Uncontrollable (26 page)

I lean up and place my elbows on my knees. “She
never talks about her mother to me, or about Jack.”

Tate frowns. “Why do you think that is?”

 “You heard her. She sounded like it pained her to
talk about it.”

 “I did.”

 “You’re just like her,” I say comparing him to
Angel. Neither one of them likes to talk about their pasts. My statement gets
me a big smile.

“That I am,” he agrees with a nod of his head.

 We sit quietly for a few seconds, and I try not to
dwell on his past. I couldn’t imagine being a child and being so helpless. As
an adult, you can fight back. But as a kid—you would have no escape.

 “I questioned Scott about you,” I say leaning back
wanting to get something out of him without pissing him off.

 “He told me,” he says carelessly.

 “He told me that you gave me permission to marry
Angel. We both know that isn’t true.”

He chuckles and I raise an eyebrow. “Technically I
did.”

“How so?”

“I told you that day I came up to your office I
knew what your secret was…proposing. If I didn’t want you with her, it wouldn’t
have happened,” he says as if he would have gotten rid of me.

 Maybe he would have. “Why didn’t you come to my
parents’ for Thanksgiving when you knew I was planning on proposing?” I ask.

He had made such a fuss about being in New York
with all of us but wasn’t at my parents.

He looks conflicted as if he should answer the
question as he sits there quietly looking around the room. “I had to go up to
Alaska.”

“For what?”

He sighs. “There was one good thing about Jonathan,
he had contacts. And I use those to my advantage. To make my own dream come
true.” I’m guessing, Jonathan is the man who raised him.

 “So he’s dead?” I ask curious.

He shakes his head. “To my knowledge the son of a
bitch is still very much alive,” he scowls.

“Do you know where he is?”

 “Nope.” He smiles. “And I could care less.”

 I get up from the couch and pick up my pool stick.
“Wanna play another game?” I ask trying to lighten the tension that has filled
the room.

 “Ten bucks, I win.”

I smile. “You’re on.”

Several hours later I look
down at my watch. “Shit. It’s past two o’clock.”

“I need to get home,” Tate says laying his pool
stick down.

We make our way up the stairs once again and walk
into the kitchen. I smile when I see both Angel and Missy with their heads down
on the kitchen island sleeping. Our kitchen looking like a mess still.

 “Wow,” Tate says getting my attention. “That cake
looks awesome,” he says walking over to it.

 I take a good look at the cake and smile. It’s a
beautiful four-tier wedding cake with purple and blue flowers on it. And I know
the middle has a cherry filling; Holly’s favorite. I can’t wait to taste it
tomorrow. “It looks exactly like what Holly wanted,” I say picking up the
picture that the girls were going off.

 “She really is talented,” Tate says looking over
at Angel’s head laying on the kitchen island, her long dark hair covering most
of it.

“I know.”

“If I was Holly I wouldn’t want to eat it.” He
laughs. He then pulls his phone out of his pocket, and I watch as he takes a
picture of it. He looks up at me as I give a little laugh. “What?”

 “Did you just take a picture of it?”

He nods. “Of course. You heard her, this was once
her and Marie’s dream. If I was her, I would want a picture of it.”

I run my hand softly over her hair falling down her
back. “Do you think she really gave up on that dream?” I ask Tate.

“No,” he says honestly.

 “I don’t either,” I say more to myself than him.
“Let’s get them to bed,” I say bending down to pick her up in my arms. “You can
put Missy in the spare bedroom.”

He looks from me to her with an expressionless
look, but I can see the hesitation in his eyes.

He finally makes his move to walk over to her and
picks her up just as gently. I stand with Angel in my arms as I watch him walk
down the hallway and to the back part of the house.

I look down at Angel in my arms and smile. I want
all of her dreams come true, and I’m going to make them happen for her.

After placing her in bed, I make sure to put the
cake in the fridge in the garage. I tell Tate goodbye, lock up the house, and
then clean up the kitchen before making my way to bed as well.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I roll over and place my
hand on Slade’s side of the bed. My eyes open slightly when I find the bed
empty. I look over my shoulder, letting them look over the room to find myself
alone. I get out of bed stretching my legs and arms. Walking over to the
dresser I pull out a t-shirt of his and walk out of the bedroom. I hear his
voice as I walk down the hallway.

 “Yes, we will be there.” Pause. “No, I’m not going
to be late. You asked me to be there early.”

 I come to the kitchen and go sit at the kitchen
island as he has his back to me cooking pancakes while he talks on his cell.

 “Calm down.” He flips a pancake. “It’s going to be
great.”

 I smile, he must be talking to Micah, who else
would be freaking out on his wedding day?

“Okay, I love you too. I’ll be there after
breakfast,” he reassures Micah before he hangs up.

I place my elbows on the table and my chin in my
hands as I watch him cook with his back to me. He reaches up above and grabs a
plate out of the cabinet and starts to stack pancakes on it. I sit in silence
as my eyes roam over him. The man looks so fucking amazing in his sweatpants
that hang low on his hips with no shirt on. His back muscles flex with each
movement.

 He bends down and picks up a tray. I smile; he was
making me breakfast in bed on Valentine’s Day.
I am the luckiest girl in the
world.

“You won’t need that tray,” I say sweetly.

 He turns around and smiles at me. “What are you
doing in here? I wanted to make you breakfast in bed.”

I stand up from my chair and walk over to him,
wrapping my arms around his neck. “We can eat here in the kitchen.” He leans
down giving me a long sweet kiss, before we pull away. “Where’s Missy?” I ask.

 “She left about an hour ago.” I nod my head at
him. “Oh, and I placed the cake in the fridge last night so no worries.”

 I smile. “Thank you.” I can’t believe I finally
finished that damn thing, and it looks almost perfect.

He places my plate on the countertop and hands me a
fork. I dig in as I take a bite of the chocolate chip pancakes.

 “Hmm.” I nod my head in approval.

“They’re not as good as yours.” He frowns.

I hold up a finger as I put down my fork. I walk
over to the fridge and pull out the whip cream.

“It needs some cream.” I walk back over to the
island and spread some whip cream over my pancakes.

 He grabs my arm and spins me around. “That is a
wonderful idea.”

“What is?”

“We
do
need some cream.” He reaches down
grabbing the hem of his shirt and pull it up over my head as I lift my arms.

He bites his lip when he lets out a little laugh.
“Of course,” he whispers, “nothing on underneath.”

“Oh, I’ll go throw something on,” I tease as I
start to walk away. He grabs me and places me on top of the counter as he comes
to stand between my legs.

“I would prefer you to stay naked whenever you are
at home,” he says seriously.

I frown. “Sometimes half the fun is dressing up for
you. Don’t you enjoy taking it off?”

 He runs a hand over my cheek. “I love it when I
come home to you dressed in something sexy,” he cocks an eyebrow, “but I also
love you naked.”

 He leans down and kisses me as the house phone
rings. It’s as if I’m having Deja vu. Just like his birthday.

 “Just let it ring,” he says wrapping his arms
around me tighter.

It rings several more times before I can shove him
off of me to answer it. “Hello?” I say picking up the phone. Slade plops down
at the table and scowls as he takes a bite of pancakes.

 “Good morning, dear,” Vivian says on the other end
of the line. “I was just calling to see if you were ready.” For some crazy
reason she has decided that her and I need to ride together to the wedding. I
do realize that it will take Holly a lot longer to get ready than Micah, so we
decided for her to pick me up on the way.

“Yeah. I will be ready in thirty minutes,” I say
smiling over to Slade as he narrows his eyes on me.

“Okay. I will be there shortly,” she tells me
before hanging up.

 I hang up and walk over to him. I wrap my arms
around his chest as I stand behind him. “Sorry, baby.” I lean down and kiss the
side of his face. “I have to get ready. Your mother will be here to pick me up
soon. We have all night to have sex,” I remind him.

He nods his head but sulks like a little boy as he
takes another bite of his pancakes.

I pull up to the church and
walk in after parking the truck. As soon as I walk in I run into Josh.

“Where have you been?” he hisses. “Micah has been
calling you.”

Shit, my phone is on silent. “It’s on silent. Why
was he calling me, he knew I was coming.” It’s not like I would miss my
brother’s wedding.

“Well he saw Sam walk in but not you, and when you
didn’t answer, he started freaking out,” he explains, dragging me by my sleeve
down the hall.

“Where are the girls?” I ask looking around for
Angel.

 He turns his head back to look at me with an angry
look on his face, and I have to ask, “What the fuck happened with the girls
now?”

“Holly and her mom got in a fight. Well, if that’s
what you want to call it. Her mother just screamed and threw her arms around as
Holly quietly cried.”

 “Why?”

“Because she saw the cake that Sam made. She’s
pissed and refused to serve it!”

 “What?” I snap. That cake looked fucking
fantastic. Fuck, Angel spent the last two weeks working on that fucking cake.

“I don’t know all the details, just what Courtney
has texted me.” We come to a door, and he shoves me through it.

 “Thank God, Slade,” Micah says seeing me. He walks
over to me and pulls me into a hug. I blink a few times as I pat his back
softly.

 “Are you okay?” I ask as I pull back and look at
him.

“I was afraid you weren’t going to make it.”

I slap his back. “You know I would never miss your
wedding,” I say with a frown.

 “I know.” He shakes out his arms. “Just nervous I
guess.” He laughs at himself.

We all visit in the room while everyone finishes
getting ready for the pre-wedding photos. Once done with all that we make our
way back into the room. It’s not ten minutes later when someone opens the door.
“You need to line up at the front of the church,” a man with an earpiece says
before he closes the door.

I walk over to the counter and pour us all a shot
of Dad’s scotch. “Let’s have a drink, boys,” I say handing everyone a shot
glass.

“Micah.” I turn to face him with my drink in my
hand. “Congratulations brother. I couldn’t be happier for you and Holly.”

He smiles a big smile like he did when we were
kids, and it makes me feel like the big brother I was to him. He always wanted
to hang out with me and my friends, and we always let him.

Parker laughs pulling me from my thoughts. “I
remember that first night you started talking to Holly.” He takes a sip of his
drink. “It was the night before Josh lost that bet and had to get his dick
pierced.”

 I chuckle.

“Do you still have that?” Parker asks.

“Of course I do.” He snorts. “Women love it.” He
shrugs. “Well, now just one woman.”

I slap my brother on the back. I never thought that
we would all be getting married. Hell, I never even thought I would love
someone.

 “Thanks guys. I’m so very lucky, not only to be
marrying Holly, but to have you guys here with me.”

We all drink back our shots and walk out one at a
time to take our place at the front of the church.

“I can’t fucking believe you are getting married.”
Parker shakes his head.

“Dude, we’re in a church,” Josh says quietly.

“Whatever man. I just can’t get over it. Micah is
getting married. Slade is engaged. I mean, fuck, that alone has proved to me
hell has frozen over.” Josh shakes his head at Parker. “And you, Josh, what the
fuck is up with you?” He punches Josh in the arm. “You’re married and have a
kid on the way.”

“What can I say? I’m just another lucky son of a
bitch.” He laughs at himself.

 “Lucky is not the word I would use for it,” Parker
frowns, “but there is one thing about weddings that I love.” He rubs his hands
together.

“What’s that?”

“The women.” Parker licks his lips. “The single
bridesmaids.”

“None of them are single so stay away from them,”
Micah warns, and Parker looks at Tate with an evil grin.

 “Missy is.” He arches a brow as if him to say
otherwise.

 We all watch, waiting for Tate to turn around and
deck him. Instead, he shrugs casually. “As far as I know, your brother is
dating her.”

 Parker looks at me with a surprised look on his
face, and I nod. Ever since that one date he took her on, they have been on
several in the last couple of weeks.

 “Oh.” My brother raises a finger. “Holly’s cousin
is single. She’s a bridesmaid.”

Parker rubs his hands together. “That’ll do,” he
says with a smile obviously not even caring what she looks like.

 The music starts and the ladies start to walk down
the aisle. Angel is first, and fuck, does she look beautiful. Her purple dress
shows off her tan skin and dark hair that she has pulled back from her face.
Her eyes lock on mine, and she smiles that smile that has always made me feel
more than I could ever explain.