Chapter 29 Family Loyalty
FAMILY LOYALTY
“Is it horrible of me to say I can’t wait to see you all dressed up?” Rowan asked two weeks later.
They were in the Hamptons, at their hotel with the rest of his family, and lots of other extended family that flew in for Foster and Charlotte’s wedding.
“No,” Saylor said from the small seating area of their room. A hotel West owned so he could have the entire family’s identities kept private for his wedding to Abby a few years ago.
Foster wasn’t as well known, but wanted the wedding away from people. Foster was planning to have it at his house on Merrick Bay, an hour from here, but West argued there was no room and he’d take care of it.
That was all Rowan knew, though he was positive Charlotte and her sister, Amanda, dealt with everything for the actual wedding and reception.
He had to admit, he was shocked Charlotte didn’t take her sister up on the offer to get married on Amore Island where Amanda lived with her husband Drew Bond. The Bond family owned most of the island, with lots of hotels and wedding destinations.
Talk about a nightmare getting people there and back on the ferry. Which was probably why they decided against it.
“It’s not sexist of me, right? To want to see the woman I love in a fancy dress and her hair all done pretty?”
“As long as it’s not sexist of me to say I want to see the man I love in a suit.”
He cringed. “I hate those fuckers. Actually, it’s not the suit. It’s the tie.”
“Are you wearing a tie today? You said this is more casual.”
“No tie,” he said.
She picked up a pencil close by on the nightstand and tossed it at him. He caught it. “Then stop complaining. Who is in the wedding if you’re not? You said you were all in West’s wedding.”
“We were. It was nice he’d done that. I wasn’t in Braylon, Laken, or Talia’s and that was fine with me.”
“That’s nice. It’s got to be so hard with all the siblings.”
“It is. Elias is Foster’s best man. They are close like Nelson and me. When Elias gets married in a few months, Foster will be his. Charlotte’s sister, Amanda, is the matron of honor. That’s it, nothing more.”
Saylor had met all of his siblings in person on Thursday for a big family dinner at West’s. He knew she’d fit right in and had. There wasn’t much going on, so he and Saylor could explore the area during the day on Thursday and then some on Friday.
When the rehearsal and dinner happened on Friday, the bulk of his extended family had arrived or were on the way. They’d all had dinner at the restaurant where West had secured a private room.
It was hard for him to keep track of his nine cousins on his mother’s side and then four on his father’s side. Thankfully, everyone was single except for Phoenix. But Saylor did a great job.
And his mother, yeah, she found a new best friend. He wasn’t so sure he liked that, but Aileen Carlisle had been by Saylor’s side every minute she could with questions about Rowan’s life.
Maybe he should talk to his mother more than he did. Damn, she was nosier than he remembered.
“Not to get ahead of things,” she said. “But I always wondered when my time came what I’d do. No way in hell my sister would be in my wedding. I’m not sure I even want her at it.”
He laughed at the appalled look on her face. “Afraid she’d steal the spotlight?”
“There is no doubt she’d turn my wedding into her show. Not happening. And I don’t have any really close friends.”
“Because you’ve never stayed in one place long enough?”
“Yeah. I’m on social media and monitor people that way but post little myself. I don’t have the time.”
“I pay people to do that shit for me. I do post pictures on Snapchat and Instagram.”
“I saw that video of you and Logan on TikTok,” she said, pointing her finger.
“Work account,” he said. Logan had someone take it of them surfing and post. It was good for business more than anything else.
“There were lots of pictures of you and everyone else at the expo a few weeks ago.”
“With you too,” he said, grinning. “You never said if that bothered you.”
She shrugged. “It was fine. I thought little of it one way or another. I knew it was going to happen.”
Other women in his past wanted that attention, but Saylor seemed as if she really wasn’t bothered either way.
“I’m glad. I know my lifestyle is a big change from what you’re used to.”
She got up and moved over to the couch he was sitting on, then climbed on his lap. “I’m used to change. I can handle it well. I will admit that I had a lot of nerves over meeting your mother in person, but she was so sweet.”
He snorted. “Few think my mother is sweet.”
“I’m sure all your siblings’ spouses do,” she said.
“That’s right, because they didn’t have to grow up with her. She’s mellowed now that she knows everyone is pairing up.”
“And I like Talia a lot. I feel bad for her. She looks pretty uncomfortable.”
His sister was due in a month, Laken due a few weeks later. He had to admit seeing his sisters pregnant made him want to deck their husbands.
Stupid reaction for sure, but it was hard not seeing them often and then getting hit with that sight knowing he’d have another niece and nephew he’d be visiting soon.
Good lord, all he did was fly to see family in the past few years. It used to be he got away with visiting twice a year and was happy about it.
Now it was at least a half a dozen times he was on a plane flying across the country.
“She seems very excited about the baby. I know Jace is.” He paused and figured now might be a time to bring this up since they were on the topic. “Do you want kids? I know it’s got to be trickier with your diabetes and being pregnant, right?”
“I’d like to have at least one,” she said. “It will be a lot more work but worth it. I guess depending on how easy it is would determine if I have more than one. But then with my job. A lot to factor in.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her she didn’t need to work if they had a child together. Or she could work part time and find a nice quiet day job.
Talk about pulling the trigger before loading the gun.
They’d gotten through their first fight and he wasn’t about to bring something else up that was meaningless now.
Guess he’d gotten better at controlling the words out of his mouth.
He gave her a hug on his lap. “I’d like at least one. Maybe two. No more.”
“You don’t want eight like your mother? You know for guys it’s easy. You don’t have to do much.” She was laughing over that comment.
“Is that assumption because your father wasn’t around?”
“Pretty much. I’ve never seen a guy step up daily. Or constantly. I try not to blame my mother too much. She worked a lot and Sandy was a handful, then caring for me.”
He sighed. “Don’t make excuses for your mother. And the sad truth is, I’ve never seen it either. I don’t have a lot of memories of my father. Even when he was around, he really wasn’t, but he was active with us as much as he could be. It all fell on my mother.”
He was positive West would be a great father since he’d all but raised seven siblings. His brother would know how to prioritize his work and life.
Rowan had to admit, he just wasn’t ready to do that now.
He was still getting his business off the ground and the time and responsibilities that it took were his priority.
“Exactly,” she said. “It did with my mother too. I think she resented it. I was the easy kid and then Sandy came along and she wiped her hands of it. In her eyes, it took less effort to give in.”
“And look at how well that turned out. Now your mother is raising three grandkids.”
“Her problem, not mine.” Saylor slid off his lap. “I should probably do my hair.”
He looked at his watch. They had to leave in an hour. It was less than ten minutes to West’s, but there were limos coming over to pick up family forty minutes prior and making several trips.
There was no reason to rent a car and they were just taking Ubers around for two days, but there was no way in hell one was taking them to his brother’s house.
“It won’t take me long to do it.”
“Guys don’t know how lucky they have it,” she shouted from the bathroom. “You just brush your hair.”
“That’s right. But Logan spends twenty minutes easily doing his. Looks the same when he gets out of the ocean and runs his hands through it.”
He heard the quiet giggle but nothing else.
Might as well get dressed. Not that he wanted to sit around in his suit, but he’d already learned that Saylor wasn’t someone who took hours to get ready.
Once his suit was on, the bathroom door shut and he assumed she was getting her dress on.
Her phone was vibrating on the counter and he stood up to see if her number was high or low, but noticed it was a text. From her sister.
He couldn’t read what it said, just the notification.
Odd timing considering they were just talking about Sandy not that long ago.
When the bathroom door opened five minutes later, her phone was buzzing even more, but he ignored it and kept his eyes right on her.
“Hooooolyyyy shit,” he said. His hand went to his heart. “You should have warned me.”
Her dress was navy blue and only covered one shoulder, the other bare as can be. Her upper body had gotten extremely toned with all the paddleboarding she did now.
He was thrilled she’d found something she enjoyed on the water.
The dress was fitted to her upper body, hell, fitted to her whole body but not snug enough to be slutty, then fell right to her knees.
Her feet were bare, he hadn’t seen what shoes she was wearing yet, but her hair was cascading down her back in big loose waves.
There wasn’t much makeup on her face, but it looked sharper than he was used to seeing, so he knew she’d done something.
“Not too much?” she asked.
“Turn for me. I need to see the back.”
She laughed and did a slow twirl. He saw her CGM on the back of her left arm. Her pod was on her thigh. She’d never wear a fitted dress that made it hard for her to move with her devices.
He couldn’t put to words how proud he felt she wasn’t shying away from wearing a dress in front of his family with her equipment showing on her arm.
She could have easily picked a short-sleeved dress and had it covered.
He’d like to think she was letting her guard down being around him, but maybe it was more what she’d said before. That she’d tried to not hide it, but hated to be the center of attention if she had to treat or her alarms were going off.
“It’s got pockets,” she said, sliding her hands in.
“I can carry anything you need too,” he said, his hands sliding inside of his suit pants.
“Okay, your turn. Spin.” She was wiggling her finger in the air. “You think I look good? Wow!”
He put his arms out and spun in his dark gray suit. He had a blue and silver striped shirt under it, black shoes on his feet.
“Do I meet with your approval?”
“I think we complement each other well. I didn’t know you were going to have blue on.”
“I didn’t know you were wearing navy.”
She moved to her bag and pulled out a pair of nude open-toed heeled sandals. He might be drooling.
“Now I don’t want to leave this room.”
“Too bad,” she said. “I enjoy your family and want to see them again. We’ll be back here soon enough.” More buzzing sounded. She turned her head toward it. “That’s my phone. I thought it was yours.” She walked over and picked it up. “Really?! Today of all days.”
“What’s going on?”
“Sandy has sent three messages.” She swiped her finger up. “I want to ignore them, but there is one from my grandmother apologizing.”
“Find out what is going on,” he said, moving closer to look over her shoulder.
He saw the picture of Saylor on stage with him in one text. “Your sister found out?”
“Looks it,” she said. “My grandmother said someone tagged her on Facebook and wanted to know if it was me. She tried to pull it down fast, but guess not fast enough.”
“What’s the big deal?” he asked.
“Nothing more than Sandy is blowing my phone up wanting to know how come I didn’t tell her I had a boyfriend and who you were. She’s asking to come visit again and to stay with me. Not happening.”
“Thank you for telling me,” he said.
She turned to look at him and put her phone in her purse.
“I wouldn’t keep it from you. There is no reason to.
I mean she’s been texting on and off since I’ve been here asking to come, but I never said where I lived and always told her no.
I wasn’t purposely not telling you, just ignoring her like I always do.
Now give me a kiss to take my mind off of this and we can go watch your brother get married. ”