“Love you too, baby. Now, let’s get packed so we can get home and get you some new clothes. I think it’s cute that I can see your pink panties since you can’t button or zip your jeans, but love, I don’t want every other fucker in the world seeing that shit.” I rolled my eyes at Evan and finished packing. Truth be told, I was just as excited to be going home with him, as I was nervous about it. This was the start of a whole new life for me. A new family. That meant everything to me since it had just been Dave and me for so long.
~ Evan ~
I couldn’t wait to get Chelle home. I’d had a long talk with David about what he thought Chelle might want as far as the house was concerned since she would always tell me some variation of ‘I just want to be happy’ instead of telling me what her dream house looked like.
“Her dream house isn’t a place, man. It’s family. She wants a place full of family one day. That’s the only dream she really has for herself, and she won’t admit that freely. Make it warm and cozy, earthy colors, and try to have everyone over once a week or something. She’s going to miss how close everyone was on tour.”
“That won’t be a problem. I’ll talk to my band, and you talk to yours. We’ll make it a regular thing. Everyone can show up for Sunday brunch, Taco Tuesday, whatever floats everyone’s boat.”
David smiled at me then. “I’m glad she didn’t listen to me.”
“Me too, asshole,” I told him right before I playfully punched him in the gut forever warning his sister away from me.
The flight home was uneventful unless you count the 252 times Chelle had to get up to pee. It wasn’t really that many, but it felt like it. Eventually, I had to switch seats with her so that she was on the aisle and didn’t have to keep climbing over me or asking me to move my outstretched legs. Not that I minded her straddling me, but it probably wasn’t the best idea when she had to pee.
When we got to LAX we said our goodbyes to everyone, including her brother who told us he had plans of his own, and Chelle and I got into the car I had ordered to take us home. It took another 45 minutes to get there thanks to traffic but when we pulled up, Chelle’s eyes were twice their normal size as she took it all in. I lived in a three-story wood and stone home that seemed out of place in the Hollywood Hills, but that suited my taste just fine. It was modeled after a mountain cabin I’d stayed in while performing in Colorado one year. The ground floor had a living room, dining area, a kitchen made for a chef, bathroom, and a guest suite. It also had a sunroom that looked out over and opened up to the swimming pool in the backyard. I had a crew in while I was gone to install a gate around the pool until the kids were older. Yeah, I was probably getting a little ahead of myself, but I didn’t care. It was worth it when I saw her reaction.
“That wasn’t always there, was it?” She asked when she took in the baby gate. I just shook my head as she turned and hugged me tightly. “You’re already the best dad ever and he’s not even here yet.”
“He?” I questioned because up until now she had refused to call the baby either he or she.
“I don’t think you’re wrong,” she admitted. “Besides, I can’t wait to have a little you running around. He’s going to be so damn cute!”
“You better hope he’s nothing like me. I was hell on wheels for my parents. They couldn’t keep up.”
She giggled. “I think we’ll manage.” Then she laughed again. “If not, we’ll call David over. Uncle David time will be priceless.”
“Oh, we’ll definitely have David babysit so we can have our priceless time together, baby.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her suggestively and her infectious laughter lit up the whole damn house making it finally feel like a home after all the years I had lived in it. I’d been too stupid to realize just how empty it had felt before her.
Five days later on Sunday we had our very first Sunday dinner with both bands attending, and the smile that stayed on my woman’s face all week was the best thing I’d ever seen. The second best was the fact that we were all together while not on tour. It was something we had always said we were going to do, but never got around to. It took Chelle to get us all together and make it happen.
I had thought about proposing to her while everyone was there for Sunday dinner, but every time I got ready to pull the ring out of my pocket someone would do something stupid, or say something ridiculous and the mood would be ruined. I had never in my life felt so anxious about doing something before and it was starting to wear on me that I hadn’t been able to just man up and find a way to ask her that she would remember for a lifetime. I needed her to remember the story for a lifetime because I didn’t plan on every letting her go. She was my lifeline now. She was my person, my everything, my love. I couldn’t do this the wrong way.
I watched her sleep that night. Her hair fell over her face in places working with the shadows in the room to hide the freckles that had become more prominent on her cheeks since she had been spending so much time outside by the pool lately. My heart squeezed in my chest as I thought about just putting the ring on her finger as she slept and having her wake to find it, but then I decided against that, because it seemed a cowardly way to go about it. I needed to be able to tell her exactly how I felt. I drifted off to my own thoughts and frustrations on a refrain in my head.
Chapter 18
~ Evan ~
The guys had been giving me shit all week about the fact that I had my baby mamma living with me, but I wasn’t really ready to commit. Mags had been throwing the evil eye my way every time they did. That was when I’d had it. I yanked the ring out of my pocket that had burning a hole there for the past couple weeks since we got back. I’d just been waiting on the perfect time to pop the question.
“If you already have the ring what are you waiting for?”
“Well, Mags, I was thinking that for once I’d use my head and plan out something romantic for her. She deserves all the best things in life and I don’t just want to blabber on like an idiot in my living room about how I can’t live without her.”
“Aww, I think that’s perfect, actually, but if you want I can help you plan something?”
“That would be great,” I told her and once we were done laying down in Jer’s studio for the day, Mags and I sat out on his deck and brainstormed some ideas for proposals that wouldn’t be over-the-top enough to embarrass Chelle, but would certainly be memorable for her. Reservations were made, a dress was picked out for her - by Mags - and I knew exactly what I was going to wear. I had the flowers ordered before I left Jer’s house. One week from today I would be proposing to my woman. I planned to make her Mrs. Michelle Mercer before the year was out, and hopefully before our son was born. I wanted us all to start out his life together with the same name, under the same roof. I thought it would be pretty important to Chelle too, considering how badly she wanted a whole family unit.
I got home feeling high as a kite on the plans Mags had helped me make for proposing to Chelle. I wasn’t sure how I was going to contain my excitement and finally decided I’d just tell her that the new music we were working on had me on an adrenaline rush. It was going to be a kick ass album so it wasn’t really a lie.
When I walked in the house it was far too quiet. Chelle liked noise. She often told me the house was too big when she was here by herself, and most of the time she either stayed outside by the pool or she hung out in our room because it seemed less empty. I was beginning to understand what her brother meant by making sure she had a full house. Chelle did just fine on her own, but she thrived when she was surrounded by people to love and care for.
I found her on the couch in the living room, obviously having crashed for a nap there. She looked so goddamn beautiful lying there. Her cheeks were stained a rosy color, probably from the sun she had gotten today. She seemed so at peace and there was a slight smile playing at the corner of her lips. Her chest rising and falling with her breaths caught my attention only because she was wearing a tank top that was like a second skin and her overabundant cleavage was spilling
out over the top making me wish I could just dive right in. I glanced down further and there was the beautiful protrusion of her belly from underneath the tank top where our son was growing. I didn’t want to just dive right in anymore. I wanted to fall at my knees and worship this woman. I leaned in and placed a gentle kiss there on the swell only to feel her hand slide through the lengthening strands of my hair.
When I glanced up into her eyes and saw all that love shining back at me that I knew must have been present in my own I couldn’t help the words that blurted from my mouth.
~ Chelle ~
“We should get married,” he blurted out before glancing back up from my belly to my eyes. “We could be in Vegas in five hours.” I was stunned speechless, mouth agape as what he was saying really sank in. Holy crap. “I know we’re still early days, but my grandparents knew each other a week before they got hitched. They were together until grams died two years ago. If you ask my granddad, they’re still together. We can make it work and I want that for our baby too. I want him coming into this world knowing his mom and dad made vows to one another and comforted in the fact that those vows blanket him in the same promises.”
“Yes,” I whispered, because how the hell could any sane woman say no to that?
“Yes?” He questioned as if he hadn’t actually heard me right.
“Yes,” I reiterated for him.
“Fuck yeah! Let’s do this!” Evan reached for my hands and plucked me from the couch and with a smack on my ass he shouted his directions. “Go pack a bag, love. I’ll call the guys. We’re going to need witnesses.”
“First, call my brother to ask for my hand, and then for him to be there,” I teased.
“Already asked him for your hand, love.” Evan had called those words back to me, stunning me yet again.
“You did what? When?”
“I asked him the day we found out you were pregnant.”
“Did he give his blessing?” Honestly, it didn’t matter at this point, but I was curious as to what David had to say.
Evan winced slightly. “Yeah, but come to think of it he did warn me that I better not run off to Vegas and marry you, because he planned on walking you down the aisle when you got hitched.”
“You definitely better make that phone call to David first then.” I ran up to our room giddy as hell. I couldn’t believe Evan had just proposed to me.
Four and a half hours later we were in Vegas and standing in the penthouse suite of the Bellagio with all of our friends and family. The thing that stood out most was that the upholstery on the chairs matched the intense green of Evan’s eyes. It seemed like a weird thing to be thinking amidst the cacophony of sound created when you got two bands together and then Evan’s siblings as well. Neither of his parents had been invited since his dad still believed the worst of his children and his mother had been the one to cause the rift.
“Okay, ladies, lets go get Chelle ready for her wedding,” Everly chimed in on the chaos as she grabbed my hand. “You need a dress, and…” she hesitated a moment. “Wait, where exactly are you getting married?”
I knew immediately and I moved over to Evan and whispered the answer to that question in his ear. He just laughed and asked if I was serious. “As a heart attack. Do you think you can make that happen?”
“I will do whatever it takes, baby.”
“Wait,” my brother chimed in. “First of all I don’t even want spoilers just tell me where to go when the time comes and I’ll be there, but there’s something missing here.” Everyone glanced around the room curiously looking for whatever was missing and coming up blank. “Let’s see it,” he stated evenly.
“See what?” I asked.
“Oh my God, I didn’t even think of that!” Evan’s sister shouted and then came over to me jumping up and down on the balls of her feet while grabbing at my hand. Then just as suddenly she stopped and turned a glare on her brother. “What the hell, Evan?”
He stepped back and just stared wide-eyed at his sister as she placed a hand on her hip and held the other one -still holding onto my own - up in the air. “How the hell do you manage to propose to your child’s mom and you don’t even get her a ring?”
My face turned as red as Evan’s turned white. I was embarrassed because I hadn’t even thought about a ring, or lack of one, but now that it was pointed out in front of all of our friends my anxiety kicked in. Evan reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box though. “I completely screwed up my own proposal,” he told me shaking his head back and forth in disbelief. “I had this plan. Mags helped me with it. There were reservations, flowers, even a dress for you to wear.” I grinned at him, because it sounded like he put in a lot of planning only to come home to me on an ordinary day and blurt out that he wanted to marry me.
I placed my hand up on his cheek to cradle it there. “I don’t think you could have done any better. It was perfect.”
“Except I forgot this in all the excitement when you agreed to marry me.” He got down on one knee there in front of everyone and pulled the ring out of the box. “I know you already said yes, and that’s why we’re all here, but…” he shrugged sheepishly as he took my hand in his and started placing the ring on my finger. “Chelle, you’re almost perfect for me. You’re just missing one thing,” he grinned up at me as he said this and I gave him the evil eye that I’d been perfecting.
“What’s that?”
“My last name, baby!”
Chapter 19
~ Evan ~
“Of all the wedding themes available in this town, she picked this one?” Jeremiah’s awed expression mirrored my own. My woman had surprised me yet again. We stood on a pirate ship as I was waiting to be wed to the mother of my unborn baby. David walked her toward me as all of our friends got in on the festivities after having raided the gift shop for pirate gear and clothing. They looked ridiculous, and yet my heart still soared at seeing them throwing themselves into this event like it was the most important day ever. And it was. It was definitely my most important day to date.
Then there was Chelle sauntering to me while wearing an ear to ear grin and a gorgeous white, understated satin slip of a dress with a black, white, and red sash tied low around her expanding waist to cradle her belly and our baby growing within. Then there was the fucking eye patch over her eye that read, “I do”. I just laughed. My woman would never cease to surprise me in all the best of ways. I chuckled as David shook his head, grinning like a fool at his sister’s antics, as he brought her the rest of the way to me. He placed her hand in mine, and it was the only sign of the nerves that were eating at my baby. Her hand shook enough for me to notice even though no one else would ever know. “Be good to her, man,” David ordered while looking me in the eye. Then he stepped back and my attention was fully on my heart. It wasn’t on the one beating frantically in my chest. It was on the one that really mattered. The one that stood in front of me looking so goddamn beautiful it hurt even while she managed to lighten the moment with that silly-ass eye patch. I moved forward and removed the patch.
“But,” she started to say.
I just shook my head. “You won’t need to remember that line in a minute, and I definitely don’t need any cues.” I turned then to the gnarly pirate captain that stood just to the left of us on the bow of the ship. “Let’s do this,” I ordered and he grinned an overly white toothy grin for a pirate and started the ceremony with a mighty bellow of, “Yo! Ho!” Our friends and family immediately echoed it.
“We be gathered here to bare witness to the joining of these two souls as one…” Those were really the only words I needed to hear, because they spoke to me in a way nothing else ever would. She was mine, I was hers, and nothing was going to change that.
~ Chelle ~
I couldn’t believe he agreed to this crazy idea of a wedding, then again, he’d proposed to me while I was taking a nap on the couch. I supposed he couldn’t argue with me now, especially after he got so excited he forgot to give me my
engagement ring. I laughed as my brother walked me down the aisle. My man does silly things like that, but then he makes up for his little shortcomings by giving me whatever I want. I don’t ever ask for much, because honestly he’s already given me my dream. We have Sunday dinners with our band families and we have a baby on the way. That’s it. That’s all I want. I craved a simple life in the midst of the chaos that being with a rock star brings into the mix.
“We be gathered here to bare witness to the joining of these two souls as one…” The withered sounding voice of the grizzled pirate who was marrying us called out and in that moment I swear I saw a promise in Evan’s eyes. I whispered, “I love you,” to him and he smiled so brightly I thought my heart might burst from the sheer joy that flowed through it. I couldn’t tell you what our pirate captain said our vows should be. I remember saying “Argh,” instead of “I do,” which had everyone laughing again. I remember Evan repeating the “Argh,” and grinning like an idiot at me as he did. Then I remember him walking me to the plank where we posed as if he were about to throw me overboard, and earned ourselves the absolute best wedding photo ever. It would definitely find a spot on our wall once we got back home. We took a bunch more pictures of everyone all dressed up. It didn’t take long before Evan moved in to sweep me off my feet once again.
“It’s time to get my wench back to the hotel, we have some consummating to do,” he announced.
I shook my head as I heard my brother groan and then Micah consoling him. “Don’t worry big brother, from the looks of things, I’m pretty sure she’s not a virgin anymore anyway.” That comment was accompanied by a splash which the photographer we had along with us, thankfully, managed to get a shot of. That picture would one day join our wedding photo on the walls of our home. The ones I planned to fill with a million more photos of my growing family.
The Infinite Beat (T.I.E. Book 2) Page 15
