Текст книги "Hold On"

Автор книги: Kristen Ashley

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Текущая страница: 34 (всего у книги 35 страниц)

Epilogue

Such a Girl

Feb

May

I walked into the living room to see my son tossing treats to my cat, my husband with him, holding back our dog by his collar.

Seeing this and it annoying me, I planted my hands on my hips, asking, “Are you serious?”

My husband’s eyes came to me.

They grew dark as they dropped to my dress and his face assumed an expression I felt in my womb.

My son’s eyes also came to me.

Since we had somewhere to go, I decided to focus on Jack.

“What, Momma?” Jack asked.

“Baby boy, the vet said Wilson’s too fat,” I told him, resuming walking into the living room so I could get to my purse in the kitchen.

“Daddy says the only eggerzize Wilson gets is runnin’ ’round for kitty treats,” Jack replied.

I glared at Colt as I walked by him, and I did this mostly because he hadn’t lied to our kid—Wilson was lazy as hell—so I had no retort.

For his part, Colt grinned at me as I walked by him.

Years he’d had to become impervious to my glare.

That was annoying too.

I hit the kitchen, asking Colt, “How many have you given him?”

“Three,” Colt lied.

“Eelehben,” Jack told the truth.

I again glared at Colt, who had followed me into the kitchen.

“We need to get goin’,” he stated. “Not have our three thousandth argument about Wilson’s cat treats.”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t wrong.

“Scout taken care of?” I asked about our dog, who had likely gotten his treats earlier but forgotten that had happened, which was why he was now skulking into the kitchen, straight to his bowls.

I took my clutch from under my arm so I could transfer stuff from my purse, which was lying on the kitchen counter, into it as Colt answered, “Yep,” while fitting himself to my back. He then bent in to kiss my bare shoulder before murmuring in my ear, “Like this dress, baby.”

I lost some of my annoyance, feeling my husband’s heat. I lost more at the touch of his lips. I lost more at his words.

I lost it all when I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye.

I loved silver. Because I did, I wore a lot of it.

And every day, no matter when I got home—if it was eight at night or three in the morning—I took my silver off at our kitchen counter.

I dropped it in a pile wherever it hit.

The next time I saw it, I’d see that my husband had organized it. Bangles in a bundle. Rings lined up. Chains straightened. Earrings stacked, one on top of the other.

Sometimes I saw him do it, so I knew it wasn’t about him keeping it neat.

When he did it, his touch was reverent, like the jewelry was still on me.

I didn’t know why he did it. I never asked. I just let it feel nice, thinking of his fingers touching my silver, something that I loved, something that touched me.

After losing decades, we’d now been back together for years.

I took off my silver every day in the kitchen.

And my husband straightened it every day for me.

It was now straightened.

And I felt each touch it took Colt to straighten it right on my skin.

I loved it that I had that like I loved it that I had him.

And no woman could be annoyed when she had that.

I finished with my purse and turned.

Colt shifted to allow the movement, but then he shifted back in, wrapping his arms around me.

I lifted my hands and rested them on his shoulders, my eyes scanning my man.

“You don’t look so bad either,” I noted.

He grinned, dipped in, and touched his mouth to mine.

“Can we go?” Jack asked.

We both looked to our son, who was also now standing in the kitchen.

“I wanna play with Ethan,” he explained his impatience.

Jack loved Ethan like Ethan was his big brother.

Ethan gave that back.

Colt gave me a quick squeeze before he let me go and moved to his boy.

He picked him up and set him straddling his hip, Jack wearing his little man suit pants and shirt that was a close match to the suit pants and shirt his daddy was wearing.

“We’re gonna go, but remember what we told you,” Colt said, walking them out of the kitchen. “It’s a big day. Ethan’s gonna be busy.”

“But he’ll be able to play, right?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, I reckon after a while, he’ll be able to play.”

Jack smiled at his father.

Colt returned his smile as he nabbed his suit jacket from the back of a dining room chair as well as Jack’s, which was lying on the table.

As for me…

I smiled inside.

I did that a lot these days.

Then again, I did it a lot on the outside too.

I grabbed my clutch and moved toward the kitchen door, giving my dog a scratch while I did.

I walked out. My husband and son walked out behind me.

Colt put Jack down so he could lock the door and I took my baby boy’s hand. My baby boy who was growing up and not so much of a baby anymore.

We walked to Colt’s truck.

We climbed in.

And Colt took us to Ethan.

* * * * *

For a wedding by a lake that was going to be catered by my brother at a grill and a table groaning with potluck chips, dips, and salads—the only thing wedding-esque being the flowers and decorations the bridesmaids insisted on putting up (something we all got up early to do that morning) and a beautiful wedding cake the mother-of-the-bride demanded she provide—the wedding party was enormous.

Vi as maid of honor, me at her side, Dusty, Rocky, Mimi, Jessie, Josie, and Frankie.

On the other side, Tanner as best man, Mike, Colt, Sully, Cal, Sean, Drew, and Ryker.

Yes, Ryker.

The bride had insisted.

That said, the groom hadn’t protested.

So there stood Ryker, grinning like a lunatic and fidgeting in his suit.

And while folks stood around in the green grass beside a quiet lake outside an awesome lake house, the bride made her appearance.

She looked amazing.

Simple, form-fitting, strapless white lace dress that hit her at her knees and had a dusty-rose satin ribbon wrapped around the waist; a thick bunch of silvery-pink Indiana peonies in her hand that she’d cut herself that morning from the bushes that edged the entire house.

Mother at her left.

Son at her right.

They hit the edge of the lake where we were all fanned out, the bride having expertly managed to negotiate the entire trek through the grass in strappy, spike-heeled sandals while one of Morrie’s buds played Pachelbel on his guitar.

Cher also managed the entire trek with her eyes glued to Merry.

The procession stopped.

Pastor Knox asked, “Who brings this woman to be wed?”

Ethan’s shoulders straightened as he called out loudly, “Her mother and I do.”

I felt my eyes get wet and I nearly lost it when I caught Cher’s profile, her cheeks dusted rose with blush, shimmering with a powder she’d fanned over the color, pinker now, as were her eyes, as she fought back her own wet.

Cher didn’t cry. Not ever. Not that I’d seen.

Unless her son was giving her away to the man she’d loved for five years, only just recently letting him know it.

Cher kissed and hugged her mom. She did the same with Ethan.

Merry came forward and kissed and hugged Grace. He offered to shake Ethan’s hand, but Ethan decided he wanted something else and he hugged Merry’s middle.

Merry hugged him back.

Vi made a choked noise.

I cleared my throat.

Ethan grabbed his mom’s hand and offered it to Merry.

Merry accepted.

They turned to the preacher.

After that, Garrett Merrick and Cher Rivers got married.

* * * * *

Colt

He stood with his wife’s front tucked close to his side, his arm curled around her shoulders, her arms wrapped around his middle, watching.

And not getting it.

He bent to Feb’s ear.

“Why are they laughing?” he asked.

She caught his eyes.

Her brown ones were dancing.

“I have no clue,” she answered.

They both turned back to the front porch of Merry and Cher’s lake house where the new husband and wife were having their first dance, Merry swaying Cher, both of them held close in each other’s arms, both of them straight up busting a gut laughing, doing all this to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

No, Colt didn’t get it.

But watching two people he cared about so fucking happy…

He didn’t need to.

* * * * *

Cal

July, Three Years Later

Cal stood at the back of the church.

Tony’s bud had just escorted Vi down the aisle.

It was time.

Fuck, where was Kate?

He caught movement at the corner of his eye and turned to watch Keirry rushing up to him as fast as she could, considering she was wearing her long bridesmaid gown and she had her little sister’s hand in hers.

Angie was rushing right alongside Keira. Then again, his baby girl would follow his big girl right to the mouth of hell.

Fact.

He just had to hope Keira didn’t lead her there. Keirry was a magnet for trouble and Cal thanked God she hooked her shit to Jasper Layne, who’d die for her.

He watched them come his way and he did it feeling his jaw get hard.

He’d put his foot down about those fucking bridesmaids dresses.

And, as usual, his girls had rolled right over him.

It showed too much cleavage.

And it was too fucking tight.

It was also too late.

The other bridesmaids started filing out behind her.

So this shit was going to happen.

Fuck.

“Daddy!” Angie shouted, breaking free from Keira and rushing to him, looking pretty in her flower girl dress.

He bent and caught her.

Swinging her up in his arms, he murmured, “Hey, baby.”

“Hey, Daddy,” she replied on a big grin and an assessing look that reminded Cal of her mother. “You look handsome.”

He kissed her neck. “And you look even more beautiful than your normal beautiful.”

Her smile got bigger.

Keirry made it to him and grabbed his arm.

“Joe, Kate wants to talk to you.”

He looked down at her. “Come again?”

“Kate wants to talk to you,” she repeated.

He looked to the doors of the church that had been closed after Vi was escorted down. They were supposed to open so Kate’s friends and sisters could walk down the aisle before Kate marched down it to get married way too young to a Chicago cop who Vi, Keira, Angie, Sam, and Ben all adored but Cal fucking hated.

He looked back to his girl. “Keirry, now’s not the time for a chat.”

She reached to Angie and pulled her sister out of his arms. “Then you better hurry.”

Jesus, maybe she was having cold feet.

That would be the best news he had all day.

Though it would make her mother lose her mind.

He growled.

No words came out, he just growled.

Then he prowled through the vestibule and around the corner where the girls got ready.

He stopped dead when he saw Kate standing in the hall there.

He also stopped breathing.

“Hey, Joe,” she whispered.

Fuck, his girl was beautiful.

Not his girl.

But still.

His girl.

She moved to him.

She hadn’t gone big, not Kate. No humongous skirt. No humongous price tag.

He and Vi would’ve given her a wedding on the moon if she’d wanted it.

She wanted what she was getting.

Easy. Elegant.

Kate.

Now, Keira’s was gonna mean selling a kidney, and Cal could say that even being loaded.

Juggling her bouquet, Kate reached for his hand.

The instant she touched him, his fingers curled around hers.

“I gotta say something, Joe,” she whispered.

Oh no.

They weren’t gonna do this.

He could barely handle what was happening that day.

They sure as fuck weren’t gonna do this.

“You don’t gotta say it,” he whispered back.

Her fingers tightened in his. “I gotta say it.”

“Katy—”

“Joe.”

He shut up and held on to her hand and her gaze, giving in.

As usual, with his girls.

She spoke.

“No one on earth I’d wanna be right here, right now, but you.”

Christ.

“Baby…” His voice was so rough, that word grated his throat coming out.

“No one, Joe.”

Cal swallowed and pulled her closer.

“He’s with me. He’s always with me,” she told him. “So I’m glad I get to be with you too.”

“He’d be proud of you, Kate.”

She nodded, her eyes getting bright. “I know.”

“So fuckin’ proud, honey.”

“I know, Joe.”

“You’re so beautiful, baby, it hurts lookin’ at you,” he told her.

Katy pressed her lips together.

He wasn’t done.

“And it is no lie that this is the proudest moment of my life, gettin’ to walk you down that aisle.”

She made a noise.

He yanked her in his arms.

He held on. He did it tight.

Because it was the last chance he’d get.

After a while, Kate tipped her head back. “I probably should go get married.”

Cal grinned at her. “Yeah.”

He took her arm and turned her around.

They both stopped.

Keira was there, close, Angie to her hip.

Her eyes were bright too.

“Get over here, dork,” Kate ordered.

Keira rushed to them.

And Cal walked down the hall and through the vestibule, Kate on one arm, his other arm around Keira’s shoulders, Keira’s arm full of her sister.

He had to let two of his girls go so he could walk one of them down the aisle to give her away to the man she loved.

Five minutes later, he did that.

He didn’t lie.

It was the proudest moment of his life.

And it hurt like a bitch.

* * * * *

Violet

I held Ben in my lap.

Sam was in a little boy tux up at the altar, leaning against Tony’s best man’s legs, swinging his ring bearer pillow, his father’s son, totally bored out of his skull.

Angie was standing by Keira, Keira’s mini-me with her father’s eyes, staring with rapt attention at her big sister getting married.

My husband had his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

He gave me a squeeze.

I turned to look up at him.

He dipped down and touched his forehead to mine, his nose resting along mine.

I held my breath.

Then he pulled away just as Ben shifted, jerked, pushing out of my arm and launching himself at his dad.

With ease, Joe caught him and settled him against his chest.

I watched.

Our little guy had this thing. It was weird and it was wonderful.

Any time he hit his dad’s chest, he just calmed. Even when he’d been teething. Even when he’d fall and scrape something. Like all he needed was evidence of his father’s solidness, his strength, and he could just let go.

I knew how that felt.

This was what he did then, curling in, cheek to his dad’s chest as Joe tucked him close, Ben resting his hand light against his father’s lapel, his eyes shifting sideways so he could keep them on one of his big sisters, all of whom adored him, all of whom my baby boy adored right back.

Joe’s eyes were on Kate.

I returned mine to my daughter.

I knew what the forehead touch was. I didn’t need to ask. Joe didn’t need to explain.

It was his way of saying I’d unbalanced our scale…again. The scale of our life, where he gave and I gave, and it was supposed to go back and forth, staying balanced.

He thought I unbalanced it all the time with the way I gave.

He was wrong.

I didn’t even have to look at him with our son on his chest. I didn’t have to think back fifteen minutes ago to how I felt watching him walk my girl down the aisle with that look on his face. That look that said he didn’t want to be anywhere but there at the same time he wanted to pick her up and carry her the other way, taking her to a place where they never grew up and you never had to let them go.

No, I didn’t need any of that or any of the million other things Joe had done since that evening he shoveled the snow from our driveway.

I lived with the knowledge Joe had forever unbalanced our scales because I was sitting at my daughter’s wedding due to the fact that Joe had killed a man so I could.

He’d saved my life.

He’d given me his love.

He’d given my daughters his love.

He’d given my girls and me more babies, a big family.

There was no way I unbalanced our scale.

Which I supposed meant our scale actually stayed balanced, him thinking I sent it crashing, me knowing he did.

I snuggled closer in his arm.

He tightened it around me.

Balance.

I felt my lips tip up.

And I watched my beautiful girl get married to the man she loved, a man who reminded me a lot of her father.

And a lot of Joe.

A man Joe totally hated.

Because he took his girl away.

* * * * *

Layne

June, Four Years Later

“You did good all this time, managing not to knock Keirry up,” Tripp said to his brother.

Jasper looked to Tripp, grinning, but doing it also muttering, “Shut it, Tripp-o-matic.”

“I’ll second that, seein’ as that means you nor me got dead ’cause Joe Callahan lost his mind you put your hands on his girl,” Tanner Layne added.

“Cal wouldn’t lose his mind, Dad. He totally digs me,” Jasper told him.

Luckily, this was true.

“I can guaran-damn-tee you that Cal is in total denial about that whole part of you bein’ with Keira,” Tripp shared. “Even now, you have babies, you might wanna think of declaring them immaculate conceptions.”

“He can be in denial,” Jasper returned logically. “Means it was what it was and now I’m still breathin’ for it bein’ what it’s gonna be.”

“To that end…” Rocky’s voice came from the top of the stairs.

Layne aimed his eyes over his shoulder to see his wife look amongst them in the loft area, which used to be a workout/office space when Layne had lived there with his boys.

Now that his boys were gone and his house was filled with girls, Layne worked out at the gym and the loft was an alternate television area because Cecelia and Annabel could never agree on what they wanted to watch.

So now he and his boys weren’t lazing on workout equipment like they used to.

They were lounging on a massive sectional.

“I think we should probably go so we can get to the church on time,” Rocky finished.

And this meant they were lounging on a massive sectional while wearing tuxes since Jasper was marrying Keira that day.

“Shit,” Tripp muttered, planting a hand in the back of the couch and throwing his body over it, landing on his feet. “I gotta go pick up Giselle. Meet you there.”

He took off but didn’t pass Rocky without stopping and giving her a kiss on her cheek.

Rocky accepted it, and as Tripp bounded down the stairs, she looked to her husband folding out of the couch. Then she looked to his son who was doing the same.

After that, without a word, his wife walked down the stairs, leaving Layne with Jas.

He turned to his boy.

“You screwed me, bud,” he stated.

Jas’s head jerked and he abruptly stopped moving.

“What?” he asked.

“Knew what you wanted. Found what you wanted. Took care of her. Did right by her. Fell in love with her. Took your time to get to this place. You have your shit together. Keira has hers together. Now you’re movin’ on. That means I don’t get to do what fathers are supposed to do. Got no fatherly advice to give. Got no warnings. Got no guidance. Got nothin’.”

Jasper grinned at him.

“Nothin’ but love and pride,” Layne added.

Jasper’s grin faded and his gaze grew intense on his old man.

“You and your brother are the best sons a man could hope for, bud. Love you and so fuckin’ proud of you, it hurts,” Layne finished.

Jasper moved to him. Layne caught his son at the back of his neck and pulled him to his chest.

Jas wrapped his arms around his dad.

He gave Jasper’s neck a squeeze.

Jas pounded him on the back.

They let go.

They cleared their throats.

Then Layne said, “Let’s get you to the church.”

* * * * *

His woman leaned deep into his arm and he felt her lips at his ear.

“We have a problem,” she whispered.

Yeah, they had a problem.

The boys’ mother was sitting in their pew.

Due to her attitude, her relationship with both her sons was strained and had been for years. She was invited because Jasper was a good man. And no matter how strained things were with his mom, he was also a good son and he wanted her there.

But Gabby was not happy to be sitting in a pew with the ex-husband she hated and his wife, who she detested, and, being Gabby, she wasn’t hiding it.

Which pissed Layne off.

It also pissed off his mother, Vera, who was right then sitting in the pew behind Gabby, staring daggers at her.

Devin had Vera’s hand clamped tight in his, which indicated to Layne that Vera had said something that made Devin feel he needed to contain her.

And Layne did not want a catfight at his son’s wedding.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Devin was containing her.

Devin gave him a look, then he used his free hand to reach into his tux pocket to pull out a flask.

He unscrewed it one-handed and took a hefty tug.

Vera turned while he was doing it and snapped quietly, “Devin!”

His mentor, best friend, and now stepfather turned to his mother. “You don’t act up, I won’t feel the need to get liquored up.”

Vera huffed and sat back in her seat, resuming her glare at the back of Gabby’s head.

Devin returned the flask to his pocket.

Layne caught only a glance at a tight-faced Gabby, who was completely ignoring them (luckily), when he looked to his wife.

“Kinda get that, sweetcheeks,” he muttered.

“I’m not talking about Gabby,” she whispered back. “We’re all used to Gabby. I’m talking about the fact that both CeeCee and Bel have a crush on Jack Colton.”

Layne looked beyond his woman to his two daughters sitting in the pew next to her.

Right then, neither of his babies cared about Jack Colton. Both CeeCee and Bel had their eyes glued to the door at the side of the church where they knew their brothers were going to walk out very soon.

They were getting along for Jasper’s big day.

This wasn’t unusual and not just his girls being good for their beloved big brother. If they weren’t fighting, they were doing each other’s hair, giving equal time to both endeavors.

Layne didn’t get it.

He didn’t try.

Rocky got it.

Layne got to spoil two daddy’s girls.

Rocky got to raise two daughters and share all the goodness she had with them.

So it worked.

“None of them but Jack are in double digits, Roc. I’m not sure we gotta be worried about that yet,” Layne replied, casting his gaze to the altar.

“Okay, well, if you don’t think so, then you don’t know Angie Callahan also has a crush on him,” she returned.

Shit.

He looked to his wife. When she caught his eyes, she lifted her brows in her nonverbal, See?

“How ’bout we get Jasper tied to Keira before we worry about another love tangle with the Callahans?” he suggested.

Rocky grinned.

The side door to the church opened and Jasper, followed by Tripp and then several of Jas’s buds, stepped out.

A few minutes later, Layne stood in a church, watching his son watching Keira Winters walk down the aisle.

Rocky was watching something else and he knew it when she leaned deep into his back and again found his ear. “Every time Cal walks one of his girls down the aisle, why do I take one look at his face and wanna burst into tears?”

Layne tore his gaze off his boy to glance at Cal.

Then he looked back at Jasper and he saw something that was different but all the same on his son’s face.

So he pointed out the obvious.

“’Cause that’s the look of love, sweetcheeks,” he whispered back.

She found his hand. “Yeah.”

He curled his fingers around hers.

Cal gave Keira away.

Jasper accepted her.

Layne’s throat hurt through it all.

But when he watched his son kiss his bride, the pain released.

And all he felt was his wife’s hand in his…

And happy.

* * * * *

Mike

September, Seven Years Later

“Um…baby, I think we have a problem.”

Mike looked from shuffling through the mail on the kitchen counter to his wife.

He knew that look on her face.

“Please, Angel, do not tell me my daughter is pregnant again.”

In the six years since they’d been married, Reesee had published eight books.

She and her husband, Fin, had also given Mike three grandkids.

His daughter was happy as a clam on her farm with her husband and her brood.

Mike could coast through the goodness of life because Dusty gave that to him. His grandkids gave that to him.

But with his daughters, he was not happy.

This was because Mike had another girl, Mandy, who was much younger than her big sister.

This meant this kind of torture—his baby girls making babies—would be drawn out, prolonged.

Never ending.

Christ.

Dusty grinned, moving toward him.

“No, gorgeous.” She stopped close to him. “Rees isn’t pregnant. Though I’d never describe an impending grandchild as being a problem. This is problem. Or at least it might be in the beginning.”

“What?” he asked.

“Just going to say, I’ve made the call and preliminarily tamed the wild beast,” she declared.

This wasn’t an answer. Though it did make him mentally brace harder.

“What?” he repeated.

She reached a hand toward the counter, nabbed her tablet, looked down at it, sliding her finger on the screen, and finally her eyes came up to his.

“Brace,” she whispered.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

She turned the tablet his way.

His eyes dropped to it.

On it was an online entertainment news site.

And the headline was, “Jonas Haines of Broken Bird Marries Model Adriana Rivera in Vegas.”

“What the fuck?” Mike murmured, pulling the tablet out of his wife’s hand and reading it.

Jonas Haines, known as “No,” lead singer, lead guitarist, and founder of the chart-topping rock band Broken Bird, yesterday reportedly married his on-again, off-again girlfriend, bathing suit model Adriana Rivera, in Las Vegas.

 

Haines, 31, and Rivera, 20, have dominated the gossip columns for the last two years with their stormy relationship. This includes Haines’s brief incarceration for charges of assault and battery when he located a crazed fan of Rivera’s who was stalking his lady love. Charges were later dropped through a plea bargain arrangement for Alfie Birk, who pled guilty to criminal harassment and menacing and received a reduced sentence.

 

It’s reported that Haines’s best man was a woman. Stella Gunn of the Blue Moon Gypsies, the established rock star who gave Haines and Broken Bird their break, asking Broken Bird to open for the Gypsies before they’d even signed a record deal, stood with the rocker.

 

In turn, standing up for Rivera was a man. Kai Mason, Gunn’s husband and the head of an elite security agency in Los Angeles, the agency used by Broken Bird as well as Rivera personally, stood with the model.

 

Neither Haines’s nor Rivera’s spokespersons are confirming the nuptials except for Broken Bird’s team stating that at this time, Haines and Rivera’s relationship is “definitely on.” It’s been alleged that confirmation is being delayed in order for the bride and groom to inform their families that the wedding took place.

 

It’s unknown where the newlyweds are at this time; however, social media sites have lit up with witnesses at Las Vegas and Los Angeles airports stating they’ve seen the couple and also reporting they’ve boarded a Fiji Airlines flight bound for those islands for what could be nothing other than their honeymoon.

Finished, Mike looked at his wife.

“Hunter is not happy,” Dusty noted, something Mike did not need her to note.

Hunter was Dusty’s best friend’s husband.

He was also Adriana’s father.

And last, Hunter had not been a big fan of this situation for more years than No and Addie had been together. In fact, it had been since the first time he saw his daughter, at thirteen, gazing with love-struck eyes at No, who was with his band playing at his sister’s wedding.

“But I talked him down,” Dusty finished.

“Have you heard from No?” Mike asked.

She shook her head. “I called. Reesee called. Even Fin called. He’s not answering.” Her mouth quirked. “Probably because he’s a day ahead of us on Fiji.” She paused, then added, “And he’s busy.”

“This isn’t funny,” Mike informed her.

He watched his wife’s lips continue to quirk.

“Angel,” he warned.

Her lips stopped quirking. “Addie’s been in love with No since she was thirteen.”

Mike had nothing to say to that because it was true.

“And No’s been in love with her since the second they bumped into each other again two years ago,” she continued.

“She’s not even old enough to drink,” Mike stated.

“She’s old enough to fall in love,” Dusty returned.

“She’s old enough to think she’s in love.”

“Baby,” she whispered, moving closer. “You were here at Christmas with those two. I get you’re worried. But there’s no way you could watch them and not see they’re completely, desperately, crazy in love.”

Fuck, he couldn’t say anything to that either.

Because it was true.

Mike wrapped an arm around his wife and he pulled out his phone.

He held her as he slid his thumb over the screen.

He put it to his ear.

Jonas answered on the third ring.

“Dad.”

“Got some news for me, No?”

Apparently, he didn’t because there was silence.

“Jonas,” Mike prompted.

“It’s her, Dad. She’s young, but I don’t give a fuck. It’s her. It just is.”

“Yeah, neither of you hid that from your family last time we saw you and you haven’t been hiding it from the population at large, the crazy shit you’ve both been playing out publicly.”

“You know Addie. She’s about drama.”

His son sounded like he liked that.

Then again, he married it, so he did.

“That isn’t the issue,” Mike said. “The issue is, I read about it on a goddamned tablet.”

“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Jonas muttered.

“I figured that part out,” Mike told him.

“We’re gonna have another ceremony when we get back,” No assured him. “One we’ll have with our families.”

“I can do without going to another wedding, No. What I’m not a big fan of is reading something like this rather than hearing it direct from my son. You’re famous. I hear a lot about you that’s truth and a lot that’s lies. But when it’s important, when it means you’re happy, I wanna hear it from you.”

“I’m happy, Dad,” No said quietly.

Mike drew in breath.

“I’m glad, son,” Mike replied quietly.

Dusty pushed closer.

“She’s happy too,” Jonas told him.

“I’m glad about that too,” Mike replied.

“We’ve been dodging calls because we’ve been busy and because I wanted you to know first. You know now, so I gotta call Rees.”

“Yeah, your sister can bust your ass for depriving her of a celebrity wedding.”

“Last five books on the New York Times list. I’m not the only celebrity in the family.”

“Lucky for me, she’s got someone in her life who keeps her grounded, not someone who busts up hotel rooms.”

“Addie broke a vase. It was blown out of proportion by the media.”

“She broke it throwing it at you.”

“She’s excitable.”

Mike did not want to go there.

“Call your sister,” he ordered.

“I will,” No said, a smile in his voice. “And Dad?”

“Yeah, Jonas?”

“Love you.”

Mike sighed.

Then he said, “Same. Give our love to Addie. And hope to see you both soon.”

“Love back to Dusty, Mandy, and Austin.”

“Right. Later, son.”

“Later, Dad.”

They disconnected.

Mike threw his phone on the counter.

Dusty snuggled closer.

“All good?” she asked.

“He sounds happy.”

His woman smiled.

“Really happy,” he whispered.

“Then it’s all good,” she whispered back.