Mixed Match

by MIA HEINTZELMAN

  As the DJ handed the mic to Julie, Everett steadied himself.

  He stood taller and picked up the wooden box he’d set on the ground. Every nerve ending in his body pulsed. His heart pounded in hard thuds, as if time were slowing. With a deep breath, he took two steps forward before coming to a stop.

  The music faded into the background and Julie's voice flooded the mic.

  "My husband and I...my husband." Julie repeated to herself, seeming to test the word on her tongue before letting a giggle slip out. "I can't get over it. It still sounds so weird, but I love it. We love you guys, and we just wanted to take some time to thank everyone for coming out to share our special day with us." She was glowing and giddy as she dragged Nico to the center of the dance floor. "Get over here with me."

  Laughter rolled over the tables at Nico's bashful reluctance to take the spotlight.

  "We are so happy and so in love. I can't even tell you how thankful we are to have you guys. And the gifts you've given us... I can't even tell you how much—"

  "Okay, okay. They get it. Get to the point," Nico interrupted her to the tune of a fresh wave of giggles.

  Julie playfully rolled her eyes and began again. "Anyway, before we start the Electric Slide and La Tarantella and all that good stuff, we thought, what better way to show our thanks than to give a gift of our own?" The guests immediately went wild with speculation. Oohs and ahhs buzzed among the wide-eyed, open-mouthed family and friends. By the way Julie said it, a gift of our own, there was plenty of room for conclusions to be drawn about further extending the family.

  "Um, no. We're not pregnant." She pursed her lips and cocked her head in a sassy, reprimanding way. It said, you know me better than that. "The gift we want to give is for my cousin Sophia." Nico and Julie turned to face her and a spotlight followed.

  Sophia was talking to a curly-haired Latina bridesmaid seated beside her, but at the mention of her name, her head shot up just in time for the light. She shielded her eyes with her hand, but judging by her unblinking stare, the surprise worked.

  Everett slowly put one foot in front of the other and moved down the sloped walkway toward the courtyard.

  She continued to scan the tables, appearing to find a couple of hundred pairs of eyes trained on her. The way she ran her hand over the nape of her neck was innocent and sexy all at the same time. Immediately, he felt a tightening low in his belly. Still, she didn't look in his direction.

  "Can we get a little help?" Julie said into the mic. She was looking right at Everett as he reached the tables surrounding the dance floor. "All the way from Portland to help us deliver this gift... Zora? Mike? Can you help me?"

  Uh, come again?

  For a split second, Everett thought he misheard. But then, from the right of the dance floor, near a gazebo tucked in between the trees emerged his sister and his best friend.

  Everett's brows twisted in knots. This was not part of the plan. Julie gave him the time. He was going to beg for her forgiveness, atone with his grandmother's box. He was going to give her everything, no strings attached. And if she didn't want him, she would have to push him away, because he wasn't going anywhere.

  He needed to do this by himself.

  It was what love meant. Everett was going to give her every opportunity to try again. He wasn't going to be the one walking away this time.

  "Come on up, guys." Julie squealed and bounced, while the hem of her dress rose and fell like a graceful, slow-rhythm bird’s wings.

  His sister took the mic and, just as she was about to speak, movement behind her caught Everett's eye. Sophia was standing. Disbelief and shock smoothed the fine lines of her face, and she was staring right at him.

  Somewhere far off he could hear Zora talking, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from Sophia. Her warm brown eyes were clear as glass and unblinking. Soft waves framed the curves of her face, and she was even more beautiful than he remembered. They were too far apart to say anything to each other, but he could feel the weight of her gaze skimming over every inch of his body, searching him. Without saying a word, he was telling her he was here. He showed up when it mattered.

  He was begging her not to get over him.

  "Congratulations, Nico and Julie, and thank you for helping us do what my brother should have done in the first place. Oh, and by the way, we see you, Ev." Zora pointed out into the crowd.

  Out of nowhere, another spotlight weaved through the tables and found him.

  "That guy, right there? He’s my brother and Mike's best friend. He's older, but he's stubborn, hardheaded, and childish. If he had listened to me in the first place, we could all be dancing together and getting way too drunk by now, but here we are."

  Heat crawled up Everett's neck to his cheeks as he smiled through clenched teeth. I'm going to put you in a headlock, Zo and give you the most excruciating noogie I can manage.

  "Look, I know you're going to kill me later for this anyway, so you might as well let me enjoy it." She smirked and stuck her tongue out at him.

  Luckily, Mike yanked the microphone out of her hands. "In the interest of time, I'm going to sum this up. Take a look at these two people in the spotlights." He paused for an excruciatingly long time while an endless sea of faces got a good look at Everett and Sophia. Mike’s expression was both endearing and serious, like what he was about to say was of the utmost importance.

  And long.

  Everett's ears perked up and he straightened. If anyone could recognize the changes in him, it was Mike.

  "They have a love—"

  Before he could finish his sentence, Zo, who appeared as clued in about Mike's tendency to be long-winded as her brother, grabbed the mic back. In her typical, impulsive way, she blurted out, "Sophia, please marry my brother and be my sister. We love you, and he's a miserable mess without you."

  The roar of the place going wild seemed to be perfectly timed with the first teardrop tracing the curve of Sophia's cheek. As soon as she covered her face with her hands, Everett set the box on a tabletop and frantically pushed his way through the crowd.

  He was being drawn to her.

  As soon as he reached Sophia’s side, he pried her fingers away, and her eyes snapped open. The same longing he felt every second they were apart brightened her brown irises, and he knew, deep down, that if he hadn’t shown up for her, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life.

  "I'm here." He was breathless. "Please don't be over me." Even to his own ears, he sounded strained and desperate. He didn't let go of her hand. He twined their fingers together.

  She blinked back a fresh wave of tears and, in a whisper, said, "It was you." The raw emotion in her voice hit him right in the heart.

  She did see him in the church.

  Everett nodded and folded her into his arms. She was warm and comfortable, like coming back home after a long time away. "She's right," he said. "I do love you, and I am a complete mess without you, Sophia."

  The tightness in her shoulders loosened against his arms, and the natural ease of their embrace lifted and expanded something inside him, as if he was weightless and floating. Her sweet, tangy scent teased his senses, and his stomach flipped. Heat seared through him, nudging the carnal need inside him, and he stiffened.

  Every part of him hardened.

  Sophia peeked up at him with a glint of amusement. "I can tell you've missed me."

  "Every inch of me missed you. Every. Inch." A crooked smile lifted the corner of his mouth. She felt so good. Touching her was life. Electricity coursed through him. "I love you." With a press of his palms over the small of her back, he lowered his mouth and softly brushed his lips against her full pout. It started out gentle and tender until Everett deepened the kiss. His breath turned shallow and labored, and he couldn’t let go. His hands roamed over the smooth silk dress, gripping the fabric tight. How he wanted to feel her skin against his again.

  For a moment they weren’t surrounded by hundreds of people, waiting and watching. They all fell
away, and it was just the two of them, with Sophia skimming her fingertips over the back of his neck, holding him tight against her body, the need between them growing more urgent.

  She kissed him again. "I love you too. I was trying, but I'm not over you." She snickered, her shoulders shaking gently in his arms. "Are they all still watching?"

  "Uh-huh."

  It didn't take long for Zora, who still refused to unhand the mic, to clear her throat in surround sound. "Ahem. You do know we're still here. Wedding. Marriage. Is any of this ringing any bells for you two perverts? There are children here."

  This time, Sophia and Everett doubled over in stitches. The agony and hopelessness he felt moments before melted in laughter, and it felt so good. For the first time since he arrived at the wedding, he finally felt like celebrating.

  When they came up for air, he raised their clasped hands to the sky victoriously and announced, "She's not over me!"

  Champagne flutes raised and clinked. "Aguri!" someone shouted in the distance.

  "Okay, so can we wrap this up?" Zora asked.

  "Wait." Everett held up his index finger, begging his sister and Julie for a few more minutes. He kissed Sophia's hand before releasing it to walk over to the table where he left the box. When he retrieved it, he hurried back to her and went down on one knee.

  Sophia gasped and covered her mouth, which was apparently contagious, because a wave of gasps circulated through the tables.

  Everett clutched the wooden box in his left hand and tenderly held hers in his right. "Sophia Kent, I love you."

  The din of the crowd fell away, and Zora rushed the microphone over to him. "We can't hear you."

  "I said, I love you, Sophia Kent," he repeated for the sake of his audience, which normally would have rendered him speechless, but something about the way she was looking at him now, mesmerized and hopeful, gave him the push he needed.

  "For so long, all I thought about was getting my grandmother's house back, putting it back in the family name. But it didn't bring her back. It didn't change what family means to me. It took me almost losing you to realize my family's house won't be a home without you in it."

  He sat the mic on his lap for a second and opened Babs’s box.

  "This box belonged to my grandmother, Barbara Monroe. She raised me and my sister, and loved us the way our parents couldn’t. She gave me this box when I was a kid, telling me it was for capturing all my dreams. When she passed away it was taken from me, and I just this week got it back." He reached in and lifted out a yellowing paper folded in half.

  "Almost every wish she made for me has come true," he continued. "I'm giving this box to you now, Sophia, hoping you'll make her last wish and my dreams come true. Inside, along with her list, you'll find her wedding ring, my grandparents’ love letters, a rattle, and a silver spoon from my childhood, and the keys to our family home, where I hope we’ll live happily ever after together. And I’ve already added a few other things for you too.”

  She was crying freely now, but Everett remained steadfast in his mission. lifting out a neatly folded stack of papers while smiling at her. “This is the lease for the retail pad for your restaurant, and a love letter for every day we were apart. Sophia, if you’ll make my dream come true and be my wife, I’ll spend the rest of my life working to make your dreams come true, too."

  The sting of overwhelming joy pricked at his eyes as she nodded. “Yes,” she cried through a million kisses.

  It was really happening.

  He placed the papers back inside the dream catcher, retrieving the sparkling diamond ring from its small velvet box before setting everything else on the ground. "I can’t wait to marry you."

  As he slid the ring on her finger, Sophia beamed, glowing with joy. “I love you so much.”

  She grabbed the mic, laugh-crying, and said, "And I'll be your sister, Zo. I'll be Blue's fur mom, too. And I'll even be your sister, Mike. Now let’s celebrate."

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sophia ripped the strip of duct tape off the seam of the last box, feeling awesome and mighty. She bounced up and down releasing a few air punches and cracking her neck like a lightweight champ.

  "It's done! We're officially unpacked," she announced to her big, loud, annoying, amazing family.

  "Whew, what a relief," her mother yelled from the living room, where she’d parked herself hours ago beside the fireplace with a glass of Pinot Grigio.

  Finally, she did feel like a badass, knife-wielding chef, complete with her big girl panties. From the box she removed a few dozen movies and set them on the dining room table. "It's fucking amazing."

  She cursed like one, too. She hoped Julie noticed and approved of her gratuitous profanity.

  A roar of laughter pinballed off the walls in the other room. Awash in the smorgasbord of chortles and giggles, she was both validated by and enamored with her family. She could make out each one just as easily as their familiar faces.

  This was home.

  "Hallelujah, we found my cousin!" Julie shouted. She lifted her hands in praise from the kitchen, where she was stuffing her face. The leftover chocolate ganache truffles Sophia was considering for her new restaurant, Bite-Sized, got at least six or seven votes of approval from Julie alone. "That's more like it. You curse like a badass boss, Soph. I can't tell you how fucking tired I was of all those peachy-something or the sugar-honey iced teas. Ugh." She giggled.

  She and Nico flew into Portland after their honeymoon in Italy, and the next thing Sophia and Everett knew, unloading and moving into Patton Place turned into a full-fledged unpacking party.

  Full house was right. Not only were Julie and Nico there, but Aunt Marian and Stan decided to take a coastal drive up. Not to be outdone, Mom opted to invite Otis, who just so happened to have a pilot license...and a private jet.

  The house was almost as noisy as Julie and Nico’s reception at its height. So loud Sophia could barely hear herself think, but she loved it, every nit-picky bit of her mother making a big to-do about nothing. Every room filled with life and laughter, all the love in the world under one roof.

  For the first time in a long time, this was not a one-woman job.

  "Soph, pause the movie. What flavor do you want?" Everett asked from the kitchen. "I'm feeling brave. Going to try the pickle ice cream. We have antacids upstairs, right?"

  "Shh, shh. The ghost killer is about to get him." From the couch, Sophia squirmed and hugged her knees to her chest. Her eyes were covered, but she could see slivers of the horror movie on the screen through her splayed fingers. The senator was hidden from the demon, but she knew the jump-scare was coming.

  "Last call," he said, rinsing the scoop under the faucet. "You've seen this one a million times. I don't know why you act like you don't know what's going to happen."

  No sooner did he clank the bowl on the counter did Sophia let out a gut-wrenching yelp followed by an ear-piercing shriek, which seemed to set off the rest of the women in the house.

  "Goddammit. I don't know why you can't pick something normal to watch. There are plenty of good movies out," Mom said. "I've been dying to see the new one with Meryl Streep. You know it got an Oscar nod. Blood and guts are just not my thing, honey."

  Sophia ignored her mother. "I'll take the Rainbow Berry, babe."

  "See? This is how I know you love this movie. You would never pair fruity with a horror movie unless it got a good scare out you."

  After filling a bowl for her, Everett plopped down on the couch beside Sophia. "Here you go." He tilted his head and leaned in for a quick kiss.

  She came up for air just as Julie gave Nico a look.

  "Wait a second, Jules. What was that about?" She watched as a mischievous grin curved like parentheses around Julie's mouth, then she turned to Nico. "Well? What did the look mean?"

  "My name is Bennett, and I'm not it." He held up his hands and turned his attention back to the screen. "I'm just enjoying the movie."

  "Don't even. Tell me, Nico."
>
  The scratch of a nasally snort jerked Sophia's attention back to Julie who was glaring at her with a smirk. But then her eyes got wide and her brows lifted as she cocked her head to the right. Her eyes kept flitting to the side. Sophia was still no closer to unscrambling what she was hinting at, but it was definitely a bumbling attempt at discreet communication.

  Julie cleared her throat and put her hand over her heart, pointing a finger toward their mothers.

  Sophia, who was about as good at reading lips as she was at hiding her ice cream moods, fumbled. "Wow, let me check my cellular device. I think I have a text message," she said, way too loud and way too B-movie actress.

  With a roll of the eyes, Julie shook her head and slipped her phone out of her pocket, adjusting back into her comfortable spot on the couch.

  Sophia: WTF???

  * * *

  Julie: You can't read lips for shit. LOOK at the mothers.

  Sophia raised her eyes. The mothers. What was wrong with them? Their own daughters weren't good enough for them? Now they're plotting on someone else?

  Sophia: Oh for fuck's sake. What are we going to do with them?

  * * *

  Julie: Everyone is coupled up. They're getting antsy. We have to do something before Zora and Mike get here. Nightmare ahead.

  * * *

  Sophia: Straight-up shit show.

  * * *

  Julie: They're already arguing about how they're going to do it. What did we really expect? The score is tied. Mom picked Otis and Aunt Helen picked Stan. I have Nico and you have Everett. Mike and Zora are the tiebreaker.

  Julie tilted her head and gave Sophia a knowing grin. Why don't we do nothing and watch this train wreck unfold, it said.