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Peter suddenly realises what he’s said, and his eyes widen as his hand goes over his mouth, and he glances at Elijah apologetically.
“Shit, I was supposed to wait to tell you, and we were going to do it together,” Peter says, while his dads both look highly amused.
Elijah moves closer to him and pulls him in for a tight hug, kissing him softly as he says, “Babe, I really didn’t think you were going to last as long as you have, and I’m so proud of you, don’t worry. We can tell my parents together anyway. They’re going to be here tonight.”
“I love you,” Pete replies with relief.
“Oh my god, my baby boy is engaged,” Shawn exclaims, pulling Peter from Elijah’s arms while the rest of us watch, amused and, on my part, at least a little bit emotional.
Zeke pulls them both into his arms and then immediately reaches out and pulls Elijah into the hug too. I start to feel like I’m intruding slightly on their moment, and I know that the guys feel the same, so we all turn around and begin to grab our stuff from the car instead, giving them a moment.
I see the guys all start to exchange money when we get to the back of the car to unload, and I raise my eyebrow.
“We made bets on how long Pete would last,” Jensen grins, entirely unrepentant.
“Okay, I’m offended that I wasn’t included in this. I could’ve made easy money,” I reply, staring them down with my hands on my hips as I try not to show them just how amused I am.
“Sorry, Sunshine,” Riot grins, quickly seeing through my fake pout, “we’ll make sure that you are included next time.”
“Thank you,” I reply primly, as I grab my bag, blow him a kiss, and then move back over to where Pete’s dads have finally let go of Pete and Elijah.
“Shit,” Shawn suddenly exclaims.
Pete’s eyes widen, “What?”
“We need to throw you an engagement party!” he exclaims, and everyone sighs as we realise that there isn’t actually anything wrong.
“Dad!”
“Shawn!” Zeke exclaims, rolling his eyes.
“What?” Shawn asks, with enough innocence that I almost believe that he has no idea how much he just worried everyone.
“We thought something was wrong,” Elijah spells out for him as he calls Shadow, and we all head inside.
We dump our bags by the bottom of the stairs as we follow Shawn and Zeke into the kitchen. At least, that’s my intention, but honestly, I get distracted by the hustle and bustle of the house. Like always, Pete’s dad’s have a lot of people decorating and organising. Unsurprisingly, they’ve gone for the theme of glitz and glam. There’s a lot of gold and sparkles around, but it’s so cleverly done that it doesn’t look tacky or gaudy. It looks classy and elegant instead.
I’m also super excited because I’ve unintentionally matched my dress to the theme; Pete’s going to be so proud of me.
Once we’re all sitting down with coffee in one of their cozy sitting rooms, Shawn starts up the conversation about having an engagement party for Elijah and Peter again.
“We’d love one,” Pete starts and then adds, “the only problem is going to be when we’re so busy with work, and so are you guys.”
Shawn deflates slightly and asks, “Do you guys have a date in mind?”
“Pete wants to enjoy being engaged for a year, maybe, so we’re starting to plan now, but we’re looking at next year at some point,” Elijah replies.
“I probably won’t last for a year, but we were waiting for Christmas to be out of the way before we really decide,” Pete grins as he sips his coffee.
Zeke nods, “That makes sense. You know, if you need any help planning or anything like that, just ask.”
“Thanks, Pa,” Pete replies with a smile.
“How about we do the engagement party for around March then?” Shawn suggests thoughtfully, “That will give you enough time to get some time off, and it will give me enough time to plan. It will also be not too far away from when you actually get married because, let’s face it, I know you, and you’re impatient. You’ll end up getting married within the year.”
“He’s not wrong,” Cash points out with a smile, making us chuckle.
“And I’ll organise it all. All you have to do is give me a list of people you want there and turn up; that’s it.” Shawn says, getting excited again when the idea isn’t immediately dismissed.