“The rehearsal went pretty well, don’t you think?” Connor asked Katie as they walked into the room with the tables all set for the rehearsal dinner.
“If you consider how many kids are part of the wedding party,” Katie said, “I think it wentverywell.” Family had been a big part of their wedding plans, and she was glad that it was as important to Connor as it was to her.
Her nieces and nephews were going to be flower girls and ring bearers, or had tasks of greeting guests, taking gifts to the gift table, handing out wedding favors, and being junior bridesmaids and groomsmen. Aiden and Holly had been calling Katie’s parents “grandma” and “grandpa” for the last couple of years, and somewhere along the way, they had just become part of the family. Katie considered them her niece and nephew every bit as much as she did her actual nieces and nephews, so they had assignments at the wedding, too.
Besides Emmalee, Katie’s bridesmaids included her four sisters and Connor’s recently engaged sister, Laura, whom Katie had become good friends with over the past year, despite living in a different state from her. Connor’s groomsmen were Katie’s four brothers-in-law, his best friend, Erik, a few of his other teammates, and Vaughan— his team captain from the Thunderstorm.
The Thunderstorm played the Glaciers in Denver last night, followed by two days without a game for both teams. With as perfectly as that lined up, they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to plan their wedding for tomorrow so that his old teammates could be present, too. The fact that the date was almost a year to the day since Connor ran into her at that department store the night before they first met officially was a happy bonus.
Tonight, with all their closest family and friends surrounding them, they were going to have a much more casual dinner before they got married tomorrow. And Connor’s dad was even present!
She’d been so proud of Connor for reaching out to him. There had never been abuse in his family, and before things between his parents got bad and his dad just disappeared, the two of them had been quite close. Connor seemed to feel that it was a relationship he really wanted in his life, so she supported him in moving forward at whatever pace he wanted to go. He and his dad weren’t back to the same level of closeness they’d had when Connor was young— they still had a long way to go in repairing their relationship— but they had made enough progress that Connor really wanted him there.
As they made their way toward their seats at the tables in the room, Noelle and Jack came up to them, their one-year-old in Jack’s arms. Noelle said, “Well, what do you think?” She spun in a circle, then struck a pose, showing off her dress that was a gorgeous deep blue.
“You picked out a good one,” Connor said. “It looks beautiful on you.”
Noelle grinned. “Thank you. For the compliment and for the dress.”
“I’m sorry that it took me nearly eleven years to replace the one I ruined when Katie was wearing it at that dance.”
“I'll forgive the delay— this one is definitely an upgrade. But I vote we keep this room a punch bowl-free zone for tonight.”
Connor laughed and said, “Deal.”
When Noelle, Jack, and little Gabriel turned to take their seats at the table, Katie turned to Connor, straightening his tie. “And what are you going to do to make up for my dance being ruined all those years ago?”
Connor leaned in closer to her, his breath tickling her ear. “I’m going to give you such an amazing time dancing at our wedding tomorrow that you will no longer even be able to remember another dance.”
A smile spread across her face. “Oh, yeah?”
“Or we can start tonight if you’d rather. Out there on the patio, after the dinner.”
Katie glanced toward the patio. “It’s snowing.”
Connor shrugged. “It’s Christmastime and it was at a Christmas dance, so it feels appropriate.”
“And I do remember a pretty amazing kiss in the snow.”
“Maybe we can recreate that while we’re at it.”
Katie grinned. She felt tingly and breathless just knowing that tomorrow, she got to marry this man. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get to our seats.”
She loved that they got this more casual chance to enjoy the company of everyone they loved before the wedding tomorrow. And it gave all of those people plenty of opportunities to give them plenty of roasts.
“We joke about how speedy Connor is on the ice,” Vaughan said. “We just hadn’t expected him to go from meeting someone to marriage this quickly.”
Connor sat up straight. “Was it fast? Because I was ready to marry her back in April when I proposed. I didn’t think this day would ever get here.”
“It’s a good thing you like things to go quickly,” Katie’s brother-in-law, Ben, said, “since you’ll only get the three days over Christmas break for your honeymoon!”
“If you get to go at all.” Laura held up her phone. “I saw that there’s a big storm coming in that’s going to shut down the airport.”
Connor pointed at his sister. “Okay, that’s not even funny. It’s not true, right?”
By the look on Laura’s face, it really wasn’t. “Don’t worry,” Katie said. “We’re taking a long, slow, luxurious honeymoon in the off-season.”
“And we’re going to enjoy every minute of it,” Connor said, then lifted her hand and placed a kiss on the back of it.
