The Long Game (Game Changers #6)(126)

“Please repeat after me,” Nancy said. “I call upon these persons here present...”

Ilya repeated the words, somewhat clumsily. Was his accent worse than usual? He sounded ridiculous.

“To witness that I, Ilya Rozanov...”

Oh, good. She remembered not to use their middle names. Ilya didn’t want any part of his father here today. He repeated the words.

“Do take you, Shane Hollander, to be my lawful wedded husband.”

Okay, maybe they should have written their own vows. These were bleak. Completely stiff and devoid of emotion. Who would ever feel anything from these bland vows?

Ilya’s voice cracked before he even got to Shane’s name. Which made Shane’s whole face scrunch up in an effort, Ilya guessed, to keep himself from crying.

“I’m sorry,” Ilya whispered.

Shane just shook his head, lips tight. With some effort, he got through his turn to repeat the vows. Then Nancy gave them some more words to say as they exchanged rings.

“With this ring, I shall love, honor, and cherish you. And this ring is the symbol of my love,” Shane said.

“Gross,” Ilya muttered, which made Shane snort and start laughing. Which made everybody else laugh.

Shane slipped the newly resized ring onto Ilya’s finger, and Ilya smiled goofily at him.

Nancy said some dull stuff that ended with “do hereby pronounce you, Shane and Ilya, to be married. You may celebrate your marriage with a kiss.”

Oh hell yes. Ilya grabbed Shane, dipped him, and planted one on him. Everyone cheered.

Shane looked dazed after the kiss, but Ilya held their joined hands in the air and said, “We are married!”

Ilya had no idea where they were supposed to go now. There wasn’t an aisle or anything, and this was their house.

“Um,” Nancy said quietly, “you still have to sign some paperwork.”

“Oh, right,” Shane said. “Inside, then?”

“Yes,” Ilya agreed. At least now they had a destination. To the crowd he said, “We have to sign some things, but we will be back to party!”

More cheering. Evan Dykstra called out, “You need a DJ?”

Ilya pointed to him. “No.”

They walked quickly toward the house, hands held tight, as their friends cheered all around them.

“This was not the real wedding,” Ilya assured Ruby as they both enjoyed some cake. “The real one was the one you did. This was just for show.”

Ruby smiled at him, then nudged her sister Jade. “I told you.”

Evening was closing in, and someone had turned on the strings of lights that Yuna had insisted on draping in rows across the backyard. It looked very nice. Magical.

Ilya’s neighbor’s kids, Willa and Andrew, approached and pulled Ruby and Jade away to play some game that seemed to involve a lot of running.

“So,” said a voice behind Ilya. He glanced up from where he was sitting on the grass and saw Hayden. “You stole my best friend.”

“Yes. But you outed us in a FanMail video, so maybe we are even.”

“Look, I’m really fucking sorry about that. I—”

Ilya laughed, and stood up. “I am kidding.”

“Oh. Well, I’m happy for you guys,” Hayden said glumly. “And I get why Shane left Montreal. But I’m going to miss having him around.”

“You should sign with Ottawa. Your contract is probably cheap, yes?”

Hayden shook his head. “You’re a hard guy to like, Rozanov.”

“That is not what Shane thinks.”

“What doesn’t Shane think?” asked Shane, sneaking up behind Ilya.

“Nothing,” Ilya said, smiling like the love-struck fool he was at his brand-new husband.

“So...” Shane said nervously. “Mom has it in her head that we need to, like, dance. In front of everyone.”

“Oh?”

“Honestly, I hadn’t even thought about it, but I guess that’s a wedding thing, right?”

Hayden looked gobsmacked. “Yeah, it’s a fucking wedding thing, you moron. Did you guys not even pick a song?”

“Shane does not know any songs,” Ilya said.

Shane was apparently too nervous to acknowledge Ilya’s quip. “So, like, do we just get whoever is in charge of the music to play a song and we, like, slow dance in the middle of the lawn? I don’t really know how to dance.”

“Come on,” Ilya said, and extended his hand.

It turned out that Harris had taken over the music duties and had his phone connected to Ilya’s wireless speakers, which someone had brought outside.

“Harris,” Ilya called from the middle of the yard. “Play something romantic.”

“You’re letting me choose?” Harris sounded terrified.

“Just put on whatever. Is fine.” Ilya glanced at Shane’s anxious face. “Something short.”

Ilya held out his hand to Shane.

“Oh, are you leading?” Shane asked.

“Yes. Because you can’t dance.”

Shane huffed and took his hand, then placed his other hand on Ilya’s back as the opening vocals of Rihanna’s “Diamonds” started playing.

“This sounds like a weird choice,” Shane said.