“It was just something that Beau told us,” Tansy said quickly, winking at me. Then she smiled at my father. One of her big beautiful and totally irresistible smiles. “You know how Beau is.”
“Oh my goodness!” Isabella Alvarez did know how Beau is. “Tell me he didn’t bring a gift for poor Damion and Lena.”
“I didn’t see one in his hands,” Tansy mused. “Maybe he figured taking a shower was enough of a gift to us all.”
My father snorted and put his hands on his hips. “So what’s this I hear about you cutting Damion out of the business?”
I did not bother to hide my glare from my father. Fortunately for the rocky relationship I had with him at that point, Tansy happily stepped in and slipped her arm through mine. She rested her cheek against my bicep and I felt myself smiling in spite of the asinine quality of my father’s statement.
“Oh, we didn’t cut him out,” Tansy told my father. “We bought him out. See, I just closed three deals and then we also found a renter for the old house where Val was living. That means I had enough cash money to buy out Damion’s investment in the garage.”
My father’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You had that kind of quick cash lying around?”
“That’s what happens when you sell real estate,” Tansy told him breezily.
I didn’t add that the woman of my dreams had basically resigned herself to living on those cans of soup until her next few sales came through. In the meantime I fully expected the two of us to be living together, sharing resources, and making sure that Tansy was as much of a partner in my business as I was in hers. At least whenever she needed heavy lifting or some form of bouncer services. I didn’t figure any of her potential clients would appreciate my grunt and snap conversational techniques.
That was something I had to wonder about. Maybe it was just the way Tansy did business, but she really seemed to need a freaking bodyguard. I slipped my arms around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“It’s just so good to see our boy in love again,” my mother said with one of those horribly happy-sounding sighs. “Both of our boys. Antonio, we are truly blessed!”
“And deaf,” my father muttered. “I will never understand your brother and this ridiculous steampunk-themed wedding. What is steampunk anyway?”
Damion’s booming voice nearly bowled us all over and smashed up against the exterior glass walls. “So glad you all love the theme!”
Of course Damion was resplendent in a black industrial-style suit with a purple and black striped waistcoat, a top hat, and some strange sort of headgear sporting about a dozen or more monocle-looking eyepieces that either folded up or folded down.
“Did you steal your headdress from your optometrist?” I asked Damion. “Because I think you should give it back before you make yourself blind.”
Damion chuckled. Then he wrapped me in a huge hug. “You know what? Today I’m so happy after marrying my beautiful bride that I don’t care what you say. I don’t even care that you’re making fun of my wedding, because someday soon you’re going to get married and I swear, I will make sure that Tansy feels the urge to do it the Greek Orthodox way.”
For the briefest moment I felt a shot of panic. And then I felt myself relax. “You know what? I don’t care. As long as I can marry the woman of my dreams, I don’t give a rat’s ass if she wants me to be the one wearing the dress.”
Damion’s broad smile grew even broader, as if that was even possible. Then he nodded. “Exactly my brother. Exactly.”
And as I watched my future bride talking animatedly with Lena and my mother and even Eleanor and Kevin and Thayla Landau, I could not help but think that everything had turned out exactly as it should have in the end. Of course, if you had told me six weeks ago that I was going to fall in love and think about getting married again, I would have told you hell no. Now? I knew that not even a grumpy jackass like me could live without love for an entire lifetime. Nope. He needed to find a woman who was tough enough to bust his chops and prove that she was different from everyone else out there. And that was the way to find a happily ever after and a happy ending and all of that crap. Just like that.
Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy Page 71