Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(42)

“Anyway, I was so stressed out about what I was going to do, where I was going to find a job, how long I would be able to make my money stretch, that I didn’t really have the mental capacity left to really look around at how beautiful this place is. I get to see fireflies. And I’m on the side of a beautiful mountain overlooking the Smokies. With you.” She leaned to the side so she could better see him. “This is amazing.”

“Uh, I think you forgot to say you get to hang out with the coolest f*cking crew on the planet,” Ryder added from across the fire where he was dumping syrup over a plate of pancakes.

“That, too.”

Ryder snorted. “That, too, like we’re an afterthought. “You mean that first!” He shook his head like he was offended. “We’re awesome.”

“Lexi, did you hear?” Avery asked softly.

“Hear what?” she asked, handing Avery a plate of three pancakes.

“I got promoted to eleventh best friend.”

Lexi handed her the butter next. “Above the worm?”

“His name is Bart,” Ryder said around a giant mouthful of pancake. “He’s my spirit animal.”

Lexi rolled her eyes and flipped the pancakes on the griddle with a plastic spatula. “Last week he said his spirit animal was the pterodactyl.”

“No,” Weston drawled. “No. You can’t pick an animal that is extinct.”

“I didn’t pick it. The pterodactyl picked me.”

A chunk of pancake flew from Wyatt’s general direction and hit Ryder in the face. Harper laughed when the redheaded jokester didn’t miss a beat, just plucked the morsel off his lap and popped it in his mouth.

“Look at that,” Alana mused, staring over the ridge at the sunset. The sky sure was putting on a show with pretty pinks and yellows. “This is what it will look like at our wedding,” she said to Aaron. “Two weeks from today, at this same time, I’ll be taking your last name. Alana Keller.”

“Has a ring to it, baby,” the blond-haired grizzly shifter said, pulling her chair closer to his. “I can’t f*ckin’ wait to put my name on you.”

“What kind of wedding do you want, Harper?” Alana asked, her attention back to cutting the food on her paper plate.

“I know the answer to this one,” Wyatt said. “Ivory dress in a big chapel, all of Damon’s Mountains invited. Reception in her mountains.”

“So a big wedding,” Lexi said.

“Huge,” Harper confirmed through a grin. “I want it to be a massive party when we finally do it. Booze, fireworks, the whole nine yards. What about you?” the alpha asked Lexi.

“Oooh, no,” Lexi muttered. “Don’t even get me started on weddings.”

Avery giggled, “Why not?”

“Ryder already has a wedding idea book.”

“Picture if you will,” Ryder said theatrically. “Doves flying overhead the entire ceremony—”

“So bird shit everywhere,” Wyatt murmured through a grin.

“A harpist playing our song.”

“Which is?” Harper asked.

Lexi piped up, “Oh it’s super romantic. It’s that song about humping like they do on the discovery channel.”

Weston had been mid-drink and spit his Clinton’s Trashcan Punch with his laughter.

Ryder didn’t look amused. He arched his red eyebrow primly. “Can I finish now?”

Lexi was trying to hide a smile, her pretty green eyes sparking with humor. “Go ahead, Groomzilla.”

“Thank you. Flowers everywhere, but like, poison ivy around the cake so if any little f*ckers get to eating the icing too soon and ruin my pictures, they’ll swell up and itch like hell. Beef jerky fountain, balloon animals, a wild-west theme with Lexi wearing one of those tit-baring corset dresses with the lace. We ride in on a pair of pure white stallions…”

“What kind would you want?” Weston asked Avery quietly in her ear.

“Me?” she asked as Ryder droned on about how he wanted armored medieval knights jousting behind the altar.

“Yeah.” It was dark enough that the flickering orange of the fire showed up across the chiseled planes of Weston’s face. He sure looked handsome in the firelight glow.

Avery fed him a giant bite of pancake, then took a long drink to stall. She’d never thought about that before. The idea of marriage to any of the ravens of The Hollow had put her off imagining any romance on the big day.

“Don’t think too hard about it, Ave. Just blurt it out. If you were getting married tomorrow, how would you want it to be?”

“Well tomorrow would be less than two weeks before Alana and Aaron’s big day.”

“So?”

“So I wouldn’t want to take away from that in any way. I guess something small and intimate, with just me and…” You. Avery cleared her throat and dipped her gaze to the red drink cupped in her hands. “Just me and the groom, and maybe he would take me to eat after. Somewhere fancy. And I would wear a pretty dress, and he would wear a dark suit, and maybe we would stay at a bed and breakfast or something that night for a honeymoon.” She laughed nervously. “Sounds lame, huh?”

“No,” Weston murmured, lifting her hand to his lips. He pressed a kiss there, just between her knuckles. “Sounds perfect.”