Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
"Oh. My. God," Iggy gasped, mouth open, eyes huge, her head shaking a little like she wasn't sure she was actually seeing what she was seeing. "Ohmygod," she added, slapping her hand on the table.
Olive, oblivious to the big reveal moment, steadily ripped a glazed donut into four pieces, handing one to each dog and then herself.
"Yeah," I said, lips curving up tentatively. "I was, ah, going to get to that."
"Get to that," she squeaked. "This is the kind of information you use to cut into my monotonous dialogue. Holy shit."
Iggy, as a rule, rarely cursed. Vance had told me it was something that was still the same about her. So the fact that she was cursing was just proof of her excitement.
"Guess who was at the clubhouse when she finally rolled her ass back into this town?" Vance asked, giving me a smile.
"Okay. Okay. I am going to need this story from the beginning," she decided, reaching for the jelly donut—sugared, not powdered, because she had very strong opinions on such things.
"Ollie, didn't you say you were working on getting those fatties to lose some weight?" Vance asked, nodding down at the dogs she was handing more donut pieces to.
"That's not a nice word," Olive insisted, giving her uncle a firm look.
"No, it's not," Iggy agreed. "But now that they are full of donuts, maybe you can go run them around the backyard for a little bit," she suggested.
Ollie, clearly a wild, outdoors sort of kid, took off full-tilt, the dogs barreling behind their reckless leader.
We waited until we heard the screen door smack against the frame before we went into it.
All of it.
My past.
The homecoming.
The build-up between me and Vance.
Iggy was silent afterward, her jelly donut still in her hand, uneaten.
"So," she said finally after sorting through her thoughts. "What I am hearing is, I get to be a maid of honor in the near future."
"Iggs..." Vance tried.
"What? That's what I heard. And just so you know, if you expect Ollie to be a flower girl, you are going to have to let her dress the dogs up in dresses and walk down with her. That's... just the way it is going to have to be."
"Iggy, things are new," I insisted.
To that, she rolled her eyes.
"New," she scoffed. "I believe you told me you were going to marry Vance when we were all of, what, thirteen years old? This is the oldest of old news, if you ask me. Oh, what did your dad say?" she asked, looking between us.
"He said it made sense," Vance answered.
"It does though. So, what is the color palette for the wedding? And who is in charge of the bachelorette party?"
"God, I missed you," I told her, the words bursting out from somewhere deep.
"I missed you too," she said, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand. "And I kind of wished we knew you were coming..."
"You have something going on?" I asked.
To that, her smile spread, eyes bright. "Krav Maga class for me. Karate for Ollie."
My own smile curved upward at that, my eyes getting just the tiniest bit glassy.
Iggy had been the one to help me shave my head, to feed me after I escaped the basement, to give me what precious few valuable possessions she had so I could hock them for bus and food money while I ran off to find my new path in life. And my parting wish had been to beg her to join a self-defense class, to make sure she could handle herself in a fight, to make it so no one could ever snatch her up off the street.
She took that to heart.
And she hadn't just gone for a couple weeks after I left out of respect for my request.
No.
She was still going nearly nine years later. She was bringing her daughter too.
"Your aunt Lo is still giving us both free classes. In exchange for advance copies of the audiobooks I narrate."
Some things never changed.
Aunt Lo and her deeply rooted love of all things romance.
The unshakable bonds of true friendship even when life tears you apart for a long span of time.
And the mushy-heart feel of your first true love, I added to myself as Vance's hand squeezed my thigh under the table.
I had been so terrified to come home, so uncertain of what I might come back to.
As it turned out, it was exactly what I had left behind.
Family.
Friends.
Love.
"Good timing, actually," Vance said, swiping through a text with his free hand. "Chris wants to talk to us," he said, glancing at me. "She's at our place."
"Do you hear that, Ferryn? Your place," Iggy said, placing a hand over her heart, faux swooning. "It's all our girlhood dreams coming true."
"Rein it in a little Iggs," Vance demanded, but was smiling as he did it.
"Go go, be in love. I will start picking out bridal magazines. Good timing, Ollie," she said as her daughter came rushing in. "We have to get ready for class. Say goodbye to Uncle Vance and Aunt Ferryn. They have to go and nest."