Chapter 26
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
HARLOW
The day has finally come. Frankie presses a kiss to the side of my head. “You mad?”
Shaking my head in response, my eyes move over him. He lifts a brow as he looks down at me.
“Genuinely, I am not mad. I will be here with the girls. Just get that asshole back here,” I grit the last part out.
“Oh, he’ll make it to the box, out of it—” my brother mutters leaving off with a dark chuckle as he moves past us, already having said his goodbyes to Meads.
Dad presses a kiss to the top of my head from behind. “Pretend to be good?”
I grin. “I’ll try.”
He gives a dip of his chin and moves around to get to his bike. I look back up at my husband. A cute smirky grin pushes up one side of his face sending a thrill down my spine. Everything about this man does it for me.
“I was thinking we should plan a honeymoon.” His head tilts to the side as he watches me. I seriously love how he watches me, like I am the most interesting thing he has ever encountered, like everything I do is truly the most engaging thing he has ever experienced.
“Oh. Uhm… like a beach thing?” I question, gently leaning in because he clearly has something in mind and I don’t want him to think there is anything he could suggest that I wouldn’t be both feet down for.
“I figured we could tack some beaches onto the trip I had in mind.” He chuckles lightly.
I lift a brow. “What did you have in mind?”
“Exploring the catacombs in Rome. We could indulge in food, macabre, and beaches by traveling a bit around Italy.” He gives a wicked little look with a shrug like what he is suggesting is no big deal.
Really, it is thrilling and totally my kind of honeymoon trip.
He knows it too. Why? Because he knows me.
A happy tightness pulls on my insides. I love this man.
“I suppose that could be enjoyable.” I give a responding shrug, but don’t even bother pushing the smile off my lips because we both know this is exactly what I want to do.
He leans down his hand sliding to my lower back pulling me closer, pressing his lips to my ear whispering, “Good, it’s already booked, and I marked it in your schedule. Plan to wear the tiniest bikinis when we make it to the ocean. I’ll be back soon.”
He then plants a firm kiss on my lips, turns on his heal and heads to his bike. Once his helmet is on and he is settled, he turns his head looking back at me and I know he is winking at me under that visor. Biting down on my lip, I try to control my smile.
Once they are all off, Paige wraps her arm around my back as she scoots into me. “I love seeing you two together.”
Meads sneaks in on my other side as Gracie steps into Paige’s other side. Meads grins. “I always knew you two would be ridiculously cute together, but Paige is right, I get a little thrill every time I see him being all cute and soft with you.”
“And you getting all soft and mushy with him,” Grace throws out there.
I don’t even try to keep my face flat. One of the benefits of finally feeling like I belong and that people surrounding me actually give a shit about me is that I no long wish to hide myself.
I beam at the three of them. “I never thought I would ever get this. I never thought I would get Frankie. But damn, Frankie is… everything. Apparently, he has booked us a honeymoon to Italy.”
“Italy?” Paige questions, her head turning to look at me with a puzzled look. “What’s the catch?”
I laugh loving that she knows there has to be something weird thrown in there. “We are going to explore the catacombs, gorge ourselves on food, and find some beaches.”
They all grin broadly. Grace nods. “That tracks.”
“Fuck that sounds like fun.” Paige runs her fingers through her super long hair. The girls’ heads bob their agreement.
I hold my hands up. “Not up to me. If you all want to tag along, your guys have to talk to Frankie. Be forewarned, he wants me to wear the world’s smallest bikinis.”
Meads laughs. “Well, we are out. I can only influence Mint’s facial expressions so much.”
We all giggle together. Paige sighs. “I suppose we should allow you a honeymoon alone. Supposed to be the point, right? Perhaps hearing you guys are going on one will get Michael to realize we haven’t done that.”
Grace nods. “Yeah… same.”
Meads nods her agreement too.
“Where would you guys go?” I ask.
Grace gives a big smile. “Honestly… I want to go to Hawaii. I’ve never been and it feels like something everyone but me has done. And with Khai, I know I will be totally comfortable to wear whatever size bikini he thinks would be hottest.”
We all howl our joy. I love how Grace has truly embraced herself through the love and support of those around us. I am proud to call myself one of those people now too… just like she is for me.
We turn to look at Meads.
“Ottawa. I am desperate to see Rideau Canal in the winter when it becomes a skateway. I saw some pictures of it and now I am positively obsessed. Also, I have been getting pretty good at ice skating. Mint and Wally taught me a while ago and we go a few times a month now because of how stupid fun it is. I want to know what it is like to be on a real waterway.” She gives a sheepish smile.
“Meads, that sounds amazing!” Paige has big, adorable hearts in her eyes. We all nod our agreement, that does sound like a ton of fun.
“What about you?” Grace asks Paige.
She shrugs. “I honestly don’t know. Hawaii is amazing by the way, you will love it, I went when I was young, but it was great.
I think I just want to explore something with Michael.
It could be as simple as camping, and I would be all over it.
I feel like Michael and I just push to do the things we are supposed to all the time and never really do anything for us. ”
Hooking my arm in hers. “We are going to fix that. It is now officially my mission to remind all these guys that just getting the girl doesn’t mean they don’t have to work their asses off to make their lives awesome.”
We all smile together as I silently plan out how to guilt-drop the information on the guys.
CARBON
My father-in-law comes across the comms once we are comfortably on the road toward Sacramento. “Did you tell Harry about the honeymoon?”
Grinning, I chuckle that Hanger likely knows I did but wants to hear how excited she is. “I did. She is pretty stoked about it.”
“Honeymoon?” Mint calls through the comms.
“Yeah, I am taking my wife to Rome. Well, Italy. We are going to eat our way across the country while checking out the catacombs and beaches.” I let them know.
“Shit. I bet Paige would be into that kind of thing. A honeymoon. Fuck. Man. I really dropped the ball there,” Hemmy grumbles the end of that.
“So did we,” Wally adds.
“You haven’t taken Gracie yet,” Mint points out to Kev.
“Fuck you,” he bites through the comms.
“You know, you could just tell them you already booked a trip for you and Gracie and are going next month,” Jolt drops, almost soothingly.
“I could have,” Kev states flatly.
“Touchy-touchy,” Mouse chuckles. “Where are you taking Gracie?”
“Hawaii. Maui, the big island, and Oahu. I don’t like being lumped in with these knuckleheads as having forgotten,” Kevlar clarifies while taking a jab at our brothers.
“You know, we could take Meads to Canada… she keeps talking about that river for skating,” Wally tosses out there and we all know it is directed at Mint.
“Yeah, in uh… Ottawa. Let’s plan it. I bet there are fancy places that overlook it too, so she can see it the whole time we are there.
Fuck, that would be fun. I suppose I should thank you Carbon—you know, for making us realize we forgot a pretty fucking important thing,” Mint mutters the last part, but it doesn’t sound as begrudging as I think he wanted it to sound.
“No problem. Always happy to point out where you fucks failed,” I tease.
Hanger, Jolt, Mouse, and Virus all chuckle a little.
Hemmy huff. “Wait. What am I supposed to do for Paige? I can’t let you all show me up. We’ve got a kid… can I blame that?”
Mouse snorts. “Not when you have two sets of parents and a shit ton of brothers that would easily step in to watch out for him. Hell, you could do it during the summer and send him to Washington with Glen and Sherry. You my brother have no excuses.”
“I really fucked this up. I should do something real big, right? Paige hasn’t really been anywhere.
I mean I know when she was little, they would go to the beach every year.
I don’t want to do something typical like Paris…
I want… oh fuck you know what she would like?
” He lets out a sharp happy sound that is awful close to a cackle.
We all chuckle waiting to hear just what he is doing to do for Paige.
“You have us on tenterhooks, spill!” Jolt jokingly demands.
“Paige has gotten really into brewery shit and she loves to hike. What if I take her to do that beer hike shit in uhm… uh… shit… uhm… where in Germany was that…”
“Bavaria,” Hanger fills in the blank for Hem.
His hand goes up pointing his finger up at the sky. “That’s it! Fuck, yes. I am going to book the shit out of that. Paige would get a kick out of it. Meeting people on the trails, family breweries, the beautiful landscape. Fuck yeah.”
“Dude, that sounds like a shit ton of fun,” I add.
“How about this… if we love it, which we totally will, we can plan another trip. There are a ton of those hikes out there. We could all freaking go with the girls. How fucking awesome would that be? Hike. Drink. Fuck. Hell yeah.” Hem’s enthusiasm is top notch right now.
Mint chokes a little. I hear Hanger huff out a breath now. “Son, you are going to have to let that the fuck go. We all know you fuck your wife, so get over the fact that your sister fucks her husband.”
My eyes widen at the balls on my father-in-law. Mint sputters, “Did you… did you really just fucking say that?”