21. Mason
MASON
The church was as usual. A long ceremony, the exchanging of vows, and the end, which felt like it came hours later.
I curl my arm tighter around Lizzy and nuzzle my face into her neck as she sits in my lap at the reception. “Having fun?” I ask her, inhaling the soft lavender of her hair.
“Yes.” She leans back against me, giving me better access to her neck.
The night has gone better than I’d hoped. Lizzy is relaxed and more comfortable around my family than she’s ever been. She hasn’t seemed overwhelmed, which would have been easy, given the number of people at the reception.
“How’s the shop doing?” Gigi, my cousin from Florida and one of the owners of Inked near Tampa, asks my cousin.
Tate turns her champagne glass between her fingers as she stares across the table. “Better than ever. Business is booming.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Gigi replies as she leans over, resting against her husband. “You’re doing great work with social media. It helps keep business steady, without all the expenses.”
“Can we please talk about something other than work?” my cousin Tamara whines, rolling her eyes at their conversation.
Gigi straightens, glaring at our cousin. “Fine. What do you want to talk about?”
Tamara points a finger my way. “Them.”
“Us?” I ask.
Tamara nods. “When did this start?”
“Here we go,” Pike, Gigi’s husband, mutters. “Always has to know everything.”
“Zip it,” Tamara tells him without looking his way. “I thought Mason would be a bachelor forever. So, I’m intrigued.”
“There was a time when no one thought you’d ever settle down either,” I remind her. Tamara wasn’t known for her long-term relationships, and I never thought I’d see the day she’d become a mom.
Tamara pitches her thumb toward her very big husband. “It never would’ve happened without him.”
“Well, duh,” Gigi tells her, “You can’t marry yourself.”
“If I could’ve, I would’ve,” Tamara tells her. “I wasn’t looking for a relationship when I met him.”
“No, you were looking for Crow,” Mammoth, her husband, adds. “Thank God he had enough good sense to turn you away since he was going to prison.”
“What?” I ask, never having heard this story before.
“Long story,” Tamara mutters, waving her hand.
“No, it’s not,” her husband corrects her before lacing his fingers together and planting his grasped hands on the table in front of his impossibly large frame.
“I want to hear it,” Lizzy says, leaning forward as if she’s as invested in their story as I am.
I curl my arm tighter around her middle, holding her against me as we listen to Mammoth and get the dirt on my cousin’s life before she became a mom.
“I was part of an MC back then.”
“MC?” Lizzy asks.
“A motorcycle club. Tamara shows up at the compound, pounding on the door, and demands to see Crow.”
“I didn’t pound or demand anything,” Tamara interrupts him.
“Princess, you did. Morris answered the door and told you to leave, but you wouldn’t take no for an answer. Crow had to come to the door and tell you to kick rocks.”
“So, how did you two get together, then?” Lizzy asks when Mammoth doesn’t continue the story.
“I had to give her a ride.”
“And that he did,” Tamara says with a sinful smirk. “The rest is history.”
I can’t stop a bark of laughter from bubbling out of me. My cousin was always a wild one, but I don’t think I realized the extent.
“You’re missing a lot of bullets and danger along the way,” Mammoth says.
“It’s a family curse,” Gigi explains. “Did anyone kidnap you yet, Lizzy?”
Even in the dim lighting of the reception hall, I can see Lizzy’s face pale. “No. Why?”
“A lot of the Gallo women have been put in danger—and usually because of the men in our lives,” Tamara explains.
“I didn’t cause shit,” Mammoth explains.
“Um, I disagree,” Tamara argues, bumping him with her shoulder. “It was all worth it, though, because of how things ended.”
Lizzy’s hand moves to her collarbone as she stiffens. “Am I going to be kidnapped?”
I squeeze her gently. “Baby, I don’t have any enemies. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Things are different here,” Amelia tells our cousins from the South. “We don’t get in trouble like you guys do down there.”
Gigi raises an eyebrow. “Tate stepped in a giant pile of shit not too long ago. She spent some time in hiding with us in Florida.”
“What?” I ask, not remembering anything about her life being in danger. “When?”
“It was years ago. It wasn’t that big of a deal,” Tate says, waving off the comment like we’re not discussing her life.
“Really?” Pike asks, cocking his head to the side. “Seemed pretty big when you were down there.”
“It was a long time ago. A stupid period in my life. And anyway, I fell in love with Inked when I was down there, and that’s why I opened the tattoo shop here.
It all worked out for the best in the end,” Tate explains, leaning on the table with one elbow, a glass of champagne in her hand. “Can’t stop fate.”
“Is this fate?” Tamara asks, pointing at Lizzy and me again.
I nearly get whiplash from the change of topics with my family.
“I think it is,” Tate answers for me. “If Hunter and Zoey hadn’t met, then neither would they. It was meant to be. I could tell they fell for each other the second their eyes locked.”
“Bullshit,” I cough. “You couldn’t tell anything by the look in my eyes.”
Tate laughs. “Brother, I know you better than you know yourself. You were smitten with Lizzy immediately.”
“That makes two of us,” Lizzy says.
“You got me,” I say, knowing my sister’s right. As soon as my eyes landed on Lizzy, I knew I wanted to be with her. It’s as if there was an invisible rope that lassoed me to her, and I had no chance of escaping until I made her mine.
“Maybe we’ll be sitting in this same spot for the two of you soon,” Tamara says.
“Maybe,” I reply, hugging Lizzy from behind.
Amelia drops down into the empty seat next to me and lets out a loud, exaggerated sigh.
“What’s wrong?” Tate asks her because you’d have to be blind not to notice how upset Amelia is.
“I got stood up,” Amelia says, glancing down at her hands in her lap.
“Fuck him, babe. Men are a dime a dozen,” Tamara tells her.
“Ouch,” I bite out.
“Not all men are assholes,” Mammoth tells her.
Tamara rolls her eyes at her husband. “Ninety-nine percent aren’t worth the time of day, baby. You know this.”
“She ain’t wrong,” Pike adds. “Most are assholes.”
“Present company excluded,” Tamara adds.
“Of course,” I mutter.
Tate takes Amelia’s hand. “He’s not the one, Amelia. Don’t waste any more time thinking about him. Someday you’ll find the one who would crawl across broken glass to spend time with you.”
“That’s a bit dramatic,” Lulu says as she walks up behind Tate and places her hands on the back of her chair. “I don’t think there’s anyone I’d walk across broken glass for, let alone crawl.”
“Your kids,” Tate says without looking back at Lulu.
“Only them and, by extension, Oliver.”
“Then that’s not no one,” Tate challenges her and then turns to Amelia. “See, when you really love someone, you’ll do anything to see them.”
Lizzy turns her head, her ass grinding against my cock underneath her weight. “Would you crawl across broken glass for me?”
I take her chin between my fingers and stare into her deep green eyes. “I’d crawl across broken glass or walk through fire to get to you, sweetheart.”
“I love you,” she says softly, but no amount of wedding music can hide the sound.
“I love you too,” I tell her, leaning forward as I pull her face toward me. The world around us melts away as our lips meet, and we seal our declaration with a gentle kiss.
“You two are so cute,” Tamara says, her voice cutting through our bubble of bliss. “To be young and in love again.”
“Bitch, I’m not old. Speak for yourself,” Gigi tells Tamara. “I’m still young and in love. Maybe you’re an old hag here, but the rest of us are not.”
“Lizzy’s thirty-two,” Amelia says.
Lizzy turns her head toward my cousin and nearly hisses, “That’s not old.”
“It’s not young either,” Amelia argues and laughs. “I’m kidding. Chill, girly pop.”
“Girly pop?” I ask Amelia.
“I’ve been hanging out with Amira,” Amelia says with a shrug.
“Sounds about right,” I say.
“Kids,” Amelia mutters. “I wish I could go back to those simpler times.”
“Being an adult is way more fun,” Lulu adds, “Anyway, I have a man to get to. Later.” She waves before striding away.
Amelia stares at me so hard, I turn to her. “What?”
Her smile is sweet. “I never knew you were such a softy. I like this side of you,” Amelia says. “Love suits you.”
“Thank you,” I tell her. “Don’t settle for a douchebag, Amelia. If a man doesn’t love you as deeply as I love this woman right here—” I squeeze Lizzy, and she nuzzles back into me “—then you walk away.”
“That easy?” she asks.
“That easy,” I tell her.
Zoey and Hunter stop at our table and stand behind Tamara and Mammoth. “Everyone doing okay?” Zoey asks, looking just as beautiful as she did earlier today. The hours of greeting guests and dancing haven’t dulled the happiness that’s radiating off her.
“We’re great,” Gigi tells her. “The wedding was beautiful. We’re all so happy for you, Zo.”
Zoey leans over and kisses Gigi’s cheek. “I can’t thank you all enough for coming up for the wedding.”
“We wouldn’t miss it,” Tamara tells Zoey. “It’s always nice to come back to our roots.”
I wonder what life would’ve been like if their grandparents had stayed in Chicago. While I love going to Florida to see them, I would’ve rather had them around to hang out with when we were younger, and even now.
“The food is worth the trip alone, but spending time with everyone is the bonus,” Tamara adds.
“Want to get out of here?” I ask Lizzy in her ear as I brush her hair over her bare shoulder with my fingers.
“And go where?”
“Quickie in the bathroom,” I whisper to only her.
Lizzy chuckles. “We can’t do that.”
“Who says?”
Lizzy turns, her ass grinding against my dick again. “While it’s tempting, it’s almost time to cut the cake.”
“There’s only one thing I want to snack on.”
Her eyes sparkle as she gazes at me. “You’re so bad.”
“That’s not what it sounded like last night.”
Lizzy’s face turns a bright shade of pink. “Stop it.”
“Who’s ready for cake?” Zoey asks.
“Is it that time already?” Gigi asks.
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Pike says.
“I love spending time with everyone. I think we need to buy a giant cabin in the mountains of Tennessee for us to all meet up and spend more time together. It’s halfway for all of us,” Gigi adds.
“I’d be down with that,” Zoey tells her. “We’ll have to talk about it another time, though.”
“Of course. Just planting a seed,” Gigi replies.
“Come on, sweetheart,” Hunter says. “The cake awaits.”
Lizzy pops off my lap and walks over to her brother. “I love you,” she tells him before wrapping her arms around his body. “Thank you for this.”
“For what?” he asks, staring down at his elder sister.
“For finding this family,” she tells him. “We’ll never be alone again.”
I rarely thought about how lucky I’ve been to grow up with the Gallos.
We are a large group, and never once in my life did I have to worry about being alone.
No matter how much of a pain in the ass they are, I always have someone around when I need them.
I’ve taken that for granted, but after meeting Lizzy and Hunter, I know how freaking lucky I’ve truly been.