“What?” I sit up a little.
“I’m all wet.” She looks down between us. “Like, wetter than normal.”
“You bring out the best in me, princess,” I say. I laugh and she does, too, which pushes me out of her. “Let’s take a quick shower.”
I take her into the bathroom and wash her quickly, and she gets out and gets dressed while I shower, and then she fixes her hair and makeup while I get dressed. Tonight is going to be about the reality show, so we all need to look our parts. I wear ripped jeans and a white tank top with the Reed logo on it. My brothers will be dressed similarly. Friday will be her Friday self.
I take Reagan’s hand and we walk out of our room as husband and wife.
Sam is standing beside a cab with his suitcase. My heart falls. “You’re not leaving already, are you?” I ask.
He hugs me quickly and kisses Reagan. “I have to get back. Love you guys,” he says. He gets in the cab, and waves at us all the way down the drive.
Friday
I’m wearing tall heels and a short dress, and Paul can’t seem to take his eyes off my legs. “If you bend over like that one more time, I won’t be responsible for my actions,” he taunts. The crowd loves our banter. He finishes up the tat he’s working on and I take the microphone from the stand.
“Hello, North Carolina!” I yell. The crowd, which is held back by guards and partitions, goes wild. “I hope you guys can indulge me, because I have a little thing I want to do with Paul.”
Paul grins. “My thing is not little,” he calls out. The crowd titters.
“Well, Carolina,” I say. I have their attention. That’s good. “My husband just happens to have his ex’s name tattooed on his lower belly.”
Boos bellow out.
“So, today, I think I should cover that shit up. What do you think?” I hold the microphone out and the crowd goes crazy. I look at my husband. “What do you say, big guy? Do you trust me?”
I do tats in the shop all the time, now, and I do admit that I have an eye for it. It’s art. Just the permanent kind.
“You want to cover up my tattoo?” Paul says loudly.
“Yes.” I look at the crowd. “Her name is much too close to your dick.”
He walks toward me and I lift the edge of his shirt so the crowd can see it.
They start to chant. “Cover it up! Cover it up!”
The crew pushes a table to the front of the stage, where I’ve already set all my equipment up.
“How long have you been planning this?” Paul mutters to me.
“About five minutes,” I say with cheek. Truly, I’ve been planning it ever since I saw that stupid brand on his belly.
“Are you going to put frogs or something on me? Or skulls?”
“Do you trust me?” I ask.
He kisses me. “I do.” He pulls his shirt over his head and I pop the top button on his jeans. The crowd screams and yells. He lies down and exposes the area, and I clean it up and shave him down.
“Want me to go a little lower?” I ask the crowd, holding my razor near his balls.
He grabs my wrist. “You can do that later, if you want.”
The crowd laughs.
I put on my gear and get my colors together. I had already made the transfer. Logan helped me with it yesterday, so I put it on Paul’s skin. He looks down like he wants to see it, but I push his chin back up so that he’s lying flat.
“No peeking,” I say.
He looks up and rolls his eyes. “Do your worst,” he says.
I spent a lot of time drawing this. It’s my name in gothic letters. Well, my Friday name. The one I gave myself. Paul is the only one who knows my real name.
I ink it into his skin. When I’m done, I hold up a mirror so he can see it.
He frowns. “Well, that’s not very original,” he says. He looks at me.
I take the mirror away so that he has to look down on it from above. “Oh, holy hell,” he says.
When he looks down, he sees the anagram from the other direction, and it reads my real name. Only he can see it, and that’s how I want it. Janet. When he looks down at it, he sees the name Janet, but when everyone else looks at it, they’ll see Friday, which is what I want them to see. Paul is the only one who knows all my secrets, and I want it to stay that way.
He grabs me and kisses me hard. The crowd goes wild. “I love you so fucking much,” he says against my lips. “Thanks for letting me love you.”
I kiss him back. “I love you too.”
Now Kelly is gone from his body. She’ll never be gone from his life, since they share a daughter, but she now knows that we’re rock-solid and we always will be. It’s not because of the tattoo; it’s just because of the way I love him. And the way he loves me.
“Who’s next?” Paul calls out.
Paul takes someone to his table and I take someone to mine. I grin at him and he winks back at me.
All I had to do was let him fucking love me, because my loving him was unavoidable.
***
Four hours later, we get the call. The call that has the potential to change our lives forever.
Sam. Sam, who was going back to get ready to play ball. Sam, who stayed long enough to see Pete married, when he should have gone back two days ago. Sam. Their brother.
We pack up as quickly as we can and go to him. All we know is that his future is not certain, and we’re scared senseless. Sam.
Paul’s knee jerks in the cab. We left Henry to return the vehicles to the rental company and to return the kids he came with.
Paul’s a nervous wreck. His phone rings. His hand is shaking too much to answer it. I take his phone, answer it, and listen for a minute. “He’s okay,” I say over the top of the phone. My heart stutters.
Paul lets his head fall back against the seat and blows out a breath.
“He got a nasty bump on the head and broke something.” I hang up the phone when I lose the connection. “Terrible fucking signal out here.”
He jerks his head up. “What did he break?”
“They didn’t say. And the call dropped.”
“You didn’t ask?” he barks at me.
“I was too busy counting my blessings that he’s alive, asshole,” I say. I throw his phone at him.
He reaches over and takes my hand and squeezes it. I let him, because I know he’s hurting. And he’s scared.
“He’s okay?” Paul asks.
“He’s okay,” I say again.
But we don’t know anything about what happened, yet. We won’t know anything until we get there.
The Reed Brothers Series
Tall, Tatted, and Tempting
Smart, Sexy, and Secretive
Calmly, Carefully, Completely
Just Jellybeans and Jealousy
Finally Finding Faith
Reagan’s Revenge and Ending Emily’s Engagement
Maybe Matt’s Miracle
Proving Paul’s Promise
Only One
Beautiful Bride
Zip, Zero, Zilch
Copyright © 2014 by Tammy Falkner
Beautiful Bride
First Edition
Night Shift Publishing
Cover design by Tammy Falkner
Cover photo by © Monkey Business Images | Dreamstime.com
ISBN-13: 9781634550031
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Tammy Falkner, Beautiful Bride
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