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“Shh, it’s okay,” she crooned and bounced him slightly. She couldn’t very well cuddle him against her and spread the muck from her dress to his adorable miniature tuxedo.
Her entire bridal party rushed to her aid. Myrna took her son and tried to calm him down. Beth wiped. Elise blotted. Aggie ran to the kitchen to wet a towel.
“At least it’s white,” Reagan said. “It won’t show much.”
Could anything else go wrong this morning? Jessica wondered.
The front door opened, and her mother breezed into the little beach house, looking more grave than the Grim Reaper at his own funeral.
“We’re going to have to delay the wedding,” she said.
Apparently there was plenty more that could go wrong.
Chapter Three
Sed watched himself try to fix his weird-ass tie in the mirror. It wasn’t like a regular tie at all. It was very wide and the fabric thin. It reminded him of an elongated cloth napkin. Morning tuxedo, Jessica had called it. Stupid was more like it. As he attempted to knot the tie for the fourth time, he wondered if Jessica would be incredibly upset if he tossed it in the garbage and claimed to have lost it. Finally giving up when the tie ended up looking like a clown collar, he stepped out of Brian’s bedroom to ask for help. Yeah, him. Badass lead singer and rock star asking other dudes how to dress. The things he did to keep the love of his life happy.
“Does anyone know what to do with these stupid fucking ties?” he said.
He noted that all the members of his wedding party were fully dressed—with ties. Apparently he was the only dumbass who couldn’t figure out how to tie the fucking thing.
“Over, under, around and through,” Eric said, swirling his hands around as if translating Pig Latin into sign language.
“Jace tied ours,” Brian said, and Eric scowled at him for not giving him sufficient time to fuck with Sed’s head.
“Jace?” Sed asked.
“He’s like a wedding expert,” Trey said about the man in question, who was blushing furiously and trying to look like a tough guy at the same time. “Weirdest shit I’ve ever seen.”
“My mom used to play piano and organ at weddings,” Jace said. “She didn’t want to hire a babysitter, so she forced me to go with her and I learned a few tricks over the years.” He shrugged as if it were normal for a young male to pick things up about weddings. “What can I say? I was a cute little boy.”
“Don’t short-change yourself just because you’re short,” Eric said. “You’re still a cute little boy.” He pinched Jace’s cheek, distorting his face into something comical.
“Fuck you, Sticks,” Jace said, slapping at his hand.
“Aww, will you look at that face?” Eric said, stretching Jace’s cheek into an even more distorted shape. “He was obviously a fairy wedding princess in a past life and is using this cute little boy claim as a cover.”
He released Jace’s face to punch him squarely in the shoulder.
Jace ignored the assault, but Sed didn’t doubt that Jace would get even with Eric later. When Eric was least expecting it.
“Sit and I’ll tie it for you,” Jace offered to Sed.
So Sed sat on a spare ottoman and Jace stood behind him, reaching around his neck to tie his tie. Sed was going to have to beat up someone after subjecting himself to this level of feminization and having a man who wasn’t his dad tying his tie for him. It couldn’t be his dad because Dad had passed away a couple months before. Had he lived, would he have known how to tie the ridiculous accessory? Sed doubted it. His dad had been very blue collar. He’d only owned one tie—a clip-on, at that—and had only worn it on Sundays and to his grave.
Jace slapped Sed’s shoulder when he’d finished. “There you go,” he said.
“Thanks,” Sed said gruffly. He glanced down at the neat knot at his throat and the perfect creases on either side of it. “Wow, Jace really is a fairy wedding princess. What. A. Pussy.”
Sed wasn’t expecting to be tackled to the floor by Jace. Eric body-slammed Jace into Sed’s chest, and soon they were all buried in a dog pile of hard bodies and flailing arms and legs. He wasn’t able to deliver a single blow of retaliation. Sed supposed they were all feeling a bit tense and domesticated. So acting like a sextet of immature idiots—even Dave had abandoned his wheelchair to join the wrestling match—did wonders for Sed’s level of anxiety. It didn’t do much good for the perfectly pressed condition of his tuxedo, but fuck it. If today didn’t go as planned for him and Jessica, they’d get past it. The only thing that could possibly ruin his day was if she stood him up at the altar. But she wouldn’t do that to him. She couldn’t leave him in misery again. She wouldn’t.
Would she?
Of course not.
Sed grabbed someone’s arm and heard a yelp of pain from Trey. A knee landed uncomfortably close to Sed’s crotch, and he stiffened. Okay, destroying his junk would also ruin his day. He had big plans for his fifth appendage that evening.
“Off!” he yelled and then added, “Umph,” as an elbow connected with his stomach.
It took a while for everyone to feel as if they’d gotten in all the licks they were entitled to, but eventually they collected themselves enough to get into the Blake’s wheelchair-accessible van and head for the beach.
Through the windshield, Sed scowled at the dark sky overhead. He glanced at Eric in the driver’s seat.
“You don’t think it would dare rain on my wedding day, do you?”
“Rain on The Sedric Lionheart’s wedding day?”
“Yeah.”
“Rain on Mr. Lead Singer, Rock God, Control Freak, Boss of the Entire World’s wedding day?”
“It wouldn’t, would it?” Sed asked, scowling darkly at the rain clouds to put them in their fucking place.
Eric smirked. “Of course not.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said, but he wasn’t sure if the clouds had gotten his all-important memo.
Eric parked the van in one of the few disabled parking slots still available. The street in both directions was full of parked cars, as was the very small parking lot.
“Well, Dave,” Eric joked, “you’re good for more than mixing a live show after all. Premium parking!”
Sed reached over and slapped him for being an ass, but Dave just laughed.
“I’m keeping those plates even after I lose this chair,” he vowed.
Which Sed feared would be never. Dave had progressed in his recovery to taking a few steps when necessary, but not much farther. His physical therapy was continually disrupted by their tour schedule and while his sister, Rebekah, helped him strengthen his wasted muscles, she wasn’t a professional therapist. Maybe Sed should hire someone to handle that for him on the road. He didn’t have any issue with Dave’s inability to get around without his wheelchair and they’d had Dave’s sound equipment modified for accessibility before they’d gone on tour with Exodus End, but he knew that Dave wanted to progress, and he couldn’t do that on the road. This two-week-long break in the tour before they headed to Europe had been necessary to get all their equipment overseas. And for Sed to get married and have a decent honeymoon before getting back to work with a new wife in tow.
While he stood waiting for all the guys to get out of the van, Sed stared at the small beach house where he knew Jessica would be getting ready for the ceremony. A pang of longing set his feet in motion. He wanted to see her so bad, he couldn’t wait another moment.
“There you are!” His mother’s voice called from the beach. “I thought you were going to be late to your own wedding.”
He stopped abruptly. Part of him was glad she’d stopped him before he’d ruined everything by barging into the house and demanding to see his bride before the ceremony. Another part of him cringed at her intrusion.
“Oh my,” she
said as she hugged him. “You look so handsome.”
Sed gave her a vigorous squeeze in return, lifting her onto her tiptoes.
When he released her, she dabbed at her teary eyes with her fingertips.
“I promised myself I wouldn’t cry today,” she said, “and here you come looking all handsome and grown up in that tuxedo. You’ve ruined any chance I have at keeping that promise.”
“What did you expect, ma? That I’d show up in leather and a T-shirt?”
She laughed and reached up to pat his cheek rather harder than necessary. “Maybe I did,” she said. “I wish your father could have been here to see this.” Fresh tears swam in her eyes.
Sed grabbed her in another hug so he didn’t have to see the sorrow in her tired blue eyes. She’d aged in the two months since his dad’s passing. “He’s here,” he whispered to her. “You know he wouldn’t miss it.”
She nodded and drew away, dabbing at her tears again.
“I think he’s up in those dark rain clouds causing me undue anxiety,” Sed admitted.
His mom laughed. “Exactly like something he’d do. He’d be proud of you today. He was always so proud of you.”
“Ma, if you make me cry, you’ll ruin my mascara.” He fluttered his mascara-less eyelashes at her.
She laughed again and looped her arm through his. “Come. I’ll show you where you’re supposed to stand.”
She peered over her shoulder at the tuxedoed rock stars goofing off in the parking lot. Trey was the only one not tussling. He had Ethan, one of the ushers, pressed up against the side of the van expressing his undying lust with deep passionate kisses.
“Guys,” his mom said, and they all looked at her for direction. Even Trey paused in his make-out session to see what was up. “Go into the house. They’ll give you instructions there.”
Trusting that his friends would do as they were told, Sed followed his mother onto the beach. They’d laid plywood in a strip between the white folding chairs and covered it with red carpeting that matched all the roses decorating every available spot.
