by Cari Quinn
“Oh no. Why? Did she figure it out?”
“Worse.” He rolled his neck until it cracked, but it still didn’t alleviate the tension building there. “The bride is missing.”
Eight
“Hello. I need a bear.”
“Great. Bear-Gram is certainly an excellent choice for you then. Any particular kind?”
“Yes.” Gray nodded, though the guy on the other end of the phone couldn’t see him. “A really big one.”
Lila clapped her hands. “Time’s running out, people.”
As if he didn’t know that. Gray pressed his fingertips against his forehead and focused on the voice on the other end of the phone rather than their manager. Lila had moved to the front of the room to command her troops, but he wasn’t in the mood to listen to her latest scheme.
Schemes were what had gotten him into this mess. Why hadn’t he just told Jazz he wanted to get married now? Why in God’s name had he ever made that stupid deal with Molly he’d never truly intended to have to follow-through on?
Because he was an idiot. Plain and simple. And Jazz deserved anything and everything she ever wanted for tolerating his stupidity.
He would never attempt to limit her lunch consumption again.
“Actually, I’d like the biggest bear you have in stock,” Gray decided. “How big is that?”
“Bear? What the hell is he doing?” Nick muttered to no one in particular.
“Six feet, sir. You need that delivered?”
“Six feet is perfect. Yes, can you deliver it today?”
“Surely. What time would you like it?”
Gray glanced at his watch. The day was moving faster than he wished. It was heading toward mid-morning and Jazz still hadn’t returned any of his many phone calls and texts. He hadn’t managed to make it out of the suite to track her down yet with all of the insanity that had erupted with the band’s arrival. But he was going just as soon as he finished making sure that the suite would be ready for Jazz’s return.
Buying trinkets for her felt like a waste of time, but he had to do something. He couldn’t be out looking for her just yet so this seemed like accomplishing a task. Besides, it was better than the other idea that kept floating through his mind.
Digging through Molly’s stuff until he found her weed stash and taking a nice long hit.
But he wouldn’t do that. He’d been clean for months and he wasn’t going to break that streak over a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding exacerbated by his abject idiocy.
That didn’t mean that he wasn’t tempted. Thinking about fighting this battle every day for the rest of his life sometimes wore him out. Not that he had any choice. Even if he occasionally wavered on his own value, his woman and his child deserved for him to be present and sober. For them he would slay any dragon, including the ones in his own head and heart.
And hey, the bear wouldn’t go to waste. If Jazz hated it, they could always put it in Dylan’s nursery once they actually found a house. He’d have to work double or triple-time now to be able to afford the down payment, especially after the price of this trip. Even so, the value of marrying the love of his life exceeded any cost. If Jazz ever spoke to him again.
“How about now?” he asked the Bear-Gram customer service assistant.
“You’d like the delivery now?”
“Well, as soon as possible. Please. It’s kind of an emergency.”
“An emergency that involves a stuffed bear.” Out of the corner of Gray’s eye, he saw Nick nod. “Makes sense.”
“I stuffed a bear once,” Simon mused. “It was just a chick in a bear costume. But man, she was fluffy.”
“Don’t you mean furry? If you do, stop there. I’m getting disturbing pictures in my head.”
Gray tuned Simon and Nick out as the customer service rep explained the increased service charge that would result from a rush delivery. “That’s fine. Just put it on my card. And a twenty percent tip. Oh hey, you do flowers too, right? And chocolate? I need both of those too.”
“Sir, please hold.”
Gray held. What else could he do? He was on the verge of a panic attack, and he’d never even had one to know what they were like. But that had to be what this was, because his heart was racing a mile a minute and he hadn’t taken a full breath for the last hour.
“Oh Lord,” Deacon said to Harper. “He must’ve really stepped in it this time.”
“It’s this,” Harper said, patting Deak’s belt buckle. “This area causes all the problems.”
“Maybe with the two daddies-to-be,” Simon said, stretching out his legs, “but some of us have that all sewn up.”
“Right.” Nick snorted. “The same dude that screws chicks in bear costumes. Hard up much?”
“Shut up,” Lila snapped. “All of you.” She circled her pale pink-tipped fingernails over her temple. “You’re giving me a headache.”
The Bear-Gram guy returned to the line. “All right, sir, what kind of flowers?”
“Everything.”
“Everything?” Doubt tinged the man’s voice.
“Not everything,” Gray amended. “But I need enough to fill a penthouse suite. Or come close to it anyway. Give me really bright flowers that smell good. Don’t care what kind. I also need chocolate. Lots of it.”
“Sir, this is going to add up quickly. Just so you’re aware.”
Gray shut his eyes and slouched into the couch. “I don’t care.” That was a lie. He did, and probably would even more tomorrow. But he couldn’t concern himself with money now. “She’s worth it.”
When he got off the phone, he shoved his cell in his pocket. “Where’s Molly?”
“If that’s the babe with all the blond hair, she ducked out right after we got here. Smokin’ ass,” Nick added, whistling appreciatively.
“She’s seventeen, you fucker.” Gray shoved him hard enough to nearly dislodge him from the arm of the love seat. “She’s also Jazz’s half-sister.”
“Well, that explains it.”
Gray narrowed his eyes. “Now is not the time for you to talk about Jazz’s ass.”
“No more ass talk here.” Nick held up his hands. “Damn, seventeen. That’s unfortunate.”
“Not for her,” Lila said. “She just got the luckiest break of her life.”
Gray stood. He didn’t have time to worry about where Molly had disappeared to. Now that the band had arrived to hold down the fort, he could look for Jazz. He hadn’t wanted to leave if there wasn’t someone reliable to remain in the hotel in case she returned—and Molly did not qualify as reliable—but now he could go. “I’m going to see if I can find her. I’ll check in soon.”
His phone buzzed and he glanced down, hope surging until he saw Molly’s wide grin fill his screen. She must’ve added herself to his contacts when he wasn’t looking. “Where are you?” he asked.
“I’m looking for your girlfriend. Uh, I mean fiancée.”
Yeah, right. He’d believe that when he saw it. “Oh really? How do you know where to look?” He wasn’t even sure, and he would’ve said he knew Jazz better than anyone.
Yet he still did things he knew would cause her stress. Like setting up surprises when she hated surprises, all in an effort to show her that some could be good.
Big ol’ fail whale on that one. Finding out you had been booked without your consent to marry the man who had botched your already sketchy family reunion ranked right up there with the “surprises” of chickenpox and finding a snake in your bed.
“Mama brought us to San Francisco a couple of times when I was little,” Molly said, raising her voice to speak over the traffic noises in the background. “I don’t remember a lot. She took us to Alcatraz once.”
“The prison? Why?”
“They do tours and stuff. It’s a historical thing. I don’t know.” A car honked. “Good luck on finding her to ask her. Last I knew she booked for the Midwest with her new dude.”
He fell silent. Sometimes it was easy to forge
t what Jazz and Molly had come from, because he was all about the now. But he couldn’t let himself forget. What they’d lived through had shaped them both.
“Where else?” he asked quietly.
“It’s hard to remember. I was pretty little. I remember going to the pier and The Presidio. She loved the Yerba Buena Gardens. We both did.”
His heart galloped. “Check there then. I’ll meet you.”
“Too late, I already did. She’s not there. At least not where I can easily find her. These places aren’t tiny, you know. And they get super crowded. Damn tourists.”
He nearly reminded her that technically all three of them were tourists, since none of them were from San Francisco itself. At the moment, however, he was willing to curse about tourists too. Anything that kept him from finding Jazz.
“But don’t worry. I have another idea. I’m on my way there to check it out.”
“Where is it? I’m on my way.”
“Stay at the hotel. I’ve got this. Entertain your little band friends.” He could almost picture her wiggling her fingers as if she were referring to kindergarten playmates. “Especially Nick. Jeez, he’s even hotter in person.”
“You. Are. Seventeen. He is not. Plus I’m pretty sure he has herpes.”
“If you’re referring to me, I so do not,” Simon called.
“Ew. Gross. Really?”
Gray started to admit he was only kidding, then decided to leave it alone. If it deterred Molly from chasing after yet another older guy, he’d keep right on lying.
More lies and half truths. The toll was climbing.
“Call me when you find Jazz,” he said, clicking off.
He glanced up to find the room had cleared out except for Simon and Nick. “Where did everyone go?”
Simon shrugged and kept playing with his phone. “Lila’s making calls in the bedroom. Harper went off half-cocked, determined to find Jazz on her own and Deacon chased after her yelling about ‘needing a plan’. Nicky—” He lifted his head and smirked. “Nicky has herpes.”
“Bastard.” Nick turned toward Gray. “Did you just tell Jazz’s sister I had herpes?”
In spite of everything, Gray couldn’t fight his grin as he dropped onto the loveseat. He’d already nearly worn a hole in the thick carpet from pacing. “That obvious, huh?”
Nick pulled one booted foot up across his other knee. “Doesn’t mean good things for you if that’s true, brother.”
“Oh, here we go. Back to the threesome heard ‘round the world.” Simon rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t mean good things for me either, because hello, we dipped in the same troughs a few times too. But all the threesomes you had with me don’t count. Just the one with him.”
“I’m starting to think you boys are all a little too close,” Lila said, sailing into the room, clipboard in hand.
Gray could actually feel his ears heating up. “One threesome,” he muttered. “Just one. One and only for my entire life.”
“I’m sorry,” Simon said sincerely. “There’s still time to turn it around. Don’t give up yet.”
“As much as I enjoy hearing about the cesspools of STDs you’ve all happily waded through, I think we should focus on finding Jasmine. Since the wedding is due to take place in oh,” Lila consulted her watch, “approximately two-and-a-half hours.”
Gray laced his fingers between his knees and exhaled. “Not thinking it’s gonna happen, Li.”
“Excuse me? Did I or did I not make all kinds of arrangements to help you make sure this went off without a hitch? Did I or did I not endure having to go pick up your wedding bands with this Neanderthal—” she gestured at Nick, who only smirked, “—along with suffering through a flight’s worth of unfunny toilet humor? Did I or did I not—”
“Hold it.” Gray held up a hand, cutting her off mid-tirade. “You picked up my wedding bands with Nick, of all people?”
For the first time that he could recall in recent memory, Lila actually shifted her gaze away as if she was embarrassed. “There was a sizing issue. I needed a man’s hand.”
“You know, because we’re close to the same size and all.” Nick waggled his brows. “Except in certain notable areas.”
“So your dick’s tiny and covered with blisters. Sexy.” Lila turned her back on Nick while Simon choked out a laugh.
“Anyway, as I was saying. I contacted your parents. I spoke to your priest and doublechecked that the venue was booked. I sent out a press release to make the paparazzi think Oblivion would be anywhere but near San Francisco today. I picked out flowers and a dress for your bride. And the list goes on and on.”
Gray pushed a hand through his hair. Christ, could the boulders of guilt on his shoulders get any heavier? “I know and I really appreciate it—”
“Appreciate my ass.”
“Oh, I do,” Nick said from behind her, which she didn’t appear to hear. Or else she chose to ignore him, as anyone with a brain did.
“My point is that I went to a lot of effort to make this happen, Grayson. It is going to, or by God, you will pay me reparations.”
“Just add it to my tab. Everyone else is.” Gray sagged into the cushions and stretched his arm across the back. He didn’t feel relaxed at all, not one bit, but what the hell could he do? Somehow he’d wandered into a Julia Roberts movie without realizing it.
All they needed was a damn horse.
“The carousel. Really?”
Jazz stopped digging through her wallet for change for another ride on the carousel at the zoo—her inner child was eight, so what—and glanced up at the sound of the familiar female voice behind her. Great. Just what she needed when she was searching for stress relief.
The junk food she’d scarfed down without Gray to lecture her about proper pregnancy nutrition hadn’t even tasted that good. All it had done was give her indigestion.
Figured.
If that wasn’t enough, she’d been recognized by a pair of gawking teenagers as soon as she arrived at the zoo. Having fans come up to her was still a novelty and normally she loved talking to fellow music freaks, but when her eyes were grainy from trying not to cry and she had heartburn and felt icky from wandering around in the clothes she’d worn yesterday, she wasn’t all that sociable.
She’d posed for a picture with them and signed some stuff and they’d gone away happy, so obviously she hadn’t been too much of an ogre. But man, she hated feeling bitchy. Dealing with Molly right now probably wouldn’t help even her out, either.
Jazz turned and narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing here?” She swallowed the bitterness in her throat. Whether it was from the corn dog she’d eaten in record time or caused by Gray and Molly’s deception, she wasn’t sure. “Did he offer you extra hazard pay if you added some field work to your list of duties?”
Molly sighed and propped her fists on her hips. “I knew it. I figured you must’ve overheard either that or the whole kissing thing. Either one was—”
“Kissing who?” Jazz snapped the hairband off her wrist to do her hair up in a quick bun and stepped toward her sister. “If you mean what I think you mean, take off your jewelry. This shit’s going down now.”
“Damn, girl.” Molly laughed. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Growling, Jazz advanced another step.
“Ease up, pitbull. My lips did not touch his lips.”
“Did they touch any other part of his anatomy? Because, believe me, that won’t save you any broken bones.”
“No part of us kissed, I swear. He totally shut me down. Didn’t even notice my tits damn near hanging out of my top.” She glanced down at her breasts and sighed. “They’re good tits. Everyone says so.”
“Yeah, well, he’s played with the prototype model, so you’re out of luck, pal.”
Molly whistled. “The pregnancy thing is so working for you in that area. Not that I saw anything but magazine pictures of you before, but wow, impressive.”
“Thanks. I’m wearing a good bra.” Hear
ing herself, Jazz shook her head. It was a warm day and evidently she was already suffering the early signs of heatstroke. “Look, don’t change the subject. You came onto Gray? After taking his money to spend the day with me? I mean, seriously, am I that awful?”
“No.” Molly blew out a breath that fluttered her curls. “You’re amazing, and that’s why I hate you.”
As the carousel started up behind her again, Jazz sighed and tugged Molly over to a bench some distance away from the cheerful circus music. “You realize that makes no sense, right?”
“It makes plenty of sense.” Molly flopped at the end of the bench and stared at the revolving carousel horses with something akin to wistfulness, shocking the hell out of Jazz. She’d yet to see even the tiniest hint of nostalgia in her sister.
Jazz, on the other hand, still wore the first piece of jewelry Gray had given her—the guitar pick necklace from a vending machine currently around her neck—and had pressed in a book the corsage he’d bought her for a high school dance. Every note or card he’d ever sent her was tucked into the diary she’d kept as a teenager. She had all of her old yearbooks and even her band uniform from the short time she’d tried to participate in an organized school activity.
Then there were all the other ways she was a sentimental fool. Crying during Hallmark commercials was now a part of her daily routine. She lavished toys and treats on her guinea pig, Ratt, and the kitten she’d bought on a whim from a kid selling them in front of the grocery store. She’d also foisted the other two kittens on Lila and Harper, whether they wanted them or not. Already she was itching to decorate her baby’s nursery—though they hadn’t yet bought a house—and she wasn’t due until the fall. She was a sap, pure and simple.
Yet another way she and Molly were absolutely nothing alike.
“You remember riding the carousel?” Jazz asked, unable to help herself. She was firmly stuck in sap 101, endlessly pursuing kinship with other secret saps.
“Yeah. That’s how I knew to come here. I remember Mama letting us have two rides each when we begged.” Molly stared at the revolving brightly painted horses for another moment. “I bet you can’t wait to put Dylan on one of them.”
