“Sure¾in books and movies¾which I love. But in real life, you need a little more science and a check list.”
His frustration mounted as he struggled to keep up with the conversation. “What’s so scientific about the stars being aligned?”
“I don’t know. My psychic can explain things a little better than I can.”
“I know what you’re thinking.” Joey smiled. “I’m not crazy. Well, maybe crazy in love.” She giggled.
Ryan rolled his eyes.
“Look, love is worth fighting for and that’s all I’m doing.”
Ryan chuckled under his breath at life’s irony. He’d made fun of her desperation and now he was hoping his own would save him.
#
A hundred and fifty family and friends gathered inside San Jose’s Fairmont hotel to witness the marriage of yet another Adams. The colors were red for passion and pink for beauty. Nearly everyone buzzed with excitement and surprise.
Everyone except the immediate family.
Invitations went out one week and the wedding was set seven days later. The rumor mill spun madly with suspicions of pregnancy--so everyone waited with heightened anticipation for the first glimpse of the bride’s belly.
A hurried wedding planner sprinted down the aisle and signaled everyone to take their seats. A moment later the wedding march cued up and the first set of bridesmaids and groom men paced down the narrow aisle.
Genuine and plastic smiles blended and hung from the lips of everyone in attendance, but there was no mistaking the subtle gasp that rippled through the crowd when the bride stepped into view. Though a glorious vision in white, all eyes were drawn like magnets to the unmistakable second-trimester belly of the bride.
Chapter 28
Ryan was certain that if he didn’t make it in time to stop the wedding, he was either going to have a stroke or a heart attack. Damn Laurence Benson, damn Zachery and damn La Bella Vida. He should have chased after Joey when she left Milan. He should have dropped to his knees and declared his love or have done anything to win her back. Anything was better than nothing.
He took a right onto South Market Street, and the Fairmont Hotel filled his vision. “Please don’t let it be too late. Please don’t let me be too late.”
Tires peeled and squealed as he whipped into the parking lot. His heart still racked his chest as he leaped out of his car and raced into the large, spacious hotel with his feeble prayer still on his lips. “Please don’t let it be too late.”
#
Heart hammering, Joey glanced over at the groom and gave him a shaky smile. She could hardly believe this day had arrived, and couldn’t believe further still that they were going to go through with it. She turned her head slightly and caught her sisters’ wide, beaming smiles and knew that they were thinking the same thing.
Her heart skipped and suddenly her train of thoughts skipped the tracks. This was a mistake. Everything was happening too fast. When she realized that the groom was speaking, she cleared her head and tried to concentrate on what was being said.
“I love you,” he said with twinkling eyes. “Today is a very special. Long ago you were just a dream and a prayer. And this day us like a dream come true. For today, you as my joy become my crown.”
Joey smiled and allowed a small tear to streak down her cheek.
“Thank you for being what you are to me,” the groom continued. “With our future as bright as the sun, I will care for you, honor and protect you. I will lay down my life for you, my friend and my love. Today, I give to you…me.”
More tears raced down Joey’s face while a lump wedged its way into her throat.
All eyes locked onto the bride, and just as her painted red lips opened to speak her vows, the doors to the ceremony crashed open.
“Stop the wedding!”
A percussion of gasps rippled trough the room.
Joey’s head whipped around at the familiar voice while her eyes grew as wide as silver dollars. “What on earth?” she whispered.
“I’m in love with this woman,” Ryan declared to the stunned crowd. “And I believe that she’s in love with me, too.” Ryan strained to see Joey’s face hidden behind the white veil as he strolled down the aisle. But his eyes strayed and landed on Joey’s very pregnant belly. Hope and dread pulsed through his body. Was he the father? Would she allow him to love the child even if he wasn’t? No one else and nothing else mattered to him.
“I’m miserable without you,” he admitted. “I can’t sleep, think or eat. You’re all I want and need. You don’t love him.” Ryan shook his head, hoping to convince her. “I know we only knew each other for a brief moment, but in that moment, you’ve changed my life.”
Joey couldn’t breathe, and her tears nearly rendered her blind.
“I want you beside me--every day for the rest of my life. I want to wake up to your smile and fall asleep listening to your breathing. I want you to have those eight children with at least one girl with your smile.” Ryan’s own tears pooled behind a dam and threatened to overflow and spill down his face. “Tell me I haven’t lost you. Tell me that it’s not too late.”
Slowly the bride lifted her veil and met Ryan’s stunned gaze. “But…I don’t even know you.”
Ryan blinked and blinked again. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his eyes to reconstruct the beautiful woman’s face to look like Joey.
“Ryan,” Joey hissed from behind the bride.
His eyes shifted and immediately recognized the bridesmaid as Joey.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed again.
“What?”
“Did I miss something?” the groom, an older gentleman with Joey’s eyes, question, and glanced between his bride and Ryan. “Who is this guy?”
“Sorry, Dad,” Joey apologized. She stepped around the bride and grabbed Ryan by the arm. “I think he’s here for me.” She tugged Ryan as she rushed up the aisle, her face scorched with embarrassment. To add to her humiliation, Ryan started laughing in her wake.
“Do you know what you just did?” Joey barked, rounding on him after the doors slammed behind their departure and they stood alone in the reception room. “My family is never going to let me live this down.”
With her eyes lit with anger and her body coiled tight for an attack, Ryan snatched her up against him and smothered her fire with a long kiss. In it he poured everything he had into her: his hopes, his dreams and his passion.
In no time at all, her body went limp and her mouth grew as hungry as his own. Her long slender arms twined around his neck and pulled him closer.
She tasted better, smelled sweeter and felt softer than he remembered. He squeezed her tight, and vowed to never let her go.
But time slipped away from them, and before either of them had a chance to think, the doors slammed open again and another train, formerly known as the wedding party, crashed into the smooching couple.
Ryan didn’t know what was happening. All he could see was the bride’s big belly, plus someone was crushing his legs. “Get off,” he croaked. “Get off.
A minute later, though it felt much longer, the pressure on his spinal cord loosened and the sound of laughter jingled in his ears. By the time he was pried up off the floor, laughter chorused through the reception room.
The bride and groom waved to the crowd to show that they were all right and then mingled with their guests while their laughter and merriment continued.
Ryan would have joined in if two mountains, one with Joey’s eyes, hadn’t hauled him up and held him suspended in the air.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” the first mountain said.
“Linc, Flex, put him down.” Joey dusted off her dress.
“He nearly ruined Dad’s wedding,” Flex complained, his grip tightening on Ryan’s arm.
Easy intimidation wasn’t normally in Ryan’s repertoire, but he had a sinking suspicion the two men could actually do some damage to him if given the green light.
“Let him go. I love him,” Joey admitted.
Ryan blinked in surprised, and judging by Joey’s expression, she was equally surprised by her words.
A small ring of people closed in on them.
“Did we hear you right?” A bevy of beauties, all with Joey’s eyes, nose and voluptuous lips inquired in unison.
Ryan’s gaze locked with Joey’s; his heartbeat somehow seemed suspended in time.
Joey lifted her chin, whether in defiance or feigned bravado, he wasn’t sure. “Well, I guess that sort of depends.”
“On?” Ryan along with the circle of women and two mountains inquired simultaneously.
“On whether or not I’m just another head game…or whether he just want me because I’m something he doesn’t have…or he thinks buying my screenplay for some outrageous price is going to win me over…or whether he really, truly wants eight children.”
“Oh, dear Lord, she’s been hanging around Sheldon too long,” Michael said with a roll of her eyes.
“You’re not a game to me,” Ryan confessed, his heart warming with a ray of hope. “And of course I want you. I wanted you from the first time I saw you crawl into the men’s bathroom.”
“Do what?” the small circle thundered.
Ryan ignored them. “I’ll always want you--whether you wear my ring or not. And truth of the matter is I’ve been trying to get your screenplay green-lighted for six years. I had no idea your real name was Joseph until you wrote me that letter in Milan. And I want as many children as you’ll give me.”
The mountains set him down.
Everyone’s eyes shifted to Joey with anxious anticipation.
“Well, well,” Marlin said, shouldering his way into the circle, his smile wide and his eyes dancing with amusement. “Has this young man won my daughter’s hand yet or is he going to make another try at my new wife?”
Joey’s chin lifted another notch. “I don’t know. It depends on if he brought a ring.”
Ryan reached into his pocket. “You’re in luck. I brought two.”
The women gasped.
“You can either have your original ring--” he pried open one velvet box “--or you can have this one.” He opened a second box and revealed an antique silver band with small diamonds baguettes. “It was my grandmother’s. Once upon a time she was the most important woman in my life. She sheltered me from a lot of storms between my father and mother. I know that she would want you to have it.”
Fat tears welled up and rolled don Joey’s face. “It’s beautiful.”
Encouraged, Ryan lowered onto one knee. “Joseph Henry Adams, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
“Yes,” she answered quickly and raced to him.
“It looks like there’s going to be another wedding!” Marlin shouted. He turned and motioned his new bride into the family fold. She went to him gladly as the entire wedding party erupted in good cheer.
Joey and Ryan sealed their love with a kiss. Each knew that they had finally found what they’d been looking for all their lives.
“By the way,” Joey said, “I’ll take the two million for the screenplay.”
Ryan burst laughing. “You got yourself a deal.”
Author’s Note
Hmmm. Interesting. It looks like fickle Joey finally found her soul mate. Even Dad id jumping back into the love business….with another Adams in the oven. Do you think it will be another girl? It even looks like there’s hope for Flex and Ronald. At least, I hope so. A hundred and thirteen blind dates. Yikes!! But what about Michael and Frankie? Both seem a little disillusioned by love. However, if you ask me, there are a few surprises just around the corner in Michael’s book Controversy.
Table of Contents
3e1faa6ba13e48f1931264b60a848349
When You Were Mine (Adams Sisters) Page 18
