Free A Very Merry Superhero Wedding (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke) by Kitty Bucholtz

let’s get your coat off,” Lexie said.
    “No!” Ben turned his back to his mom and held up his hands to Joe. “Off.”
    Joe laughed and pulled off the boy’s mittens. “Ooo, you’ve got mittens on a string. You’re so lucky.”
    Ben smiled at Joe and swung his arm, making his mitten fly around on the end of the cord it was attached to.
    Joe made a game out of getting Ben’s outerwear off, handing the pieces to Lexie. Then he tossed Ben up in the air a couple times and airplaned him over to his mom.
    Tori promised Lexie they’d save her a seat as her sister took Ben to Sunday School. She turned back to Joe. “You are so good with kids.”
    He shrugged. “’Cause I still am one.” He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Wanna go make out in my dad’s office?”
    Tori gasped and slapped his shoulder. “Joe!” she hissed. “We’re i n churc h .”
    He laughed. “I just wanted to see your expression. I can’t tell if you’re blushing since your cheeks are still red from the cold.”
    Probably. Everything he did made her blush. She wondered how long that would last. Hopefully, a long, long time.
    Joe took her hand and led her from the cloakroom at the side of the narthex toward the sanctuary. But crossing a lobby never took longer. Tori figure d every single perso n they tried to walk past stopped their conversation to congratulate them. She hugged at least a dozen people she didn’t know.
    By the eighth or ninth exuberant embrace from a stranger, her enthusiasm became forced. Her stomach started to feel a little hot and nervous. She hadn’t felt this way in months. Apparently, she’d gotten all the hugs she could take at the bridal shower yesterday. She needed to stop soon before she did something embarrassing. Like tell everyone to back off.
    Tori wondered if Princess Kate felt this way at her wedding.
    Having successfully navigated the narthex, they stopped at almost every row inside the sanctuary. Good thing they had gotten here a little early. Tori saw Lexie walk by and wink, mouthing, “I’ll sav e yo u a seat.”
    Tori smiled, then turned to hug another couple. At least these people she knew. “Thank you,” she said yet again.
    Tori and Joe joined Lexie a few rows from the front. While a guest pianist played some Christmas music off to the right, Joe whispered to her, “Have a good time last night?”
    “Yes,” Tori whispered back. “You?”
    “Yeah. What’d you do?”
    The pianist started playin g Greensleeve s .
    “Oh, I love this song. We went to dinner, and we all wore little plastic tiaras. Mine said Bride.” She flashed him a grin. “Then we went line dancing at a place on the UNM campus. Country music,” she teased, and he made a face. “Very fun. We laughed so much my cheeks hurt.”
    “Dancing, huh?” Joe squeezed her hand. “Did you dance with anyone?”
    Tori looked him in the eye and made a soft sound that she meant as , I know what you’re really asking and you’re being sill y . But she said, “It’s line dancing, Joe. You dance with everybody.”
    He raised his eyebrows. “Were the people you danced with good-looking?”
    Tori giggled softly, trying not to draw attention. “Was the cheerleader at your party good-looking?” She raised her eyebrows in return.
    “How did you know there was a cheerleader?”
    “Because your very sweet brother who planned the party asked me if it would bother me.”
    “And you said?”
    “No, as long as she kept her clothes on. So was she pretty?”
    Joe grinned. “She was easy on the eyes.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Nothing like my girl, though.”
    Tori grinned and ducked her head. He said the sweetest things. She just loved that about him.
    “Anyway, it was your brother who got her number, I think.”
    Tori glanced up in surprise. She was about to ask more questions, but the service began. More ammunition to tease Kevin with at lunch today.
    A young family with three small children