by Lexi Blake
Jen stifled a smile. “Rachel, he’s not going to hire an assassin. He’s going to jump Max when he least expects it and beat the holy living shit out of him, because that’s what they do.”
Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god. He’s been a pain in the ass lately. He really needs a release. Do it quick.”
“I will,” Stef agreed. “And don’t you protest me, Nell. This is totally consensual. Mostly. I think I need a physical outlet, too, and it can’t be sex. I asked Caleb if he could shave a couple of weeks off that whole six-weeks-without-sex thing and he just told me no.”
Yep, that was Caleb Burke. He had zero bedside manner. And he would be the one to perform her baby’s checkups. Baby Logan would have to get used to his gruff doctor, but then he was a Bliss Boy. Jennifer had made damn sure of it. She’d wanted her baby born here and not in Del Norte or Alamosa, and Caleb Burke had made that happen, so she would put up with his “nos.”
“I think Logan here will keep us busy for a couple of weeks.”
Stef frowned. “Fine, but I’m sleeping with you.”
She couldn’t help but smile. He’d talked about sleeping in the guest room so he wouldn’t disturb her. “I thought you had other plans.”
He turned his Dom eyes on her. “You’ll have to put up with me.”
What had Jack Barnes told her? Sometimes a Dom needed a good poking. Her Dom was back in charge. Well, he thought he was in charge, and that was exactly the way Jen liked it. “I suppose I will.”
“Ladies, I think Jennifer needs some rest,” Stef said.
Callie sighed. “It’s time to get to the wedding anyway. I’ll send your regards.”
“And I’ll be waiting for you to jump Max,” Rachel said. “Do I even want to know what you’re going to do to Rye?”
Stef shook his head.
“All right then.” Rachel and Callie and Nell took one last glance at the baby before saying their good-byes.
And then she was alone with her boys. With her husband and her son. God, she had a son—a tiny piece of her and Stef—someone totally unique in the world. She wanted her boy to have her sense of humor and his dad’s intelligence and talent. She wanted him to have his namesake’s bravery and Stella’s enduring loyalty. She prayed the universe gave her son Rachel’s stubborn will and Callie’s deep tolerance.
And that the world around him would give him such bliss.
“Hey, you’re crying.” Stef’s voice had softened and his hand came out to cup her cheek. “Are you in pain, love?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m just so happy.”
“Scoot over,” he commanded. “And get rid of the blanket. It’s warm enough in here.”
Such a bossy man. She moved slightly, and Stef climbed on the bed and wrapped his arm around her, cuddling her close. The blanket fell away and she lay naked from the waist up. Baby Logan’s body shuddered as he sighed, his eyes opening and his mouth starting to move. She brought her nipple to his mouth and he started to suck. “I thought I was supposed to be modest.”
“Not around me,” Stef said, his eyes going straight to where his son was nursing. “And that is a beautiful sight.”
“Stef, I don’t want you to think of me as just a mom.” She remembered how Callie had worried that her hubbies hadn’t wanted her sexually. She didn’t want to get into the rut they’d been in before one long night in the guesthouse had proven to Callie that she was still a woman.
Stef chuckled and moved against her, pressing himself to her thigh. “Love, does that feel maternal to you?”
Nope. That was an erection. “God, I’m so glad you’re a complete pervert.”
“I’m a pervert who loves his wife. Jennifer, I love you. I love our son. I can’t thank you enough for him.”
“So no more pulling away? You should know that I’ll pull you back.” She had no intention of ever losing her husband.
“I live in fear of it.” Stef touched his mouth to hers in a sweet kiss. “I’ll never leave you. Either of you.”
Logan kicked and started to cry.
“I think he wants his dad.”
“His dad is right here.” Stef gently cradled the baby. “Come on, son. Let’s let your mom get some sleep.”
He took Logan to the rocking chair and unbuttoned his shirt. He cuddled the baby to his chest and started to rock. “Well, Naomi said skin to skin, right? She said it would soothe him. I assume she meant my skin, too.”
Sweet tears pricked at her eyes. “Yes, absolutely.”
Logan settled down again and Stef was watching their son.
Jen laid back and dreamed of their future.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Wedding of Leo, Shelley, and Wolf
Leo pulled at the bow tie of his tux.
“Don’t, son.” Mel was suddenly in his space, standing in front of him. “You have it too tight. Let me.”
Mel knew how to tie a bow tie? He moved his hands away, allowing Mel access.
Mel quickly worked the tie into something that allowed Leo to breathe. He looked at himself in the mirror. It was damn near perfect. “Thanks.”
The older man smiled. He was in a tux, too, but he was also wearing a trucker hat that sported a tinfoil lining. “You’re welcome. Oh, and I took care of the problem with Robert, though I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention it to your momma. I had some help from your boss. I told you that one would make a good hunter.”
“If I ever decided to rid the world of aliens, I could certainly do it,” a low voice said.
Leo felt his eyes widen. He turned and Julian was standing there looking resplendent in his tux. “Is he still alive?”
“Of course,” Julian replied steadily. “I wouldn’t kill anyone right before your wedding. I’ve heard the sheriff around here is quite unreasonable, but Danielle told me not to replace him.”
“Replace Nate?”
“You know, with a more reasonable man. Apparently the town is happy with him. Danielle thinks I should pay the tickets he’s written us, but I told Finn to do whatever it takes.”
Oh, god. “I’ll have Wolf talk to Nate. We’ll get it cleared up. So what did you do to Robert?”
Mel smiled. “Julian talked to him.”
Julian smoothed down his jacket, looking into one of the mirrors and checking his already perfect appearance. “I pointed out a few irrefutable facts of life to Mr. Meyer. It’s highly likely that he will end up in jail again, and despite the fact that he’s always been in minimum security prison, accidents can happen there, too.”
So Julian threatened to have him killed. That wasn’t so surprising. “So you and Mel found him and talked to him?”
A tiny shake of Julian’s head indicated his negative response. “I simply talked to him. Mel gave him a sound thrashing. Apparently he’s quite up on all the alien fighting techniques. He’s quite good in a fight. A mean fucker. I like him.”
Mel tipped his trucker hat. “A man has to stay in shape. I’m going to go see how Wolf and Jamie are doing. I doubt either one of them knows how to tie a bow tie either.”
Mel shut the door behind him, and Julian’s lips curled up in a grin. “This place is completely insane. I have to admit, I’m looking forward to the sanity of Dallas.”
Because Julian controlled his world in Dallas. Julian preferred to control everything, but he’d learned to bend in all the right ways. When Leo had first met Julian, he’d been cold and shut down to everyone except Jack Barnes. Over time, Julian had become more than Leo’s friend. Julian had mentored him, taught him how to blend into high society, gave him a place to stay, a job to do, while he sorted through his life.
Julian Lodge had been a real father to him. And now Julian was standing beside him on his wedding day.
He would never tell Julian that he thought of him as a father. Julian would very likely punch him in the face, or pay someone to do it.
But he suddenly felt an overwhelming need to do something he’d never done before.
He stepped close and put his arms around his mentor.
Julian was perfectly still. “Leo, there’s seems to be something wrong. You’ve fallen and you don’t seem to be getting up.”
“It’s called a hug. Give me a minute.”
Julian sighed, and then there was a pat to Leo’s back. “I’m very proud of you, Leo.”
Fuck. He was not going to cry. He stepped back and took a long breath. “Back at you, man.”
The door opened again and Wolf stepped in. “Hey, brother. I believe it’s time. Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet.”
His feet weren’t cold. They were eager. Eager to begin his new life. Eager to see the whole world again, this time in the right way, with his family by his side.
Leo stepped out and joined his brother on the most important day of their lives.
The day they truly became a family.
* * * *
Wolf felt his heart clench the moment she stepped into the church on her brother’s arm.
This was why people spent god-awful amounts of money on weddings. This was why they waited and went through all the trouble. They did it because there was something deep and meaningful about standing at the end of the aisle and watching the woman he loved walking toward him.
Shelley was choosing them. She was forsaking all others.
And he had his brother beside him. Oh, Jamie was his best man and Julian was Leo’s, but at the end of the day, his brother had become his best friend, his partner. His brother was the one he could count on. They shared a life. They shared a past and a future. No one would ever know him the way Leo did.
The music swelled and Shelley walked toward him, Trev leading her. His ma was in the front row. Sure, there was a beet attached to her hat, but she was smiling serenely, perfectly happy with the proceedings. A tear came to her eye, and Mel slid an arm around her.
Crazy love. Who could ask for more?
“God, she’s beautiful,” Leo said, his eyes on their bride. “Have I thanked you, brother?”
“For what?”
“For bringing me here.” Leo slid a hand to his shoulder, patting him like he had when they were children and Leo had been forced to play all the roles in Wolf’s life. “We wouldn’t be here without you. Shelley would still be searching. I would be alone. You brought us here, brother. Never forget it.”
Shelley made it to them, a smile on her gorgeous face. “Hi.”
Such a silly to thing to say, but “hi” was a beginning. And that’s where they were. The beginning. A whole future lay in front of them and Wolf couldn’t wait for it.
“Hi,” he replied, and took her hand.
“Dearly beloved,” the preacher began.
But Wolf was lost in his bride’s eyes.
* * * *
Lexi
“And now,” the preacher was saying, “Leo and Wolf and Shelley would like to invite their friend Lexi O’Malley up to say a few words about love and marriage.”
The whole congregation seemed to stop and stare, but Lexi was ready for it. She’d worried for days about what she should say, but it had come to her the night before as she lay between her men. In the still of the night, when peace was all around her, she’d known exactly what to say about love and marriage and something equally important.
Lexi smiled as she stood, making her way from the pew to the front of the church and the small podium to the right of the altar.
She stared out at the crowded church, familiar faces everywhere. Aidan and Lucas looked completely delectable in their suits. The fact that each gorgeous man was holding one of their children made them all the sexier in her mind. Jack was climbing up Aidan’s leg, trying to crawl over the pew to get to his grandmother while Daphne was sleeping peacefully in Lucas’s arms.
They were balls of chaos, and she wouldn’t have it any other way—except one. She wanted more babies. She’d told herself she was done, that she needed to focus on her career, but there was a whole life to be had and it wouldn’t wait for her. It wouldn’t put itself on pause and hope that she got back to it. It would move on with her or without her.
She would find a balance because nothing was more important.
A sweet sense of belonging swept over her. It wasn’t merely her immediate family she belonged to.
“I suppose Shelley thought the romance writer would get up here and talk about romance and sexy nights spent with the ones you love. All the things you can count on right before and at the beginning of a marriage. I probably should talk about how weddings symbolize the joy of love, but I think we all know that a wedding is merely the beginning. It’s an acknowledgement that you’ve decided to take the next step, to share a life together. What’s waiting for you, my friends? What’s at the end of this journey you’ve chosen to take together? By saying ‘I do,’ what do you gain? I believe you gain something more than a lover, more than a friend, though both of those things are necessary. What you gain is a family. Look around you. Most of these people aren’t your blood.”
She looked out at her stepfathers who hadn’t raised her, didn’t share an ounce of DNA with her, but they’d been there for her from the moment they’d fallen in love with her mother. They’d become her fathers. “Blood, I’ve discovered, is pretty meaningless in the face of real love. For some of us, our mothers and fathers and siblings are wonderful, but if there’s one thing this group of people have taught me, it’s that we choose who we love. Even when blood relations let us down, we can form our own families and they can be every bit as tight.”
Julian came to mind. He didn’t have to care about her, but he loved Jack and so he’d taken Lexi in as well. He’d taken them all into his heart. It was difficult to believe that once she’d thought he didn’t have one. Julian’s heart was so big, he couldn’t seem to stop bringing people into it. She owed the man so much, and there was nothing between them but the choice to be family.
“So what is waiting for you, my sweet friend Shelley, is a very large family. It’s so big, it covers two states, and you have a home with any of us should the need arise. We promise to annoy you, to bug you, to push you, to love you and stand by you. We promise to choose you. Every day. Marriage, family, life, they’re all hard and require work. Happily ever after is a choice we have to make every day. You think you’re making your choice today, but I challenge you. I challenge every single one of us. Start each day by choosing. Skip the good morning and say something infinitely more important. I do.”
She looked at her husbands, her loves, the joys of her existence. “I do, and I do. Every single day. I choose this life and these loves and I choose my family. Welcome to my family, Shelley.”
Lexi looked over and Shelley was crying. Hell, most of the women in the Feed Store Church were crying.
Shelley looked and mouthed the words “I do.”
Everyone looked out, reaching to their loved ones, reaffirming the choices they made long ago.
Lucas winked at her. “You know I do.”
Aidan put his hand over his heart. Right before he had to save their son from almost certain death as he nearly went over the top of the pew.
“Momma,” Olivia was heard whispering loudly. “I think baby Jack is saying I do to climbing on top of you, but Uncle Aidan says no. Why does my family say no so much? Lexi just told us we should all say I do and I think that means yes.”
The whole church erupted in laughter.
Her family. They were loud and obnoxious and sometimes they completely worked the system so she couldn’t even buy a new cell phone.
And she would choose them. Every time. Every day.
I do.
From the Bliss County Gazette
Hiram Prosper Jones, aged 97, died on Thursday in the loving arms of his part-time caregiver, Bambi Lou, after a heart attack, though it should be noted, he went out with a smile on his face and his teeth in a jar by the…bed. Hiram was a giant in Southern Colorado politics, serving as the mayor of Bliss for more than forty years. He protected his t
own with his policies and his body when he stopped a rampaging bear. He never married but rather spent his love and time on the people. For this reason, he was preceded in death by all those who went before him and he leaves behind every citizen of Bliss. We were his family. Rest in bliss, Mr. Mayor.
Memorial Services will be held at the Feed Store Church starting at 11 a.m. on Monday and followed by a ‘burial” service at the Mountain and Valley Naturist Community. In keeping with Hiram’s wishes, all are welcome.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Funeral of Hiram Jones, Mayor of Bliss
Two days later, Rafe turned his face up, letting the sun shine down on him, warming his skin, reminding him that he was alive and in the company of people he loved.
Of course, most of those people were crying.
“Hiram was a great man,” Rye Harper said. He stood at the head of the party, his role as leader in this mournful act clear. Hiram hadn’t wanted a preacher. He’d wanted a short service led by Rye and Max and he’d wanted a party at Trio. In his will he’d left money for beer. “He had a vision for Bliss. He wanted to make this town something special, something we could all be proud of. Hiram knew what it meant to be from Bliss. It might not always be easy. We might face hardship, but we do it together. He knew that a town is really just another word for family. He was like a dad to us all and his passing leaves a mighty big hole to fill.”
Yes, he had big boots to fill. Enormous ones. He’d been named the mayor of Bliss days before. He’d stood in town hall and sworn to protect this town and to fulfill his office to the best of his abilities.
He knew how important the role was now. And he could spend a lifetime trying to live up to his predecessor. The good news was, he had a lifetime.
He looked around the cliff-top gathering spot at the highest point of the Mountain and Valley Naturist Community. The entire town had turned out for the celebration of Hiram Jones’s long life. They all stood, huddled together. Callie and Nate both held a baby while Zane had his arms around Callie. Jen was leaning on Stef while Stella cuddled her grandbaby and Sebastian stood close. Holly had a hand on both her men. Caleb had been pulled into their conspiracy and Alexei had gotten sniffly and talked in Russian. Gemma and Jesse and Cade stood beside Long-Haired Roger, Liz Two, and their weird baby dog. The funeral seemed to have brought about a truce between longtime rivals as Polly stood near Long-Haired Roger and not once did she attempt to kill him. Even Roger, Liz One, and their whole brood had turned up, though they were carrying shotguns in case the apocalypse happened. Marie and Teeny stood with Seth and Logan and Georgia.
