He was still wearing the jeans and shirt he’d had on all day, but he’d put on a sport coat. It made me wish I’d used those ten minutes to change my outfit, but judging by the love and desire shining from his dark eyes I didn’t think he minded.
“C’mere, gorgeous.” He held his hand out to me, then tugged me closer when I took it.
“What’s all this for?”
He handed me the rose he was holding. “I wanted to do something special to celebrate you moving in and our anniversary.”
“Wasn’t it just our anniversary on Friday?”
“That was four weeks since we met. But today is one month,” he explained.
“I know how you feel about being called sweet, but really—this is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.” I rose up on my toes and brushed my lips over his. “It was such a busy day. We both had so much to do, but you still took the time to set something special up for me. I love how you’re never afraid to show me how much you care and that I’m on your mind.”
“You’re always on my mind, gorgeous. And that’s why I bought this when I spotted it in the jewelry store display window.” He pulled a black velvet box out of his jacket pocket and dropped to one knee.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, the happiest tears I’d ever cried filling my eyes as I pressed my hand to my mouth.
He flicked open the jewelry box and grasped my left hand. “Ariana, when I think of the future, I picture it with you by my side. Spending our lives together. Growing to love each other more and more each day. Building a family.” He pulled the ring from the box. It was deceptively simple, with a platinum gold band and a solitary diamond. But that’s where the simplicity ended since the stone was cushion cut and at least four carats. It was elegant and stunning. “I love you so damn much, and I want you for my wife. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I cried. “I love you so damn much too, and I want you for my husband. So yes.”
He slid the ring on my finger and rubbed it with his thumb. “Wedding rings and tattoos. Permanent marks we’ll both leave on each other to tell the world that we belong together.”
Epilogue
Mark
“You’re the only guy I know who would kick off a coed bachelor and bachelorette party at a tattoo parlor.” Andrew flung his arm over my shoulder, making me wince because I’d gotten a tribal tattoo with Ariana’s name woven through it inked as a band around my upper arm a couple of hours ago.
“Watch the arm, man.”
“Shit, sorry.” He pulled a flask out of his jacket pocket and handed it to me. “Knock some of that back, it’ll help ease the sting.”
“What is it?” I asked as I unscrewed the cap and took a sniff.
“Vodka; Stoli Elit.”
It was a damn good brand of vodka, but I’d made a promise to my bride that morning to avoid her favorite alcohol. “Thanks, but I’m not in the mood for vodka tonight.”
He reached into the other side of his jacket and pulled out a different flask. “How about some Macallan eighteen-year single malt?”
I took a gulp of the Scotch whisky and felt the burn all the way to the pit of my stomach. “Thanks for bringing the good stuff.”
“I’m the best man; of course I’m going to bring the good stuff. Even if this is the weirdest bachelor party in the history of man.”
I quirked a brow at him. “Even weirder than when Jason discovered Cee-Cee was his mystery woman at yours and cornered her when one of the bartenders tried to flirt with her?”
“Yup, this definitely tops that.”
“What about your brother marrying Alessia the same night he met her at Jason’s bachelor party?”
He held one hand out flat and tilted it from side to side. “Eh, that one is closer. But sorry, yours is still more interesting than that since half the women attending are either pregnant or breastfeeding, three guys who’ve never gotten tattoos before have randomly decided to get inked, and your bride has chickened out on getting the tattoo she had designed for tonight.”
“She didn’t chicken out,” I grumbled. “She just put it off until a different day.”
“Sure she did, buddy. You keep telling yourself that.”
I almost blurted out the reason for her change of plans on the tattoo—and for me staying away from vodka so she didn’t have to taste it on my lips when we kissed. But I managed to hold it back. Barely. Only because Ariana already had plans for that announcement tonight.
“What about the fake bachelorette party where you first saw Josie? There wasn’t even a real bride at that one.”
“You’re right. That one was weirder,” he conceded. “But it doesn’t count because it wasn’t an actual bachelorette party.”
It was hard to argue with that logic, so I let it go. “It’s kind of funny how many of the couples here were brought together by bachelorette parties. Ariana and I are the odd pair out, but maybe someone will get lucky and meet their match at ours.”
“Actually, there was a bachelorette party at our second unofficial date,” Ariana chimed in as she came up on the other side of me and slid her arm around my back.
“There was?” I didn’t remember that, but it wasn’t a surprise since I’d only had eyes for Ariana that night.
“Yeah, they were up in the VIP section at The Box.”
“Maybe we should warn anyone who is single that they run the risk of being coupled up by the end of the night,” Andrew suggested.
“No worries there. I think our booze cruise bus decorations will be enough of a warning,” Ariana laughed. “Which you can see for yourself right now because it just pulled up.”
I nuzzled into her neck and whispered, “Are you ready to head out? I can figure out a way to stall everyone from looking outside if you need me to.”
“I’m good to go,” she murmured.
I pressed a quick kiss to her lips and led her to the front doors. When we got there, I called out, “Alright, everybody! It’s time to get this party on the road.”
We were a few feet ahead of the crowd as we moved down the sidewalk and rounded the corner to the parking lot. Ariana had told me she was going to decorate the party bus as a way to share our big news with everyone. I thought she meant she was going to put streamers and balloons or something like that inside of it. But I’d seriously misjudged my fiancée because she’d practically wrapped the entire bus in pink and blue vehicle graphics. “Holy shit, gorgeous. The entire city’s going to know I knocked you up by the end of the night.”
“Tattoos, wedding rings, party bus decorations that’ll go down in history, and a baby in my belly. I think we’re doing a hell of a job marking our territory.” I kissed the tip of each finger she raised along the way.
“Oh my God! You’re pregnant!” Alessia screamed as the group caught up with us.
"Congrats, man. I couldn’t be happier for you,” Alec clapped me on the back while our women hugged each other, crying.
Each of our guests stopped to offer their congratulations before they climbed onto the bus. Josie and Andrew were the last of the bunch. When we were about to get on the bus, my best friend murmured, “Alessia skipping the tattoo makes sense now, but the party bus just catapulted you into weirdest bachelor party ever territory.”
“My engagement ring is on her finger, my wedding band is soon to follow, and my baby is in her belly.” I flashed him a shit-eating grin. “A unique bachelor party surrounded by the people we love is a small price to pay for the beauty she brings to my world.”
Epilogue 2
Ariana
Four Years Later
“I’m so sorry we’re late,” I apologized, shoving a princess cake into my sister’s hands as soon as she opened the door to her house. “Getting the family ready to go and out the door was nearly impossible. And then it took forever at the bakery because Amelia desperately needed to sample the cupcakes.”
We walked into the kitchen, and my sister looked down at my three-year-old daughter’s icing-covered
mouth and handed me a wipe. “I totally understand. Adele had a serious case of cake envy after Lilly’s birthday party, which is how I ended up ordering the princess cake for today in the first place.”
“And my baby girl got the idea from Julia’s birthday party, so we’ve all been there. Cake emergencies are serious,” Cee-Cee added as she was opening the package of princess themed paper plates and napkins.
“Sorry, guys. When I ordered that cake, I had no idea the ripple effect it would have on all the girls,” Josie laughed as she dumped forks and spoons into a bright pink basket.
“Don’t count the boys out of the equation.” Mark carried our eighteen-month-old son in his arms. The icing from the cupcake Morgan devoured wasn’t just on his face, it was all over his hands and shirt—and Mark’s shirt, too.
Luckily, I had a change of clothes for Morgan in the diaper bag. And Mark’s clothing situation had an easy fix, too. “Can Mark borrow one of Alec’s shirts?”
“Sure, go upstairs to get Morgan cleaned up and changed. And while you’re up there, pick out whatever you want from the closet,” Alessia offered.
“Will do.” He gave me a quick kiss and bent low to do the same with our daughter. “Mmm, I still taste frosting on your cheek, princess. You better go into the bathroom and wash up before you go outside and join the rest of the girls.”
“Okay, Daddy,” Amelia agreed sweetly, flashing both of us a happy grin before running to the bathroom to do as her daddy asked.
“If I’d asked her to wash up, it would’ve been a battle to get her to do it,” I grumbled. “Your princess is such a daddy’s girl.”
“Amelia’s full of sass, just like you were when we were little.” I turned to glare at my sister. “Hey! It’s not my fault you were so sassy.”
“It’s okay, gorgeous. You’ve got Morgan and me wrapped around your finger,” Mark comforted me as he lifted our son in the air and blew a raspberry on his belly. “Doesn’t she, Morgan?”
Our son’s answer was a squeal of delight that made all of us smile.
“You’d better hurry up and get out there,” Alessia suggested. “The men are in charge of all the kids for the next thirty minutes, and they can use all the help they can get.”
Mark headed upstairs with Morgan, and Amelia streaked past us to run outside and join her cousin and friends. While Josie chatted with Cee-Cee, my sister and I moved to the French doors and looked out at the crowd milling around in the backyard. Family and friends had gathered to celebrate my niece’s birthday. It was such a happy occasion, but in that moment I couldn’t help but feel the gap left behind by one person. “It’s times like these that I miss Mom the most and wish she could’ve pulled her shit together so she could see how amazing her grandchildren are.”
My sister’s hand reached for mine. “Me, too.”
“But then I look into Amelia and Morgan’s eyes, and I know I’d do anything in the world to keep a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, and clothes on their backs,” I sighed. “I just don’t understand why she and Dad couldn’t have done the same for us.”
Becoming a parent had made me fiercely protective—and made it easier to close the door on any potential relationship with our mom. Or my dad, if he ever tried to pop back into our lives.
“Maybe it’s because it’s made us value the people in our lives even more. Our husbands. Our children. Friends who’ve become family.” She squeezed my hand. “Each other.”
Bachelorette parties, spur-of-the-moment Vegas weddings, sleazy bookies, and gambling debts. It had all played a part in the crazy path that brought us here...and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
The Bachelorette Party series also includes crossover from characters in my Blythe College series. If you haven’t read those books yet, you can start off with Push the Envelope, the first book in that series, for free right now! (As of September 2018)
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Also by Rochelle Paige
BLYTHE COLLEGE SERIES
Push the Envelope
Hit the Wall
Summer Nights (novella duo)
Outside the Box
Winter Wedding (novella)
BACHELORETTE PARTY SERIES
Sucked Into Love
Checked Into Love
Married Into Love
Mixed Into Love
Slapped Into Love
CRISIS SERIES
Identity Crisis
Protection Crisis
FATED MATES SERIES
Black River Pack:
Crying Wolf
Shoot for the Moon
Thrown to the Wolves
McMahon Clan:
Bear the Consequences
Bear It All
Bear the Burden
Bear Your Fate
Ask for the Moon
About the Author
I absolutely adore reading—always have and always will. When I was growing up, my friends used to tease me when I would trail after them, trying to read and walk at the same time. If I have downtime, odds are you will find me reading or writing.
I am the mother of two wonderful sons who have inspired me to chase my dream of being an author. I want them to learn from me that you can live your dream as long as you are willing to work for it.
Connect with me online:
www.rochellepaige.com
Chased into Love (Bachelorette Party Book 4) Page 12