“Does anyone know what they’re planning?” I asked.
“Not sure, but I don’t think they’ll be able to outdo prom,” Nat said.
“I don’t think there’s a specific theme,” Rene said. “I heard from Lindsey Manning in my calculus class that there’s going to be a bounce house.”
“Shut.Up,” Nat said. “I think they might top prom after all.”
“I am so all over that,” Dash grinned. “So, Lindsey huh? What happened to Yvette?”
“Lindsey is on the committee and a complete blabber mouth. I’m not hooking up with her. I’m not sure where this thing with Yvette will go.” No one asked any more questions. I was beginning to think Rene was as bad as Dash once had been with the ladies.
After art, Nat and I went to my place like usual. “So, tell me!” I said excitedly as we got in my Mustang.
“Welll,” she dragged out the word.
“Just talk already!” I knew she was doing it on purpose.
“Okay, so it almost happened,” she grinned.
“As in ‘it’ it?” I was pretty shocked. She just nodded. “Um, details please.”
“Well, he was dropping me off, and since my parents are gone for the weekend, I asked if he wanted to come in. Actually, more like I dragged him. I told him I needed to change and for him to relax and take his jacket off.”
“Oh no. What did you change into?” I interrupted, thinking the worst.
“I just had a tank and shorts on. Not like I was gonna come out in my underwear. Sheesh. Anyway, I snuggled into him on the couch. He had the TV on, but when he saw me, he turned it off. I couldn’t believe it. He leaned over and started kissing me. Like really kissing me. Like Nick and Sofia kissing.” I grinned with her. “At some point, he pushed me over and rolled on top of me.”
“Shut.Up. Jack? Our Jack?”
She nodded. “It got pretty intense. He actually lifted me off the couch and took me to my bedroom.”
“Holy hell!” I shouted. “So, did you?”
“No,” she answered. “But we came really close. Like really close.”
“So, what happened?”
“Well, actually, I was the one who stopped it,” she admitted.
“Wait, you? But I thought you’ve wanted to for like ever.”
“Yeah, but when it came right down to it, I remembered what you said. It’s like I heard your stupid voice in my head telling me to wait. Jack was actually really sorry and kinda seemed shocked with himself. You said it wouldn’t be the same in the heat of the moment. So girl, you better be right.”
“I’m right. Even Nick said last night that he was glad we waited. That it meant more that way,” I said.
She laughed. “He is such a girl.” I busted up laughing as I pulled into my regular parking spot and got out. “What did I say?”
“I said the exact same thing to him last night. But I also told him how much I love that about him. He’s romantic.”
“Anyway, that’s not really the biggest news yet,” Nat said as I unlocked my apartment door.
“What? There’s more? Nothing can be bigger than that.” We both plopped down on the yellow sofa.
Nat squealed, “He asked if I wanted to be bound to him!”
“Shut-the-front-door,” I was completely shocked. It didn’t sound like Jack at all. After all, Nat was the one who had to ask him out to begin with and even initiate their first kiss. “He did not.” My eyes were wide.
She nodded. “He did.”
“It wasn’t like right after you stopped him, was it? Because if he just did it so you could do the deed, then that’s just crappy.”
“No, he didn’t. Neither one of us wanted him to leave. So after we got dressed—”
“Wait, what?! You never said anything about being undressed!” I interrupted.
“Well, I just mean like in our underwear. But anywho, let me finish. So, we went back out to the living room to watch a movie. He seemed to be a little distant and I was worried. About halfway through the movie, he turned to me and said, ‘What would you think about being bound to me, Nathalie?’ I was stunned. I said, ‘Are you asking because you want to do it? Because if so, that was pretty lame.’ He shook his head at himself and tried again. He asked if I wanted to be bound to him after graduation,” she finished.
“And?” I asked. “You said yes, right?”
“Of course dummy. OMG, Sof. I never thought I would see this day. Do you think my parents will think we’re too young?” she worried.
“If so, you can call them hypocrites. All our parents were young and like right out of high school when they were bound. When you know, you just know,” I finished. “So, do you have a day planned yet?”
“Not exactly. We figured a couple weeks after graduation some time.”
“This is so awesome! Where are you going to do it? Who’s invited?” I rambled.
“We were thinking my backyard. It’s big enough to hold everyone. I thought we should include everyone from our new group. It feels right, you know? And of course your parents, but probably none of the others. We don’t really know everyone else.”
“Jack is okay with Dash coming?” I joked.
“Yes, even Dash is invited,” she laughed.
“Well, that sounds great. Do you think you can hold out that long after last night?” I asked.
“Yeah. It feels right this way. Oh, Sof, I’ve never been so happy,” she said as she hugged me tightly. We made a few plans after that, both of us too excited to do any homework.
It was going to be slightly fancier than my bonding with Nick. Our ceremony was rushed with just Mamma, Luca, and Nat because we wanted to bring our families together as soon as possible. Nat thought about some different flowers for her hair and around the altar. That was another thing we would have to figure out. Nick and I used the natural rock altar out in the woods behind my house.
“Do you think we can get the altar from your mamma’s store all the way to my backyard?” she asked as the front door opened.
“Get what to your backyard?” Nick said from the doorway.
“Why are you always catching the end of our conversation?” Nat complained. There had been a time when Ky was the one who walked up during our secret conversations and I frowned at the memory.
“Sorry,” Nick said. “You’re always talking about something interesting when I get home.”
“Do you want to tell him, Nat?” I asked.
“Okay, now you have to tell me,” Nick grinned as he snuggled next to me on the couch.
“Jack and I are getting bound a couple weeks after graduation,” Nat answered.
“No way, Nathalie. That’s great,” Nick smiled at her. “Congrats. What brought this on? Is it because it’s what all the cool kids are doing?”
She smiled at his joke, but didn’t want to go into detail, so she just said, “He asked me last night at my house after prom. I know we’re young and haven’t been dating that long, but heck, you guys knew each other for five seconds before you got hitched.”
“Hey, you won’t get any argument from me,” Nick said. “Though, it was probably more like sixty seconds.” She smiled.
“So, we were just talking about whether we could move the altar from the store or not,” Nat said.
“Aren’t you going to use the one in the woods?” he asked.
“No, we’re going to do it in my backyard.”
“To answer your question, I know a few pretty buff werewolves that could probably help with the heavy lifting,” I grinned at Nick.
Nick flexed and Nat laughed hard. “Well, I’m going to go find Jack and leave you guys alone to do whatever it is you do when I’m not here.”
“Usually homework or a movie, or sometimes the pool,” I said. “But today, it will be reading more of Mamma’s book.”
“Homework?” she snorted. “Yeah right. How’s the book going anyway?” Nat asked from the doorway.
“Slow, but interesting. Well, give Jack my congrats,�
�� I said. She nodded and left. Nick kissed me hello, but I turned away before it got too intense. I really wanted to focus on the book to see if I could find out anything about us.
“Is something wrong, Bella Mia?” Nick asked with a frown.
“Of course not. I just want to dig through this book some more. I have zero patience, and now that I have a goal, I want to finish this. I have a feeling it’s going to take a couple of weeks.” He smiled, kissed me on the forehead, and pulled out his laptop to catch up on homework.
About an hour later, Nick got up off the sofa to make dinner. I heard him banging around in the kitchen, but kept my focus on the book. “You do know you’re the best husband in the world, right?” I asked without looking up.
“Did you just call me your husband?” Nick stopped what he was doing and looked over at me.
I smiled over at him. “Yep. I’m starting to get used to the word, and I kinda like it.” I laid the book down on the coffee table, putting a bookmark in the spot I was working on before closing it. I walked over to him in the kitchen and wrapped my arms around his waist as he threw some ingredients into a pot on the stove.
“And why am I the best husband?” he emphasized the word.
“Because you make dinner for me,” I answered.
“Anything for my Sofia,” he said as he turned around to face me. He planted a soft kiss on my nose. “Now, stop distracting the cook with your beauty, or I will carry you off to the bedroom and the food will burn.”
I let go and sat on the counter across from him. “What are you making anyway? It smells fabulous.”
“Spaghetti,” he answered. “Mamma’s sauce.”
“Mmm… she makes the best sauce. But if you tell my mamma, I’ll kill you.”
He turned to look at me. “And I know you’re strong enough to do that, so your secret is safe with me.” I laughed. I sat and watched him as he continued to put everything together.
We started a movie while the sauce simmered. I was done looking at the book for the night. My eyes could only handle so much small, elegant script in Italian. “So, how far did you get?” Nick asked.
“Only like another five years. There seems to be a lot more information as time moves on. It gets more detailed,” I answered. “This is going to take forever.”
“My offer to help read still stands,” Nick reminded me. I nodded. “I think the sauce is ready.”
We ate dinner in front of the TV and went to bed right after the movie. My eyes were tired from all the reading and I couldn’t keep them open any longer.
~Chapter Three~
The end of the school year was flying by. I couldn’t work on Nonna’s book very much because I had a ten page research paper due by the end of the week and had procrastinated too long. It was the final assignment of the year for my European history class.
“What’s your topic anyway?” Nick asked one night. He sat beside me watching TV as I typed away on my laptop.
“The witch hunts of early modern Europe,” I answered.
“Haha,” he laughed out loud.
I looked up at him. “What? I thought it would be easyish,” I shrugged.
“Don’t you think you have an unfair advantage?”
“No, it’s not like I was there or anything. I still have to research it,” I answered.
“Okay, I guess you’re right. You should include the story of how Adelina turned Henri over to the church,” he joked.
I just rolled my eyes at him. “Yeah, that’d go over well. My teacher would think I was crazy.”
“You don’t have to mention that she was a were and he was an actual witch. But it might be cool to claim that they were in your family line or something so you know their personal story,” he said.
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” I mused. “It would add something cool to the paper. Not so boring.”
“How much do you have left? Isn’t it due in a couple days?”
“Yeah, Friday. It’s almost done. I still have like three more pages, but I’ll get it done in time,” I assured him. I decided to be done for the night. Between reading the family book and research on my laptop, my eyes were seriously drying out and I had to use eyedrops every night.
“Don’t you have any final stuff?” I asked.
“I didn’t take any AP classes, love. I don’t have a death wish like you. I just have exams.”
“You suck,” I frowned. “And I don’t have a death wish. I just wanted to get some college credits out of the way. By the way, are you going to the university in the fall?” We hadn’t talked about our future school plans yet. For over a month we just lived every moment to its fullest. I was still worried that at any moment, Nick would be taken away from me. It was silly, but I couldn’t shake the feeling.
“Well, I hadn’t planned on it. Babbo wants me to come work at the restaurant full-time, so I never really thought about it. But… I guess you want to?”
“I think I do. I mean, I’ve been accepted. I was planning on it, but…” I started.
“But, what? You should go. You’re too much of a smarty pants not to,” he grinned.
“Does it sound extremely lame that I don’t want to spend time away from you?” I asked.
“Oh, Sofia,” Nick said as he pulled me to him. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “I don’t like to be apart from you either. But I want you to live the life you wanted before we found each other. Just include me in your future plans.”
“Always,” I mumbled into his chest.
“But please don’t meet some hot college guy and run away with him.”
I pulled back and looked at him like he was an idiot. “Are you for reals right now? Because I’m the one who proposed, remember?”
He laughed at me. “I love when you say ‘for reals’,” he said as he kissed me softly on the mouth.
“Let’s go to bed. I really need to close my eyes,” I said.
I finished my paper the next night after school and finally had enough time to look at Nonna’s book again. I made it through another two years that night, but still came up empty on information that might explain our connection.
Friday night we had plans for a double date with Nat and Jack. Jack suggested Mulligan’s—the miniature golf course in town—but I couldn’t stand to go somewhere Ky had taken me on a date the day of the Spring Fling dance. “Veto,” I said at his suggestion.
“Veto?” Jack raised his eyebrows at me. “Why?” Nat smacked Jack on the arm. “That’s where we went for Spring Fling,” she whispered.
“So?” Jack was still confused.
“Hel-lo, Captain Clueless. I was there with that one guy that used to be our friend. I don’t want to go back there,” I didn’t like to say his name in front of Nick. He always got annoyed and growled. Nick’s chest rumbled. “Oh great, now you did it.”
“What did I do now?” Jack asked.
“Nick, you’re rumbling,” I pointed out. “I didn’t even say his name.”
“Sorry. I just thought about when I walked out of the dance that night,” Nick said.
“What happened anyway?” Jack asked. “I just remember Sof being super weird and pissed off on the way home that night.”
“Well, our old friend kissed me, it was lame—like really awful—and Nick walked out and saw us. I heard him growl. Ky said he was gonna beat him up or something stupid and macho like that. After Nick threatened him, he took off running, and a minute later I heard him howl in the distance. It was the saddest thing I had ever heard. It was like I could hear the pain in it,” I answered. “That’s when I made my decision to choose Nick.” Nick squeezed my hand hard.
“Back then? Before Mexico?” Jack asked.
“Duh, why do you think he came to Mexico?” Nat said. “It’s not like he just so happened to be there and they hooked up. Of course they were already together.”
“Oh, I get it now. That’s why you were being all weird in Mexico the whole time.”
�
��Sometimes I wonder about you Jack,” I said. “Are you sure you wanna marry this guy?” I turned to Nat.
Nat rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you’re a little slow, Jack.” He just shrugged his shoulders at us.
“Anyway, that’s why I veto Mulligan’s. What about a movie? Or dinner?” I suggested.
“Let’s do both,” Nat agreed.
We decided on fast food, but our movie didn’t start for a while, so we hung out in the restaurant talking. We let the guys choose the movie for once and ended up seeing some kind of zombie apocalypse film.
“That was actually pretty good,” I said as we walked out of the theater.
“Are you serious? That was disgusting. I almost lost my dinner,” Nat disagreed.
“I’ve never been more proud than I am right now,” Nick said, pulling me against him and kissing me hard.
“Never?” I asked with my left eyebrow raised.
“Okay, maybe not never. But you get the point. Girls in general don’t like blood and guts,” Nick said.
“Well, she’s not most girls,” Nat said. “Has she told you about her obsession with MMA fighting yet?”
“What? My Sofia? The romantic comedy queen?”
“I can’t believe you don’t know about it yet,” Jack said.
“Apparently they don’t do much talking,” Nat teased.
“Shut up. We do too. I just haven’t gotten around to it. It’s in between seasons of Ultimate Fighter right now,” I said.
“I am so turned on right now,” Nick grinned as he opened the car door for me. Jack had left his car at our place and we all piled into Nick’s car.
“And she gets all into it, too. Like she screams at the TV and stuff. And if there’s no blood or they just lay on the mat wrestling, she gets bored,” Nat continued.
“I’m definitely seeing you in a new light tonight,” Nick smiled.
“And she has a secret crush on Georges St. Pierre,” Nat added.
“Really? You had to throw that in?” I complained.
“You do, huh?” Nick looked over at me.
“Maybe a teeny one, but he’s not even close to being as sexy as you,” I said. He laughed. “I’m serious. You are king of sexy.”
“Oh barf,” Nat said from the backseat. “Still in the car here.” Jack laughed next to her.
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