“I’m saying I’ll go on the road with you—if you’d still like that.”
“Like it? I’d fucking love it!” He leapt out of the rocking chair and came to my side. With Bella nestled in one arm, he leaned over the rails of the bed with the other. He gave me a lingering kiss that warmed my heart. When he pulled away, his brows furrowed. “You’re really willing to quit your job and live a chaotic life on a cramped bus just for me?”
“Not just for you.” I kissed the top of Bella’s capped head. “For her, too.” I smiled at AJ. “Like her mom, she’s blessed with an amazingly, loving father, and she shouldn’t be deprived of one second with him.”
“Oh God, you make me so happy,” he said, bringing his lips back to mine.
“I feel the same way about you.” And in the middle of a very idyllic, very romantic kiss, Bella let out a wail that I could only classify, as ‘I want milk, and I want it now!’ Pulling away, I rubbed AJ’s cheek tenderly before taking Bella in my arms. I didn’t know how I became so blessed, but I was certainly grateful.
After all, a year ago during the darkest times of my life, I would have never thought it was possible to be experiencing the happiness I was now. I wouldn’t have dreamed there could be a man like AJ—one who was so wonderful, so sweet and caring, so generous both in and outside of the bedroom. Most of all, one who was my true soul-mate that Mama Sofia had always said would one day come along. Instead, I would still be believing the many lies my ex’s from my battered and broken past had told me.
But when I least deserved it and after being so stubborn, I had found acceptance of myself, the love of a lifetime, and a family of my own.
As I stood at the doorway leading to the altar of Christ the King cathedral, I fidgeted nervously back and forth on my feet. At the same time, my fingers tapped out a beat on the black pants of my tux. The intensely sweet aroma from all the floral arrangements stung my nose, while my ears rung from the sound of the enormous pipe organ blasting out the pre-wedding ceremony music.
Wrapping an arm around my shoulder, Jake said, “You know, we can still run if you want?”
I snorted. “Yeah right. You want a mob of angry Sicilians after us?”
Jake laughed. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Besides, there’s nothing more I want to do than marry Mia.”
“I know, man. I just had to tease you.” He glanced down at the platinum band on his left hand and shook his head. “Who would have thought you and I would be shackled with balls and chains at the ripe old age of twenty-six?”
“Not me. That’s for damn sure,” I replied, with a smile. I jerked my chin up towards Rhys. “Now we just gotta get him someone, and we’ll all be old married dudes.”
Rhys shook his head wildly back and forth. “Screw that dude. I’m not getting married until I’m thirty.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I said the same thing.”
“I said forty,” Jake said.
With a shrug, Rhys said, “Well, it ain’t happening for me anytime soon. Got it?”
“Whatever,” Jake, Brayden and I all said in unison.
We were interrupted by the wedding coordinator. “It’s time.”
While my heart leapt into my throat with nerves, I clapped my hands together as if anxiously ready to get this show on the road. It wasn’t that I was nervous about marrying Mia—I’d totally been the chick in the relationship by being ready to get married immediately. Hell, I would have married her in Mexico right after I proposed. But she had wanted to wait to give us time to settle in to being engaged, to our new life on the road, and most importantly, to having Bella before we tied the knot. In the end, it made the most sense because she wanted the dream wedding she’d once planned years ago with that douchebag Dev. Between my touring schedule and a newborn, it had taken a little longer to get the wedding planned and executed.