Chapter 52
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Fiona
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Granny stood just inside the Bourbon Bar with one hand still pressed against the door she had slammed open, and behind her was what looked like half of Rosewood.
Georgie and Josie were there. Frank and Claudia.
C.C. stood near the front wearing an expression that promised her brother was going to hear about this for the rest of his natural life.
The Sons of Hell filled nearly every bit of open space behind them, their wives tucked among black leather cuts, and children peeking around adults to see what all the excitement was about.
And Callum ‘King’ Montclair was staring at Jasper as though he had spent the entire flight to Louisiana practicing how to kill a man using nothing but eye contact.
The silence stretched long enough that Father Benoit slowly lowered the hand he had raised while asking if anyone objected to our marriage.
I became painfully aware of the dress on my body, the flowers in my hands, and Jasper standing beside me.
There was probably no worse moment for Granny to arrive than the exact second a priest invited objections.
Georgie apparently agreed.
“I object.”
Of course he did.
“Georgie,” Josie warned from beside him.
“I absolutely fucking object.” He pushed farther into the bar, eyes locked on Jasper. “She’s eighteen.”
“I’m aware,” I said.
Georgie glanced at me. “Not helping, Fi.”
“I wasn’t trying to help you.”
A suspicious sound came from Jasper’s direction, and Georgie’s attention snapped back to him. “And you, shut the fuck up.”
Before Jasper could respond, a smaller voice came from somewhere behind the wall of leather cuts.
“Of course you fucking object.”
King’s eyes closed.
Skylar sighed.
Then Cameron squeezed between two of the Sons and appeared at the front of the group looking far too pleased with himself for a child who had just used the word fucking in front of half the adults who raised him.
“Cameron,” Skylar warned.
“What?” He spread his hands, innocence ruined by the smug expression on his face. “I told Dad this was gonna happen. Fiona was next. Nobody listens to me.”
King looked down at him. “Now is not the time.”
Cameron looked back at his father with all the confidence of someone who had absolutely no fear of a six-foot-something biker president glaring down at him. “Seems like exactly the time. I was right.”
Georgie stared at him. “You are not helping.”
Cameron shrugged. “Wasn’t trying to help you, Carebear.”
Josie covered her mouth, but not before I saw the smile.
The tension in my chest loosened enough for a laugh to threaten, and apparently that was all C.C. needed to find her voice. She pushed past one of the Sons and came farther into the room, her attention settling squarely on Jasper. “You were actually going to get married without me?”
Jasper looked from Georgie to C.C., then over the crowd behind them as if calculating how many different executions he was currently facing. “In my defense—”
“You do not have a defense,” C.C. snapped. “I’m your sister, asshole. You were seriously going to do this without me here?”
“I was workin’ with a very short fuckin’ timeline.”
“That sounds like a you problem.”
Jasper opened his mouth, probably to say something guaranteed to make the situation worse, but a hand connected with the back of his head before he got the chance.
The slap echoed through the bar.
Several Bourbon Kings laughed.
Jasper slowly turned toward his mother. “Mama.”
Glorianna planted one hand on her hip. “Don’t Mama me. You had enough sense to call your mother and your aunt down here but somehow forgot that the woman you intended to marry might have people who would want to see it?”
“I didn’t forget.”
Her hand lifted again.
Jasper ducked. “I was workin’ with a timeline!”
“You were working with stupidity.”
Aunt Marabella murmured something that sounded suspiciously like agreement while Gator found the ceiling suddenly fascinating.
I should have been laughing with everyone else, but the longer I looked at the people packed into the Bourbon Bar, the harder it became to breathe around the pressure building beneath my ribs.
They had come.
Granny had gotten on her jet and brought everyone.
Frank and Claudia stood together several feet behind her.
Claudia had Charlie in her arms, while Frank carried the twins, and seeing them after telling Jasper the truth about Charlie brought tears too close to the surface again.
Josie had her hand on Georgie’s arm, probably to prevent him from advancing on Jasper.
Cameron had somehow worked his way all the way to the front and now stood beside King, looking around at the wedding setup with the satisfied expression of someone whose predictions had finally been proven correct.
Children whispered behind their parents. Sons I had known for years stood shoulder to shoulder with Bourbon Kings. Women I looked up to peered between me and Jasper with surprise, concern, amusement, and more than a few tears already shining in their eyes.
This was supposed to have been something Jasper and I did quickly.
Suddenly it was real in an entirely different way.
My fingers tightened around the flower stems.
I had said yes to Jasper. I was sure of Jasper. But standing there, surrounded by people who had known me before him, made the enormity of what I was about to do settle over me all at once.
Marriage.
Not the imaginary house we teased each other about. Not children we might have someday. Not me climbing onto his motorcycle because I wanted to be wherever he was.
Marriage.
Jasper’s hand found mine.
He didn’t ask what was wrong or make everyone watch while he checked on me. His fingers simply closed around mine, warm and certain, his thumb pressing lightly against the side of my hand as if he knew exactly how much I needed something solid.
I held on.
King finally stepped away from the door. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need to. He crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Jasper with a look so cold even the Bourbon Kings seemed to become more interested in what was about to happen.
Jasper met it without flinching.
I had seen him joke through threats that would make most people reconsider their life choices. I had watched him grin at men who wanted to fight and flirt with women who were trying to insult him. There was none of that now. He wasn’t challenging King, but he wasn’t backing down either.
Granny noticed too.
She stepped farther into the room, and everyone seemed to shift with her until the doorway finally cleared behind them.
“Well?”
Jasper released my hand and moved forward.
For the first time since I had met Jasper DuBois, he looked like a man who understood perfectly well that charm wasn’t going to save him.
“Martha.”
Granny’s eyebrows rose.
Jasper corrected himself immediately. “Granny.”
That earned him nothing.
He stopped several feet in front of her, his shoulders settling before he spoke. “I owe you an apology. I should’ve waited for you. I should’ve made sure Fiona had her family standin’ here before we got this far. I didn’t, and that was wrong.”
Something behind my ribs tightened.
There was no joke hiding inside the apology. No clever wording that allowed him to avoid taking responsibility. He had simply admitted he was wrong.
Granny’s expression didn’t soften. “You took my granddaughter out of my house in the middle of the night.”
“She came with me.”
“I know she did. I raised her. If you’d dragged her anywhere against her will, we wouldn’t be having this conversation because they’d still be trying to identify what was left of you.”
More than one Son murmured his agreement.
Jasper nodded as though Granny discussing his potential dismemberment was completely reasonable. “Fair.”
“And then you decided to marry her without bothering to let one damn person who loves her know.”
Jasper glanced at me before looking back at Granny. “There wasn’t much time.”
“There is always enough time for a phone call.”
“You’re right.” His jaw tightened slightly. “I would’ve made it up to her.”
A low sound came from King.
Jasper turned his head, and the two men stared at one another again.
“There was a reason I moved fast,” Jasper said.
King’s expression didn’t shift. “There’s always a reason when one of you assholes decide rules don’t apply.”
“I’m not askin’ you to like it.”
“No danger of that.”
“Good. Then we understand each other.”
The room went quiet again, but the knot inside me began to loosen. Jasper could have joked his way around all of this. He could have tried to charm Granny, let Gator interfere, or allowed his mother to fight the battle for him.
He didn’t.
He stood there and took every bit of their anger because he had made the decision too.
Because I mattered enough for him to stand there and defend it.
Granny studied him another long moment before glancing toward Father Benoit, who had developed the remarkably patient expression of a man accustomed to weddings going very differently from whatever plan existed when he arrived.
“Well.” Granny gave a small harrumph and adjusted the purse hanging from her arm. “We’re here now.”
Georgie’s head snapped toward her. “What?”
Granny ignored him.
“Granny,” he complained. “You cannot seriously be going along with this nonsense.”
Cameron gave an exaggerated sigh from beside King. “Jesus, Carebear. She wants to marry him.”
Georgie rounded on him. “Stay out of this.”
“You’re the one objecting to something that’s already happening.”
“Cameron,” King warned.
Cameron looked up at him. “What? You know I’m right.”
King’s mouth tightened suspiciously, and I couldn’t tell whether he was trying not to laugh or trying to decide how much trouble Cameron was in.
Frank, apparently deciding his little buddy had already made the point well enough, looked at Georgie. “Let it go.”
Georgie stared at his brother as if Frank had suggested surrendering national security secrets. “She’s getting married.”
“Yes.”
“To him.”
Jasper turned his head. “Standin’ right here, brother.”