Moonlight House (Book 2, Lonstino & Greenwood Series)

Chapter 42 - Empanadas

SAM

"I swear that you will break the steering wheel at any moment. Look how white your knuckles are! You can't have a break down before you meet them, save that for after."

Marisol laughs and I try too but it doesn't sound convincing. While she's thrilled that I'm about to meet her family, I feel incredibly nervous, slightly intimidated and plenty overwhelmed. My biggest issue is that even though my parents are Latinx, I wasn't exactly raised that way. I don't speak Spanish and all the customs and traditions I know I learned from the Sommers. Also the fact that Marisol has four older brothers doesn't make things exactly easy. According to the navigation system, we should be there in about five minutes. Five very long minutes. 

"Marisol, I don't think this is a good idea. What will we do if they don't like me?"

"We will get married, that's what we'll do. I don't really give a damn about anyone's opinion in my family. Maybe except for my abuela. None of my brothers consulted with me when they picked their wives or girlfriends. Luckily they are all really nice girls and we get along well."

"If you don't care, why have we been driving for so many hours?"

Marisol laughs even louder than before and squeezes my thigh. 

"I want them to meet the wonderful man who's stolen my heart. Many of them were present when you proposed during that video call and that was enough for the rest of the family and half of the city to hear about it. It's only natural they want to meet you."

"I hope you are right."

"In other topics, we have been engaged for two and a half months already, but haven't set a date for our wedding. I'm ready to tell the family that we are enjoying our time so that's not a problem if we get bombarded with the question. It's that I bought a wedding magazine yesterday and felt overwhelmed when I read the amount of things we need to arrange. Did you know that if you want to marry in a popular location you might need to put an option over a year in advance? How am I supposed to know so long in advance where I would like to get married? And let's not get started with the fact that our families are all over the place."

I glance quickly at Marisol before returning my eyes to the road and I bite my lips in order not to laugh. She's always so sure of herself and I have never seen her panicking about something. That's usually my role.

"That's why wedding planners exist, to take off the burden of all these tasks. And I've been thinking about the date. I think sometime in January when we are all on vacation seems to be a good time. I don't think many people will jump at booking any locations with the cold weather, at least that is if you want to get married in Greenwood or Oakheart."

"What about Lonstino? At the Harbor Grand Hotel where you wanted to propose?"

"It's certainly a beautiful place we can keep in mind."

"Erin is tough, planning her wedding while working full time, and now with all the additional music commitments together with Noah."

"Keeping it simple has helped her. They will have a ceremony in a small church followed by the reception at Moonlight House. It makes sense since that's where they met. She asked me if I minded if they had the local deli cater the wedding. Of course I don't, since that means I'll get to enjoy myself instead of having to work. My only plan is to get you on the dance floor until our feet hurt."

"June can't come soon enough. Well, we are here."

My expectation of a quiet gathering with her family was wrong. Kids run on the lawn and music blasts from somewhere inside the house. People sit in folding chairs and talk, while others come from inside the house carrying trays of something that was definitely deep fried according to the smell in the air.