by Ali Parker
“I think it’s romantic.” Marie sighed, a contented smile spreading on her lips until she caught the look Jeremy was giving her. She reached out to squeeze his arm. “Ours was romantic too, baby. It’s not a competition.”
“If it were a competition, we would have won,” Sonny declared confidently. Niki winked and tugged him back to the lounger, planting a kiss on his chest. She whispered something I couldn’t hear into his ear, but I doubted I wanted to know what it was given the shiver that traveled through him.
I’d never understood my brothers’ relationships with these women before. I had thought they were all crazy. Now it made me ridiculously happy to see them all so happy. I got it now.
As if he could hear the direction my thoughts had taken, Sonny straightened out and held up his empty nearly beer bottle. “Come help me carry out another round, Ty.”
“Sure.” I leaned over to kiss Eve’s warm shoulder before standing up, ignoring the snorts the action earned me from my brothers. They were enjoying seeing me so deliriously in love way too much.
According to them, I deserved the teasing because of all the times I’d called them “pussy-whipped idiots” or complained about the amount of time they wanted to spend with their women instead of doing stuff with just us boys.
“So,” Sonny started as we made our way to the kitchen, “talking about getting married and wedding ceremonies and all those kinds of things, are you ever planning on making an honest woman out of Eve?”
“She’s already honest with me.” I opened the fridge, pulling out a six-pack and breaking it open. Sonny did the same thing with a second six-pack, and we both hooked two beers with the fingers on each hand.
“Fine, you want to play games with me? I’ll just ask you straight then. When are you going to marry Eve?”
“Who said anything about getting married?” I grinned at him over my shoulder, heading to the door.
“Everyone knows you’re going to marry her, big brother. Don’t be cute about it, just tell me when it’s going to happen. Niki loves weddings.”
“Well, in that case”—I winked—“I guess I’ll have to do it just for Niki.”
“Stop being an asshole,” Sonny grumbled, coming up beside me. “Beau already deprived us of one wedding. I just want to make sure you’re not going to do the same thing.”
“I’m not.” I dropped the act and allowed my expression to become more serious. The truth was, I already knew exactly what my brothers were talking about whenever they spoke about how they just couldn’t wait any longer. “I’m looking into it right now, actually.”
Sonny stopped short, a huge grin lifting his cheeks and overtaking his entire face. “That’s great news, Ty. Really great. Get a ring on that finger. We want that girl in the family officially. Stat.”
“So do I, bro.” I was already having the ring made. The jeweler told me to expect it within the next week. All that was left now was to ask her and hope she wanted the same things I did.
I was pretty sure she did, but a guy never knew. Sonny and I pushed through the door and walked back out onto the patio to distribute the beers.
Eve was still sitting on the lounger, her book open again. I’d read some of those books she loved over her shoulder at times. She hated it when I did and eventually had shoved one into my hands and demanded I just read “my own damn book.” They were fast becoming a guilty pleasure of mine, too.
It didn’t hurt that so many of them were really steamy. It kept me on my toes. Now that Eve was living with me, I enjoyed reaping the benefits of the mood her books put her in.
She was in a black bikini, her hair damp from an earlier swim. No matter how many times I’d seen her naked or in any other outfit she owned, my breath still caught in my throat at the sight of her. She was everything I never knew I wanted and everything I now knew I couldn’t live without.
Please God, let her feel the same way.
Epilogue
EVE
“You are not allowed to cry, woman.” Penny shoved a tissue into my hand, a stern expression on her face. “You’ll ruin your makeup, and we don’t have time to do it again.”
“Make him wait a little.” Marie chuckled, expertly curling a lock of my hair with an iron. “It would serve him right after making you wait so long to propose.”
“He did it fifteen minutes after he got the ring,” I protested on behalf of the man who would become my husband in approximately forty-five minutes’ time, give or take a few minutes for Evan—who had gotten ordained online—to give Tyson shit over how certain he’d been he would never settle down.
Sadie glanced down at the dainty silver watch on her wrist. “We’re not making anyone wait. That’s terrible. Sonny will be here any minute. We need to be ready for him.”
“Just take deep breaths, Sadie. Our bride will be ready on time.” Marie flashed her sister-in-law a smile. “Once I’m done with the curls, Penny can touch up her makeup, and we’ll be good to go.”
“So, what you’re saying is I can go fetch the tequila from the freezer?” Charise fluffed her pale pink dress, her cheeks flushed with excitement. Whether it was about my impending nuptials or the prospect of tequila, however, I didn’t know.
“You brought tequila to the bridal suite?” Niki asked, incredulous.
Charise frowned as if she was genuinely confused over Niki’s question. “Of course. It’s customary to have a drink with your bridesmaids before you make the trek down the aisle.”
“According to which custom?” Sadie sounded curious until she saw Niki roll her eyes and heard Marie giggling. Her cheeks grew warm, and she shook her head. Sadie was by far the sweetest, most vulnerable of my future sisters-in-law, but she was also tough as nails and loved her little girl fiercely.
I had grown close to all of them over the last few months. We’d just clicked as if we’d always been destined to be family even though we weren’t at all blood-related.
They had all been forged in the fire with all the crap they’d been through before meeting their soul mates in the Lovett brothers. They were a kick-ass group of women I was proud to become a part of.
Penny, however, as the first true friend I’d ever had, was my maid of honor. All the girls wore dresses of dusky, pale pink, but Penny’s was more detailed than the others. She took her duties very seriously, especially her self-imposed role as “Guardian of the Makeup.”
“Tequila me now,” Marie demanded behind me, holding out the hand that wasn’t wrapped around the curling iron and snapping her fingers. “We need to get this party started.”
“I can’t believe the last available one of those gorgeous brothers is officially going off the market,” Penny lamented in a teasing tone, winking at my reflection in the huge, oval mirror I was seated in front of.
“He was never officially on the market.” Niki rolled her eyes, jerking her head in my direction. “No one stood a chance until this one came along.”
“That’s very true.” Sadie nodded sagely, a soft smile touching her pink lips. “He used to be so dark and scary. I didn’t think anyone would ever be able to touch him.”
“I don’t want to think about anyone touching him.” Charise gave an exaggerated shudder of her shoulders and held up the bottle of tequila she had gone to fetch.
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Sadie blushed again.
“Tyson wasn’t dark and scary.” I scoffed at the thought. Sure, he had given off some serious “don’t fuck with me” vibes, but that hadn’t made him scary to me. It made him sexy and intriguing. “He’s just protective and touching him—”
“I don’t want to hear this.” Marie tossed the curling iron onto the thick carpet beneath our feet, slamming her hands over her ears.
“You can’t leave that there.” Penny’s eyes darted to the curling iron on the floor, but Marie just rolled hers.
“I wouldn’t have let it drop or left it there if it was still on or warm. I was just holding it until it cooled. Also, I didn’t have a m
ic to drop, so I dropped the curling iron instead.”
“That wasn’t a mic drop moment.” Charise handed out little glasses she’d found somewhere and filled with amber liquid. She raised her tiny glass with a glint of amusement in her eyes. “But this is. To the Lovett brothers, may we love them, may we bang them, and may we never leave them.”
“Amen to that.” Marie smirked, lifted her glass and tossed it back at the same time that Charise did. I laughed, then brought the glass to my lips and swallowed the shot down.
Niki and Sadie exchanged a glance, then shrugged before following suit. Penny frowned at Charise, looking as if she was about to ask what she was supposed to be drinking to when the door slammed open.
“We love you too. No one says bang anymore, and yeah, you’d better never leave us.” Sonny was wearing one of his megawatt smiles as he walked into the room. “I wasn’t eavesdropping; I was waiting outside until it was time and Charise basically yelled that toast.”
“That’s still eavesdropping, my love.” Niki smoothed her dress, kissed her husband and went to the door, pointing at the girls. “Come on, ladies, let’s give these two a minute and get this show on the road, shall we?”
Less than a minute later, Penny shut the door behind the rest of them and left me alone with Sonny. I stood up from the circular, cushioned stool in front of the mirror and turned to face him. “Thank you for agreeing to walk me down the aisle.”
“It was an honor that you asked.” Sonny looked me up and down, his eyes becoming glassy. “You look gorgeous, Eve. Tyson’s going to faint when he sees you.”
“I hope he doesn’t.” I’d been trying all morning to keep the nerves at bay, but they were flaring in my stomach now.
Turning back to the mirror to make sure one last time I didn’t have spinach stuck in my teeth or anything, I studied my reflection. My dress was simple. It was ivory and made from lace that had been part of Tyson’s mom’s wedding dress and veil back in the day.
The brothers had all agreed to let Tyson have the dress when he asked. He was the one who remembered her best and wanted her to be with us in some way. They were all married already anyway, as Evan had pointed out, and hadn’t even considered using it.
I had been touched when Tyson had offered to let the designer use it, and though I hadn’t known her, I was strangely comforted by the way she would still get to be part of her eldest son’s wedding.
Marie hadn’t done too much to my hair, curling it into soft waves and pinning back a lock from each side with a pin that held a blue pearl. Her gift to me, since she insisted I needed something blue. My something borrowed, and something old was the lace in the dress.
My something new was my underwear, which had been presented to me by Niki and Charise earlier. Sonny, always observant, smirked when he saw me touch the pearl in my hair, obviously figuring out what I was thinking about.
“Niki showed me what they got you as a gift the day they got home from the shop. My poor brother’s going to faint when he sees you in the dress; then he’s going to come in his underwear when he sees you in yours. Poor guy’s in for a rough day.”
I laughed, and my nerves disappeared. This was one of the reasons I had asked Sonny to walk me down the aisle. They’d all become family to me, but Sonny was the fun little brother who could always crack a joke at the expense of his family.
So long as he was the one making the joke. He was also fiercely loyal and would destroy anyone else who turned a member of his family into the butt of a joke.
“Come on, gorgeous soon-to-be sister. Let’s go watch Tyson faint. I don’t want to see the other part.” He held out his arm, tucking my hand into it and leading me out of the bridal suite, which had been the master bedroom of their family home growing up.
Tyson had arranged with the new owners to let us use it for the wedding, and it was absolutely perfect. Family meant everything to the Lovetts, and since I was becoming one of them, it meant everything to me too. Being here, where they grew up and where those bonds were formed, I felt more like part of a family than I ever had before.
There were white chairs set out on the green lawn, violin music accompanying the procession of bridesmaids as they made their way down the makeshift aisle. Sonny stopped walking just out of sight from the small congregation and turned to me, lowering my veil over my face.
“I know I’ve said this before, but I wanted to thank you again for everything you did for Roy. I know how close you were to him and I wish he could be here today to walk you down the aisle to my brother. Nothing would have made him happier, I hope you know that.”
“I do.” I smiled, fighting back tears that were stinging the backs of my eyes. Penny would kill me if I ruined my makeup minutes before walking down the aisle.
Sonny returned my smile, and when the music changed, he took our cue and tightened his grip on my hand as we walked down the aisle to the most amazing, gorgeous, intelligent man I knew. I couldn’t wait to be able to call that man my husband.
Give or take twenty-five minutes later, my wait was over. Tyson leaned down to kiss me with so much love filling his navy blue eyes that I finally gave in to ruining my makeup and let the happy tears flow. He swept me up into his strong arms and kissed me in a way that quickly became entirely inappropriate to be doing in front of an audience.
Evan eventually cleared his throat and Tyson broke our kiss. After an annoyed glance at his brother, his eyes were back on mine. “Thank you for making me the happiest man alive today, Eve Cain. I promise you, this is only the beginning of our happily ever after.”
The End
Want More?
Check out Book 1 in the Shameless Southern Nights Series, Down and Dirty!
Acknowledgments
To our readers - because that’s why we write. JH always thanks her dogs & her hubs because they are her best cheerleaders. Well, that and coffee. Ali is a force of nature & thanks the army behind her with her hubs & three kids.
We decided to create a series together, and it’s been nothing but fun. A shout out to Yoly Cortez for making magic with the covers for this series and to our editor for holding our feet to the fire. A bow of thanks to our invaluable advance readers. Many, many thanks to Mary W., Charlotte B., Katelyn W. and Ashley B. They keep us in line and clean up the details. There were twice as many this time, but who’s counting?
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xoxo
Ali & JH
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author J. H. Croix lives in a small town in the historical farmlands of Maine with her husband and two spoiled dogs. Croix writes steamy contemporary romance with sassy independent women and rugged alpha men who aren't afraid to show some emotion. Her love for quirky small-towns and the characters that inhabit them shines through in her writing. Take a walk on the wild side of romance with her bestselling novels!
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About the Author
Ali Parker is a USA Today Best Selling contemporary and new adult romance writer with more than a hundred and thirty books behind her. She loves coffee, watching a great movie and hanging out with her hubs. By hanging out, she means making out. Hanging out is for those little creepy elves at Christmas. No tight green stockings for her.
She’s an entrepreneur at heart and loves coming up with more ideas than any one person should be allowed to access. She lives in Texas with her hubs and three kiddos and looks forward to traveling the world in a few years. Writing under eleven pen names keeps her busy and allows her to explore all genres and types of writing.
If you enjoyed her writing style, please check out her other pen names at the pen names link below!
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> Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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Copyright © 2019 J.H. Croix & Ali Parker
All rights reserved.
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Cover design by Cormar Covers
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.