He was recovering well though. He had a house on the ranch which had apparently been built by Jack and Colette for him and was constantly fussed over by everyone – something which he was loving.
Even with the man who they thought was responsible still being at large, there had only been one issue for the Townsends since and that was when Tony told us all that he and Lars were getting married.
Two days previously…
“We’re getting married!” Tony shouted as he burst through the front door of Tom’s house limping. “He gave me his ring and everything!”
Everyone jumped up, apart from me because I couldn’t, and started screaming.
“Congratulations,” Colette sobbed as she held onto him. She really did look at him as one of her sons, especially as his parents wouldn’t have much to do with him because he was gay. Fucking backward way of thinking if you asked me, but you couldn’t cure the world!
She was about to say something else, but what he said next turned her to stone. “We’ve decided to elope. Neither of us have many people who would want to attend it, and we don’t want anyone ruining it for us, so we’re going to do it that way.”
Pulling away from him quietly, she came and sat down beside me. Everyone had something to say about it and an argument followed, but she remained mute and stared at the wall.
Just as it got really heated, she stood up and walked out without saying a word. I watched her go, stroking the turkey on my lap, and then turned back to the group seeing that Maya had Tony in a headlock and was screaming at him to shut up.
“Stop talking, you twat!” she screamed in his ear. “You’ll have it here. Say no again and I’ll even up your ass cheeks!” I winced at that one. It was still a sore point for everyone involved. Then again, maybe it would be better if she did? I dunno about Tony, but if it was me, I’d want everything to be even Stevens!
“You bitch,” he squealed as she grabbed a handful of hair and tugged. Throughout all of it, Lars didn’t say a word – he just sat back and stroked Cole’s tiny pony. Why all of the animals congregated at Tom’s house, I’ll never know, but every morning there they were waiting at the door to enter in single file. The Townsend weirdness wasn’t solely limited to humans! “Colette, tell him!”
That’s when people noticed the missing person in the room.
“Where’d she go?” Ren asked as he pulled his wife off her best friend’s back, forcing her hand to let go of the clump of hair.
“Uh, that way.” I pointed at the door because that was all the answer that I had.
Tony’s eyes filled with tears as he awkwardly got up off the floor. I figured that they were emotional tears, but given what had recently happened, they could also have been pain tears given the current state of his ass. “I thought she was okay with me,” he whispered, looking over at Lars for help. “I thought she considered me family!”
“She does,” I reassured him, but I really didn’t think that it was my place to explain my theory on what was wrong.
“Then why isn’t she here? It’s because she’s embarrassed isn’t it?”
The door to the front of the house slammed open, making the turkey on my lap shriek and slap me across the face with a wing. I was still bruised from my beatings, and for something so feathery it really hurt. I fucking hated feathers!
“I am not embarrassed,” a fuming Colette seethed as she stormed across the room carrying a book which she dumped on the floor in front of Tony. “I am pissed. Yeah, pissed,” she yelled as she poked him in the chest.
“Ow, stop! Your nails are like Ginn-su swords,” he squealed as she poked again.
“Like what?” One of the cousins, Noah, asked. I had no clue what the hell that was either and judging by the crowd of confused faces, neither did anyone else?
“Ginn-su swords. I’ve got one in the World of War Craft,” another of the cousins, Ariana, explained shocking the hell out of us all. She was absolutely stunning, and she was a nerd - that was freaking awesome! “You can only get it once you reach level forty.”
Nodding his head in agreement, Tony gave her an air high five. “Right on. And right now, your fingernails are passing level forty in sharpness. Don’t you ever have a manicure?”
Colette was lost for words as she gaped at him.
Painfully bending over to pick up the book that she’d dropped, Tony lifted it up to his face to look at it. I’d totally forgotten that she’d come in with something. Like everyone else in the room, I was lost in the drama that was playing out.
Tom chose that moment to walk over and sit beside me, taking the hand that was in the cast and not stroking the turkey. I’d made that mistake the day before and had gotten a feather wedged between my skin and the cast. It had taken hours to get to it because there wasn’t much space to wedge anything in there to pinch it with. How it had even gotten that far up it was another question that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get the answer to. But, after sticking chopsticks, a fork, a bobby pin, tweezers and whatever else we could find up there, it had finally been a fork that had managed to get the bugger and pull it free. I really fucking hated feathers!
“What’s this?” Tony asked, drawing my attention away from how Tom was gently massaging the swollen fingers on the hand of my broken arm.
“It’s your wedding book. I’ve been planning it for ages,” Colette snapped, actually stomping her foot. I’d never seen the woman pissed, but if she was this funny while it was happening, I was screwed if I ever pissed her off.
I’d watched Wimbledon once on a whim while my parents were having one of their dinner parties that I wasn’t allowed to attend in case I embarrassed them. I remember being more drawn to the crowd whose heads were turning from left, to right as they watched the ball being volleyed back and forth, than I was by the game. Right now, watching the group of people in the room as their heads did the exact same thing, I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling quietly at the similarities.
“Nutty bitch, no!” Tony snapped at me, stopping my laughter mid shoulder chuckle.
“Ohhh, you picked on the wrong…” I started, and then got cut off by Colette.
“Both of you cut it out before I shove this book up your ass,” she pointed at me and held the wedding book up in the air. “And shove her cast up yours,” she pointed at Tony.
“But it’s still attached!” I held my arm up to prove it.
“Exactly,” she snapped. Ew! “Now, you – this is your wedding book. I’m pissed because you’re one of mine and you think you can elope? Oh, hell no!” She actually did a head wiggle that reminded me of one of the chicks off of Jerry Springer. “My babies get married properly and where I can damn well see it!” She leaned into him as she shrieked. Tony stood gaping back at her as it all sank in. Wisely, he didn’t say a word. “And,” she added, looking over at Lars and pointing – who shrank back in his seat and curled his body slightly. “I’m wearing a hat!”
With that, she walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
“I never knew that Aunt Colette was insane,” another of the cousins, Levi, mused earning himself a hard smack to the head from Cole. “What? She is! I mean, I love y’all’s weddings – they’re funny as shit, but this?” He shook his head chuckling.
This time, Cole put his arm around his neck and held on as tightly as he could. No one moved when they fell to the floor, beating the crap out of each other.
Stepping over the bodies, Gramps walked up to Tony and grabbed him up into a hug. “Welcome to the family!” I took great glee in the panic that showed on Tony’s face as Gramps said this, until he walked past me and pointed. “You’re next!”
That was when the music that played in the scary slasher scene of a horror movie started playing in my head.
Chuckling like nothing was wrong, Tom resumed stroking my pudgy fingers.
Fucking hell!
Chapter 15
Tom
T onight, was the night and I could feel the sweat gathering on my
back. How did people do this more than once, it was terrifying.
None of my family knew what I had planned, I’d kept it quiet just in case I chickened out. Plus, they didn’t know the meaning of the word discrete, so it was safer this way.
I’d suggested that we go out to celebrate Sonya and Tony’s recoveries. Sonya had continued doing her classes online and Layla had decided that being at home was more to her liking, so they were both finishing their degrees online. We’d had all of our stuff packed and shipped back to us, and now there was a room in my house full of crap to sort through.
“Hey, can you pass the butter?” Brett asked, nudging me in the side. “Dude, gross!” He wiped his elbow off, feeling how drenched my shirt was.
Passing the bowl over to him, I resumed watching the table that held my future nervously. I wasn’t ready, I really wasn’t. Maybe I could give him a hand signal and get him to stop?
“You okay?” Sonya asked from my other side, and when I turned to look at her all of the worries and doubts that had been building deflated like a burst balloon. Her shoulder length blonde hair was pinned back at the sides and she was wearing a gorgeous pink dress that I’d never seen before.
Just as I stood up to take control of the situation, the man at the table got to his feet and then dropped to his knee.
“Will you marry me?” He opened the box in his hand and held it up to the beautiful brunette who had been sitting opposite him as the restaurant burst into cheers and started clapping.
Oh no you fucking don’t!
Running over, I snatched it out of his hand, and ignoring the gasps tried to get back to Sonya. This was my night, I was doing this now.
In my haste to get back to her, I didn’t realize until I was face down on the ground with a pissed off guy trying to kill me, that I’d accidentally clipped the actor that I’d hired to pretend to propose to his girlfriend in the side of the head with my foot. Apparently, this was a no when you were proposing to your woman.
Nothing was holding me back though, so with the behemoth still pummeling me, I crawled over to Sonya who was sitting watching me in horror.
“Marry me!” I tried to say, but the guy now had his hand in my mouth and a finger up my right nostril.
When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to stop until one of us won, I tossed the box in the direction of the table and started to return the punches.
Well, this was definitely gonna be memorable if I survived.
Three hours later…
We could still hear the sirens of the police cars racing through the streets in the hospital room that I’d been admitted to. How two men hitting each other in a nice restaurant had turned into the mini riot that it had, was anyone’s guess. The plan had been meant to be funny and memorable with me revealing that I’d hired actors – not this!
“Are you sure this is mine?” Sonya held her hand out, looking at the ring that I’d managed to get onto her finger while I was being wheeled on a stretcher into the ambulance.
“It’s in the shape of a feather,” I ground out as Parker put a stitch into the cut in my hairline. “Who else is gonna have that as their special something?”
I could have sworn that I saw her grimace and wrinkle her nose, but when I blinked – because I’d taken a fist to the head and I swear he’d shaken my brain around – she was smiling at me.
“Well, after we’re done here, you’ll be kept in for observation for eight hours. If everything goes okay during that time, we’ll release you back to the asylum. Once you get there, I’d like you to keep your straight jacket on, and rest. No ATV’s, no turkeys, no guzzling diamonds…” Parker instructed before being interrupted by Sonya.
“Guzzling diamonds?”
“It’s an inside joke,” I smiled weakly at her and then glared at the big mouthed dick face who was chuckling beside me. Mouthing the word asshole at him, I turned back to Sonya who was still looking at the ring. Maybe I hadn’t gotten it right? Sighing, I offered the olive branch. “If you don’t like it, we can keep it as a promise ring and I’ll take you to pick out something that you want.”
I had wondered if the shape of it might be an issue after she got the feather stuck up her cast – fucking Murphy’s law.
Staring down at it for three long assed minutes, she came to a decision. “No, I want this one. You’re right – this is us.”
Parker chose that moment to move my shirt to double check the bruising on my ribs, revealing the surprise that I’d been planning to show her tonight - a tattoo of a diamond in the center of my chest.
“Oh my god,” she whispered, leaning over to take a closer look at the ink that I’d had done this afternoon. I’d taken off the dressing and put the gook that Mace had given me on it, but the damn thing had been leaking so I’d had to dress in a black shirt instead of the white one that I’d planned to for dinner.
On either side of the diamond, I’d had red roses added, with a crown on top and wings either side of it. A crowned, winged, rosie diamond was the description that I’d given Mace, and he’d actually come up with a design that had screamed perfection at me.
“Do you like it?”
She reached out to touch it, but then given the messy state of it still, decided wisely not to. I really hope that the asshole from tonight hadn’t ruined it. It had fucking hurt and at this rate who knows when I would be able to get back to Mace to get it fixed.
Nodding, she sat staring at it a while longer. “What does it mean?”
It was a long-winded explanation, and slightly cheesy too, but fuck it – tonight was special. “The diamond is because you’re my diamond. Precious, rare and priceless.” Parker made gagging sounds from the corner, but Sonya’s faced softened and she leaned closer. “The crown is because you’re my queen. The wings are because…” I winced and gestured at her ring and the diamond feather on it. Surprisingly, she laughed, and tears started falling. “And the roses were the first flowers that I bought you, and the first time that you saw me as Tom and not as Layla’s brother.” I explained, referring back to when I’d thrust the bouquet at her the day that I moved in.
“I saw you way before that,” she whispered through the sobbing now coming out of her and putting her head on my shoulder. “I didn’t want this, but I can’t live without it. I don’t even think I was living until you came along.”
I would have cried too, if it wasn’t for the King Kong sized asshole who was now retching and gagging, ruining the whole moment.
“Oh, fuck me. This is too much,” he gagged as he ran for the door. “I need to go and watch MMA or something!”
Glaring after him, I tried to come up with a way to get revenge on him. As the door shut, I found it when I locked eyes with my cousin Ariana.
Game on fucker!
An hour later and it seemed like everyone had decided that my hospital room was party central. My head was thumping and all I wanted to do was have a nap. Who knew that fighting and proposing could be so draining? Well, fighting was – the proposal was the best thing to happen to me.
“Let me see the ring again,” Ebru ordered, holding a sleeping Louis in her arms. She’d tried putting him on my lap, but it had hurt too freaking much. All I kept hearing was that Sonya had been in a worse state, but my argument was that I was a man – I was honest about that shit. I wasn’t gonna pretend that I could ever give birth or that man flu wasn’t a male version of the common cold. I owned my shit and held my hands up about all of that!
The male members of my family who hadn’t gone for coffee were standing beside me watching the women gasping over the sparkles.
Just as Ebru put her face down close to the ring, Cole leaned over and hissed in my ear, “You cleaned that, right?”
“Yeah, it’s sterile!” And it really was. If the bleach hadn’t done the job, then the five turns in the autoclaving machine had. I’d looked at electron beam machine cleaning, but I was worried that she’d end up with a finger that glowed in the dark.
“Oh
my god, it’s so beautiful. I wonder where you get a diamond like that?” Ebru asked for the millionth time. Each time she did, Cole would look at me and give me a sinister smile – the asshole was just itching to let everyone know what had happened with it. “It’s just so special!”
I saw the second that he lost it. “Yup, it’s special alright,” he drawled, smirking at me. “It’s as special as if Tom swallowed the coal and made it from between his own butt cheeks.”
There were gasps from the women folk and confused looks from the men who were just walking back in.
“That’s disgusting!” Mom snapped at Cole. “And in front of your son, too. Well, I think that Tom outdid himself with this ring. If you put half as much into Ebru’s ring as he has with this one…”
Seeing Cole about to let the whole cat out of the bag, I growled, “I will kill you!”
“You’re shit out of luck, literally,” he whispered. “And shit out of diamonds too!”
Thankfully, Louis chose that moment to toot-the-fruit audibly. How something so small could make that noise and smell was a question that we’d all asked a million times - and one that we were no closer to getting the answer to.
“Dude, maybe he’s lactose intolerant?” my cousin Archer asked, covering his nose and mouth with his t-shirt.
That was all of the distraction that Cole needed as he went to go and find Parker to ask him if that’s why his baby’s ass stank so much.
Chapter 16
Sonya
“O h god,” Tom groaned as I moved my mouth back down again. He was still too bruised from his fight with the proposal guy to do anything more than this and I wanted to wake him up with a surprise. “Pull off!”
No way! He’d been trying everything that he could to get me to ‘hop on’ since he realized what was going on, and I wasn’t having any of it.
Providence Series Books 5-7 Page 32
