Bringing Home a Bachelor (19 page)
Epilogue
E
VER
SINCE
R
EYNALDO
had thought about the money Pete made him, eaten crow, offered him a raise and asked him to stay, Pete and Melinda had seen blessedly little of the man. He'd moved on to yet another wife and was busy developing another luxury hotel, this one on South Beach.
All of Mark's wedding party sat, one year later, at a long white-clothed dinner table on the beach behind Playa Bella, enjoying the sunset, the feel of the sand between their bare toes, and the balmy breeze. The roar of the ocean behind them almost drowned out the congratulatory toasts.
Pete's voice held amusement as he said, “To Mark and Kendra on your one-year anniversary. God only knows how she'll put up with you, Mark, for another year⦔
Mark had the grace to blush, and he caught his very pregnant wife around the waist. He pulled her in for a hug. “Have the rest of my lobster,” he urged her. “You're eating for two now.” Then he stood up and raised his glass to everyone, while she took him at his word and dug in.
“Kudos to Adam, our smartest groomsman, for graduating from medical school and getting an internship at M.D. Anderson! Maybe one day, sweet Nikki will make an honest man out of you.”
“Thanks,” Adam said wryly, and brushed stray sand particles off the lenses of his glasses. “Thank you very much.”
Nikki laughed, her corkscrew curls wild in the ocean breeze. She'd popped out of Mark's cake at the bachelor party and into Adam's life. “I don't know. I'm pretty busy with my new business, but he could make a good starter husband. We'll see.”
“Starter? Starter husband?” Adam dug his fingers into Nikki's ribs and she fell off her chair laughing and into the sand, as she tried to escape. “That's keeper husband, babe.”
“Right! That's what I meant⦔
Adam released her and brushed off his pants. “Now, where were we?” He fixed his gaze on Devon, who had pulled Kylie into his lap. “Hey! Hands on the table, Dev. We'll have none of that hanky-panky you're famous for.”
“Who, moi?”
“Yeah, you. We're all very pissed that you chose to elope to Greece to get married, depriving us of the spectacle of the century, and the bachelor party of the millennium. And we'll never understand what Kylie sees in you, not ever. But we have arranged, this very night, to get you back for every terrible thing you've ever done to us.”
“Everything?” Dev asked, a mocking grin playing around his mouth.
“Yep,” Adam reiterated. “Everything. So stand up.”
Dev stood, cocky as hell, not even bothering to be wary. “Hit me.”
“Devster, you really need to pay more attention to things going on around you. Why is it, for example, that your wife is drinking ginger ale, not champagne?”
Dev went a little pale. Then he raised an eyebrow and slowly turned to face Kylie, who aimed a beatific smile at him.
“And why is it,” Adam continued, “that she has started not one, not two, but three educational trusts at Sol Bank in the last week?”
Dev blinked. “Th-three?”
Kylie nodded and held up the appropriate number of fingers.
Under everyone's bemused gaze, Dev produced a megawatt smile that displayed every tooth in his head. Then his eyes rolled up and he went over backward in a dead faint.
“Got 'im!” Pete yelled. “Camera, someone! This is priceless!”
Since Dev obviously wasn't going to rise for the next toast, Mark had to fill in while Kendra, who had finished her dessert, ate his, too.
“So, I want to say congratulations to Pete and Bug-Eyesâ”
Melinda threw her dinner roll at him.
He ducked. “âoh, excuse me, Melindaâon their engagement.”
“Hear, hear!” said everyone. “Show off the ring!”
She obligingly displayed her one-carat, emerald-cut diamond.
“You know that's a CZ, Bug-Eyes,” Mark taunted.
“I can assure you that it's not.” Pete leaned down and kissed Mel before they both drank to the toast. He whispered, “Sorry, but you don't get a bottle all to yourself tonight.”
Mark added, “I'd offer to bake your wedding cake, Mel, but you wouldn't like the results.”
Everyone laughed.
Pete glanced around. “I think that's the end of the toasts, right? Thank you all for coming this evening⦔
Richard Edgeworth stood up. “Not quite. Jocelyn and I will be celebrating our thirtieth wedding anniversary this April, and we'd like every one of you to save the date.”
Pete nodded and caught Mel's hand in his. Her eyes were full of tears as she smiled at her parents and raised her glass. “That's wonderful, Mom and Dad. So glad to hear it⦔
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459227149
Copyright © 2012 by Karen Moser
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