Tricks of Love (Second Book of "Fire and Ice" series)

EPILOGUE: The Lucas-Denisov family

Damn, I couldn’t wait any longer.

Man, these had been the longest three years of my life, but hey, now we were here and I knew we couldn’t do differently.

You see, Jasper went for the master because he eventually decided to take part of his family business and began to follow his dad’s guidance and as well his grandfather, another apparently stuck-up snob that at first had something to say about his nephew going to marry another man and Russian to boot it. Crap, the first time we met he looked at me and began to lecture me about the freaking Cold War…I mean, can you believe it? Man, I think I didn’t burst out laughing like a moron only because it was my monkey’s family. Well, he could suck it up and he actually did suck it and the old man came along and we discovered he was quite the funny one, stressed by his wife and it reminded me a lot of Edward, Jas’s dad. The old man gave me the precious advice to let the women handle everything, if I valued my mental sanity.

So you see, we had to wait and Jasper was still studying right now, but three years had already passed and a few months ago, when Travis said he would soon be back to New York, I decided the waiting was over and began to plan the wedding. Alright, I simply said we were going to marry at the end of summer and then Jasper and his crazy friend, and then my mum and his mother planned the wedding and nicely told me to stay in the corner and say no word.

Man, they were nuts, I’m telling you.

Right, even Jasper after a very short while gave up and told them to have their fun and way, as he didn’t fancy going insane with all those details. The problem was that Mrs. Lucas decided it had to be a great event, given his son was marrying another important person and she wasn’t going to let us have a simple and intimate ceremony. The second problem was that my mum agreed with her and Good Lord, they scared me.

You think I argued against that? You crazy man? I sure did not.

Never go between a woman and the organization of a wedding, you were going to risk your life and no kidding mate; Jasper’s grandpa was right.

And Mrs. Lucas sure was your typical mother in law, always having something to nag or argue about, like the size of our apartment, my hockey engagement, my choice of tuxedo, the choice of the furniture for the flat, and more and more. I’ll never let her have the key of our house, I swear it. She would be capable of sneaking in when we were away and change whatever she didn’t like. No freaking way in hell. But hey, she might be a pain in the neck, but she completely came around the whole gay deal and I know she and her husband were trying to work to improve their relationship.

Alright, she didn’t change from one day to another, but slowly.

When we announced the engagement we almost risked a major crisis, because she went ballistic saying we were too young and we still had no idea what it really meant to get marry and spend an entire life together, what were the duties behind it and what were the rules and all of those craps. For crying out loud, who gave a damn about that crap? I loved Jasper and I wanted to spend my life with him, period. Of course I knew what my responsibilities were. Good thing Edward took our side and slowly we explained the situation to her and she accepted it after no little struggling, believe me. We had another rather unconventional chat, just the two of us, where I told her once again to shut up and suck it up and man, you’ll never believe it, but she stopped and smiled at me. First time ever Mrs. Lucas spared a smile to me. I remember she sat on the chair of the studio and then let go of a sound that resembled a chuckle and I think I looked like a moron staring at her with confused expression, because she stood up again and taking one of my hands, she told me to take great and perfect care of her son.

And that was the occasion she sneakily extorted the promise to arrange the whole wedding. I should have known it. Hayden had warned me about that…