Justice For Juniper (Tatienne Richard) novel Chapter 181

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Compromise Part I

“Compromise,” Phineas said as they got outside the hospital.

“What kind of compromise?”

“The kind where we get married tonight, civil ceremony, you become officially Mrs. Phineas Perez, and don’t try to take that from me because we both know I’m a neanderthal and that feels good to me,” he grinned at her eye roll.

“What is the compromise?”

“We do the civil thing tonight and next weekend when your grandparents are here, we’ll throw a big ceremony with a different dress and all the fixings and your dad can walk you down the aisle or your mom or both,” he shrugged.

“We haven’t really planned anything out. Also, while I’m legally marrying you, what about Beni and Adil? We said the ceremony would include everyone. My engagement ring pledged me to the three of you. I don’t want a ceremony they aren’t part of.”

Adil beamed at her, and she noted Heloise’s sniffling.

“Fermín already spoke to the guy who is going to bring the marriage license around. It’s going to bear your nam

nd 17:48 mine. However.” Phineas looked at Gonzalo. “Gonzalo is

actually legally permitted to do weddings in the province of Ontario. He has his license from when he did a cousin’s wedding last year or the year before. If he does our vows tonight, all three of us can stand there and recite the vows and while only one set of them will be legal, all of them will be binding.” Phineas grabbed her hand, “come on Juniper. You know you want to go home tonight, with your husbands at your beck and call.”

“Suki isn’t here.”

“I told you, baby girl, Frank is just getting his jollies. He’ll bring her around if we want.” Adil smiled. “We’re all already dressed up in monkey suits. We all look great. Why waste the dress–up? Let’s go say some vows. Make it so you can change your name in the morning. You’ll never need to be called Kennedy again. Wouldn’t it be nice to go into HR on Monday morning and tell Maxine your new name?”

She laughed at Adil’s antics, “yeah, you’re grasping there, buddy.”

“I want to marry you!” Adil said with a happy grin.

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“Me too,” Beni piped up. “I really love the idea of my father doing our ceremony.”

“Can I ask why she’s taking Phineas‘ name instead of ours, 275 Heloise asked with a pout.

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“Not that it’s any of your business, Mother,” Adil eyed her critically, “and I’m not sure you’ll recall this explanation in the morning given how drunk you are, but we are a quad or a quartet, whatever you want to call it. As untraditional as our family is, we still feel strongly that Phineas is the head of our household. He is the strongest of us, mentally, physically, and emotionally, Mother. I know you don’t understand it but even when it was just the three of us without Juniper, he was always our leader. He comes up with the best ideas. He is far better with planning everything and he is better at taking care of our needs. He’s been managing our finances for years. I’m not going to suddenly pretend I don’t hero worship my best friend simply because I’m grown now. I may not want to have sex with him, but in terms of our emotional relationship, he’s the

man.”

Heloise gave a shrug, “are you sure you’re not in love with him?”

“I’m not in love with him in a romantic way but I do love him and there is a part of me, which, while it’s not now, fully expects as our relationship grows over the years, will love him deeply in a romantic way. There is something very special in watching him take care of Juniper in a way I can’t.”

“You also take care of her in ways I can’t,” Phineas said softly as he regarded his friend. “You have a way of making her laugh smile when I’m wanting to punch my way through the

and

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crowd.”

“He’s not wrong,” Beni said with a nod. “Phineas is the head of our family because we discussed it at great length, Heloise. He makes all of us feel safe and protected and he’s bossy as fuck. Let’s be real. He’s the big bad CEO and we gravitate to his side for a reason. We orbit around him, all three of us do.”

“You’ve really talked all of this out,” Sandra said with a smile. “Like you really did the hard conversations and faced the topics most would shy from.”

“It’s too important not to, Mom,” Phineas gave his mother a smile of his own. “They are too important to me to not make sure we’re all protected in our relationship.”

“We did talk about it, Heloise,” Juniper looked at her. “I love all three of them. I don’t love Phineas more than Beni or Adil. It’s simply when it comes down to it, Phineas is the natural leader of our group. To tie us all together, he’s the string to do it. So legally, yes, he is going to be the one I marry but my commitment to all three men will be equal. Their commitment,” she cleared her throat, “I expect them to be equally devout to me.”

“We will be, Sunshine,” Beni said seriously. “You never need to fear one of us doing to you what that fucker Kyst did to you.”

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“I know you won’t.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

“Do you know what would be awesome?” Phineas grinned at her, “speaking of Kyst?”

“What?”

“For him to come out of surgery and wake from his anesthesia and find out that you got married while he was having surgery. Nothing says I don’t give a fuck about you like marrying someone else.”

She shook her head, “where would we even go to get married?”

Fermín gave a little shout, “yes. I knew you’d convince her, Phineas. Let me call my contact. We can get right into a room at city hall to get the documents all done up legally.”