“What do you want to do?” I asked.
She gathered up her dress again and turned to me.
“I want to marry you,” she said. “I just want to do the ceremony and finally be your wife. I told you when we first talked about the wedding that all the pomp and circumstance doesn’t matter to me. All that matters to me is us being married and having our family.”
“That’s what I want, too,” I told her. “So, let’s get this done. What else do you have to wear? We’ll do this our way.”
A few minutes later, I walked back out of the office into the hallway. Cole and Dean both came toward me, concerned looks on their faces. I told them the new plan, and we rushed to get changed. Our wedding started almost an hour late, but I didn’t care. Neither did any of the guests. They were all here to see exactly what they were getting: Merry and me walking down the aisle.
For our wedding, the aisle was flower petals sprinkled down the ground to lead toward the pond. We wanted to have our ceremony right there by the water, to commemorate the place where we both knew for the first time we were in love. I stood at the end of the aisle with Cole as our officiant and my brothers by my side. Olivia, Glenda, and a couple of Merry’s other friends came down the aisle and took their positions before everybody turned to look at the bride.
She was gorgeous. And I meant it with every fiber of my being. Her arm tucked in the crook of her brother’s elbow, holding a bouquet of her favorite sunflowers, she was captivating. Her jean shorts and flowy white top were an upgrade from any bridal gown she could have chosen. We smiled at each other as Brandon escorted her toward me. I shook his hand and thanked him before taking hers and guiding her the rest of the way to stand in front of Cole. There in my jeans and white button-down, with Rosie ready to carry the rings to us hanging from her collar, everything was perfect.
After the ceremony, everyone moved out into the field where we often ate lunch. Several grills and smokers were set up in the grass, and the nearest pavilion had tables laden with salad, corn on the cob, rolls, watermelon, coleslaw, and macaroni and cheese. There were even deviled eggs and cheese wafers from the box lunch shop Merry loved so much.
Away from the cooking meat and the tent set up with a dance floor and music was a small decorated area. Twinkling lights hung in the branches of Merry’s favorite tree. A table draped in white fabric and holding a glass vase of sunflowers was set beneath it, ready to accept gifts and cards from the guests. Another table set on the other side of the table had the guest book. When Merry picked it out, she told him she could see us ten years from now sitting down with the guest book on our anniversary and looking through the inscriptions to remember this day.
Everybody dove into the food, loading up plates and sitting down in the nearby pavilion. I saw my parents already in the tent, the only two people on the dance floor. Merry and I would have our own first dance later. Right now, we all just wanted to relax and enjoy. This wedding was everything I could have wanted. It was a family affair in every sense, and that was perfect. I was so grateful for my parents and the company they’d started so many years ago, the company they’d handed over to me and let me build into what I had today. Including being what brought Merry into my life.
We’d raise our son here. He’d learn about the bikes and how to take care of them. When he got older, maybe we’d train him to race. Then one day, I’d turn the company over to him.
A few hours into the party when the guests were distracted with drinking, dancing, and eating their way through the massive cake, I took Merry’s hand and brought her out to the pond. I wanted a few moments just with her. I brought her over to the bench and sat. I kissed her there, in the spot where we conceived our baby, and cuddled her against me, sighing as I listened to Bud and Rosie play and our family celebrate.
THE END
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Book Two - Millionaire Daddy
1
Darren
“You only turn twenty-one once.”
With those fateful words, my oldest brother, Quentin, convinced me to let him bring me out for my birthday.
It was far from what I’d planned. Not that I really had much planned at all. Birthdays weren’t really my thing, and I never had much of a compulsion to make a big deal out of them. But the day before when I was in the garages at the complex for the racing company my brother owned, Quentin came in looking excited.
“Big day tomorrow, huh, little brother?” he asked.
I looked up from the bike I was working on and gave him a strange look.
“Big day?” I asked. “The race isn’t for another week.”
He laughed and tossed a tool he was twirling around in his fingers back into the box at his feet. The metal made a jarring jangling sound that didn’t seem to affect him but made my ears ring. My brother walked up behind me and clapped me on the back.
“Not the race, Darren. Your birthday. You’re turning twenty-one!” he said.
“Oh,” I answered, turning back to the repair I was trying to get finished so I could get the bike out on the practice track for a few laps. “Yeah. That is tomorrow.”
Quentin stared at me like he couldn’t believe he was hearing what I was saying.
“That’s it?” he asked. “That’s your entire reaction to your twenty-first birthday?”
I glanced over my shoulder at him and shrugged.
“Should there be some other reaction?” I asked. “It’s just another birthday.”
“It’s not just another birthday. It’s a milestone,” he said. “Don’t you have any plans at all?”
“I’m having dinner with Mom and Dad. They said you, Vince, and Nick are supposed to come,” I told him.
“Dinner with your parents is not a twenty-first birthday,” he told me. “You’re coming to the bar with me.”
I let out a breath as I stood up and moved around to the other side of the bike.
“You know that’s not my scene,” I told him.
“Of course it’s not. You haven’t been old enough for it to be your scene, yet. But I’m going to take you out and celebrate with you in the way God intended.”
I couldn’t help but laugh slightly at that.
“Somehow I doubt that going out to a bar is in the greater divine plan,” I pointed out.
“Sure, it is. There’s a time to dance and a time to drink and all that,” Quentin said. I chuckled and shook my head. “Come on. As your eldest brother, it’s my job to escort you to this next part of your life. You only turn twenty-one once.”
And with those words, I let my brother convince me to take a leap away from my comfort zone and go out to celebrate my birthday. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
The next night Quentin wrapped his arm tightly around my shoulders and gave me a playful shake as he led me into his favorite bar. I’d heard about the bar many times before, of course. This was where the team came to celebrate after race victories or to blow off steam when things weren’t going the way they wanted them to.
This definitely wasn’t like me. Of the four brothers, I had always been the quietest. My mother liked to describe me as shy, but I didn’t think that was the first word I’d go to. It was more that I was an observer. My whole life I’d preferred to kind of sit back and watch what was going on around me. With three older brothers, there was bound to be a range of personalities and intensities and competing for the most attention wasn’t something I had interest in doing. I had no problem with them being the louder, more aggressive ones. The only time I really pushed for attention or competed to be at the top of the hierarchy was when I was racing. Quentin had taken over the racing company from my parents several years before and built it into an impressive, successful empire. But he was never one to race. That was me. As soon as I was old enough, I took to the track and hadn’t looked back since.
That was the approach
I was taking that night. It wasn’t my regular idea of a good time, but I decided to go at it with an open mind and see how it went. Quentin brought me to a table at the side of the bar, and almost immediately, a waitress sidled up to us.
“Hey there, Molly,” Quentin said. “How are you doing tonight?”
“Doing fine, Quentin.” She eyed Darren. “I see we have another one.”
My brother took me by the back of the neck and gave me another shake.
“This is my baby brother, Darren,” he said.
“I’d know that anywhere. All you boys have the Freeman good looks. Why haven’t I met him before?” Molly asked.
“It’s his twenty-first birthday,” Quentin announced, and her eyes lit up.
“Then the first round of shots is on me,” she said. Flashing a grin, she whipped around and headed to the bar.
“See?” Quentin asked, looking over at me. “Aren’t you glad you didn’t finish your celebration with dinner?”
My family was extremely important to me. We were very tight-knit and spent a lot of time together. Growing up with three big brothers was something I really enjoyed about my childhood. I loved all of them, but the tremendous age difference between Quentin and me kept us from being as close as we could be. I was a bit of a surprise baby after my parents thought they were finished having children, which made me almost half the age of my oldest brother. Since I’d started racing for the company, we were getting to know each other better, and it seemed like me stepping into full adulthood would give us a chance to get closer. The least I could do was settle in and have a good time.
Which was exactly what I did.
An hour later, after our other brothers had joined us, Molly came back to the table and handed each of us our third shot. The first two had loosened me up, and after I took back the third, I slid out of the booth.
“Come on,” I said to my brothers.
“What are you doing?” Quentin asked with a laugh.
“There’s music, isn’t there? I’m going to dance like it’s my birthday… because it is.”
Nick shook his head.
“Oh, no. He’s resorted to bad jokes. Maybe we threw him into the deep end too fast.”
I laughed. This wasn’t the first time I’d had alcohol. Growing up around a racetrack with three older brothers meant having a beer or two on occasion wasn’t unusual. I was just having fun and wanted to do it right. They didn’t come along with me, but that didn’t stop me. I headed out onto the dance floor and was doing my best not to make a fool of myself when I twirled around and saw her. Sitting right there at the bar was the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. She struck me still, and I stared at her for a while before starting toward her.
As much as I would have liked to think I was the kind of guy who could swagger up to her, slip in with a smooth line, and instantly sweep her off her feet, that wasn’t so much the truth. Instead, I felt butterflies in my stomach, and the nerves made my progress toward her slow. She was beautiful and irresistible in a way I had never experienced. Even with the alcohol in my system, it took me a bit to work up the courage to talk to her. Eventually, I had to make the leap. She had noticed me staring at her, and I had to either give it up and get away as fast as I could, or actually talk to her.
“Hi,” I said when I got close enough to her.
It wasn’t exactly charming, but it was what I managed.
“Hi,” she said with a chuckle. “Having fun out there?”
Her slight accent was lovely, but I couldn’t place it. I glanced behind me at the dance floor and laughed.
“Something like that,” I said. “I guess I’m not that much of a dancer.”
“I don’t know,” she said, shifting slightly and running the tip of her tongue across her plush red bottom lip. “It seemed you knew what you were doing.”
There was a softly suggestive note in her voice, which attracted me to her even more.
“Are you here alone?” I asked.
“I’m meeting a couple friends,” she told me, then held out her hand. “Kelly.”
I took hold of her fingers, squeezing them slightly rather than really shaking her hand. She was too feminine, too gorgeous to shake her hand like I did the men around the track.
“Darren,” I told her.
She glanced around me in the direction of the table I left.
“Seems like you have some people waiting for you.”
I looked over and saw all three of my brothers gawking at us. As soon as they realized I saw them, their heads snapped back to the middle of the table, and they became intently focused on the plate of nachos they were eating their way through. I shook my head.
“Those would be my brothers,” I said with a slight sigh. “We’re actually here celebrating my birthday. My brothers decided twenty-one necessitated an introduction to their favorite bar.”
Kelly’s eyes brightened.
“Well, happy birthday.” She looked me up and down. “Twenty-one, hmmm? All grown up.”
For some reason that made heat crawl up the back of my neck and burn across my cheeks. She seemed to notice and smiled, her eyelashes lowering as she slid a little closer to me on the barstool.
“Can I buy you a drink?” I asked.
“It’s your birthday. Why don’t you let me buy you one?” she asked.
She gestured to the bartender and ordered us each a beer. I looked back over at my brothers and saw they were staring at us again.
“Give me just a second,” I told her. “I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, and I headed across the bar to the table.
“Did you find a new friend, little brother?” Quentin asked.
“Maybe you danced too much, Darren. You look a little flushed,” Nick teased.
“Are you coming by for a crash course in how to talk to women?” Vince joined in.
I rolled my eyes at my brothers.
“Go on, get it all out,” I said. They looked at each other and shrugged, apparently done with their teasing for now. “All right. Well, I’m going to have a drink with Kelly. I’ll be back in a bit.”
For the next couple of hours, I went back and forth between the table with my brothers and Kelly. I could have asked her to join us, but I didn’t want to expose her to the three of them. In truth, I didn’t want them to be around her, either. I wanted her all to myself. Her friends came and went, but she lingered there. Every time I went back to my brothers, they teased me like crazy, as brothers do. I was expecting nothing less. And each time I got back to Kelly, I got the same feeling low in my belly, and my heart rate ticked up a few notches.
I wasn’t a virgin but being around her made me feel like one. She turned me on and made me crave her, but still left me a bit nervous. It was getting late when she finished her second beer and stood up. I figured she was ready to leave, and disappointment dragged on me.
“Can I have your number?” I asked.
I tried not to cringe after I said it, not believing those words were actually coming out of my mouth. I sounded like an awkward fourteen-year-old wanting to ask a girl to the movies. A hint of a smile curled Kelly’s lips, and she took a step closer to me.
“Why don’t I give it to you later?” she asked.
Her fingertip ran along the side of my neck and then down my chest. Impulse took over, and I leaned in to kiss her. She eagerly kissed me back, and when we parted, she lifted her eyebrows at me. She didn’t have to put the request into words. She was asking for us to leave together, and I was more than happy to take her up on it. It gave me exactly what I wanted and saved me the bumbling awkwardness of figuring out how to ask her.
As we walked out of the bar, I waved at my brothers. They waved back, grinning broadly. I was going to hear it from each and every one of them, but I didn’t care. Kelly’s sexy body and sweet lips were well worth it. We got outside, and I pulled up a rideshare app on my phone to request a car to bring us to my house.
2
Kelly
/> This was ridiculous. I knew it as soon as Darren flirted with me. Or, at least tried to. That’s what caught my attention to begin with. The man was cute as hell and had half the girls in the bar staring at him, but he didn’t even seem to notice them. He was sweet and quiet, almost shy and a touch nervous. He wasn’t like most of the men I encountered, and a happy change of pace from the arrogant guys who sidled up to me brimming with bravado and acting like they were already holding a ticket to my panties. I would much rather have the young, gorgeous, unassuming man who looked at me like I was the only woman in the room.
I should have stopped it there. I should have talked to him for a few minutes, maybe bought him his birthday drinks, then sent him back over to his brothers and went about my night. As soon as the girls left, I should have left with them. They were only there to say goodbye to me, after all. That was the thing. That’s why this was so stupid. I was only at the bar that night to say a final quick farewell to some friends before leaving in the morning. In less than twenty-four hours, I wasn’t going to be in the country anymore, much less in town. Hooking up with Darren now was just setting myself up for a one-night stand, something that absolutely wasn’t my usual style.
But he caught my attention and piqued my interest. He was a bit younger than me, but that didn’t bother me. I was having fun with the newly minted twenty-one-year-old, and the longer the night went on, the less I wanted him to just walk away. He was charming and funny, and despite knowing better, I wanted him. It became clear pretty early he was never going to be the one to bring up us going home together. He had barely been able to muster up the courage just to come up to me and had only managed to say “hi” when he finally did.
So I took the reigns. He didn’t hesitate, and that first kiss was enough to make me need him even more. It was my last night, and I was going to make it count. At least I could leave the country with the memories. It didn’t occur to me until he requested the rideshare that we hadn’t talked about where we were going. We’d made it out of the bar, but that was as far as our plans went. I was the one to instigate us leaving together, so maybe he assumed I’d take him back to my place. That wasn’t an option. I’d turned the keys for my house in that afternoon and was spending my last night before heading out in a hotel. Somehow bringing him to a tiny hotel room stuffed to the brim with my possessions didn’t give off the sexy vibe I was hoping for.
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