CHAPTER TEN
The days passed peacefully and it was only a week until the date Kyle and I planned to get hitched. My dad and Viktor had returned to Walden to make sure everything was alright with the Evans. They’d found them two weeks ago back from their forced vacation and in residence at the firehouse. For fun, Melanie and I made elaborate wedding invitations for the Evans family and Mac. My dad delivered one to Jill Evans and reported that she and the girls had been delighted to have an excuse to dress up.
Kyle week with me to take Mac his invitation last week and all we got out of him was an, “I’ll think about it.” Paulina planned to drag him to the ceremony through pure bully tactics, so I wasn’t worried. I was on my way to visit Mac again today to check on him and the bear cub. My dad was driving us in the Jeep and I held in my lap a covered plate of food that Paulina sent along.
“When Kyle and I were here, we saw knitting needles and yarn on the end table by Mac’s beat up recliner. I think he’s knitting Bud a sweater for winter,” I told my dad.
He glanced at me sideways. “You’re making that up.”
“I swear I’m not!” I denied, ruining my fun by giggling. Okay, I was kidding, but I imagined Mac sitting in the recliner knitting a sweater and kept laughing.
“I’m telling him you said that,” my dad teased me.
“Oh god, please don’t do that. He’ll kick me out of his house again.”
“Okay,” my dad pretended reluctance, “I won’t tell him.”
“Good. I’m trying to get him to come to the wedding and I don’t want him to have any excuses.”
We were leaving for Fort Collins in a few days, wanting to get there early and have time to prepare for the wedding. We’d stay in the dorms and bring our own supplies for the days we were there. For obvious reasons, things were going to be kept simple. I already had the dress, a white knee-length sundress which I planned to wear with cute sandals. Riley practiced doing my hair in different styles and would put a flower in it on the actual day. Kyle wasn’t nervous at all, saying he was impatient to make me his wife. I wasn’t nervous, exactly, but wondered how I’d feel afterwards. More grownup? The same?
Mac was sitting on his front porch, holding his cat, when we drove up. As soon as I got out of the Jeep, carrying the plate of food, he called out, “Trying to butter me up, missy?”
“As if that would work!” I called back, stepping over his tripwire. “Where’s Cocoa?”
“His name is Bud,” Mac corrected. I was totally trying to rile him up. I knew the bear’s name. “And he’s inside asleep, so don’t go disturbing him.”
Reaching him, I handed him the plate of food. “I brought this for you. Paulina made it, of course, but I carried it the whole way here.”
He rolled his eyes at my silliness. “Well, tell Paulina I’m grateful.”
“I’ll just go inside and get you a fork and spoon.” I was already edging toward his front door, eager to take a peek at Bud.
“Bring me something to drink, too,” he replied moodily. “And don’t wake the bear.”
Bud was sleeping in the far corner of the living room. Mac had piled up old blankets like a nest and Bud looked cozy. I’d have to tell Kyle about this new development in Mac’s nurturing instincts.