by Jennifer Ann
Dressed in a pair of his sweat pants rolled several times at the waist and my bra beneath a raglan T-shirt with the Foo Fighters logo, I towel dry my hair before following the trill of voices. I almost turn around when I discover Charlie scowling in the middle of the room, fist clenched at his side, face the color of a tomato.
“Evelyn!” Katie cries, wiping at her face. She flies off the couch and comes at me for one of her overpowering hugs, almost knocking me over. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I swear to God I had a heart attack when Charlie told us what happened! Holy shit, girl, you’re so brave! I probably would’ve curled up in a ball and cried like a baby if someone had held a gun to my head like that! You both have been through so much!”
Did Charlie tell her about Danny? Before the police arrived, he made the decision to keep his ugly secrets between us and the dead. I told the police that Gwen admitted she had a thing for Danny and killed him when he rejected her, then threw his body in the river. The investigator Charlie hired had information that would corroborate that story. I said Gwen was mad that Charlie wouldn’t sleep with her and told me if she couldn’t have him, then I couldn’t either. That part of it would go along with Sharlo’s statement.
When I catch Charlie’s livid gaze, I realize there’s something else going on. If he had told her the truth, what reason would he have to be angry?
“Evelyn,” a woman’s voice calls out. “I’ve been dying to meet you.”
I glance over Katie’s shoulder and meet the gaze of a beautiful older woman in a wheelchair. Dark hair flecked with gray, breath-taking icy blue eyes, and a charming smile make it undeniable that she’s Charlie’s mom. I had seen some kind of mechanical arm by the pool at the beach house, but until now it didn’t click into place what it could’ve been.
Charlie clears his throat. “Freck—ah, I mean, Evelyn, this is my mother, Ashleigh.”
With a bright smile, the woman rolls her hand through the air, motioning for me to come to her. “Don’t be intimidated by the chair. I don’t bite. Even if I did, MS isn’t contagious.”
All at once I understand why Charlie would be so hell-bent on keeping his dad’s secret, why he was so worried about breaking his mom’s heart. She’s already been through enough. With a polite giggle, I move over to her, bending for a hug. She’s noticeably thin and frail, barely capable of bringing her arms around me.
Her lips press to my cheek and she whispers, “You’re every bit as beautiful as my boy told me. I’m so glad he found you.”
“I’m happy I finally get to meet the woman who raised him,” I answer before standing tall. When I glance back at Katie and Charlie who both still appear tense, I’m reminded that I walked in on something. My eyes flicker over Charlie’s rigid body. At least it’s easy to read him when he’s pissed.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” I say.
Katie releases a long sigh. “You didn’t. I came over here to apologize to you and Charlie.”
“You’re not the one who should be apologizing,” Charlie tells her with a snarl.
Rolling my eyes, I close the distance between me and Charlie, wrapping my fingers with his free hand. The moment I lean up against his puffed out chest, he begins to soften. “Okay, what’s going on?” I ask.
Tears glistening in her eyes, Katie reaches out to take my other hand. Her lips waver with a sad smile. “Connor, that little son of a bitch, is the one who gave the press the address of the beach house. He said he wanted to get back at Charlie for a fight they had the other day.”
“That little shit needs to learn a lesson,” Charlie says through clenched teeth. “I shouldn’t have grabbed him like that when I was pissed off, but it doesn’t excuse what he did.”
“I’d bend him over my knee if I could,” Ashleigh agrees.
“He’s not going to get off easy, I promise,” Katie tells us with small shakes of her head. A fresh set of tears spill down her cheeks and she breaks out in a wail. “I’m so, so sorry, Evelyn! I was so damn happy when my little brother found someone like you and then my spoiled rotten kid goes and ruins everything by telling those damn paparazzi and almost breaking the two of you up! I just wanted you to have your happily ever after with a big, beautiful wedding so you could make gorgeous nieces and nephews for me to play with and now all of that is ruined because I raised a couple of little assholes!”
Trying not to giggle, I drop Charlie’s hand to pull Katie into my arms. “You and Connor didn’t ruin anything. Me and your brother are still going to have our happily ever after. I promise!”
When I glance up at Charlie, his lips are pressed together, fighting against a bright smile. There’s no hiding the sheer bliss lighting his icy blue eyes, the kind he can probably see reflected in mine. There’s no doubt in my mind that one day we’ll have that big, beautiful wedding and go on to make gorgeous babies. I only hope we have ample time to practice making them first.
Epilogue
FOUR MONTHS LATER
CHARLIE
“Gotta hand it to you, brother,” Lorenzo says, holding his bottle of beer up before taking a swig. He leans back in the white folding chair, shaking his head as he stares off into the crowd talking and dancing in front of us. “Wherever you go, beautiful pussy follows en masse. You wouldn’t even have needed your newest single to go gold. Your wife has the hottest friends! And dude! Don’t even get me started on those two sisters! You found the gene pool of goddesses!”
Twisting my platinum wedding band around my ring finger, I shoot him a deadly glare. “Don’t even think about it, Lo. They’re off limits. I don’t need you starting any shit between me and Evelyn when we’ve been married all of two hours.”
Corey and Taz join us with drinks in hand, each wearing suit coats and fucking ties—something I never thought I’d see on either of their scrawny asses until Danny’s memorial service. They first took the news of our bandmate’s death pretty hard. Taz even showed up at the cemetery with a bottle of tequila in hand. But ever since I promised them that we’d keep the band going in Danny’s honor and find a replacement drummer as soon as I get back from my upcoming solo tour, they’ve both started to come back around to their punk-ass selves.
“You know how to throw a party, Charlie Boy,” Taz says, clapping my shoulder and laughing in his low, gravelly voice. “Still don’t know how you pulled it off without the press getting word. Haven’t seen a chopper or drone all day.”
“Are you kidding?” Lorenzo says, eyes wide. “You do understand this place is owned by a music legend, right? Jay probably paid the country’s top fighter pilots to patrol the area and keep that shit locked down. The dude is made of money. There’s no limit to what he can do.”
“That’ll be us one day,” Corey declares, draping his arm over Taz’s shoulder. “Between sold-out tours we’ll be sailing a three story yacht through Greece, filled with champagne and beautiful, topless women. Meanwhile pretty boy over here will be on holiday at fucking Disneyland with his wife and rugrats in tow.”
“Cheers to that,” I concede, swiping my whiskey off the nearby table and clinking glasses with each of the guys. They laugh like they don’t think I’m serious. Now that Evelyn has my name, I want her to have my baby. ASAP.
With the sound of Sharlo’s high cackle, I turn to look across the room. In dresses with their hair and makeup primed, a group of women—most which seem to be Evelyn’s friends along with my sister—stand beside a wall of floor to ceiling glass that give the most outrageous view of Lake Tahoe’s rocky shoreline, pristine water, and the snow-capped mountains off in the distance. It’s the sickest landscape I’ve ever seen, though it still doesn’t hold a candle to my gorgeous bride who stands in the center of the women, right where she belongs.
She was adamant about not seeing each other before the ceremony, making it ten times harder to contain my arousal when I first laid eyes on her walking down the aisle. The light reflected in her huge brown eyes, making her literally glow when she started toward me. The curls in her
brown hair bounced around her face with every step and the dramatic makeup made her eyes appear even bigger while highlighting the sweet freckles on her pink cheeks.
Then my gaze traveled downward and I growled loud enough that the justice of the peace and Lorenzo both snickered. The white, satiny dress she chose clings to every last one of her delightful curves, dipping low between her breasts and showing off her tight ass. I was excited enough by the sight of her freckled shoulders, then she spun around during the ceremony and my jaw dropped. Like the little black dress she wore at the beach house, her wedding dress also dips down low to the skin just above her ass crack. And if that wasn’t enough, on the way to our car, I set my hand on her lower back and noticed something black beside my finger.
With a sexy blush, Evelyn quickly explained how the day before Sharlo and the little blonde from Leona’s had taken her to a tattoo parlor where she had my name inked in script on the right side of her lower back as my wedding present. I was instantly hard as a rock, knowing her first tattoo would forever brand her body with my name. It’s a good thing we had a limo and not a private car, because I wasn’t able to keep my hands to myself on the fifteen-minute drive from the private clubhouse back to Jay’s.
As if able to sense that I’m staring at her while reliving our erotic ride, Evelyn’s head turns and she meets my gaze with the same kind of heated look she gave me when I was making her come a short time ago. Her glossy lips bend with the world’s sexiest smile and I groan. That shit will never get old, knowing she’s mine.
A set of fingers snap an inch in front of my face. “Dude, you two need to get a room,” Lorenzo taunts as Corey and Taz snicker. “Want me to clear this place out so you can start your honeymoon early?”
I don’t have a chance to take him up on his offer before I catch one of my new twin brothers-in-law strolling our way. I’ve only met him one other time before this weekend when we visited her family over Thanksgiving, but James is definitely overly protective of his little sister like she claimed. He’s a massive dude, the kind I would probably lose my ass to in the ring. All of Evelyn’s brothers are built from good ol’ fashioned hard work on the farm, each of them having arms the size of my thighs. He’s intimidating as fuck.
Lorenzo leans in to whisper, “Oh shit. Here comes The Hulk.”
James tips his chin at us, eyes blazing with intensity. “Helluva party, Walker.”
“I’ll get another round of drinks,” Lorenzo blurts, darting off like a coward. Corey and Taz are right behind him, leaving me alone with James.
The mammoth man takes Lorenzo’s seat and glances Evelyn’s way. “I still have no idea how this all went down between you two in such a short time, but I’ve never seen my little sister this happy.” His gaze swings back over to me, narrowed and dangerous. “Don’t fuck it up.”
Swallowing down a spike of fear, I wonder how long it’s been since someone made me think I was about to shit myself. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” I manage to say.
Pausing to take a swig of his beer, he studies me for a moment. “Ev told me you’re a fighter.”
“I spar a little. Keeps me in shape and helps with stamina when I’m touring on the road.” I gulp down the rest of my whiskey, praying Lorenzo will hurry back with the next one. Meeting Evelyn’s easy-going dad was a walk in the park compared to this. At least her dad commended me on my success and let me know he thought I was good for his daughter. It was more than I had hoped for.
“I’m a brawler myself,” James tells me. “Me and a small group of guys like to get together a few times every month for an informal kind of thing. Just wish I had access to a decent trainer. Nearest one I can find lives a good two hours away.”
Well, shit. Maybe there’s something we have in common after all. “You should come out to stay with me and Evelyn sometime. I work with Manny Gibbs at a ring up in Queens. I’m sure he could show you a few pointers.”
His dark eyes grow wide and, for the first time, I see him smile. “No shit? You been training with Manny long?”
I spot my bride moving across the floor toward us like something right out of one of my wildest fantasies, the bottom of her dress flowing around her legs and her beautiful face lit with a smile. How did I manage to become the lucky son-of-a-bitch she gave her heart and smoking-hot body to?
“Hello there, Mrs. Walker,” I say, opening my arms to her.
“Hello, Mr. Walker.” She effortlessly slips onto my lap, surrounding me in her delicious scent and making my cock spring to life. When her smooth arms loop around my neck and she presses her soft lips to my jaw, I shift her further back in my lap to hid my arousal before her brother shows me what exactly he’s made of.
“What are you two talking about?” she asks, eyes narrowed on James.
“Guy stuff,” James grunts in response. As if something across the room caught his attention, he stands without looking our way. “Catch you two later.”
Evelyn nuzzles my neck, giggling. “That must’ve been fun for you.”
Wrapping my arms tightly around her, I press a kiss on her bare shoulder. “My idea of fun involves taking my bride up to our room and ripping this sexy dress off so I can make love to her all night long.”
She shivers in my arms and presses her left hand to my chest, making the 3 carats on her wedding set catch the light. Her face becomes peppered with rainbow sparkles, reminding me how she lit up the day I proposed to her in Yauch’s park down the block from our brownstone. It wasn’t anything over the top, but later Evelyn told me she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way as it was intimate and private.
“Too bad we have a full house for another two hours,” she says with a breathy sigh. “Maybe we could send them home early.”
A growl rips through my chest with the suggestion. I bend and bite down gently on a patch of freckles before releasing her. “As much as I want to ravage this tight little body, you have some entertaining to do. Go take your dad out for another dance. I’m sure he’s ready for someone to save him from Katie. She’s been talking his ear off for the last hour.”
Groaning, she plants a line of kisses along my jaw. “I’d rather stick to my plan, but I guess you’re right. If you need me, I’ll be the one across the room pretending the sight of my husband in a suit isn’t making me sopping wet.”
Once she’s off my lap I slap her ass, laughing as she stumbles away, tossing me a heated stare over her shoulder.
I’m the luckiest bastard that ever lived.
EVELYN
My dad leads me across the dance floor with surprising ease, a bright smile pressed to his lips. He looks so handsome in the suit and tie I last saw him wearing at mom’s funeral, though he’s aged dramatically in recent years. The fact that he went gray at fifty, just a few months after mom started chemo, always makes him appear ten years older than his true age. The recent creases to his forehead only made it worse.
“Your mom would’ve loved seeing you here like this,” he tells me, shifting a toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. It’s a habit he picked up after I convinced him to quit smoking ten years ago. I don’t even know that I’d recognize him without one jetting out from between his lips. “She always told me you were destined for bigger things than the farm. Probably wouldn’t have surprised her one bit that you married someone who’s famous for their talent.”
“I wish she was here,” I say, fighting back tears among a smile. I appreciated having Charlie’s mom in the room while I was getting ready. She even gave me a pair of chandelier earrings that had belonged to her mother and told me she was thrilled to finally call me her daughter-in-law. Still, it could never replace my mom’s absence.
“The best part of her is here, sweetheart,” my dad replies. “Every time I see you smile or hear you laugh, I’m taken back to when I was dating her twenty-some years ago. You don’t just look like her, you have her smarts and carefree spirit. She’s looking down from heaven right now, just as proud as I am to see what our baby girl has
become.”
“Thanks, Daddy,” I whisper, finally releasing a rush of tears.
We finish the rest of the dance in silence. The sight of my closest friends and family milling around the mansion while laughing and dancing to the well-known deejay warms my heart to a new level of euphoria. I first felt a crushing guilt when asking everyone to fly out to California for the ceremony until Jay offered the use of his private jet and pilot as our wedding present. I guess he thought it wasn’t enough that he had already offered the use of his insanely large compound for the weekend.
By that point it really hit me that this has become my life—partying with the rich and famous while starting up a clothing line with Sharlo and Katie. At first Charlie wasn’t too excited when I told him that I wanted to keep working, but he eventually understood that I needed to keep my life as normal as possible until I leave with him in a few weeks on his tour across the US.
The “normal” part only goes so far these days as I’m relentlessly hounded by paparazzi wherever I go. After a few months it became the norm, and Dante turned into a welcome shadow. Still, I’m nervous about leaving the safety of Brooklyn Heights and worry it will be different once we’re out on the road, exposed to new crowds.
As my dad heads to the bar at the finish of the song, my sister Sofia appears, toned arms crossed over her tiny waist while she sips on a glass of champagne. White blonde hair pulled back in a perfect chignon, french tip manicure, makeup applied like it was airbrushed, slinky silver dress that sparkles like it’s made of diamonds, and designer heels that probably cost more than my wedding gown, she fits in better with this crowd than I ever will. She has always been the more sophisticated sister while Angelina takes the prize for most strikingly beautiful.
