Chapter 1
BELLA CONNER
“I feel like we’re forgetting something,” I said as we pulled out of the parking garage.
“Our sanity? Dignity? Sense of self-preservation?” Matteo asked. “Oh, wait, I lost that the first time I visited your hometown.”
“Come on, man, it can’t be that bad,” Zach argued. He looked at Luca and asked, “Can it?”
“Why are you asking me? I’ve never been to Rojo.”
“I can’t ask him because he’s been dealing with Bridezilla for the last . . . feels like decades.”
“One year, three weeks, and eleven days,” Matteo announced. He winced before he looked at me and said, “I’ve only been counting because I’m so excited to be married to the love of my life, the yin to my yang, the . . .”
Luca coughed, but it sounded a lot like the word “bullshit.” Tabby nudged him with her elbow before she asked, “Did you feel the same way while we were planning our wedding?”
“There was no we in that planning process, sweetheart.
That was all you, my mom, Bella, and many other assorted women, including the server at that Asian fusion restaurant who told you all about her cousin's wedding and gave you the idea to make . . .” Tabby nudged him again, and his voice trailed off before he said, “Every minute was worth it because, even though we were technically already married, I got to show the world my beautiful bride and mother of my children.”
“Good save, asshole,” Zach muttered. “I feel like we’re forgetting something, too, but I don’t have to wonder what it is because I know it’s our children.”
Brett exhaled slowly before she said, “It’s okay for parents to take a vacation alone now and then, Zach, and it’s not like we’re going to be away for long.”
“I love my daughter, and in a day or two, I’m going to miss her. Until then, I’m going to enjoy the hell out of a few days apart,” Tabby announced.
“We know they’re in good hands, and it won’t be long until they join us in Rojo. Hopefully, we won’t all be buried in a field somewhere by then,” Matteo said with a chuckle.
“Why would they bury anyone in a field when there are hog farms all over Texas and Oklahoma?” I asked just to goad him.
When he glared at me, I said, “Everyone is going to get along just fine, and it’s not like you guys are going to be facing the masses by yourselves.
The New York families will be there to join us in a week.
Plus, Stamp and Bernadette arrive with Zach’s mom and their crew in a few days, and Stan will be here with our friends from Colorado soon.
Surely you can survive until they get here, right? ”
“You just made his point, Bella. We’re about to unleash New York and Tenillo on your unsuspecting little town, and you don’t understand why there might be problems?”
I smiled at Zach before I explained, “Just wait until you meet my family and friends - then you’ll understand why I’m not worried.”
◆◆◆
FINN CONNER
“What are you doing back over here, babe?” Lena looked up from where she was kneeling in front of the bookshelf and lifted her dustrag in explanation. “You’re nervous cleaning.”
“I’m not nervous. I just want the house to be clean when Bella brings her friends home.”
“Considering how much stuff they have planned, I doubt they’ll even notice. Between the last-minute wedding events and parties and just general social activities, they’ll barely be around long enough to get a good night’s rest before they’re off again.”
“I don’t want Matteo’s family to think we’re . . . I don’t know.”
“They’ll think that you’re just as wonderful now as you were the last time we saw them. I promise.”
“It’s different, though. This time they’ll be on our turf, and I want to make sure they’re comfortable here.”
“Honey, they rented out an entire floor of the nicest hotel in town for the people that are coming in for this. I doubt they’ll even come here.”
“Bella said the nannies may keep the children here so they’ll have more space to run and play.”
I shrugged before I offered, “That makes sense.”
“Does it, though? Our daughter is marrying into a culture that thinks it’s completely normal to have nannies, Finn!”
“You say that like they’re an abomination or something. She’s not marrying into a cult, Lena. Lots of people have nannies. Hell, I hired one when Bella and Dill were babies.”
Lena looked at me knowingly before she asked, “Do you remember how that worked out?”
Lena tried to stand, but I could tell it was a struggle and guessed that her leg was paining her because she’d been up and down doing the same deep cleaning in our own house before she started on Bella’s.
I hurried across the room and put my arm around her so I could lift her up, and when she was standing, I pulled her into my arms.
“You’re not worried about dust bunnies, Lena, and you aren’t gonna judge people for having a nanny. What’s going on?”
Lena burst into tears and rested her head on my chest before she wailed, “I just want her to be happy, but I want her to be happy here.”
“Her life isn’t here anymore, babe. She’s been gone for over a year.”
“I know!” Lena said through a fresh round of tears. “I can’t believe our little girl is getting married, Finn!”
I felt myself start to spiral, just like I always did when I realized our lives would never be the same joyful chaos that they had been with the children around.
They were all grown up and living their own lives, and we were on the edges of that now rather than right in the middle of the crazy.
When I started to feel my emotions overwhelm me, as they tended to do sometimes, I tried to laugh through my tears - something I had become pretty good at making my wife do too.
“Remember when she was little, and she swore that all boys were stinky and stupid?”
“Especially Dill,” Lena reminded me with a watery laugh. “Maybe if she’d kept that mindset, she wouldn’t have moved so far away.”
“We knew that our Belly Button was destined to explore. Hell, we encouraged it.”
“I never should have gotten her that National Geographic subscription,” Lena grumbled.
Throughout their young lives, Lena had organized themed birthday parties for all our children.
Since Bella and Dill were twins with very different personalities, she made sure that they each had their own special day and unique party.
On their eighth birthday, Bella had requested a Carmen Sandiego party because of her love for the cartoon she watched every day after school without fail.
To coincide with the theme, Lena had gifted Bella several magazine subscriptions about traveling.
From then on, Bella’s walls were covered in pictures of exotic locations all over the world, beaches I’d never heard of, and cities I had no urge to visit.
She found historical monuments she had to see, obscure landmarks that she could pinpoint on a map, and skylines she could tell you about in great detail.
Her dream had been to see all of those places and experience different things everywhere she went.
From castles in Scotland to king crab fishing in Alaska, Bella wanted to do it all.
I had a feeling that Matteo would make sure she got the chance. He’d started by taking her on a trip overseas the day after her passport arrived and had flown her to many other places since then. Now he was flying her home to marry her before he swept her away again.
I really wanted to hate the guy for more than just that reason alone, but it was hard to do because Bella loved him so much.
But a dad could try - I was proving that.
I missed talking to her before she had her first cup of coffee - which was actually just me attempting to rile her up while she answered with grunts and growls.
I hated the fact that I couldn’t walk down the street and find her sitting on her porch reading a book so I could stop to chat.
It broke my heart every Sunday when her chair at the dinner table was empty.
But when she could make it to our traditional Sunday dinners now, we’d have to make room for another chair, and maybe a highchair in a few years, because my little girl was about to become a wife.
“I can’t believe you made me cry, Lena Conner,” I said through my tears.
“You promised to love me forever and stand by my side through everything, Finn.”
“I did, but when I made that vow, I didn’t consider that would mean watching our everything grow up and move away.”
◆◆◆
DYLAN CONNER
“Will the food be ready in time?” I turned and stared at Lark Forrester, one of my sister's best friends who had also become a good friend of mine over the years, until she widened her eyes and screwed up her face. “No need to get touchy. I was just asking.”
“I do this for a living, you know.”
“I know. I’m just excited, and if I keep puttering and moving things around, the girls are going to stage a revolt.”
“You could always go home and change,” I suggested.
Lark rolled her eyes before she said, “You know why I’m wearing this.”
I sighed before I muttered, “You look like an idiot, and you’re just reinforcing the stereotype that everyone in Texas wears a ten-gallon hat and has cow shit on their boots.”
“I had a lasso hanging from my belt, but it kept getting in the way. I had a better idea, though, so I called Bax to have him find a gun belt and six-shooters to help me complete my outfit.”
“If he’s a smart man, he’ll use this opportunity while you’re distracted to take off for parts unknown.”
“Nah. He loves me. Besides, he knows I’d find him eventually.”
“Who came up with this theme shit anyway?” I asked.
“Your mom.”
Usually, that would have been said with sarcasm. It was a retort I’d heard the girls snap at each other repeatedly through the years, but in this instance, she wasn’t trying to be insulting. “Of course she did.”