Chapter 23 Derrick
DERRICK
Ihear raised voices as I pull myself from the deepest depths of hangover hell, and I walk out into the living room to see Axel pacing around the room on the phone.
“Axel?” I call out to him.
“Did you know?” he screams at me.
I shake my head. What the hell is he talking about? Then there’s banging on our door, and Axel rushes over and opens it. It’s Evan and Sienna.
“What the fuck was he thinking?” Evan says to Axel.
“He wasn’t,” Axel spits back.
“What is going on?” I ask Sienna, utterly confused by the code talking.
“Ness and Christian got married last night. It’s all over TMZ.”
I gasp. “No!” Sienna nods.
“Mom is devastated. She was crying on the phone to me,” Axel shouts. Sienna and I look at each other. “It’s embarrassing, he looks like a drunken fool.”
“They were always going to get married, the timelines just moved up,” I tell him because I think Axel is overreacting, but he does look hot while doing it, all alpha and shit.
“Derrick’s right, Chris loves her. They have been through so much. Guess they were feeling the love and went for it,” Evan adds. Axel glares at his friend.
“Is it really that bad that he married Nessa?” I ask Axel.
“I love Ness. But he’s broken Mom’s heart by getting married and not telling her. She had to see it on the TV. That is unforgivable, hurting Mom like that.” Axel’s in protective mode, I get it.
“I’m sure they will have another wedding, and she will get to be at that one,” Sienna adds.
“That’s not the point,” Axel says, raising his voice at her.
“Watch how you talk to my wife,” Evan warns him.
“Sorry,” Axel tells her. “I have to talk to him.”
And with that, we follow one pissed off rock star.
“Open the fuck up,” Axel screams, banging on their door. Vanessa opens it and is surprised to see the four of us standing there. She looks like a disheveled mess, it seems like they had a dirty wedding night. “Is Christian decent?”
“He’s on the phone with your mom,” Ness tells him.
That sets Axel off, and he storms into the room.
“I might just check on Axe,” Evan says, following him.
“You dirty bitch, sneaking off and getting married, and not inviting us. You’ve broken my heart,” I tell her.
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I don’t remember inviting myself, either,” she jokes before bursting into tears.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Sienna wraps her arms around her. “It’s going to be okay. You’re not the first couple to get married in Vegas, and I’m sure you won’t be the last, either.”
“I have totally fucked up. This is going to be a PR nightmare for the band and label.” Vanessa continues to cry. I don’t think she should worry about that, it’s not like it’s a secret the two of them are together.
“Are you fucking serious?” Sienna says about to tell our friend that she shouldn’t be worried about work right now, but the sound of shouting grabs our attention.
Oh shit! Axel has Christian by the neck and is screaming in his face. Vanessa breaks free from Sienna’s hold as Evan is pulling Axel off Christian.
“How could you fucking do that to Mom? I had her in tears on the phone this morning. Do you even care that she had to watch you drunkenly get married by some Elvis impersonator on TMZ?” Axel screams at Christian.
“I know, bro, I know I fucked up, okay!” Christian screams back at his twin.
“Axel,” Vanessa says, tugging on his arm. “We’re sorry, okay. But honestly, we don’t remember last night. Do you know how that feels to not remember your wedding?” Vanessa states tearily, this cools Axel’s temper slightly.
“What the fuck were you two thinking?” Axel asks her.
“Honestly, I don’t know, Axe, but I can tell you this.
Your brother proposed to me this morning, properly.
” Vanessa drops a bombshell on us, stilling Axel.
“I said yes because I love him. I love him with all my heart. After everything we have been through over the years, there was never anyone else who could compare to him.”
Tears well in my eyes, my girl deserves her happily ever after.
“You want to be married to this fool?” Axel asks her softly.
“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with that man,” she says through her tears as she reaches out and squeezes Christian’s hand.
The way the two of them are looking at each other now, that is true love.
And I hate that in this moment, I realize no one has ever looked at me like that.
They may have said the words, but I’ve never seen the action, and right there and then I realize Chance doesn’t love me and I him.
“Fuck, Ness, come ‘ere,” Axel says, breaking down as he hugs his new sister-in-law. “Welcome to the family.” Then Christian wraps himself around them both.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to get married again, and we are going to do it right,” Christian says.
“Oh my god, another fucking wedding.” I squeal as I take my chance and join in on the Taylor family hug.
“Derrick, man, you better not get a boner,” Axel warns me.
“You’re no fun, Axe.”
“You’re getting married, you’re fucking getting married.” Sienna squeals as she hugs Vanessa.
“Wait, does that mean you’re going to have kids as well?” I ask, looking between Chris and Ness, who both give me sly grins.
“Oh shit, you two have already started, haven’t you?” Sienna guesses.
“Damn right, we have,” Christian announces to the room proudly, before Ness scowls at him.
“But we wanted to get married first, you know, to make an honest woman out of her,” Christian jokes.
Um. Man, read the room, your bestie knocked up Sienna before they got married.
“Oh shit, Si, I mean …” Christian says, realizing the error of his words.
Sienna chuckles. “Please, Evan and I hardly knew each other. You two, on the other hand, it’s taken you bloody long enough to get your shit together, we don’t have time to wait anymore,” she tells him.
“I’m sorry we have created a PR nightmare. I promise I’ll sort it all out,” Vanessa tells Axel.
“Fuck that shit, it’s your wedding day … no, post-wedding day. We need to celebrate. Tonight, you will have the wedding reception you missed out on. I’m sure Derrick can whip up a wedding in a couple of hours,” Axel says, changing his tune.
I can do anything, and with their unlimited credit cards, I can whip something up. “We need to get you a dress to wear tonight, your hair done, and we need new clothes. There’s so much we need to do.” Sienna claps her hands excitedly.
“If you don’t mind, D, I’d like to have some alone time with my wife before you whisk her away,” Christian says, wiggling his brow at me.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, fine, go fuck your bride. We’ll be meeting downstairs in three hours, okay?” I warn him. Christian smiles and nods.
“Quick, let’s go before they start fucking while we are here.” Axel groans as we head out the door.
The media attention has been kind of crazy, so we settled for a private meal in our suite.
It was the largest, and the hotel staff have been phenomenal, whipping up a last-minute reception completely decorated with flowers and the table set as if it truly was a wedding reception, technically it is.
Reluctantly, Christian let his new wife leave his sight for long enough for us to get a selection of white dresses sent up to the suite for her to choose for tonight.
She settled on a simple and elegant white slip dress.
When they stepped into the room and saw what we had created, the two of them got emotional, as did some of us in the crowd.
It turned into an amazing night of celebrating their love.
“I just wanted to say a few words,” Christian says, standing up with a glass of champagne in his hand.
“Firstly, thank you all for coming and celebrating our wedding, even if it was a surprise to y’all,” he says, making us all laugh.
“Even though our drunken Vegas wedding wasn’t planned, I just wanted to reassure all of you and my new wife that my love is real.
I’ve loved you, Vanessa, for the past five years, from the moment you threw your high heel at that asshole at that Hollywood party.
It was love at first sight, and even though our love has taken a long and winding road to get to where we are now, I wouldn’t change it for the world because it led us to being here in this moment,” he states, looking down into the tear-soaked eyes of my bestie.
They are lost in the moment before she stands up and kisses the hell out of him, making us all hoot and holler at them.
That is what love is, and one day I’m going to find it.
Things changed between Chance and me when we got back from Vegas, mainly me.
I’ve gotten into my head about my relationship that I just needed time away from him.
Luckily, I was able to use the excuse of preparing for the one-year anniversary of Dirty Texas Records and Wyld & Jones boutique as the reason for the distance.
We’ve organized a girls’ night tonight as the group needed a moment to destress together, plus we wanted to catch up with Ness after Christian whisked her away for a spontaneous honeymoon.
“Christian is such a romantic,” Sienna gushes as we are all holed up in Vanessa’s living room eating take-out.
Vanessa sighs. “It was so beautiful, quiet, and so relaxing.”
Whatever happened up there has blissed her out, and I don’t think it was the mountain air.
“I can’t believe you turned off your phone for a whole weekend.” Isla chuckles.
It wouldn’t be hard when you have Christian Taylor naked in your bed. “I bet Christian had his ways of keeping her occupied, am I right?” I smirk.
“That’s what you do on honeymoons, D, fuck each other’s brains out.” Camryn chuckles as she digs into her dinner.
“It’s still nice that he whisked you away for some alone time. I mean, you guys have been so busy since coming back from Vegas,” Sienna adds.
“At first, I was having a heart attack because we had so much shit to do for the party.”