Page 24 of D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

“Well, what do you expect us to think, Kris?” Mami snapped, throwing her hands in the air as if I was exasperating her. “You spring a fiancée on us and then say you’re getting married in less than two months. Why else would you be doing this so quickly?”

My mouth hung open as I stared at her. I almost started getting pissed at the sheer ridiculousness when D’Vaughn’s laugh caught me off guard. I peered down to see her wiping tears from her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

She shook her head, still laughing. “Do they think my eggs swam out of my uterus, jumped into your vagina, and somehow fertilized your eggs? You can’t make this up.”

“She has a point,” Ray chirped, flicking his fingers against Kiana’s shoulder. “You and Josue have been playing house so long that you forgot that some folks want to start building a life together before all of the other stuff.”

Kiana slapped at Ray’s hand and turned back to me. “My bad. I forgot that part.”

“You forgot,” I deadpanned. “You have my nibling in there and you forgot how biology works?”

She waved a hand in the air. “Enough about that. Let’s get back to this quickie wedding you want to plan. What are we thinking? Drive-thru? Vegas? An Elvis impersonator?”

Craning my neck, I searched for her boyfriend in the crowd. “Josue! Come get your baby mama! I think it’s time to put her to bed.”

Ray sucked his teeth. “Don’t you think he’s done that enough already?”

“Hey!”

“Enough!”

Mami and Papi both shouted over Ray, waving their hands in the air with twin looks of horror on their faces. My brother immediately burst into laughter, soon joined by several of the people standing nearby. After glaring at him, Mami turned to me and D’Vaughn.

“We will talk this week. Come by the house so we can start to plan. Also...” She pushed me out of the way, leaning down to hug D’Vaughn so tightly she rose from the chair a little. “I’m sorry for scaring you, mija. I was just caught unawares.” She leaned back and kissed D’Vaughn’s temple before stepping back so Papi could move in to hug her as well.

“Welcome to the family,” he murmured in a voice so low I might not have heard him if I hadn’t been standing a mere twelve inches away. He released her with a kiss to each cheek, a genuine smile on his face as he squeezed her shoulders briefly.

D’Vaughn nodded, quickly reaching up to brush a couple of fingers over her face below her eye. Her eyes were slightly glassy, and it was clear that she was touched by my parents’ affection.

“Thank you both. So much.”

“And we need to meet your family,” Mami added. “Let’s plan to have dinner sometime soon. They can come here or—”

“Mami,” I interrupted. Just like Rhea, she could keep going if we let her, but D’Vaughn was currently abusing the fuck outta her bottom lip and I could see her leg bouncing under the table. I needed to get her alone so I could check in with her and make sure she wasn’t too overwhelmed.

Mami held her hands up. “Okay, okay. There’s just so much to do in six weeks.”

I nodded. “I know. You’re right. But we can’t start on it tonight. It’s still KiKi’s moment. We’ll talk next week. Prometo.”

“Ven, mi amor,” commanded Papi, grabbing Mami’s hand and pulling her back across the yard to the cabana.

As soon as they cleared the circle of family surrounding us, several people pushed forward to congratulate us. That went on for about fifteen minutes before Mateo cranked the music back up and, as if compelled, most of them headed straight for the yard to dance. Once we were relatively alone, I crouched next to D’Vaughn’s chair and placed a hand on her still bouncing knee.

“Are you okay?”

At my touch, her leg came to a halt and she gave me a thin smile.

“Oh, my bad.”

My brows knitted. “It’s all good. Are you good, though?”

“Um...I need to use the restroom. Can you show me where it is?” Instead of waiting for an answer, she pushed back her chair and stood.

To avoid falling back on my ass, I followed suit. She’d avoided answering my question twice, which told me that not only was she not okay, but she didn’t want to talk about it—but this thing wouldn’t work if she didn’t talk to me, so we were going to have to figure it out.

“Yeah. Come on.” Grabbing her hand, I led her into the house and to the bathroom that my siblings and I had grown up fighting over.