Keenan was pained as he drew his head up to stare at his sister. She still looked like the four-year-old pixie with pigtails to him, even with the engagement ring. “Sure. You have my blessing to make adult decisions. Marry who you like. Just be careful with Vince. I mean, so careful that you call Killian no matter how pissed you are now if things start to go south.”
Fallyn nodded. “I can do that. Things won’t go south, Keenan. They won’t. Vince is a good guy, and we really are in love. He’s good to me.”
“I trust you, I think.” He let out a nervous half-laugh. “Or, I have no choice, so I’m trusting you by default. I love you, Fally. Please be safe.”
“I will. Promise. Thanks, Keenan. You’re my new favorite brother.”
“Yeah? Well, be sure to spread that around next time you see the guys. Never thought I’d see the day Carrigan got dethroned.”
Fallyn’s newly acquired smile vanished. “I won’t be seeing them again for a long time. They won’t support me and they beat up my fiancé, so I’m done with them.”
“Honey, no. This is hard for us. You have to be more patient than that. It’s Vince D’Amato, for crying out loud. What’d Daddy say?”
“Daddy told me he doesn’t have a daughter, and then he smacked me across the face.”
Keenan’s face soured. “Be serious. Don’t joke like that.”
“Do you really think I’d joke about something so terrible? He didn’t know who I was.”
Keenan stiffened and then softened. “He’s really losing it, huh.”
“At this point? It’s hard to tell. The guys were pretty much on the same page, they just aimed their punches at Vince.” She slapped her hands together. “I’m done. I’m out. Love them all, but I don’t want to be ninety and calling my brothers to go to the movies with me on a Friday night. I think I’ve earned the right to fall in love without my fiancé getting the crap beaten out of him.”
“Okay. I get it.” Keenan held up his hands to stop her from declaring her love for Vince another time. Once was bad enough. “I won’t turn my back on you, and I won’t beat up Vince when I get out, unless you ask me to.” He pursed his lips as he cursed toward the ceiling. Then he forced out the next part in a gust that was filled with self-loathing. “You can even bring him by to say hi, if you like.”
Fallyn blinked at her brother as if he’d just given her too grand a gift for words. “Really? You can be cool?”
“I can try. If this is for real, you shouldn’t be cut off from your whole family. I’ll be there for you however I can. I can’t do much, but I can sit at a table and fake politeness. Not much choice with these babysitters.” He motioned to the two guards on opposite sides of the room. “Sorry the guys are being jerks.”
With gratitude painting her complexion, Fallyn cast her brother a smile. “You have no idea. I’m engaged, and I finally have someone in my family who can pretend to be happy for me.” The truth of the sentence hit her hard, sinking her shoulders back down two inches.
“Well, it’s a nice ring. I’ll give him that. It’ll make your left hook that much more effective.”
“I’m sure that’s exactly what he was thinking when he picked it out.” She stared longingly at her brother. “I wish I could hug you. I so wish it. I need you. Miss you something terrible. I don’t have anyone to give me away,” she mused with too much melancholy.
“I’m sure they’ll come around. Give them some time to let the engagement sink in. Let them see Vince isn’t just using you to stir up crap between the families. After that, you’ll have your pick of strapping men to give you away.” He pounded his chest with his fist. “But I get first crack, being your new favorite and all.”
“Thanks. When you get out of here, how about no more criminal activity, okay? I miss you. Need you.”
“I need you too, Fally. Miss you every day. It’ll be okay, sweetie. Just give them time.”
Fallyn nodded, but couldn’t bring herself to tell him that time was the one thing she wasn’t willing to give her brothers anymore.
Sixteen.
Angelo’s Advice
The wedding dress was hung in a white bag in the back of the closet she now shared with Vince, but Fallyn didn’t have the desire to look at it. She wanted to go to the bakery to lose herself in work, but knew her brothers were no doubt waiting for her to show up there. If she were being honest with herself, she didn’t need to go into the bakery at all that day, or the next few weeks. Things were set on autopilot, which Vince explained was how a business was supposed to be if it was expected to thrive.
Angelo was watching the house while Vince was out tending to things Fallyn didn’t want to know the details of. Fallyn had locked herself in Vince’s bedroom when she’d gotten home from the prison so she could be alone with her creeping depression.
When Angelo’s fist interrupted her alone time, Fallyn unlocked the door with a smile she knew did nothing to hide the evidence she’d been crying. Her eyes were puffy and wet, her face pink and her nose red. “Hey, Angelo. Did you need something?”
Angelo took in her state and backed up a step, jerking his chin to the hallway in invitation. “I was going to order food. Come pick out what you want.”
“Oh, that’s sweet of you. I’m really not hungry, though.”
Angelo stuck his foot in the doorway, not allowing the door to close. “It’s not really about being hungry. It’s about getting you out of this room.”
Fallyn worked out a decent impression of a chuckle. “You’re saying it’s not healthy for me to hole up in here and never come out again? Are you threatening me with well-adjusted behavior and Chinese food?”
“I could wave my gun around, if that’s what you need. Come on, kid.” He turned on his heel, expecting her to follow without any further prodding.
“Fine, but I had big plans to cry for another few hours, and you’re totally barging in on my schedule.” She trailed along behind him with dainty footsteps to the kitchen, and flopped down on a tall stool at the marble counter.
“What are you hungry for?”
Fallyn considered his question, but knew she couldn’t stomach a bite. “Pick your favorite. I’m not up for dinner. Pre-wedding jitters, I guess.”
Angelo fixed her with a stare that sobered her up quicker than hours of isolation had. “If you’re this upset about marrying Vince, the time to call it off is now.”
Straightening, Fallyn tried to pull herself together. “I’m not having second thoughts about Vince. I’m upset about losing almost my entire family in one go.”
Angelo opened a drawer and pulled out several takeout menus, fanning them out for her to pick one. “How’d things go with Keenan?”
Fallyn narrowed her eyes at the towering Italian. “How’d you know about that?”
“I have my ways.”
“You followed me?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
She straightened and tried to compose herself. “Well, you can stop doing that. Clearly I have no life. Yes, I went to see Keenan. He’s trying to be cool with me on this, which is the best I’ll get. He can’t even be there to give me away, though. I guess it’s the thought that counts.”
“And what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking this isn’t how I pictured the happiest day of my life.”
Angelo was quiet a minute to allow her declaration to settle between them. He fished his phone out of his pocket and ordered Thai food enough for two before addressing Fallyn. “Are you going to leave him at the altar?”
Fallyn guffawed before forming an intelligent response. “Do you think I’m that heartless? I’m not leaving Vince ever. Just the wedding day itself. It’s supposed to be this exciting thing, but it’s making my family miserable. I got my wedding dress, but it didn’t feel right. Or it did, but then it got all ruined.”
“Your dress got ruined?”
“Not the dress, the moment.” Fallyn’s eyes grew wistful, and she started talking with her hands. “You know that momen
t when you see the bride in her wedding dress and you get that gust of awe? That swell that erases all the bad things and lets you only see the hope? I had that gust, but then Carri barged in and saw me in the dress.”
“Ah. I gotcha. You can always get another dress. One that’s filled with gusts and hope and… You know, all the other stuff you said.” Angelo fished around for the right words, lost in the sea of girl talk he was a total stranger to. “We can get you a new dress.”
Fallyn shrugged. “Carrigan could barely look at me in it. Like I was some hideous bride no guy would ever marry.” She waved her hand in the air. “The dress doesn’t matter. It’s the marriage certificate that counts. Everything beyond that is just icing. Pretty, but unnecessary. I could wear jeans, and it’d be fine.”
Angelo studied the bags under her eyes and walked around the counter that separated them to sit on the stool next to her. “But your whole business is icing. You love the frosting and the details that make everything special. Vince will still be around if you decide you need more of the bells and whistles. He’ll wait for you if you want your brothers there.”
Fallyn took in Angelo’s attempt at being there for her, at trying to understand what her world had been like, and the vast difference it now would be. “I appreciate that. But Vince did nothing wrong. I won’t punish him and make him wait just so my family can keep behaving like animals. I think you and I both know that they’ll never be okay with this. I bend to Vince, who’s never once asked me to compromise. I don’t bend to them anymore. I’m just sad about it, is all.”
“I think we had some idea of how they’d react, but I wasn’t expecting that. I’m glad the swelling in your cheek went down.”
Fallyn’s chin lowered as she studied the marble countertop. “Tomorrow will be good,” she promised herself, willing it to be so.
“Just do me one favor. When tomorrow comes, if you have to fake your smile, ask Vince for another month. Just one month so you can marry him the way he deserves. He shouldn’t have to look back on the day and remember your tears at leaving your family. He should only see the proud smile any woman should get at wearing the title of a D’Amato. This is his wedding day too, so do right by him. Marry him if you’re ready, not if you’re running.”
Fallyn mulled over Angelo’s caution, nodding slowly. “You love Vince. That was good advice.”
“I have my moments.”
Fallyn stood from her stool and wrapped her arms around Angelo’s neck, pressing a kiss to his prickly cheek. “Thank you. That was exactly what I needed.”
Seventeen.
Stealing the Bridesmaid
Monday morning at ten o’clock, Fallyn pulled in at her favorite shoe boutique to pick Jen up. “Boy, did you pick the wrong girl for the job,” Jen said as she walked up to Fallyn’s car when it carefully maneuvered into the parking space. “I own zero pairs of heels. I love that you’re trying to involve me in all the steps, though. I brought coffee from the bakery.”
“Oh, you’re the queen. Thank you.”
Jen got a better look at Fallyn when she craned her arm to give her friend the steaming cup. “Not that you need the caffeine. You look totally wired. You got a body in the trunk I don’t know about?” She shook her head. “Scratch that. I don’t want to know.” She opened Fallyn’s door with a giddy grin. “You ready to make me a high heeled convert?”
“Not here. We’re going somewhere else today,” she informed her girlfriend. “Hop on in. I’ll drive.”
“Alright. Find something cute uptown?” Jen slid into the passenger’s seat in her jeans and paint-spattered t-shirt.
“Um, yeah. Uptown.” Fallyn checked behind her for tails the whole way to the courthouse.
“Where are we really going?” Jen inquired, growing nervous the more her best friend took last second turns and doubled back on streets to make sure no one followed them. “Okay, now I’m nervous you actually do have a body in the trunk.”
“We’re going to the courthouse,” Fallyn confessed, her knuckles as white as the dress she had hidden under her trench coat. “I’m getting married today, and I need a maid of honor.”
Jen’s eyes were wide as she stuttered through several unintelligible responses. “I… but… today?”
“Right now. Vince is meeting us there once he loses Carrigan. Carri’s been following him on and off all morning.”
Jen held up her hands, as if that would slow the car to a stop. “Fallyn, no. No, no, no. Why are you rushing this? Isn’t this just going to make everything worse with your family? Marriage is a big deal, and you’re being reckless.”
“I don’t care!” Fallyn shouted out of nowhere. “I don’t care if it’s reckless. I know it’s a big deal, and they’ve made it clear they want nothing to do with it! I can’t stop my life over and over again for them! Do you think I want to get married with no family there for me? Of course not, but that’s their choice. Declan even called an intervention for tonight to try to talk me out of dating Vince. An intervention! I get engaged, and there’s an intervention. They’re not coming around on anything, and they never will.”
Jen hung her head, shaking it back and forth in dismay, her messy curls bobbing back and forth. “Oh, Fal. This just keeps getting worse. But you do this, and you can’t take it back. Are you sure?”
Fallyn paused at a stoplight, checking her rearview mirror before meeting Jen’s eyes. “I’m sure. I want to marry Vince, and my brothers are never going to change.”
Jen was silent for an entire minute before quiet words came to her. “You could’ve given me warning to at least wear a dress. I’ve been at the bakery all morning and I was up last night painting.” She motioned to her shirt that still had flecks of green on it.
Fallyn grinned, her thumb jutting toward the backseat. “Bought you a bridesmaid’s dress and shoes. Really? You’ll really stand with me? Be my witness?”
Jen blew out a long gust of air. “Yeah. I don’t totally get it all, but I trust your judgment. Whatever you want, I’ve got your back. I can stand next to you no matter what you decide to do.” She watched the buildings whip past, her eyes catching on the sporadic trees planted so people might forget they were in the heart of Fairfield’s downtown business district. “I take it your brothers don’t know you’re getting married right now?”
Fallyn shook her head. “They think we’re coming to the family meeting tonight, but I’ll already be gone on my honeymoon.”
“Where are you going?” Jen asked, attempting girl talk.
“The less you know, the better. I don’t even know, actually. Vince said he’d take care of the arrangements.”
Jen paused for several beats before speaking in as adult a voice as she could muster. “Do you need me to explain sex to you?”
Fallyn had spent the whole morning in a state of jumbled anxieties, and Jen’s joke hit her in just the right spot. She barked out a laugh that did infinite good to her soul and served to lighten the mood. “I think I’ll just be surprised. He puts it in my ear, right?”
“Only if you want to get pregnant.”
Fallyn shared a wide grin with her best friend, grateful that of all the things she didn’t have, in her passenger’s seat was one very important thing – a supportive friend.
When they pulled into the courthouse, both girls were a jumble of nerves, but Jen tried to force normality through the craze. “Did you want me to go to the family meeting and tell them all for you?”
“I wish.” Fallyn let out a nervous chuckle. “No, but you’re a good friend for offering. Thanks, Jen. For everything. I really needed someone to be with me today.”
“This is what you want? What you’ll want still in twenty years?”
“In eighty years.” Fallyn thrilled at the thought of being with Vince decades from the drama. “It’s what I want.”
Jen nodded as if gearing up for battle. “Okay, then. Let’s do this.”
Eighteen.
Something Borrowed
The sma
ll, untidy bathroom at the courthouse was not the most ideal place to primp for a wedding, but the girls made do. Jen tugged on the pink cocktail dress that was similar in style to Fallyn’s. “This is the fanciest dress I’ve ever worn. You sure I can’t pay you back?”
“Being my Maid of Honor is how you can pay me back. I love it on you. I’m thinking of making it part of the uniform at the bakery.”
“You and that sense of humor.”
Jen twisted her best friend’s hair into a lovely mess of curls that didn’t look too far off the professional mark. Jen spun her friend around to examine her masterpiece, frowning at a detail that had not been tended to. “You don’t have your something old, something new, and all that jazz.” Then, as if clearing the air of something foul, she ruled, “You don’t need all that. You’re perfect as you are.”
Fallyn threw her arms around Jen, her heart swelling with the extra mile show of support for the niceties of a real wedding. “Thank you. I need you here. You’re amazing, you know that?”
“Your something new can be your ring and your dress. Your something blue can be your eyes, right? That counts.” She looked up at the ceiling in thought before snapping her fingers when lightning struck. “And Vince can be your something old.”
Fallyn snorted through her giggle. “Do not tell him you said that.”
Jen smacked her forehead. “Oh, flowers! Seriously? You can’t get married without flowers.” She jabbed her finger in accusation at her friend. “You didn’t give me time to properly prepare. I would’ve been a better Maid of Honor for you, had you given me any warning at all.”
“Flowers can wait till the honeymoon,” Fallyn ruled. “It’s time.”
Jen reached for her friend’s hand, holding it tight as they walked down the formal, undecorated office halls toward the desk where the D’Amato men were waiting.
Vince rose, trotting toward Fallyn in a fitted tux that took both the women aback. He handed her a bouquet of white calla lilies tied with a blue bow before he kissed her, both of them swelling at the sight of the other. “You’re beautiful,” he breathed, pulling back to take her in, but refusing to let his arm part from her. “I’ve never seen… Marry me.”
Escaping: A Mafia Romance (The O'Keefe Family Collection #2) Page 9