesitantly. “Are you sure it will be okay? Yeah, Ben is the sheriff and all, but he can’t play favorites with it being an election year. I don’t want to get arrested the night before I leave.”
Laughing, I dropped a kiss on her lips. “No one is going to get arrested. I can’t say the same for when these two dumbasses take you out next weekend, but I promise you’ll like what they have planned for tonight.”
“Okay,” she said, snuggling into me. “But if the cops get called, I don’t know any of you psychos.”
“Same!” Ciana and Samara chimed in as they climbed into the back of the limo.
