Page 121 of My Big Fat Shifter Wedding

It was a small square of fabric, silk worn thin and delicate by the never-ending march of time. I recognized it instantly. It was the same handkerchief Nonna Bianchi had used during her wedding.

“Does… Does Nonna know you have this?” I asked, hand shaking slightly as I reached out for the very special memento.

“She does. And she said that you better take care of it, because one day you’ll give it to one of us!”

“Ew, like I’ll ever get married!” Lonnie/Ronnie scoffed. “Girls are gross.” Only then did he realize what he said. “’Cept for you two, of course.”

“You could always marry a boooo-ooooy,” Connie/Bonnie teased and instantly I could feel them starting to ramp themselves up.

“I believe there’s someone outside with your something blue,” Zia Vedette said sweetly, ushering the three out as they began to argue over whether boys or girls had more cooties, and the merits of being single forever.

“Oh?”

I was grateful, however, for the shuffle, because it allowed me to stave off the tears that wanted to flood in as I gently ran my thumb over the aged silk of my grandmother’s kerchief. None of my nonnas and nonnos had much from their young lives, as they had been forced to lay low during their fraught younger years and had lost most of their material possessions multiple times. To be given something so rich with family history...

Well, I couldn’t interpret it as anything other than tacit approval. Even though I was marrying a human, and a non-Italian, Nonna Bianchi found the union valid enough to give me an irreplaceable piece of her history. And it wasn’t like I was the first to get married. It felt like she had been saving this just for me and I had no words for how incredible that was.

God, I really was so loved. On all sides. It was overwhelming in the best way, and those tears I had been fighting off were definitely winning the battle.

“Remember, breathe deep and long through your nose. Dry up those tear ducts.”

I did just that, sounding a bit like I was imitating the hood above my mother’s stove, but it worked. Or at least it did, until Rolando came in, looking sheepish and like he was also fighting off the waterworks.

“Hey there,” he murmured, quite the striking young wolf in his tux. Although he and Keith had only known each other for a little over a year, he was one of the groomsmen, with Keith’s mother being his best (wo)man. A little unorthodox, but what wasn’t about our union? “You look beautiful.”

Yeah, that did it. There was no stopping the deluge of tears that poured out of my eyes. Amanda barely had time to take my half-finished cup of tea before I was on my feet, bounding over to the little brother that I was so intensely grateful for. Maybe one day I would have figured out I wasn’t happy with what was going on in my life and how people treated me, but it certainly wouldn’t have happened the way it had if it weren’t for Rolando.

We embraced, his big, giant arms able to easily encircle me even with all the poof. But I had to give credit to Amanda; she was determined for me to look pristine, because somehow before our bodies connected she managed to throw one of her cover sheets between us. A bit overkill, in my opinion, but I knew better than to argue with her.

“I love you, even though you know it’s rude for a little brother to be so much taller than me,” I said through my tears. And it didn’t help that I could feel Rolando’s chest hitching with his own emotions. While we were nearly fifteen years apart, he was my closest sibling in so many ways.

“And I love you too, even if you are occasionally cringe.”

“Occasionally? I don’t know about you, but that sounds kind of like a challenge...”

It was a tiny joke, but it was enough to break our tears and have the two of us share an unsteady chuckle. Although it was my day and a day I had been building up in my head for quite a while now, as I looked up into my brother’s sweet face, I couldn’t help but think about the future. About how he too might fall in love and I would be in his position, giving him something blue before he married the love of his life. Sure, I knew the tradition was mostly for brides, but if I wanted to give my brother something on his big day, I’d like to see anyone stop me!

“I have something for you,” he murmured when we both had a better handle on our emotions.

“So I’ve been told.”

I was surprised that there was room for anticipation within me considering everything else, but I couldn’t help but be interested when he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, blue box.

“I don’t know if this is cheating, because only the box is blue, but I hope you like it.”

“I know I will,” I said, giving him another squeeze before taking it. No one commented on my trembling hands as I opened the small box and ignored the gasp I let out when I saw what was inside.

It was a simple pendant necklace, the chain a delicate platinum, but the pendant had my heart sputtering in my chest. There, all shiny and cute and about the size of my first thumb knuckle, sat a little Key lime pie complete with tiny dots of zest along the top glaze.

For being a giant, my brother’s voice was so soft and sweet when he spoke. “Just to remind you that you always deserve that Key lime pie.”

There went the waterworks again. “How did you even find this?” I blurted, somewhere between laughing and crying. “Amanda, help me put this on!”

“Oh, you don’t have to wear it now,” Rolando said hurriedly. “It doesn’t match⁠—”

“Excuse me, what the bride says goes,” Amanda said, carefully taking the box from me so she could extract the necklace. It took a bit of finagling with her standing behind me and lowering it over my frankly ridiculous pile of curls, but thankfully she was so much taller than me that she was able to get it into place and secure it without much fuss.

“I love it!” I murmured, my fingertips resting on it once it was settled in the hollow of my throat. “I hope you didn’t spend an arm and a leg.”