Sixteen
T uesday was not great. Because once I started thinking about it, there were people I wanted—needed—at my wedding.
People who were necessary to share my day with.
So we moved it to the second Friday in December so the important people, like Luke’s parents, could be there.
Jared graciously sent his plane for them, which they were wildly impressed by, so they arrived a few days before everyone else to help us prepare.
On Friday, Jared and Owen flew to Seattle, bringing with them Rais and Sienna and Shaw and Benji so they could all be with me on my special day at the Newcastle City Hall.
Of course, I had to point out to Owen and Jared how small my wedding was, how quickly it began and ended, and most importantly, how fast it was planned and executed.
“Yes, but you didn’t have orchids from Madagascar,” Owen said haughtily.
No argument there.
The kids lost their minds when Ash Lennox showed up, didn’t care about Cooper at all, which he was neither surprised at nor hurt by, and then nearly passed out when Nick Madison stepped inside the tiny municipal building.
They all took pictures with him, but interestingly, Tatum took an instant liking to Locryn.
Back at the house for the party, Nick was smiling at me like he knew something I didn’t. “I think your daughter has a type.” He tilted his head toward Locryn, who was saying something to an evidently smitten Tatum.
“What? No.”
“Growly alpha men might be her thing. You might wanna watch that.”
I glared at him, and he walked away from me, chuckling.
Luke said, “Why’re you scowling at the music god I’m crazy about who I had no idea you knew? You could’ve warned me.”
I looked at him. “Why?”
“I dunno, I feel like we should have rented a ballroom in a hotel in Seattle.” He gestured around us. “I mean, he’s in our very lived-in house.”
Slipping my arm around his neck, I pulled him to me and kissed his cheek. “Our very loved house, and he gets that.”
“He told me this fall he’s going to do some club dates with Dawson West, and when they come to Seattle, he’ll send all of us tickets.”
I made a face. “A concert? That’ll be loud.”
“Not a concert, a small venue.”
“It’ll still be loud,” I grumbled. “And probably at night.”
“Ohmygod, stop pretending you’re old right now.”
“I am old,” I assured him. “You’re gonna have to take care of me in a few years. Through sickness and health, buddy. Remember your vows.”
Luke turned into me, and I was wrapped in his arms before he kissed me. “We’re gonna have a great time.”
I grunted.
“And Dawson West and the Dregs, holy shit.”
“You’re easy to please.”
“No, I’m really not.” He stepped back, sighing deeply. “Okay, so why were you glowering at my new best friend Nick Madison?”
I pointed at Tatum, who was now sitting beside Locryn on the couch, showing him, I was fairly certain, different Pokémon characters on her phone. And he was being attentive, smiling and laughing when she did. It was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen. “Nick seems to think our daughter has a type.”
Luke sputtered out a laugh like he was choking. “You’re kidding, right?”
“What?”
“He carries himself just like you. Now, you’re gentler, you actually smile, while that squint of his appears permanent, but if you look at him, and you, and Mr. Colter, for that matter, you realize you do not want to fuck around and find out with any of you.”
“What about Shaw, who’s the biggest guy in the room?”
“Shaw’s a sweet man. You can tell from his voice and how he holds his husband’s hand.”
“Rais?”
“Rais might possibly be the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Oh is he,” I deadpanned.
“Do you see him over there?”
I groaned.
“He and his girlfriend are, like, blinding together. Can you imagine how gorgeous their kids will be?”
I would not spend a moment more on Rais. Or Sienna. “So you’re saying Locryn reminds Tatum of me, and that’s the appeal?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “She loves you, I suspect she can see Locryn’s gooey center under all the bluster, and if he stuck around, he’d be her new favorite person.”
“I’m gonna go throw him outta my house,” I announced, turning away.
He grabbed my arm and took my face in his hands. “Stay here and kiss me instead.”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed.
I so appreciated everyone being there, and was a bit overwhelmed that they wanted to be.
I had gotten a call from Croy about how sorry he was he couldn’t make it, but he was stuck on a job where he and his partner had tracked a guy to Alaska and were currently freezing their balls off on a stakeout in a motel that charged by the hour.
“I would much rather be attending your nuptials, but we’ll visit in the spring. Dallas has a two-day meeting there, and afterward, we’ll be crashing with you.”
“I can’t wait,” I said sincerely.
Brann called me as well, apologizing, but his oldest daughter’s first winter formal was the same evening, and he had to be there to put the fear of God into the “little asshole” who was escorting her.
“Really? Asshole? Isn’t the kid like fourteen, fifteen?”
Silence.
“You don’t think you’re overreacting just a bit?”
“Just you wait,” he told me.
It sounded ominous. I promised if he needed backup, I would get in the car. We were only an eight-and-a-half-hour car ride apart. He said he’d keep it in mind and invited me to visit. The fishing was great, he said. I could ask Cooper.
“This coming summer, and I’ll bring Luke and the kids.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said with a sigh.
I was over the moon to have Rais meet Luke, despite Luke finding him so very gorgeous, and I was thrilled they’d hit it off.
When your best friend liked your spouse, I couldn’t imagine anything better.
He pledged to visit after the holidays to do some skiing and hang out, and Sienna was excited to return to sit in the house, on the sectional she already loved, and veg with the kids.
After talking to Dar, she was sure they all liked the same movies.
She caught me in the kitchen after we cut the cake Owen had flown in from his favorite bakery in Chicago. It had three layers—tiramisu, chocolate, and strawberry swirl—and was utterly amazing. I had no idea cake could be that good.
“It can,” he said flatly, eyebrow raised as he walked away with a slice of the tiramisu. He wasn’t messing around, and it was one of two gifts from him and Jared, he said.
I was curious what the second gift was, but in that moment, I was far more invested in what Sienna was about to tell me.
“Thank you for selling us your beautiful apartment, Nash.” Her eyes sparkled with tears. “I just—I love him so much. I mean, the moment we met it was like, Oh, there you are. Where have you been? And now this transition, for both of us, has been simply seamless.”
“As though it was meant to be.”
“Yes,” she barely got out, her breath catching as I took her into my arms.
“What the hell?” Rais groused at me. “Why’re you making my girl cry?”
“I’m your girl?” she asked as Cooper appeared, the man who had been her first friend from our crew, the one she’d visited Chicago to see, before she fell for Rais.
“Of course,” Rais said adamantly.
“Don’t want to look like a raccoon right now,” Cooper insisted, handing her a tissue that she dabbed at her eyes with.
“No, of course not, but why is the now so vital?”
When I let her go and she turned, she immediately understood why the present moment was so important.
Rais Solano was down on one knee, holding an open box, a lovely maroon velvet one, that held a six-carat emerald-cut diamond solitaire.
He’d spent a fortune, but he could. He’d told me earlier, when he showed me the ring, that he was nervous.
I advised him not to worry and, of course, I was right,
“Ohmygod, yes,” she blurted out.
“I haven’t asked yet,” he pointed out.
“I don’t care.”
His smile lit his face. “I want you to marry me and be with me forever.”
“Yes,” she repeated, holding out her hand. “A million times yes.”
We all took pictures of the two of them, because really, they should have been in ads for diamonds with how beautiful they were together.
She didn’t wait for him to stand. As soon as the ring was on her finger, she took his face in her trembling hands and kissed the breath out of him. I was wildly happy for them both, and what a great memory for them to share with us.
I also enjoyed having everyone meet Chief Higheagle and her wife, Rosa, and Deputy Chief Sampson and his wife, Delilah.
“Really?” I asked him. “Delilah?”
“Like I’ve never heard that before,” he deadpanned.
Delilah winked at me as she walked by.
Meeting Luke’s crew was a treat for me, and especially José González Guerrero, his new foreman.
“I appreciate you being here to take things off his plate,” I thanked the charming man with kind eyes who brought his beautiful wife with him to our wedding. We’d invited their kids as well, but from what Belinda said, she was happy to have an adult outing without them.
“I love them,” she told me. “But they’re feral.”
I had a feeling we were going to be friends.
The neighbors on both sides were invited, and truly, it was the best day.
Later, on their way out, the last ones to leave, Owen gave me and Luke our second gift.
“Jared is sending the plane to take you and your family, including Wink, to and from Maine for Christmas.”
“No,” I said, absolutely stunned as Jared joined us, shaking his head.
“You needed to have tickets way before Thanksgiving,” he pointed out. “Tickets now, for five of you and the cat—are you serious?”
I stepped into Jared, who was still explaining how insane holiday travel was and how extremely costly. I hugged him, and he hugged me back.
“It works out this year because we’re hosting everyone at our house for the holidays,” Owen said. “Darius and Efrem, Dante and Noah, his daughter, Grace, and her new husband—whose name I can never remember, which is terrible because I was at their wedding.”
“It’s Stanton,” Jared imparted with a roll of his eyes. “How do you forget the name Stanton?”
“They’re not going to last,” Owen pronounced. “The man has no sense of humor, and Grace is funny and charming and…he sucks the joy out of every room he enters.”
Jared shook his head. “Dante’s daughter needed an anchor, and he is. I find him steady and solid. I’m a big fan.”
“Mark my words,” Owen said authoritatively. “But anyway, plane travel is on us this Christmas. Next year, you need tickets by July.”
“I’m all over it,” I swore as Luke slipped his hand into mine.
On the porch, waving as they left, I then turned to him. “You held my hand all day.”
“Yep. Didn’t want you thinking you should leave with anyone else.”
I shook my head at him. “You’re stuck with me now. There were vows, as you recall.”
“I know,” he murmured. He let go of my hand and stepped in front of me, at the same time pulling a ring from the right front pocket of his pants.
“What is this?” I asked as he lifted my hand and slid another gold comfort band onto my finger. This one was thinner than the ones we’d bought together and exchanged during the ceremony, but it had five round channel-set diamonds that caught the light and sparkled.
The door opened behind him, and I saw the kids clustered there, staring at us for a moment before I turned back to Luke.
“We,” Luke began, glancing at the kids for a moment before he returned his focus to me, “wanted you to have another ring that represented us as a family.”
“There’s a diamond for each of us,” Tatum chimed in, smiling.
“They’re not big diamonds like Owen’s,” Dar explained, “but each one is excellent quality. We talked to the jeweler.”
I smiled at them.
“The ring,” Griff said, then cleared his throat softly like he was having a bit of trouble speaking. “The ring will remind you of all of us, together, whenever you see it.”
“I don’t need a ring for that,” I husked, returning my gaze to Luke.
“I know, but this way, all you have to do is look down to know you’re the heart of our family, and you’ll carry all of us with you wherever you go.”
I nodded, gave him a quick kiss, then gestured for the kids, who rushed me. We had a big group hug, and then, since it was a bit frigid outside, went back in, where I hugged and kissed each one.
As I watched them head up to bed, it was after eleven, late for all of them, I realized there was no overwhelming feeling that they belonged to me, because I’d felt that way since before Luke returned home.
I may have imprinted on them, but they’d done the same on me.
I was never going to leave, and it was so strange to think about now.
“I’m sorry we can’t go on a honeymoon,” Luke said, back from locking and dead-bolting the front door and checking the garage and sliding glass doors. I’d heard him set the alarm as well. He was now as security conscious as I was. “But we’ll go somewhere in the spring. I promise you it’ll be?—”
“It’s not necessary,” I stated, running my fingertip over the diamond ring sitting flush with my wedding band.
“Maybe not for you,” he replied, flipping off the lights, leaving only the one over the stove, plunging us into semidarkness. “But I, for one, would enjoy doing nothing but eating and drinking and having sex for a few…why’re you lookin’ at me like that?”
“The ring was unnecessary, but I love it.”
His brows rose. “You love it? How much do you love it?”
I took a breath and lunged at him, my hands on his face, holding him still as I kissed him with everything I had, letting him feel the depth of my heart and all I felt for him and my new life.
When he turned his head to take a panting breath, his smile was wicked and warm. “Oh, he loves me. Your soul was in that kiss, husband of mine.”
The second kiss was harder, hungrier. When I knocked him back against the wall, he laughed into my mouth until I tugged his dress shirt out of his pants—we’d both worn suits to our wedding, after all—and put my hands all over his skin.
“You want me,” he whispered.
“Yes. Always.”
“That’s very good,” he said, arms around my neck before he kissed me. When I bent and swept him off his feet, he gasped and pulled back to see my eyes. “And this is pretty damn romantic, sir.”
“Gotta carry you across the threshold and all that,” I murmured, slipping around the corner and walking with him through the doorway of our bedroom, gently kicking the door shut behind me, and carrying him over to the bed. “See, now we’re all good.”
“We were always good,” he sighed. “From the beginning.”
“Yes, we were,” I agreed, then kissed him like he belonged to me, because he did.
“My husband,” he said longingly, both his kisses and his hands on me becoming urgent. “You’re all mine now.”
Yes, I was. Always.