I run my fingers through her hair and cup her nape. “Just a happy-birthday drink with the folks. Now that Pops is in better spirits, they wanted to wish you a happy birthday too.”
She grins wide. “Well, why didn’t you say so? Come on, let’s not keep them waiting.” She opens the door, and Rachel is right there, ready for anything.
Nate walks around the back of the SUV before I can maneuver out. Even though the paps aren’t staking out the place every second, I’m a little surprised to not see any creeping out of the bushes since they must know it’s her birthday.
Not wanting to push our good fortune, I rush forward to the front door and pull it open for Skyler. The second she walks in everyone in our private party screams, “Surprise!”
Skyler stops in her tracks and puts her hands up to her face, covering her mouth. She spins on her high shoes and loses her balance but I’m right there to catch her.
“You did this? A surprise party? For me?”
I tip my head down and look at her teary eyes. Not at all what I expected for a happy occasion. “Baby, what’s the matter?”
She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth as another couple of tears slip down her pretty cheeks. I hook her around the neck and bring her face into my chest. She cries there silently, and I let her as our friends look on, concerned.
“Sky, what’s wrong?”
She presses her nose into my chest harder and moves her head back and forth before eventually pulling it out. I keep her tucked close but far enough away I can look into her eyes.
“I haven’t had a birthday party since I was five and my parents were alive. We never had the time when I was working, and I didn’t have any real friends, and then they were . . . you know . . . gone.”
“Are you uncomfortable?” I whisper. “I’ll turn us both around and tell them I’m not feeling well, and we’ll get the hell out and have a private date, just you and me.”
She shakes her head and pats my chest. “No, I’m okay. Happy. Really happy. Just taken aback by all the love.”
I grin wide and loop my hand around her waist, turning her toward everyone. “My girl just got a little choked up at how amazing you all are for coming. Now who in this place can hook us up with a drink? Get that music going; it’s time to celebrate!”
Our friends and family clap and cheer while Baylee hits the remote for the jukebox to start playing. The first song up is Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You.”
I grab Skyler’s hand and push her out, twist her around and back against my chest, before dipping her in front of everyone and giving her a sloppy kiss.
She kisses me through her laughter but enjoys it nonetheless. I swing her back up, and she’s grinning wildly.
“Love you, honey.”
I nuzzle her nose and kiss it. “Love you more, Peaches.” I run my hand down to her ass and give it a playful smack. “Go say hi to our friends and family.”
She hops out of my arms and claps, then screeches when she sees Wendy and Mick across the room. “Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re here! You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon!”
Wendy opens her arms and runs toward Sky. “Can’t miss my best friend’s surprise birthday party. Parker got ahold of Mick, and he fired up the jet. Said we needed to make a pit stop in our travels for a couple of days, and here we are!”
“I’m so happy you’re here.” Skyler looks around at everyone, awe filling her expression. “I’m so happy you all are here. This is the best birthday ever!”
Knew with my girl simple was better. I just hope the next surprise is just as exciting, but I’ll hold out for a bit to let her get loose, have some fun, eat, and hang out with our friends.
While Skyler greets everyone, I see a pair of chocolate-brown eyes I adore waiting for me across the bar. I make my way over to Sophie and Gabriel. I hold my arms out, and she comes into them easily. Her sugar-and-spice scent fills my nose, and I breathe it in.
“SoSo,” I say softly. “Glad you’re here. I missed you.”
She hugs me tight, eases back, and double kisses my cheeks. “You are quite dashing this evening, mon cher. Love looks good on you.” She smiles sweetly and cups my cheek.
I smile and take in her long, dark hair, familiar face, and rosy cheeks. “As it does on you, my sweet.”
Sophie hums and turns toward her fiancé, who’s standing a few feet behind us, watchful yet respectful, as I have come to expect from him.
“Must have something to do with your fella.” I keep one hand locked around my friend as I hold out my other hand to Gabriel. “Gabe, always a pleasure.”
He takes my hand and shakes it. “Any occasion we can spend with Sophie’s extended family is a good one.”
Extended family.
I look around the room and realize, yes, we are an extended, big family, one that has come together over time and circumstance, but our bonds are solid, unbreakable. We’ve chosen to be together, and I believe we’re better as a group than any one person apart.
“Congratulations on securing our girl here.” I jiggle Sophie in my arms a little for emphasis.
Sophie pats my chest playfully.
“The same for you, I hear. It’s all over France.” Gabriel lifts his chin, clearly proud that he’s following American celebrity gossip. After our dinner together in Paris, Sophie introduced Gabe to American blockbuster movies. He felt a little embarrassed he hadn’t heard of Skyler, so they now subscribe to several American celebrity rags and read through the bits about Skyler and me. And Sophie is constantly calling to verify whether or not something is true. It seems she hasn’t exactly picked up on the fact that most of what she reads is bullshit. Since I like hearing from her, I play along.
Eventually I take my leave of Sophie and Gabe while they chat it up with Bo. I catch Baylee at her usual station.
“Hey, Baylee, shouldn’t you be enjoying the party, not behind the bar working? You do that most days, right?”
Baylee licks her lips and nods. She’s a very beautiful woman with wide sky-blue eyes and incredible waves of honey-brown-colored hair that are hanging down to her lower back. I usually don’t see her hair down, and it’s a damn shame. It’s gorgeous.
I glance down her body and note she’s back to wearing the simple jeans and shapeless male Lucky’s T-shirt. “You know, we can swing for some Lucky’s shirts in a female cut if you’d like.”
She glances behind me, her gaze going to where Bo and Sophie are before she looks away again. “Let me, uh, get you a drink. Gin and tonic?”
“That would be great. Thanks.”
She nods and goes to get the gin, but the bottle is superhigh, which has her reaching her long body up to get the bottle. I’m about to look away when I notice something weird about her jeans. At the front they’re unclasped but still held together with a rubber band looped through the hole and around the button as if it’s to give her an extra inch or two at the waist.
Weird.
Baylee gets the drink made and passes it to me alongside a glass of champagne for the birthday girl.
“What about you?” I gesture to the glasses.
“I can’t drink. Um . . . I mean, I’m not drinking tonight.”
“Okay, well, thank you.”
Before I leave, Baylee reaches for my arm and stops me. “Um, quick question. Is Bo in a relationship with Geneva or, um, that other brunette?”
Fuck. And this is why you don’t sleep with your coworkers.
I shake my head. “Bo doesn’t do relationships. He has fun with, uh, friends. Geneva is a friend, and Sophie is marrying Gabriel, the man who’s standing off to the side.”
Baylee plucks at her shirt, pulling it down over her waist. “Ah, okay. Thanks. Um, have fun tonight, Parker.”
Everything about the encounter is disconcerting and something I need to talk to Sky or Bo about. Maybe both. I don’t want to get involved in Baylee’s personal life, but why would she wear jeans that don’t fit and make a point to try and hide it? And seco
nd, she’s asking after Bo like a girl who’s interested in more than the one-night stand they had. This does not bode well for any of our futures if she gets hung up on Bo. He is not the relationship type. Far from it.
I walk over to my girl and hand her the glass of champagne.
“Ohhh yummy! Thank you, honey.” She takes the glass and clinks it with mine. We both look in one another’s eyes as we take a sip.
“Happy birthday, baby.”
“Best. Birthday. Ever,” she responds excitedly.
I shake my head and kiss her cheek. “You’re too easy to please. My father’s bar, our family, friends, and you act like I just hung the moon.”
My girl wraps her arms around my neck, her glass in one of her hands as she kisses me. “Maybe to me, Parker, you did hang the moon. I can’t think of anything better than this moment.”
“Oh yeah?”
She smiles. “Yeah.”
I shrug and purse my lips together. “I think I can top it.”
Skyler giggles. “I doubt it. My man, friends, family, booze. And I can smell the roasting pork. What more could a girl like me want on her birthday?”
“You’ll see . . .” I smirk and turn sideways. “Everyone, may I have your attention? Baylee, the music, please.”
The music cuts out, and everyone turns toward where I’m holding Skyler. “First of all, I want to thank you all for coming. Second, I couldn’t think of a better way to show the woman of my dreams how much I love and adore her.”
I set my drink down on the table in front of me, grab both of Skyler’s hands, and drop down to one knee.
11
SKYLER
“Oh my goodness! You’re going to . . .” I look at all of the people watching Parker down on one knee in front of me. “Yep, you’re doing it now.” I stomp my foot. “I thought I’d be prepared!” The tears prick my eyes for the second time tonight.
“Relax, baby, and go with it.” He grins.
“I love you so much!” I blurt, and our friends laugh.
“Sky, baby, you gotta let your man do this right. Be quiet and listen to me!” Parker aims that heart-melting smile my way, and I swoon all over again.
My hands feel heavy in his, but my body is light as air. If he weren’t holding me to earth, I’d float away on a cloud of bliss.
“Skyler, you shocked the hell out of me when you asked me to marry you on national television. As you know, I was worried you weren’t ready, that you might want to get married in order to replace the hurts you suffered recently. I know now that was stupid.”
“Yeah it was!” Bo shouts alongside a couple of catcalls.
“Anyway, I realized with my time away from you that, for one, I hate being away from you. I want to spend every day of my life waking up to you. Every night falling asleep with you by my side. And I want to do those things not as your man but as your husband. The man who’s meant to protect and love you for as long as we both are breathing.”
“Honey . . .” I want to share in the gift of his words. “I want those things too.”
“Good, because you’re gonna be mine. I’m not asking you to marry me; I’m telling you, baby, you have no choice. You’re it for me, and I’m it for you. Fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it, decided the minute you opened the door in your underwear.” He grins wide. “Kidding.”
Embarrassment floods my cheeks with heat as everyone chuckles. “It was a misunderstanding!” I say to everyone else, but feel my fingers being squeezed so that my attention goes back to my guy, on his knees at my feet.
“Skyler Paige Lumpkin, you’ve always been my dream girl. You will always be my dream girl. I will do my best to give you an incredible life. In front of all the people we love the most, I’d be humbled and honored if you’d agree to be my wife. Will you marry me?”
He pulls out an aqua box with a white ribbon on the top. I’d recognize that Tiffany brand anywhere.
My throat clogs up as he opens the top, and inside is the thinnest band of diamonds meeting in the center where an emerald-cut diamond sits delicately. The stone seems huge to me, with no real experience to compare it to, and it sparkles like a full moon on a dark night.
I gasp and reach out my finger to touch the stone but pull back at the last second, almost afraid to get burned it’s shining so bright.
“Yes. As long as you always remember that I asked you first!”
Parker laughs while pulling out the ring and placing it on my left hand. He leans forward and kisses the stone. “No going back. It’s you and me against the world. From here on out.”
I smile so wide my cheeks hurt. “It’s the only way I would have it.”
“Kiss the girl already, you fool!” Randy Ellis hollers out.
Parker stands and glares over his shoulder. “I’m getting there!”
Then my man wraps his arms around me and kisses me so fully I forget where we are, and I lift my leg, wrapping it around his thigh in order to get my lower half closer to every dreamy part of him.
“That’s enough!” Cathy calls out. “Hoo-boy. If they keep going at this rate, I’m going to be getting grandbabies before the wedding takes place. Praise the good Lord above!”
Parker snort-laughs against my mouth and pulls back enough to speak against my lips. “She’s already talking about grandkids.”
I shrug. “You know I’m game.”
He kisses me hard once more. “I’m thinking when the A-Lister movies finish up, it’s something we can talk about.” Parker dips his lips to my neck and inhales deeply. “I want you all to myself for a little while if that’s okay.”
He’s not saying no. He’s saying a couple of years from now. “That I can handle. Though I plan to talk about it . . . a lot, mister!” I poke his chest playfully.
“Speaking of having babies, when you due, pumpkin?” Momma Sterling gestures across the room.
I turn around and realize she’s got her eyes locked on Baylee, who’s behind the bar, wide eyed, fingers kneading a bar towel as though it’s a pound of dough.
“Um . . .”
“Oh please, no hidin’ from me.” Momma Sterling keeps going. “You’ve looked green since we got here. You keep running off to the bathroom, and every time someone mentions the pork, you make a gagging sound. Mm-hmm. That will pass, pumpkin. I know morning sickness. It don’t last forever, child.”
Baylee’s mouth drops open, and she grabs for the bar, maybe to hold herself up.
Momma Sterling is relentless as she lifts her hand and points a perfectly painted red acrylic nail in Baylee’s direction and swirls her finger in a circle. “And that little trick you’re using on your pants, to widen them at the waist because your stomach’s gettin’ too big but you’re not quite ready for maternity clothes. Sho’ been there. Done that. What, you about ten to twelve weeks?”
Bo’s chair scratches across the wood floor, sounding unusually loud. He stomps up to the bar and stares Baylee down. “Is this true? Are you pregnant?”
A tear slips down Baylee’s cheek, and it is not one of happiness.
Ho-lee shit!
“Is it mine? We fucked on Christmas Eve.” He waves his hand. “Someone tell me how long ago that was.”
“Twelve weeks! I know because I got pregnant on New Year’s Eve. So I’m eleven weeks. Yay, we can be prego sisters!” Wendy claps.
Bo lifts up a hand behind him to shut Wendy up without even looking at her.
“I asked you a question. Are you pregnant?”
Cathy gasps and holds her hands over her mouth.
Baylee’s eyes grow wide as she glances around the room, looking at everyone but Bo. He slams his hand down against the bar, and she jumps back, covering her stomach and her face at the same time.
Shit. She’s scared.
I move out of Parker’s arms, but he tries to hold me back. “Sky, no. This is none of our business.”
I shove his arms down. “She’s scared out of her mind!” I strut on my wedges over to the side of the b
ar, lift the latch, and go to Baylee. I loop my arm around her waist. “Sweetheart, we’re all family here. You don’t have anything to fear.”
“Are. You. Pregnant. With. My. Fucking. Child!” Bo grates, his tone rising with every word. “I don’t give a shit if you’re scared. I have a goddamned right to know!”
Momma Sterling stands up. “Bogart, you better stop right there, or I’m gonna knock some sense into you, boy. You’re frightening the poor thing. Calm down and let her speak, son.”
Baylee’s body shakes uncontrollably in my arms, but she nods her head up and down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. D-don’t h-hurt me,” she stutters, and the tears flow down her cheeks in buckets.
Hurt her?
“Oh Lord, dear child.” Momma Sterling’s voice dips in understanding as she shakes her head.
Bo backs up one step at a time until he runs right into Parker, who puts a hand to his neck. Next to him Royce curls a hand around his shoulder.
“Brother, it will be okay. We’ll hash this out. All is well,” Royce reassures him, his tone steady and calming.
Bo’s mouth twists into a snarl. “All is not well. I’m going to be a father. A goddamned piece-of-shit father I never wanted to be.” He lifts a hand up toward Baylee. “This shouldn’t have happened. It never should have happened.”
“I’m, I’m so sorry!” Baylee sobs as she pulls out of my arms, then rushes through the opening at the end of the bar and out the front door.
Kendra gets up and takes off after her.
Bo drops his head to stare at his boots. His shoulders slump, and his hands hang in fists at his sides. He looks destroyed.
“Come on, man, let’s get you a shot . . . or four.” Parker leads Bo over to the bar, and I spin around and pick a bottle of Patrón, grabbing a glass and setting him up with a double. Before I can even cap the bottle he’s already slammed it back.
“Another,” he rumbles. I fill that up, and he repeats it. “Again.”
“I don’t think—” I start to warn him off. He’s already had two doubles.
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