A Selkie Story

Chapter Nineteen: A Wedding... Or Two?

Andrei's eyes met mine and he winked. I rolled my own, waving away Sarah's curious look, and introduced him to Tracie and Andy, who were much more chill in their reactions to meeting my boyfriend. Rita and Christie varied between fake easygoing and openly fangirling like Sarah had. My aunts and uncles were no different. In hindsight, they might've been the worst of the group, since they would not stop asking us questions. It was almost constant!

Finally, I was able to get the two of us away from my nosey family members to go help finish some projects for the reception. Andrei showed how good he really was at building things and quickly took over. Feeling in the way, I migrated to filling mason jars--of all things!--with fairy lights and mini bouquets.

We spent the rest of our first day in Arizona helping out with decorations, and secretly sneaking samples of the refreshments Mom was able to make from home. Andrei started to show Andy and his sister Tracie how to use some of the tools and what to do, so the work went even faster.

I was taking a break, overheated a little bit, and sipping lemonade on the back porch, watching them manhandle a trellis with ever increasing precariousness, when Mom came out to sit by me.

"Andrei's such a nice boy." She commented, as Andrei laughed jovially at Tracie and Andy's attempts to straighten out the ever-twisting trellis.

"He really is." I agreed, smiling at the spectacle.

"You know, your father and I have been watching you two--"

"Ooh, creepy~" I jibed, and she chuckled,

"And, we think you two work very well together. Would you be alright if your dad talks with Andrei one-on-one sometime? I know--" She held up her hands to stop me before I interrupted her, "that you haven't been dating long, but honey," Mom took my lemonade from my hand to set it down, then covered mine with hers, "sometimes two people just click."

I sighed, and looked down at my legs for a second.

"Okay. I think that'd be okay." I acquiesced.

Mom rubbed her thumbs over my captured hands, then dropped them and stood.

"Gotta get back to the bread, it needs another round of punching!"

I shook my head, laughing softly at her, and looked back out at my selkie laughing and poking fun with my cousins.

To me, as of this moment, he seemed to fit right in.

***

The ceremony went by without a hitch.

All the decorations were beautiful, including Tracie and Andy's attempt at a trellis. Christie and I took it upon ourselves to artfully arrange flowers and greens among the crickety structure.

Molly's fiance, James, had a large family as well, except his cousins were older and thus had little ones as well. Since we, apparently, looked like the best options, with Evelyn sitting by my side, children started to gravitate towards our side of the venue. Evelyn quickly made friends with the other kids her age, and they went off to sneak desserts from the refreshments table. That left a few preschoolers and one squalling ten month old, handed to me by a mother wanting to dance with her husband to "their song," apparently. Now the unofficial babysitters of the wedding, we looked at each other, then burst into laughter, which startled the baby I held into crying a little bit louder.

Remembering my time as a helper when Evelyn was born, I started pacing and bouncing, cooing softly to the light-haired baby boy. When I paused to turn in my rounds, I noticed Andrei had started to swing the little preschoolers one by one into the air. He never let them go, of course, but the exhilaration of defying gravity caused the dapper little things to cling to Andrei's pants begging for their turn next. My heart melted, and I smiled at my selkie boy softly.