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“And on that note, I’m taking our daughter away from your craziness,” she said with a laugh. She tucked her arm through mine and steered me away from the group.
No sooner was I away from the guys than Kin appeared as if out of thin air. I had no idea where she and Jace had gotten to when we first arrived, but I was thankful for her reappearance. Mom didn’t even blink as my best friend linked her arm through her other elbow. From the moment I had first brought Kin home from school with me, Mom and Kin had bonded. Kin had needed a surrogate mother figure badly back then, and she naturally become one of the family. Mom gave Kin a warm smile as she walked us over to where all the rocker wives were chatting.
As we neared them, Lana lifted her gaze to mine and gave me an assessing once-over. I gave her the same smile I had given Dad when he’d first hugged me earlier, but she was used to seeing below the surface now that she knew my secret. She and Drake could read me nearly as well as Harris could these days. Definitely better than Mom could, that was for sure.
“There’s the girl of the hour,” my sister said with a laugh as she pulled me away from Mom and wrapped me in a hug that soothed something deep within me. “Where the hell did you get those boots?” she cried when she pulled back a few moments later and eyed me from head to toe.
Laughing, I hugged her again. “If you’re nice to me, I’ll let you borrow them.”
“Borrow? Baby, I want them for my own!”
“Too bad, so sad. They’re mine, shoe whore.”
Lana took my hands and entwined our fingers, practically dancing with excitement. “Oh! I meant to call you, but the girls distracted me. Nev and I found you the perfect shoes for the wedding.”
“I haven’t even found a dress yet,” I reminded her with a laugh.
“Doesn’t matter. These babies will go with whatever you decide. I bought them for you. I’ll bring them when we go dress shopping next weekend.”
“Great! Can’t wait to see them,” I said, starting to feel the excitement of actually finding a wedding dress. After my initial talk with Dad about the moms taking over the wedding planning, I’d forced myself to relax and let them work their magic. This might not be turning into the wedding I had originally foreseen for us, but honestly, I was just happy to be marrying Harris.
“Don’t forget we have an appointment at the bakery on Wednesday. Harris is coming, right?” Aunt Emmie cut in, forcing Lana and me to separate and turn to face her.
That was the first I had heard of his coming. Hell, it was the first time they had even brought up his name when it came to the planning part of the wedding. I was surprised they even wanted him to give his opinion on anything. Between Mom, Aunt Emmie, and Natalie, all Harris had to do was show up and say yes when the officiant asked if he took me for his wife.
But I doubted she was even talking to me because it was Natalie who gave her an affirmative. Then it was like always, and they started going on and on about all the things we still had to do. Or rather, the things that I still had to “decide” on. I put my smile firmly in place and nodded whenever eyes landed on me. But on the inside, I was mentally begging them to just shut the fuck up. This was my engagement party, damn it. I didn’t want to talk about the wedding—or the million things I still had to deal with in the not so distant future.
Thirty minutes into it, with all the rocker wives putting in their two cents and reminding us how their own weddings had been, I was tempted to say “banana” and let Kin get me out of there. As if he could sense my tension from across the room, however, Harris broke away from the group he had been pulled into.
“Ladies,” he said with a grin. “Don’t you think we should be celebrating instead of micromanaging? Wedding planning is for later. Lu, there’s a few people I want to introduce you to.” He took my elbow and guided me backward from the group. “You can have her back later if you promise to stop talking about the wedding. If not, she’s all mine for the rest of the night.”
Before he could drag me completely away, I snatched hold of Kin’s hand and pulled her along with us. Harris took me back to the group he had just left, which included Jace and Nate, one of the assistant managers and full-time bartender at First Bass.
“Hey, stranger,” I greeted Nate with a grin. “Did you enjoy your vacation?”
He lifted a thick shoulder carelessly. “I wasn’t working, so it was heaven.”
“Good. You deserved some time off. But I know Harris missed you this past week. It takes three people to cover what you do on your own every night.”
Nate smirked. “I’ll remember that when it’s time to ask for a raise.”
Harris nudged me ever so slightly, letting me know he still tended to be a little jealous of the other guy, and forcing me to focus on the rest of the group. I smiled at Barb, the woman who was the other assistant manager at First Bass. Barb was thirty-five and one of the butchest lesbians I’d ever met. She was just as much one of the guys as anyone else in this group, and I adored her.
“I’m so glad you got to come, Barb!” I said as I hugged her. “Thank you for being here.”
“Lu, this is Cal Newton,” Harris told me, and I directed my eyes to the man he was now introducing.
As soon as I met the beady brown eyes of the only other person in the group, I stiffened. Beside me, Kin muttered a nasty expletive, and we instantly moved closer to each other. She’d had her own run-ins with this asshole over the last few weeks. Whereas mine had been mostly just lecherous looks and sneering smiles, Kin’s had been more vocal ones.
“Cal, my fiancée and love of my life, Lucy Thornton.”
“We’ve met, actually,” Cal said with a smug-ass grin that made me want to throat-punch him. “But I had no idea Perfect Tits was your girl, man.”
Every single person around me froze at the backhanded compliment the creeper had just given me, but my eyes were solely on the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. Harris blinked at the man for a long moment while I held my breath. I knew he wasn’t going to overlook the comment about my tits, and the way his hand balled into a fist told me he was trying to rein in his temper. “You’ve met?”
“He lives in our building, Harris,” I hissed under my breath.
“I know he lives in our building,” he muttered back, still looking confused but more and more menacing now that he was getting the fu
