CrissCross (Crossroads Book 1)

by Mandie Tepe

  She nodded uncertainly. “Well . . . yeah . . .”

  “Geez. What a bunch of losers,” he muttered staring over her head at the oceanscape painting but not seeing it. His gaze shifted to hers and he stated firmly, “They didn’t understand that you’re not like other women. That was their big mistake.”

  “Wh-what?”

  “You’re special. That’s what they didn’t get. Which is fortunate for me. You know, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how you’re not married and raising babies with the luckiest man on earth right now. Turns out you haven’t met anyone smart enough to really see who you are.”

  Tears started leaking from her eyes. “Stop it,” she choked out.

  “No. I won’t stop it.”

  “B-but I can’t let you go on like that,” she hiccupped. “My famil—”

  “Your family? You have an awesome family. Your parents still—after over thirty years—can’t get enough of each other. My parents have been married nine times between them. That’s what’s been modeled for me. I’m the bad risk here. Not you.”

  “No,” she began, shaking her head vigorously, “you’re not. It just means you know what you want.” After a pause, she pointed out, “What about the Vagabonds? Even though I’m not technically one of them, I’m stuck with ‘em.”

  “They love you . . . with good reason. You’re like their little princess or something. I see in them the same loyalty to you and each other that I have with my SEAL brothers. I get it. I appreciate it. I only hope they’ll accept me being with you.” He moved back and dropped down next to her, pulling her close. “The church thing? I’d be happy to be a part of that with you. Being well-traveled doesn’t make a person exciting or interesting. Besides, that just means I get to travel with you and show you things you’ve never seen before. I’ll get to experience that through your eyes and nothing could be more exciting than that. And the artist thing? I think I fell in love with the artist in you first. It makes you interesting. Remember? I like you.”

  “When are you going to change that ‘I like you’ to ‘I love you’?”

  “Right now. I love you.” Jimi leaned in to kiss him, but he held her back. “We’re not moving in together,” he declared.

  “I know. That’s what I said.”

  “I wasn’t finished. We’re not moving in together for a couple weeks. Maybe three.”

  “Wait. What?!” she asked in disbelief.

  “That gives me enough time to convince you I’m a risk worth taking. I hope. Then we should be able to get married pretty quickly unless you want a big wedding. I’d prefer not, but I suspect you could sweet-talk me into it. Just remember that we can’t move in together until that happens. This means no cuddly reassurances if you have a nightmare in the middle of the night . . . or mornings even better than this one where I know the moment I open my eyes that you’re doing good. Not until then.”

  “Holy frig,” she breathed.

  CHAPTER 21

  A couple of weeks later Jimi sat next to Chance in his car. The car was parked in the lot outside New Hope Fellowship.

  He switched off the engine and shifted to face her. “So, we’re really doing this?”

  “Looks that way,” she murmured, smoothing the dark wine red lace skirt of her dress over her thighs nervously.

  “You scared?”

  “A little.”

  When Chance didn’t comment and she felt an uneasy feeling coming from his direction, she looked over to see his face had gone a little dark.

  “Not about getting married!” she reassured him. “About the reaction to it. From my parents.”

  His mood evened back out. “You don’t think they’ll approve?”

  He and Jimi had spent every free moment together over the past weeks . . . much of those moments with their families as well. There had been no indication from her family or his that anyone had the slightest bit of reservation about them being together.

  “They’ll be fine with the marriage. Overjoyed, probably. But Vagabonds get married in huge raucous parties. They don’t get married in private chapel ceremonies.”

  “You’re not technically a Vagabond. And everyone knows that you’re the white sheep of the family, so what else would they expect?” he teased.

  “Right. But don’t be shocked if we get invited somewhere soon and it turns out to be a surprise blowout celebration attended by every MC member in the state of Missouri.”

  He grinned. “I’ll look forward to that.”

  “I won’t,” she muttered. “Let’s go inside and touch base with Pastor Lee. We can wait for the others in there.”

  They slid out of the car and Chance took her hand as they walked inside the church.

  Pastor Lee—the senior minister of New Hope Fellowship—was just coming down the hallway toward the church’s smaller chapel near the main entrance. “There they are!” he exclaimed excitedly.

  Chance and Jimi had met with him twice leading up to this day. They’d talked to him about getting married in a private ceremony with him officiating. Then they’d come back for a counseling session. Now it was before noon on the Friday before Thanksgiving . . . their wedding day.

  Pastor Lee shook Chance’s hand and wrapped an arm around Jimi’s shoulder to give her a squeeze. “Your witnesses are coming?”

  “They should be here any minute,” Jimi assured him.

  Only two people besides the three of them entering the chapel knew what was up. Isla knew because Jimi could never keep something this big from her bestie. Besides, she was standing as maid of honor for her. River knew for the same reasons. The brothers were that close, so Chance wouldn’t go behind his back and he needed his best man services (although he declined River’s offer of a bachelor party).

  River also knew because Jimi had offered him the opportunity to co-lease her apartment since she’d be moving in with Chance. River had been talking about wanting to move out of the band house for awhile now that they were all making better money and he felt the need to try living like a real grown up for a change. The other guys had constantly-changing girlfriends moving in and out of that house which sparked various dramas. That messed with River’s creative process, which caused tension with the guys. He hadn’t done anything to find a new place because he was afraid of being railroaded by Suzanne when she found out he was looking. This gave Jimi and Chance a golden opportunity to unload her apartment without worrying about paying to break the lease. The deal hadn’t been presented to the Crosswinds Apartments owner because they were waiting until they were actually married and they could let the cat out of the bag. It would only be a formality since River had already been lined up to take over the lease.

  Chance was excited about having his brother right across the hall. Jimi hadn’t observed anything in the brothers’ relationship that caused her concern about them possibly bro’ing up constantly and leaving her out in the cold, so she was happy about it too.

  There were lots of changes at Crosswinds Apartments lately. The Tylers had moved on, so the manager position had opened up. It hadn’t stayed that way long, though. To everyone’s shock the job had been filled by another of the residents. Axel, of all people. He’d been contacted by the owner and offered the job. They wanted someone that knew the other residents well and got along with them (his history of loud parties notwithstanding). With his injuries he wasn’t able to work the roofing and construction jobs through his small operation, but he was still booking jobs to keep his crew employed. And though he wouldn’t be able to handle some of the more physical tasks around the apartment building in this new job yet, the owner had agreed to let him use his guys on a freelance basis until he could. He was capable of overseeing the building operations even with his temporary limitations.

  When Axel had been released from the hospital almost a week earlier, he had returned to a new apartment. The larger three-bedroom on the first floor was set aside for use by the manager and had always been that way, but Axel didn’t see the
need for a larger space. He got permission from the owner to offer it to the Hansons who already had a toddler and were expecting their second child come spring. Axel had convinced the owner to lease the three-bedroom for what they’d already been paying for the two-bedroom they’d been renting.

  By the time he got home both apartments’ carpets had been cleaned, rooms that needed it repainted, the Hansons moved into the larger place, and Axel’s things moved into their old one (which was directly below his previous home). The other residents and the Vagabonds had placed every single thing he owned—furniture and belongings—in the exact spots he’d had them arranged upstairs. So, when he entered the first floor apartment, it felt as if he’d entered an alternate universe.

  While all this was going on, there was a lot of talk about the owner of the Crosswinds Apartments. No one had ever met them, but it appeared they were very understanding and supportive of the residents after all the upheaval of the past couple of months. Axel was asked some veiled questions by almost everyone since it appeared he’d been in contact with the owner a lot lately. He either had no information about them or wasn’t sharing.

  Axel actually wasn’t sharing much about anything. His near-death experience had changed him—as it would anyone. He wasn’t such a carefree guy anymore. He’d always had an intensity about him, but this ratched up to a whole new level. Grim was the word that came to her mind when Jimi spent time with him.

  Now, Jimi stood looking over the chapel. She’d always thought it was pretty with its small raised stage at the front backed by a large stained glass window depicting a stylized cross. A few lights over the stage were turned on, but the rest of the chapel lights were off. This made the sunlight coming through the stained glass more prominent. She pulled her leather jacket off and dropped it on one of the back pews.

  “You look beautiful, peaches,” Chance murmured as he looked over her dress. It was made up completely of wine red lace over a lining of the same color. The sleeves were three-quarter length and the flared skirt with scalloped hem hit just above her knees. She wore sheer black tights and black-heeled booties.

  “Thank you, babe. You don’t think the red is too much? It’s not exactly a wedding dress color,” she fretted.

  “It’s perfect,” he assured her.

  She studied his dark slacks, and the charcoal gray dress shirt and black blazer that looked amazing stretched across his broad chest and shoulders. “You look perfect too,” she smiled.

  “Thanks. I know you said not to bother with a tie, but I threw one in the car in case you change your mind.”

  Jimi shook her head.

  Once they’d decided to do this, Chance had asked her to go with him to pick out her engagement ring. That wasn’t traditional, but then nothing about this was. She had told him she’d rather not have an engagement ring, but just a nice wedding band. With her pottery and weaving, she thought an engagement ring would get in the way. Then she waited nervously to see if this would insult him and cause their first major argument. He shrugged, told her that was fine but if she changed her mind she should let him know and went on like it made perfect sense to him.

  Suddenly a whirlwind in the form of Isla came bustling into the chapel. “It’s all happening!” she sing-songed as if she were one of the groupie characters from the movie Almost Famous.

  She was carrying a cardboard tray with flowers peeking out the top and was being trailed by a young man with a large camera case.

  Jimi almost burst into tears. “What did you do, Isla?”

  “We have to have flowers,” Isla said firmly. “And we have to get better than cell phone pics.” She set the box on a back pew and pulled the young Asian man forward by his arm. “This is Laurence. His mother works at Cassel. He just earned his fine arts degree in photography last spring and has a true gift so I hired him. Consider it—and the flowers—as part of your wedding present.”

  Jimi was watching Laurence, and where they were standing was dim, but she would swear he was blushing. She held out her hand to shake his and Chance did the same. Jimi said firmly to Isla, “Let’s consider this your entire wedding gift.”

  Isla didn’t respond, but muttered something about Jimi probably not being happy about the wedding shower in the works then. Jimi shot a panicked look toward Chance who was trying not to laugh. She decided to nip the shower idea in the bud later, but it was her wedding day so she wouldn’t think about that right now.

  Isla began bustling around pinning a boutonniere made up of a small dark red dahlia and a spray of seeded eucalyptus on Chance’s lapel. She handed Jimi a little bundle with a couple of the same dahlias and eucalyptus, as well as miniature sunflowers. The arrangements were small and elegant. Just something Isla would choose, knowing that Jimi would approve.

  River strolled in next carrying his guitar case. His attire was even more casual compared to the bride’s, groom’s, and maid of honor’s deep salmon-colored velvet dress with long belled sleeves. He’d done well, though, considering. He was wearing black jeans, and shirt under a black jean jacket.

  He looked at his brother over Isla’s head as she pinned the boutonniere on River’s jacket. “Does Mom suspect anything?”

  “I don’t think so,” Chance answered. “She should be here any minute, but she thinks she’s meeting us here for an early lunch with Jimi.”

  That’s what everyone thought. Suzanne, Nova and Jock too. They had no idea they were attending a wedding.

  They’d chosen this Friday before Thanksgiving because Chance had a three-day weekend since he—being low man on the totem pole—would have to work patrol over the Thanksgiving holiday. He was enjoying the new job so far and understood the concept of being the grunt for awhile.

  The pastor had taken Laurence up front to show him where he could set up. Since the photographer was working alone, they wouldn’t get video, but Jimi was happy that Isla had thought to hire him to get good photos. She’d been sure Mama would have snapped away with her cell phone, but this way they were assured to have decent shots and her mama might be able to relax and enjoy the ceremony.

  They hadn’t let their parents in on the wedding plans, partly because Nova would have spent that couple of weeks attempting to guilt Jimi into having a Vagabond affair and Suzanne would have insisted on an event at her country club. Or at least that was what they were afraid of.

  River looked down at the flowers on his chest as if spiders might come crawling out to attack him. Glancing back at his brother, he asked, “You ever hear from Dad?”

  Of course Clark had been invited to the “early lunch,” but he hadn’t gotten back with Chance yet the last time the brothers had spoken.

  “He has surgery scheduled, so he won’t be here,” Chance informed him. He noticed Jimi had sidled closer. She squeezed his hand in sympathy. “It’s no big deal. I expected it. Besides, it’s just one other thing he won’t have to lie to his wife about,” he said bitterly. “Attending his son’s wedding.”

  Isla retrieved her smaller version of Jimi’s bouquet and the four members of the wedding party walked to the front of the chapel. They’d just paused at the foot of the raised stage when the door at the back of the room opened.

  They could hear Suzanne saying, “I don’t know. When I got to Jimi’s office they told me I could find her in here.”

  Nova’s voice responded, “She must have lost track of tim—” She broke off in shock as she and Suzanne stood just inside the door gawking at the group on the other end of the room. Nova jerked forward suddenly and stumbled two steps in.

  “What’s the hold up?” Jock asked. He’d apparently put his hands on his wife’s hips and pushed her out of the doorway so he could get in. His eyes swung over to see what the two women were staring slack-mouthed at.

  No one said a word for what seemed like a long, long time.

  Finally, Jimi exclaimed in uneasy cheer, “Happy wedding day!”

  “Oh my heavens!” Suzanne cried. “A wedding! You’re getting married?! Ri
ght now?!” She started at a brisk pace up the aisle.

  Chance walked toward her and met her midway. “Yes, we are,” he grinned.

  “Oh, but this is wonderful!” She grabbed him around the neck and hugged him enthusiastically.

  “So you’re okay with it?” he chuckled.

  “Of course, I am.” She let him go and moved on to hug Jimi.

  Jimi was watching her parents cautiously as she returned her almost-mother-in-law’s hug. They were standing stone still just inside the door. Scarily still. She couldn’t read their faces, but she was afraid what their expressions hid might not be good.

  “Mama? Pops?” she called out uncertainly.

  “You’re getting married,” her mother stated.

  “Yes,” Jimi answered fearfully. She felt Chance, River, Isla, and Suzanne close in around her in support.

  Jock asked, “Without the MC?”

  “We wanted something small and private,” she responded.

  “Jock—” Chance began before his moments-away-father-in-law cut him off.

  “But you wanted us here,” Jock observed, his face gentling.

  “Of course,” Jimi said. She took a peek at Nova and saw excitement seeping into it.

  Jock started toward them. “The MC’ll get over it.”

  When he stopped directly in front of his daughter she grinned. “We’ll party with them later.”

  Suzanne spoke up. “I hope I’ll be invited to that.”

  Everyone laughed as Jimi’s parents enveloped her and her groom in a group hug.

  The wedding was sweet and brought happy tears. To kick off the ceremony, River played and sang Peter, Paul & Mary’s Wedding Song. It was old fashioned and from her own parent’s generation, but Jimi had always loved the song and its sentiment and that’s why she’d chosen it as the only music played during the ceremony. It touched her that River was willing to learn it just for the occasion.

  When it was time for her to place the ring on Chance’s finger, Jimi almost couldn’t concentrate. She was so moved by his beautiful vows and the stunning diamond and citrine eternity wedding band he’d placed on her finger earlier that it took her breath away. She had a hard time getting her own vows said and her hands were shaking as she slid the two-toned silver and black titanium band on his finger.