Forever Rockers (36 page)

My wedding.

I still couldn’t believe that it was happening, or would be happening as soon as the fucking limo driver got us to the church. It had been fun planning our special day, even though there was still that unknown threat from the cunt-monkey who had shot me. Emmie had helped out with that, though, getting Charles Seller’s men to make sure the day didn’t have any unwanted surprises.

Of course, there had been, in the form of the limo showing up twenty minutes late to my house, and then getting stuck in traffic.
Five. Different. Times
. Now I was officially half an hour late for my wedding and my phone was probably being blown up. Not that I would have known if it were or not since I had left the damn thing back at my house.

Alexis’s phone, however, was ringing and chiming with new messages every three seconds it seemed. Everyone from her husband to her brother to my future husband and even Emmie were all trying to get her to answer. Alexis had explained what was going on to her husband, Jared—or as I liked to call him, the one who was undeserving of my Lee-Lee, but got to call her his wife anyway—and then to Emmie, but had stopped answering after the last call because we were getting there.

Slowly.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Scratch that. I wasn’t going to cry and mess up my makeup. It had taken an obscene amount of time to get it just right and I wasn’t about to mess that shit up. Scream, maybe, and most likely at the fucking idiot who was currently driving the limo. Seriously, how stupid was the guy? I could have gotten us there a hell of a lot quicker and avoided all the hassle. I knew there were some back roads, side streets—fucking hell, anything but just sitting there waiting for the road worker to wave us through.

Yet another text came in and Alexis glanced down at her phone, then laughed when she saw the picture there. Shaking her head, she lifted the phone to show me. As much as I still detested Jared Moreitti, he was an exceptional father. The picture he had just sent my cousin was of him and Jordan, making monkey faces at the camera. Both of them were wearing their tuxes and waiting impatiently for us to get to the church.

The limo came to another halt and I glanced out the window, noticing that we were once again stuck in traffic. “Motherfucker,” I groaned.

I was officially fed up. If Alexis could have walked the six blocks that kept us away from the church, I would have been out of the car and already halfway there. But I wasn’t about to put her through a long walk when she didn’t need to stress her body like that. She might act all tough, but I knew she still battled the pain that ravaged her poor little body after the car wreck that had nearly cost my precious cousin her life.

Reaching for the button that controlled the divider separating us from the driver, I pushed it. “I’m about two seconds from punching you in the fucking throat,” I raged at him. “You have two minutes to get me to the church or I’m going to kill you.”

The thin man nodded his head profusely, and I remembered that he spoke Italian better than English, so I repeated it in his language. Still he just nodded, but didn’t so much as try to find a way around whatever our newest reason for stopping happened to be.

“Seriously, asshole. Move!”

Again more nodding. I was ready to scream when I noticed the big man jogging up the street. No, I thought, it wouldn’t be him. He wouldn’t leave his wife long enough to help me.

Right?

In the next moment I was proven wrong as the driver’s door was pulled open and scary-as-hell Wroth Niall pulled the still-nodding driver out of the car. “Pretty sure you don’t have a job anymore, man,” the deep, monstrous voice assured the thin man. “I got this.”

Wroth climbed behind the wheel and then glanced back at me and Alexis. The man I had rarely seen smile in the past actually grinned at me now. “Sorry, ladies. I’ll get you there in one piece.”

“Well, thank goodness for that,” Alexis said with a sigh. “Did Emmie send you?”

He shook his head as he put the limo in reverse and maneuvered the long black car around the stopped traffic, giving several other drivers the finger when they angrily honked at him when he cut in front of them and went down a side street. “Nope. Mari was trying to keep Liam from losing his shit and I figured I’d better come see what the problem was. Started walking and saw y’all just sitting here. Emmie had called the dude’s boss, though, and I’m pretty sure he no longer has a job. The dumb fuck.”

My heart contracted. Liam was losing his shit? Ah, fuck. I needed to get to the church, and fast. I couldn’t stand the thought of him distressed like that. Didn’t he know I was coming? That I would never willingly show up late for the happiest day of my life?

“Is he okay?” I asked the man who was going to become my brother-in-law before the end of the day.

“Nervous,” Wroth said with a shrug. “You didn’t have the guards with you and he’s been going off the rails worrying.”

Damn it.

I’d begged and pleaded, and when that hadn’t worked I’d thrown the world’s biggest tantrum when Liam had refused to let me arrive at the church without the three goons who were part of my security detail. In the end I’d gotten my way, but now I realized that Liam was probably climbing the walls worrying about me.

Ten minutes later, Wroth was pulling to a stop in front of the church where I was getting married. Jared was already standing on the street outside with Jordan. Emmie and Mia were also out there waiting on us. Mia was dressed in her beautiful flower girl dress that was a soft beige that complemented both my wedding dress, Alexis’s matron-of-honor dress, and the bridesmaid dress Marissa was supposed to wear. I’d asked Emmie if I could have Mia as my flower girl, knowing that I couldn’t get married without that little girl as part of my bridal party.

“Aunt Gabs,” Jordan called out as Wroth opened the back door and helped me and my huge dress out.

I bent to hug my little man and then turned to face Emmie and Mia. The little girl gave me her hand and I took it, thankful for her presence, before lifting my eyes to her mother. “How is he?”

“He was about to come get you himself, but I called him as soon as I caught sight of the limo. Marissa has him calmed down now.” She grimaced. “Just be prepared for what happens when you see him.”

I was prepared for anything, as long as it meant I was with Liam.

“Okay, people.” Alexis laughed as she took her husband’s arm and started climbing the steps to the church. “Let’s get Gabs married.”

“Yeah!” Jordan and Mia exclaimed and ran up the steps after them.

With Emmie and Wroth’s help, I got myself and my dress up the steps and into the church. Everyone else was already in place and I could hear the organ playing the wedding march. There wasn’t even time to check my makeup in the bathroom.

Feeling rushed, but at the same time not caring, I took my place at the double doors that had just shut on Jordan, Mia, Marissa and Alexis. Emmie handed me a beautiful bouquet of white roses and nodded at the two men holding the doors. “Good luck,” she murmured as she stepped back so that I was in the limelight.

It was still weird to have the woman I had once considered my worst enemy there to rely on during such a magical day for me, but I was actually thankful for her. I was sure that without her the day would have been a total disaster.

With a nod at her, I sucked in a deep breath and took a step forward as every eye in the room turned to look at me. There were at least a hundred and fifty people there, but I saw none of them except the man standing at the end of the aisle waiting.

For me.

The tears I’d refused to cry earlier instantly filled my eyes and he became a blur as they spilled free. I took another step forward. He seemed like a million miles away. I was never going to reach the front of the church. “Screw it,” I muttered and took off running.

Strong arms caught me around the waist before I even got halfway up the aisle. I heard a few people groan, some laugh, and more than a few sob as Liam lifted me into his arms and kissed the breath out of me.

“Your leg,” I tried to warn him, but he lowered his head and drowned out all other words and any thought that didn’t have anything to do with Liam Bryant kissing the breath out of me.

“I thought you’d never get here,” Liam muttered against my lips. “The worst things went through my head. I thought I’d lost you again.”

“Idiot,” I said with a laugh and then kissed him back. “Nothing could have kept me from you today. Not even incompetent limo drivers.”

“Thank fuck for that, little Brie.” One more kiss and then he was setting me on my feet. Only then did I notice that he was crying just as hard as I was. I lifted a hand and wiped one of his tears away. “Still want to marry me?”

“More than anything,” I breathed.

“Good,” he said as he pulled me up the aisle toward the priest who was waiting with his mouth gaped open, watching us both as if we had lost our minds.

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure we hadn’t. But at least we’d lost it together, and that was all that mattered.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
E
IGHT

May

Emmie

It was raining.

It wasn’t supposed to be raining. The forecast just the day before had said that it was going to be sunny skies and record high temperatures for the middle of May.

I wanted the fucking record high temperatures, damn it.

Frustrated, because now I had to rearrange the entire baby shower—which supposed to have taken place outside—into the venue’s ballroom, I was running around my house like a mad woman. Jagger was into everything and I was about to lose my shit if he got another juice stain on his shirt and I had to change him all over again.

Where the hell was Nik?

“I got Jags. Go get dressed,” my husband called out from the living room.

“You’d better have him. And no more juice. He’s not going to have any shirts left at this rate,” I yelled as I stomped up the stairs to our bedroom. I needed a shower, but there was no time for that. So I pulled my hair back into a stylish ponytail and got dressed, putting on the minimal amount of makeup so I didn’t look washed out in any pictures that were bound to be taken later that day.

I’d worked tirelessly with Dallas’s help to make Harper’s baby shower any pregnant woman’s dream. Harper deserved this more than anyone I knew and was looking forward to it. Having had Shane to deal with over the last few months must have been trying for her nerves, but I understood where he was coming from. They’d had a bad scare, thinking they would lose the one thing they had both been aching for.

Now she was thirty-six weeks and we were going to show her some fun, spoil her rotten, and then hand her safely back over to Shane to take home and tuck into bed once again.

Even though we had to move everything inside, I wasn’t going to let that stop us from making the day special.

I was still pulling on my shoes as I rushed back downstairs, only for the doorbell to ring. Frowning, I pulled my shoe on and opened the door. Seeing Gabriella on the other side with one of her bodyguards holding an umbrella for her had me pausing for a moment. Damn, I didn’t know whether to hug her or slap her face. Hug her was the reaction I had every time I saw her these days, though. Why wouldn’t I want to hug the woman who had risked her own life for my daughter’s? But I wanted to slap her face because she was taking up valuable time I needed to get the baby shower perfect for Harper.

“Can I take Mia with me to get our nails done?” she rushed to ask, probably seeing the harassed look on my face.

I bit the inside of my bottom lip, torn. Mia had been spending a lot of time with ‘Aunt Gabs’ lately. I’d even let her spend a night over at Gabriella and Liam’s house, and Mia had come home happier than I could ever remember seeing her. The two shared a special bond now and Gabriella was encouraging Mia to take dance seriously because we had discovered that Mia had an amazing talent for it.

Gabriella had even gone so far as to mention having some pull at Julliard, but I’d put my foot down after that. No way was I going to let Mia go off to New York without me and her father. She was only six, for the love of gods. Dancing was fine, but she could decide if she wanted to make that a career goal later in life. After she had lived a little.

Blowing out a frustrated breath, I turned back into the house. “Mia?” My daughter came running out of the living room dressed in a pretty purple dress and flip-flops. Her face lit up when she saw Gabriella. “Do you want to go get your nails done?”

“Yes!” She started bouncing up and down and then wrapped her arms around me. “Can I? Please?”

I sighed and hugged her close. “Keep your eye on her. And remember the party starts at two,” I told Gabriella, who was already nodding. “Tell your dad goodbye,” I urged Mia.

“Bye, Daddy!” she called and practically pushed Gabriella out the door.

“Uh, bye?” Nik appeared in the doorway just as I shut the front door behind them. “Where is she going?”