Play for Keeps

by L. P. Maxa

“I thought I was the best man. I thought that was part of my job. It was on the typed-out list of duties that Dylan handed me yesterday.” Smith’s hands were now on his hips.

  Jacks stepped forward. “You aren’t the best man. We all are. Right?”

  I schooled my tone like I was talking to children. “Yes. You are all the best men. But, since Luke is so special to Lex, I thought it would be cool if he carried her ring.”

  Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out her sparkling diamond eternity band. “I’ve got the ring, I’ve got the ring, I’m more important.” I rolled my eyes at his taunting. “I’ve got the—”

  I took a deep breath when he accidentally dropped it on the sand and then bent down to pick it up. He tucked it safely back in his pocket and mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

  When we’d gotten home from our road trip, Lexi had pulled me aside and told me she’d marry me that instant if it was what I wanted. Then she told me that the wedding didn’t matter to her nearly as much as our marriage did. That she wanted to be a wife, not a bride. And a mother; not a baby machine.

  I’d held her in my arms and told her how much I loved her, how perfect for me she was. I’d apologized over and over. And now, today I was marrying my Lexi, surrounded by all the people I loved, and nothing else mattered.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lexi

  “Halen, baby, don’t put the flowers in your mouth.” Why I’d thought giving my toddler a basket of flower petals was a good idea, I didn’t know. “Here, let Mommy carry them.” I took the basket and her eyes filled with tears. “Oh no, baby, please don’t…”

  It was too late. The waterworks were flowing. Halen was sixteen months old and clearly headed into her terrible twos. Her head was thrown back and she was wailing flowers over and over. Only it sounded more like fowwwers. These temper tantrums were happening more and more often these days. It made my decision to wait for baby number two seem like a genius move on my part. Even Dash had dropped down to his knees the other day and thanked me. He’d told Halen she couldn’t take off her diaper and she’d tossed it across the room anyway.

  “Come here, Halen.” Landry, my hero, took her by the hand and led her away from me, a little farther down the boardwalk. As soon as I was out of my daughter’s line of vision she stopped crying and started dancing to the music coming off the beach. Landry was Halen’s big sister, in every way that mattered. She could always make her smile and calm her down.

  I sighed. “She hates me, my own kid hates me.”

  “She doesn’t hate you. She’s just a toddler.” Bryan adjusted my train, peeking around my ass and watching her daughter walk with mine.

  Amy came up and hugged me for the hundredth time since she’d flown in yesterday. “I can’t believe you’re getting married. I can’t believe my brother is engaged. I can’t believe that I haven’t seen you in over a year.”

  “It’s been way too long. You live three hours away and I had to make you fly to Florida to see me? That’s it. I’m putting my foot down, you have to come to the compound at least once every three months.” I got close to her ear before whispering, “Besides, I think Harlow is knocked up. So you’ll need to come spend time with your nephew.”

  She pulled back, her eyes narrowed. “What makes you think that?”

  “I’m Lexi. I know everything.” I could tell by the way Luke was looking at her today. It was different than yesterday. They wouldn’t say anything because today was my wedding day, and they were smart.

  Amy laughed. “What makes you think it’s a boy? I thought karma was giving the band daughters.”

  I shook my head. “Not our Lukey. He’s a saint and a gentleman. He’ll have sons.” I shrugged. “It was just a fluke deal that Jacks ended up with one. Lord knows that man deserves a house full of daughters.”

  Dylan was cradling Evie to her chest, shielding her newborn eyes from the sun. “You think Landry will be able to handle getting both babies down the aisle?”

  Bryan stood and moved a lock of long brown hair out of her eyes. “I think so. Besides she has Beau to help her. Halen adores him just as much as she does Landry, if not more.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Jacks

  I smiled when I saw my kiddos walking down the aisle. A daughter and a son. I was a lucky man.

  Turned out that Jared had a little boy named Beau, a little boy he’d never mentioned, not once. Poor kid’s mom had died of a drug overdose a few weeks after he was born and Jared had raised him the best he could after that. The way Beau talked about Jared made it seem like he’d been an okay father for the most part. When he’d been carted off to prison, Smith’s dad had to take him in. Apparently Smith’s dad was the only man left in that family who had never been to prison. Which was mind-blowing.

  Two weeks after we left Meraux, I’d gone to talk to Jared in prison. I’d told him that we’d taken his son from Smith’s father’s house. The house with guns taped under tables and meth being bagged and tagged on the coffee table. The house where he was beaten.

  Jared had been in jail for almost a year, which meant he was sober. I gave him the same deal we gave Emily, Landry’s mom. When he got out, he could visit Beau as long as he stayed clean. He didn’t blink before signing his rights away to his child.

  At first I thought that Smith would want to raise Beau; after all, he was Smith’s blood. His cousin’s son. And Dilly was a saint. She’d have taken him in, no questions asked. But Smith said that he was Beau’s family already and staying a cousin would mean Beau would have Smith as a friend, a confidant. As a father, Smith would have to do the parent shit that kept kids from sharing their secrets, and Smith wanted to be the one Beau came to with the deep stuff that kids don’t tell their folks. It hit me in the gut that I would be the parent who didn’t hear “the deep stuff,” but given what Beau had been through already, having a father who loved him and a cousin who he could tell his secrets to was the best of both worlds.

  Also, Smith thought that one day Jared would come back and Beau would need someone he could trust, someone who had been there…lived that life and survived the abuse he knew was coming when Jared fell off the wagon and disappeared again from Beau’s life. Harsh, but if anyone knew Jared’s patterns, it was Smith.

  Within days after we brought Beau home, he and Smith began spending a lot of time together. Smith didn’t feel it was a betrayal to share that they talked about life on the bayou. It was clear Beau could open up to Smith about things a lot easier than he would to anyone else.

  And when Smith said that B and I could adopt Beau, I hugged Smith so hard, I cried.

  From the moment I’d first seen that little boy, hurt and sobbing in that boat, he was mine. I’d loved him, just like that.

  When I walked into the house carrying a sleeping kid, Bryan didn’t blink an eye. She’d smiled, kissed my lips, and then kissed his bruised cheek. And just like that, she’d accepted another broken child into our family.

  Landry adored him. The first couple of weeks he was with us she’d slept on his floor at night, crawling into bed with him when he had nightmares. Holding his hand when he got nervous. They were inseparable.

  I’d told Beau that I was the guy his dad sent to take him away from the bayou. And he’d come willingly. It was like he’d been waiting for me, and we’d been waiting for him. I didn’t bother to go up to the house and tell Smith’s dad. I sent Smith a text telling him to tell his old man I was taking the kid. His dad didn’t give two shits. He was more pissed that we’d taken the dog he’d paid good money for.

  Beau and the puppy had bonded on the car ride home, and had curled up together. Luke didn’t have the heart to separate them. We’d let Beau name the dog and he chose Creek. Why? No idea. But now we had Crash and Creek.

  “He is going to break so many hearts when he grows up, man.” Smith shook his head, watching Beau walk down the aisle.

  “Yeah, including Halen’s.” I watched as Halen looked up at Beau, love in her eyes. She followed
that kid around like a little puppy dog. And he ate it up.

  Dash turned to us. “Nephew or not, he breaks her heart? I’ll kick his ass.” We all started to chuckle.

  When the kids got to the altar, Beau spun to the right, heading toward the groomsmen. Halen went with him. Dash reached out and plucked his kid off the sand, holding her in his arms and out of Beau’s. Yeah, we were probably going to have some issues in about twelve years or so.

  Dash shook his head, making a face at his daughter. “Boys are yucky.”

  Smith rested his hand on Beau’s shoulder and grinned.

  Beau and Landry looked a lot alike. Which meant that Beau looked like Bryan too. My smile grew when my beautiful wife came walking down the aisle next. She and I had married quietly at the courthouse, just an hour before we adopted Beau together, and she adopted Landry.

  “Beau, buddy, leave your pants on.” I chuckled as Smith put his hand on top of my son’s head.

  “I’ve gotta pee, Uncle Smith.”

  I knelt down beside him as the rest of the guests started to laugh. “Hey, little man. Aunt Lexi promised me that this would be a short ceremony. You think you can hold it for about ten minutes?” Beau was a bayou baby through and through. He’d walk past three bathrooms just so he could pee in the yard.

  At five years old, he had never even been to preschool or kindergarten. He’d spent his life living along the bayou, oblivious to the wide world outside. We had him working daily with a tutor so he would only be a year behind once we put him in school.

  He wrinkled his nose and his eyes got wide. “I can’t, Dad, I can’t hold it. I’ve gotta go.”

  I looked up at Dash. “Sorry, bro.”

  I took Beau’s hand in mine and led him a few yards down the beach. I let him drop trou and pee in the sand. He drew a B on the beach. “Look, dad. Look. It’s a B. B for Beau and Bryan.”

  Letters were hard for him. “Awesome job, buddy.” I bit my lip to keep from cracking up with the rest of the wedding attendees. I walked him back to his place and looked across the altar at B; she was laughing too.

  He leaned forward, looking around Smith’s legs. “Momma, I drew a B in the sand!”

  “I heard, that’s so great, Beau.” She gave him a thumbs up.

  Beau had called us Momma and Dad from the get-go. We’d told him he could call us whatever he wanted. But since he was always around Landry, he called us what she did.

  At first the therapist we had him talking to said it was unhealthy. That it showed he had no real connection with Jared, with the father who had raised him for the first four years of his life. But we’d showed him a picture of Jared, asked who that was. He’d said, “My other dad.” After that, the therapist let it go.

  B, Landry and I were the right family for Beau. We’d been through this, we’d done counselors and tutoring and nightmares. And we’d seen the other side, seen what could happen to a child when they were loved and safe.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Bryan

  We all cried while watching Dash and Lexi get married. The sun started to dip into the ocean as soon as they said, “I do.” They looked so in love, so completely in love.

  “Momma, Beau is eating his cake with his hands.” Landry looked across the table at her younger brother.

  I smiled and ruffled his hair when he stuck his tongue out at her. “It’s okay, sweet girl. Beau can use his hands.” I was so in awe of the fact that I was sitting between my kids. My son and my daughter. I’d been right on the money when I said that we wanted more children, but that starting over with an infant wasn’t really for me. At five and ten, these two were perfect.

  “Baby Doll, dance with me?” Jacks held his hand out.

  I took it without hesitation. “Hello, husband. Where have you been?”

  “Well, my gorgeous wife, I was just over there.” He pointed toward the bar with his finger. “Talking to my man Luke.”

  “Yeah?” He spun me around and then dipped me down, kissing my neck.

  “Yeah. I was asking him if he’d want to give Beau drum lessons as well.”

  Landry still took lessons from Luke once a week, and one day when Beau had sat in on a session, he’d begged us to let him learn too. Beau wanted to do everything Landry did. “What did he say?” I couldn’t imagine Luke telling us no, that he’d teach Landry but not Beau.

  “Well, he said—”

  “You can’t keep a secret to save your damn life, can you? You are just like Lexi.” Luke and Lo came up, dancing beside us. Luke had his eyes narrowed and trained on Jacks.

  Harlow leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I’m pregnant.”

  I pulled back, surprised as all get-out. “What? When did you find out?”

  “This morning.” She looked across the room to where Dash and Lexi were standing, surrounded by wedding guests. “I didn’t want to say anything until Dash and Lex got back from their honeymoon. This is their day.”

  We’d stopped dancing at this point. The four of us were kind of loitering in the middle of the dance floor. I wrapped my arms around her neck. “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.”

  Jacks took my hand and spun me back into his arms, moving to the rhythm once again. “You can congratulate them after Dash and Lexi leave for Greece.”

  Luke chuckled. “Yeah, you guys want to see Lexi act like a bride? Try stealing her thunder today.”

  Jacks and I danced away and he put his mouth close to my ear. “So many Devil’s Share babies.”

  “I know, right? Can you imagine if you guys ever tried to tour again? We’d each need our own bus.”

  “Oh, we’re never touring again.”

  I pulled back, studying him. “You don’t ever get the urge to play like that? To have millions of fans screaming your name?”

  “I guess every once in a while I feel that itch. But it’s not strong enough for me to load up the fam and head out on the road.”

  “No?”

  He shook his head smiling. “You know how hard it would be to find a place to fuck you on a tour bus with two kids running around?”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Luke

  My fiancée was pregnant. Harlow had come bouncing into our bedroom first thing this morning, the sun barely up. She’d climbed on top of me and held that little stick up so I could see. She didn’t talk, and neither did I.

  We’d cried.

  And then made love, twice.

  I couldn’t wait to tell my best friend I was going to be a dad, but her wedding definitely wasn’t the time or place. I had a speech to give.

  I tapped the microphone in my hand. “Hey, everyone, I’m Luke, the third most important person at this wedding.” I waited while everyone laughed. “You see, my best friend married my brother today, so I’m kind of a big deal.”

  I looked over at Lexi and winked. She blew me a kiss.

  “I’ve known Lexi for what feels like my whole life. I met Lex when I was just a teenage boy with a lust for music and a hellacious crush on her.” Dash shot me a look and playfully scooted her chair closer to his.

  “I owe a lot of my success, and most of my happiness, to Lexi. She taught me how to believe in myself, she taught me how to forgive, how to protect. She taught me how to go after what I wanted and how to stand up for what I believe in.” I swallowed past the small lump in my throat. “I spent a long time thinking that no one would ever be good enough for her, that no one would ever be worthy of her love. Her adoration. But I was wrong. My brother is the perfect man for our girl.”

  I made eye contact with the man who married my first love.

  “It all started when Lexi walked backstage in killer boots and tiny shorts, stealing Dash’s horny little heart.” Everyone laughed again. “If Dash and Lexi hadn’t gotten pregnant with Halen, Smith wouldn’t have met Dylan and Evie wouldn’t be here.”

  I looked to my right. Smith was sitting next to his fiancée, their sleeping infant in the crook of his arm.

 
“And then Jacks would have never been introduced to Bryan. Those two are beating us all, right? Married with two kids.” I shook my head, chuckling at the family of four all piled on top of each other in two chairs. “And if I hadn’t had to run away from my home that was suddenly packed with couples and kiddos, I’d have never met Harlow. And I couldn’t imagine living in a world where she wasn’t by my side.” I winked at her.

  “It all began with Dash and Lexi. Those two show us all, on a daily basis, what it means to be a team. What it means to be a family. And I know I’m not alone here tonight when I say that I am so damn happy for the two of you. So, let’s raise up our glasses, and toast Dash and Lexi.

  “Toast my brother, and my best friend, the start of it all.”

  TAKE A SNEAK PEEK AT THE FIRST BOOK

  IN THE NEW RIFFRAFF SERIES:

  Royalty

  Chapter One

  Mason

  Before

  “Hey, bud, you awake?”

  I felt him in my room, but I sure as shit wasn’t ready to open my eyes. I’d had a long-ass night.

  “Hey? Can you hear me? Wake your punk ass up.”

  Yeah, I could hear him. The music in my headphones had paused itself a few hours ago. Reluctantly, I opened one eye. I knew he wasn’t going anywhere until I acknowledged him.

  “I’m up.”

  “When did you get into town? And why are you sleeping with your Beats on?” He put his hands on his hips. “Are we going through another emo phase? Because I have to tell you, the first one was annoying as fuck.”

  I snorted out a laugh as I sat up in my bed. “No. I’m wearing my Beats because even through the headphones the sound of my incredibly hot stepmother screaming, Don’t stop. Fuck me harder was giving me a chub.”

  My father made a face and looked down at my crotch. “You didn’t rub it out, did you?”

  I rolled my eyes. “No. I tried for a good ten minutes to remind my traitorous dick that it was my old man fucking her like that. But when that didn’t work I called an old friend to come over.” I paused when my dad held out his fist for a bump. I obliged because he was right. I was a boss. “She couldn’t stay the night though, and I was terrified of a round three. Hence the beats.”