I clicked my tongue. “Go with the earring but tell him auntie Meg says he has to wait on the tattoo. At least sixteen.”
“Meg,” Cyn gasped. “His ass is waiting until he is eighteen to get either.”
Gwen chuckled. “I find it hilarious that you let the kid dye his hair any color he wants but you’re freaking out over an earring.”
Cyn rolled her eyes. “Because I can cut his hair off and it’ll grow back. You think I can cut his ear off and it’ll grow back?”
Gwen and I looked at each other. “Uh, can’t you just take the earring out? I mean, there will be a tiny hole there, but I think cutting his ear off would be a bit drastic.” Thank god Micha had me around or he would be Picasso walking around.
“It’s about the principle,” Cyn huffed.
“You’re married to a man with blue hair, covered in tattoos, and from the stories you’ve told, pierced in,” I cleared my throat, “places the eyes can’t see.”
“Like we are ones to talk,” Gwen laughed. “I think we all married men like that.”
We looked from one to the other. “A-fucking-men to that!” we cheered in unison.
“Now, let’s find me a dress so we can get to the hibachi place.” I drained my glass and tucked it under my arm. Good food was our end game. “I want black, but not black.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Cyn laughed.
Twenty minutes later we were back in the dressing room with a fresh bottle of champagne and fifteen dresses.
“Those five are out right off the bat.” I tugged my shirt over my head. “Let’s just agree then these arms need sleeves, yeah?” I didn’t feel like getting out on the dance floor at the wedding and having my arm fat waving at everyone. I lifted my arm and watched my loose chicken wings flap. “Ridiculous,” I grumbled.
Cyn grabbed the five sleeveless dresses and hung them on the opposite wall. “So, this will be the reject wall.”
Gwen grabbed a deep yellow dress. “Who in the hell grabbed this one? I thought we decided that yellow was not the color for Meg?”
Cyn grabbed it and hung it on the reject wall. “I thought we could give it a whirl, seeing as it wasn’t a bright ass yellow. I didn’t know we hated every shade of yellow.”
Gwen and Cyn argue back and forth about the color yellow while Peg helped me into my first dress.
“Pfft, blah, urgh, gah,” I sputtered. Peg zipped the dress up in the back and I batted down the large ruffle around my shoulders. “What in the hell is this?”
Peg turned me toward the mirror and Cyn and Gwen stopped bickering. “This is a mermaid off the shoulder with a ruffle. The color is regency.”
“Oh, uh,” Cyn muttered.
Gwen searched for her words. “The, well, uh, color is nice.”
“It is very mermaid esque,” I muttered.
“It’s awful!” Cyn blurted. “You look like a damn clown with the puffy collar around your shoulders.”
“Accurate,” Gwen agreed.
“So, we’ll take the clown mermaid dresses out and put them on the reject wall.” Peg picked through the dresses and placed two on the opposite wall along with the first offending dress.
The next six dresses went by quickly with no real winners.
“This one has to work.” Cyn fingered the lacy sleeve.
“At least it’s a pretty purple.” Gwen grabbed the dress from the hook and slid it off the hanger.
“This is brand new. I actually haven’t seen it on anyone yet.” Peg grabbed the dress from Gwen and helped me into it.
It fit snugly across my bodice, the lace sleeves glided up my arms and Peg zipped up the back.
“Holy. Shit,” Cyn gasped.
“Why in the hell didn’t we try this one first? It would have saved us half an hour and a bottle of champagne.” Gwen circled around me with her hand covering her mouth.
“A-line, chiffon and lace with a scoop neck. It’s actually breathtaking on you.” Peg fluffed out the bottom of the dress and I watched in amazement as it floated back around me.
“You’re like a purple goddess.” Cyn circled the opposite direction of Gwen. “Lo is going to blow his load when he sees you.” Cyn and Gwen high fived and laughed.
“Uh, so that means this is the one?” Peg asked. She was once again a bit taken back by the open and crassness of our group.
I twirled around and knew I looked psychotic with the huge smile on my face, but I couldn’t stop. “We have a winner, Peg. Wrap it up and point me in the direction of the hibachi place.”
*
Chapter Four
Lo
“When Mal and I get married, you can bet your ass we are not going to do it at the clubhouse.”
I kicked my feet out in front of me and popped open a beer. “You think you’re too good to get married here?” I asked Turtle.
He shook his head and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Not that at all. I just don’t want to be the one to clean this fucking place and organize a million chairs.”
“You even ask her to marry you yet?” Turtle had been seeing Mal for four years and he had a three-year-old with her. How he had managed to snag the new lawyer in town was beyond me, but they seemed very much in love.
A huge smile spread across Turtle’s lips. “I was gonna do it Saturday night.”
“At the wedding?”
He nodded his head. “She’s been dropping hints about getting married for the past year and I’ve been acting like I don’t hear her.”
“But you do.”
Turtle nodded his head. “I hear her, but I’m going to need your guys help.”
Rigid walked into the clubhouse from the garage. “Help? How much more fucking help do we need? All the chairs are finally set up and that arch thing is in the garage. We just gotta haul it in here Friday after the rehearsal dinner.”
“No, not the wedding.” Turtle plopped down on the couch next to me. “I’m gonna ask Mal to marry me here, but I booked a room at a hotel two towns over and was hoping you and Meg would be able to watch Jonas overnight for us.”
Rigid snickered and turned on the TV. “You are the only ones that don’t have kids under the age of ten besides Slider and Fayth.”
“They’re headed out of town early Sunday morning. Something about Marco needing help with his new house.” Turtle sighed. “I really hate to ask but I’ve made Mal wait long enough for me to ask her to marry her.”
I clapped Turtle on the back. “Don’t worry about it, brother. You know Meg loves Jonas.”
Turtle sighed. “Thank you. I didn’t want to ask, but I really didn’t have another choice. I don’t plan on doing it till later on in the night.”
I nodded my head. “I’ll have to tell her to lay off the wine coolers, but she’ll be fine with it.”
Rigid chuckled. “Good luck with that.”
“Maybe I’ll be the one taking care of Jonas after you leave.” I didn’t want to have to tell Meg she couldn’t drink at her only son’s wedding. “I think we all plan on staying at the clubhouse the night of the wedding anyway so we’ll all be able to keep an eye on Jonas.”
The bedrooms at the clubhouse rarely got used for more than storage these days. Most of the guys had houses or apartments and just used their rooms to store shit for the clubhouse in them.
“Speaking of which,” Rigid cleared his throat. “Cyn and all the girls told me we better put clean sheets on the bed or none of them are going to stay here.”
“We still plan on putting all the kids in one or two rooms?” I asked. With nine kids ranging from three to eleven, we had to have somewhere for them to sleep.
Rigid flipped through the channels on the TV. “Three sets of bunk beds will be here Wednesday and the mattresses for them will be here Thursday.”
“Cutting it kind of fucking close, aren’t you?” With all of us being in our mid-thirties and up you would think we would have our shit together a bit more.
“Figure as long as they get here b
efore Saturday night we’ll be good.”
“Better fucking hope they get here before Saturday, or you’ll be the one putting them together during the ceremony.” I shook my head.
“Or have all the kids staying at your house.” Turtle snickered.
“They’ll be here,” Rigid assured us.
They better be. I was fine having to watch the kids, but I drew the line to having them share my bed with me and Meg.
That had been a no kid zone for the past ten years, and there were no signs in that ever changing.
*
Chapter Five
Meg
“My shoes should be here today.”
Cyn slowly raised her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean my shoes should be delivered today.” I cut off the end of the onion and started chopping it.
“Meg, the wedding is in three and a half days. You don’t have shoes?”
I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “Of course I have shoes, Cyn.” I dumped the diced onions into a bowl. “They’re being delivered today.”
Cyn blinked slowly. “Do you think procrastination this long is going to work out for you?” She slowly stirred the beans and grabbed her margarita glass.
It was Tuesday, and we had bumped our monthly Si Senor! Margaritas and Taco night to tonight because Remy and Harlyn didn’t want to have it as their rehearsal dinner. I had started the meat yesterday and now Cyn and I were working on everything else.
“The shoes will be here. I checked the tracking this morning.”
“Meg.” Cyn’s eyes connected with mine. “It’s past five o’clock. The mail has ran and the UPS guy comes around ten thirty.”
“Uh, come again?” And how the hell did Cyn know the times that UPS rolled through time.
“Your shoes are not coming today.”
“How do you know that? Also, how do you know what time UPS runs?”
She rolled her eyes. “Uh, hello. I order shit and don’t want Rigid to know because he tells me I’m spending all the money on senseless shit.”
“Are you?” I had been to Cyn’s house. She had some shit I wondered why she would even buy. “And I guess they’re going to come tomorrow then.”
“Who’s side are you on, Meg? I can’t help it that Morphe came out with a new pallet and then Too Faced came out with one right after it. It’s completely out of my hands.”
“Are you talking a different language right now?”
“Makeup, Meg. I’m talking about makeup.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Girl, I get my eyeshadows and eyeliner from the Walgreens. Five ninety-nine for ten eyeshadows, you can’t go wrong.”
Cyn pointed the spoon she was stirring with at me. “Pigment, Meg. You’re lacking pigment.”
“I’m really worried about you.” I set the knife down and folded my hands together. “I think we need to have an intervention.”
“Who needs an intervention?” Lo walked in the back door with a case of beer in one hand and three plastic bags in the other.
“Cyn. She’s blowing Rigid’s retirement on makeup.” I popped a piece of pepper in my mouth and smiled at Lo.
“I’ve heard. Rigid mumbles about pigment under his breath all the time.” Lo set the bags on the table and brushed a kiss against my lips. “Guys will be here in half an hour.”
Cyn huffed and turned back to the stove. “The hellion is in the backyard with Diamond. Micha was wondering when Uncle Lo was going to get here.”
“What’s he need?” Lo asked.
Cyn shook her head. “He’s trying to rally people to take his side about getting his ear pierced.”
“And?”
Cyn glared at Lo over her shoulder. “He is eleven years old, Lo. He doesn’t need to start piercing things this early.”
“Got my ear pierced when I was ten. I think I turned out just fine.”
I brushed my fingers over Lo’s crotch. “I think you just helped Cyn’s argument that if he gets his ears pierced now, it’s just going to lead to him piercing other things.”
Cyn dropped the spoon in the beans. “Jesus, Meg! Did you really need to go there? I never in a million years ever want to think about that and Micha in the same thought.”
You don’t want him to be like father like son?” Lo teased.
Cyn’s cheeks heated and turned red. “You’re both assholes, you know? He has no clue that Rigid has, well,” her eyes darted to Lo’s crotch, “that. And he will never know.”
“Right,” Lo drawled. He grabbed a beer and popped open the top. “I’ll go talk to him and see if I can hold him off till he’s sixteen.”
“Or seventy,” Cyn yelled at his retreating back.
“Girl,” I laughed. “You are one big contradiction.”
“Don’t I know it,” she mumbled.
Cyn kept stirring the beans while I chopped, diced, and prepped all the toppings and sides.
“You doing my job, woman?” Rigid walked through the front door and slid his sunglasses on top of his head.
“If you would have been here, I wouldn’t have had to do it.” Cyn took the pan off the heat and turned off the burner. “Micha is in the backyard with Lo.”
“That kid is relentless.” Rigid shook his head.
“That’s all you,” Cyn muttered.
“Hey,” Rigid protested. “I’m in agreement with you on this, baby. He can wait until he’s sixteen to get his ears pierced just like I did.”
Cyn wiped her hands on the dish towel. “Well then maybe you should tell him that instead of magically disappearing every time he brings it up.”
Rigid held up his hands. “All right, all right. I’m on it. Cool your jets.” Rigid pulled out his phone. “I’ll find some pictures of infected piercings and shit. That’s deter him.” Rigid typed on his phone and instantly cringed.
“Ears, Rigid. Nothing else.”
Rigid looked up at Cyn. “This almost made me want to take my piercings out.” He held up the phone, and I instantly ducked my head knowing he was about to show us something absolutely disgusting.
Cyn gagged and tossed the dish towel at Rigid. “You are an asshole.”
Rigid walked out the back door chuckling under his breath.
“It was a dick, wasn't it?” I didn’t want to see it, but I was curious about what it was.
“If you would call it that. The thing was green and pussy.”
I clutched my hand to neck and closed my eyes. “Sweet Jesus. I didn’t need a description.”
“I should have had a girl I know for the rest of my life it’s just going to be Rigid and Micha grossing me out.”
I ripped open the bag of shredded lettuce and dumped it in a bowl. “I think we’re all destined to that seeing as out of nine kids running around, only two are girls.” Thank god Marley and Gwen were able to overcome the strong alpha gene and give us Luna and Greta.
Cyn raised her margarita glass toward me. “Amen to that, sister.”
*
Lo
“What the hell is this?” Slide lifted a Mounds bar up. “I thought you said you had shit for s’mores.”
Meg plopped down in my lap. “That’s for island s’mores.”
“What in the hell is an island s’more, woman? I want a s’more s’more. Graham, chocolate, marshmallow, graham.” Slider motioned by stacking his hands on top of each other. “S’more.”
The adults were spread out around the fire and the kids were running around playing tag and trying to catch fireflies. I was stuffed from dinner, but apparently Slider had room for a little dessert.
“There is peanut butter cups there too,” Meg pointed out.
Slider threw down the Mounds bar and shook his head. “This is ridiculous. It’s a sad day when a guy can’t even get an OG s’more.”
“I think this falls under first world problems,” Fayth called. “There are kids starving in Africa and you’re complaining about the wrong candy for your s’more.”
Slider sat down in the
chair next to her. “I don’t really remember asking you.”
Fayth flipped him off. “We’re married. My opinion is the only one that matters.”
Meg laughed and laid her head on my shoulder. “Should I tell him I have a few Hershey bars in the house?”
I pressed a finger to Meg’s lips. “Shh. It’s always good when Fayth puts him in his place.”
“Isn’t that every day?” Meg laughed.
“Yeah, but I don’t always get to see it.”
Meg cuddled into me and sighed. “How has this been our life for ten years?”
I held her close and looked around the fire pit. Kids were running around like crazy and the best friends I could ever have were surrounding me. “Guess we’re just fucking lucky, babe.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” she murmured. “You have everything ready for the wedding?”
The guys and I had been working on shit for the wedding for the past four days. It would have been only three days, but Gambler had brought the kids with him the other day and they had managed to knock over the archway for the ceremony. That was something Meg didn’t know and wouldn’t know until the day of the wedding.
“Clubhouse is fucking spotless, chairs are set up, and I pick up the tuxes on Friday.”
Meg sighed and laid her hand on my chest. “I still can’t believe Remy asked you to be one of his groomsmen.”
I had been pretty fucking shocked too. “Pretty crazy. You raised a good kid, babe.”
“I sure did. Now I just hope his dad doesn’t make a scene at the wedding.”
I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. “Well, we all know you know how to handle Hunter. A swift kick to the nuts will make him fall in line.”
“If only that were true. He’s bringing his new girlfriend and Remy told me she isn’t like the other girls he has dated in the past.”
“What’s that mean?” I had only met one of the chicks Hunter dated and I was not impressed. He had definitely downgraded from Meg.
“He actually likes her.” Meg’s voice was quiet and I could tell she wasn’t sure what to think or feel.
Forever Lo (Devil's Knights Book 9) Page 2