I’m on my way back to our room when I hear something further down the hallway but the lights are turned off.
“Come on, you know you want this as much as I do.” I think that might be Asher talking, but I’m not sure since the voice is muffled.
“That’s not the fucking problem and you know it. It’s when you sober up, freak the fuck out, and run again. I can’t take that.”Holy fuck, is that who I think it is?
“I haven’t had a drink since dinner.”
I realize that Kierstie and I have revealed what we were keeping hidden, but it sounds like more than a few in this club are holding secrets of their own.
I’m not about to confront anyone about this. Each person has to figure shit out on their own. Am I gonna go tell my woman this? Nope, ’cause the more pregnant she gets, the nosier she gets. Time to snuggle up to my woman and hope maybe tonight’s the night I feel our daughter.
CHAPTER 9
Shane
Today’s the day. I get to marry the woman who has become my reason for everything. Today, she becomes my wife and we will soon welcome our daughter. If you had asked me while I was in the service if I could have ever seen myself married and a dad, I would’ve told you no. Not because I didn’t want it, but because I was too afraid to wish for it. I never wanted to hope for a good relationship in fear I would end up like my stepdad and just angry all the time. Or end up like my mom and picking partners who were never a good fit. Who would’ve guessed I had to go a couple hours away to fall for the girl next door.
When I asked Samson and Saxon to stand up with me as joint best men, they seemed surprised. I don’t know why, since we grew up thick as thieves and I still consider them my two closest friends. I also asked Max to stand up with me. He was shocked, but I told him even though he was my brother’s best friend, I considered him like another younger brother. His response?
“Fuck. Now you almost make me feel bad for hittin’ ya. Almost.” Kierstie, of course, has Mads standing up with her as her maid of honor. She also chose Hanna. Her last choice kinda surprised me. She asked my cousin, Kinsley. She’s Samson and Saxon’s half-sister. Growing up, she got to spend summers and a lot of weekends at Grant’s. She says she’s going to live here when she finishes graduate school. I hadn’t realized in the time I was gone that they had become good friends. Meant a lot more than I realized it would when she said she wanted to include my family.
Pres is going to marry us, having gone online and getting ordained just for this. Rory is going to read a passage we picked out, well, Kierstie did. I just nodded as it was important to her. She was determined to have all her brothers involved so, leave it to her to find the perfect job for Juan and Ry.
My only ask for this whole thing was to not have to wear a suit. Kierstie agreed, even though she’d said I would look “hotter than a leather car seat in summer.” Mads stated I couldn’t wear jeans though. She actually hauled me along with Samson, Saxon, and Max to the store together. We’re all to wear black slacks and dress shirts. She said we could roll up the sleeves and didn’t have to wear a tie, so at least she gave us something. I’m brought out of my thoughts by a knock on the door.
“Come in!” Grant, Samson, Sax, and Max walk in the door. Behind them is Jonah.
Grant walks up to me and looks me up and down. “Well, son, you do clean up alright. I’ll give you that.” He opens the container he brought in with him and starts to pin the flower on my chest.
“Your mom would be real proud of you, son. Not just for today, but for everything. She would have been most proud of the fact that you found your happiness. That was the thing she was always searching for. She never found it, but you did what any parent wants, to have their kid succeed where they couldn’t.”
Shit, I ain’t gonna cry. Nope.
“I don’t have a ring of your mom’s or anything, but I do have this. Remember it?”
He hands me the coin. It’s the kind you put a penny in a machine and it comes out smashed and has a logo of wherever you’re visiting. This one was from the one time we went on a trip to Seaside. It was just me, Mom, and Tyson. It was the best weekend I had as a kid. I remember Mom laughing and seeming to be free of worry and concern for once. We had ice cream for dinner and played on the beach.
“How did you get this? I don’t think I ever saw this after that weekend.”
“Your mom gave it to me the last time I saw her. She told me to give it to you and that I’d know the right time to do it. I thought today would be a good day to have a little part of your mom with you. I know she failed in a lot of ways, but she loved you and your brother with every part of her being. I think once my goddaughter is born, you’ll understand that even more.”
Trying to keep control of my emotions, I just nod at him in understanding.
Samson, always the one to keep on time, slaps me on the shoulder and proclaims to the group, “Let’s get going. We can’t keep a pregnant woman waiting, and a pregnant Kierstie scares me even more.” I can’t wait till he meets his woman. That’s gonna be fun to watch him work through that.
Max glares at Samson.
“I want to say hey and be annoyed by it, but fuck if my sister and her pregnancy hormones don’t scare me just a little.” I look at both of the assholes.
“That’s my woman, about to be my wife. She’s not scary. She’s passionate.”
Sax slaps my other shoulder.
“Tell yourself what you’ve gotta, cuz. Let’s go.”
Time to get married.
Pa
