“I thought you wouldn’t ever get over here,” Lyn complains and reaches out to take Owen from my arms. She doesn’t even pay me any attention as she walks over to the couch and starts to make baby sounds in Owen’s face.
Lila rolls her eyes and takes Owen’s bag from me. “Come on. The makeup guru is waiting for you.”
Following her lead, I walk into a kitchen full of insanity. My mom is running around with her hair in rollers, Melissa is barking at a Mexican man who looks terrified, and Maddi is standing with her hands on her hips, clearly not happy that I’m late.
“Sorry,” I grumble and sit in the chair she’s pointing to.
“How hard was it to stay on track, Dani? How hard, huh?” she snaps and starts to apply my makeup. I wisely decide to keep my mouth shut and let her do what she does best.
I feel my hair move, and I open my eyes.
Sway pops his head around and gives me a big smile. “Almost show time, little mama.” He reaches over my shoulder, and I slap his hand away when I feel him trying to pop my top button.
“You crazy man!”
He laughs, straightens, and starts to work on my hair.
Almost an hour later, my hair is pulled back in a loose chignon and my makeup is done flawlessly in a natural way that highlights all of my features. My eyes are lined heavily to showcase my eyes, and Maddi decided to paint my lips a bright red.
I walk into my parents’ bedroom, and with the help of Melissa, I step into my dress. She gives me a huge hug and quickly walks from the room, but not before I see the first tear fall from her eyes.
“Mom!” I call as I walk through the insanity.
Lyn is trying to step into her dress without letting her sister hold Owen. Maddi is finishing up Stella’s makeup while doing hers as well. Sway’s decided that Owen’s little baby hair needs to be styled into some type of baby mohawk. Megan and Molly are laughing from the sidelines as Sway starts to make blowfish faces at the baby.
“Out here, baby.”
I follow the sound of her voice out the back door and onto the back deck.
When my eyes take in the transformation their backyard has taken, I take a deep breath and will myself to believe that this moment is happening.
Today, I’m surprising the man of my dreams with the wedding he’s been begging for. He’s waited this long, and I know he would have waited longer, but I’m ready to be Dani Cage. For our family to become whole.
With our fathers’ help, I had them enlist him in some case they needed help with at CS, and I got a promise from both of them that they wouldn’t return him home until later that evening.
They have one job: get my man to the end of the dock before the sun sets on the lake. Well, I should say that Greg has one job since, as I look down at the backyard, I meet the very emotional eyes of Axel Reid, and I smile as my daddy visibly struggles to get a hold of his emotions.
“You look like a little princess,” his awestruck voice whispers hoarsely. “I can’t believe this day has come. My baby is getting married.”
“Do you need a tissue, Daddy?” I joke.
“Very funny.” He reaches over and carefully pulls me against his body.
I dust a piece of lint off of his tux-covered chest.
“No matter where you are in the world, you will always be my little princess, Dani. Married or not, you were my girl first. I love you, baby. I know I don’t say it often, because we wouldn’t want him to get a big head, but I’m thrilled with the man who won your heart.”
I struggle with the lump in my throat and, in the end, settle for a nod of my head.
“I knew you would grow into a beautiful woman, and I’m damn proud of who you’ve become. I know, with Cohen by your side and Owen in your arms, that beauty is just going to blossom even further.” He leans down and kisses my head before walking away.
I let him go, knowing that he needs the same moment with his thoughts that I do.
I keep my eyes on the family as they move around the tables set up on the back lawn and smile when I see the lights strung out along the railing on the deck. They light the way that will bring Cohen to me in just one short hour.
Fucking pointless afternoon. My dad and Maddox kept me up to my elbows in old case files. Anything from the last ten years that had gone cold was suddenly something I needed to help them with right that second.
I finally had enough when I realized it was getting closer to dinnertime and the only thing I had on my mind was getting to my girl and getting her back home.
“I’m done. We can pick this up another day? Right now, I’m going to Axel’s house and I’m taking my girl home for our first night alone.”
“Alone?” Dad questions.
“Her parents offered to keep Owen tonight so we can have some alone time.”
He gives me a knowing look. “Ah. It’s all-clear time.” He throws his head back and gives a booming laugh. “I completely understand, son.”
“I hear you,” Maddox adds in. “One of the best nights with Emmy was when the doctor finally cleared her after having our girls. I swear she turned into an animal.”
My dad goes to open his mouth, but I stop him with my hand. “Don’t even think about adding to that. I don’t want to know about it and I damn sure don’t want to think about it.”
They laugh, and I narrow my eyes.
When I stand from the conference room table, Dad reaches his hand out and grabs my arm. “Go into the back bathroom There’s something in there for you.”
“What the hell?” I ask his back, and he and Maddox walk out of the room. “Crazy old man.”
I walk toward the back bathroom, and when I walk in to see a perfectly pressed tux, I feel my eyes narrow in confusion. Seeing the note that’s attached to the hanger, I snatch it off and read the words that bring a rush of overwhelming love through my body.
I turn the paper over and feel the lump in my throat grow when I look at the picture Dani wrote her message on. The picture she’d had blown up and placed over her bed when I was overseas.
The one of her in my arms at the end of her parents’ dock when we were just children.
It takes me no time to shed my clothes and don the tux. The promise of marrying my girl is all I need to get to the Reids’ house as quickly as possible.
Today, I’m marrying my girl.