“I hope you’re proud of yourself.” Dad grunted. “Waltzing in here, declaring that you’ve gotten married, and destroying everything that I’ve been working on. All I wanted was you to have a good life, Charlies.”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I wrapped my arms around Jones and pulled him against me. “It’s okay, Bashful.”
“Has anything you’ve ever told me true? Did you even love me?” Alice asked, and when my father didn’t answer, I felt Jones tremble against me. “You can’t even look at me now. Wow... I guess that explains everything.”
Dad shook his head. “I tried, okay? I tried to love you and give you a home that made you happy. Give you things that made you smile. I never expected Jones and Charles to...” He waved a hand in the air. “End up like this.”
“You’re an asshole,” Kit announced. “And if you ever threaten me or my boyfriend again, I will feed you to the sharks.” He grabbed Ollie’s hand. “Let’s go. I can’t even look at this asshole’s face anymore.”
Jones untangled himself from my grip. “Charlie? Can we go home now?”
“Yeah, Bashful, we can do that,” I murmured.
He glanced over at his mother. “Mama, do you want to come with us?”
“Oh, sweetie, I don’t want to interrupt your honeymoon.” Alice smiled at him, her hazel eyes full of tears. “And we’re going to talk about you getting married without me, but not today.” She met my gaze. “Take care of my son, Charlie.”
I nodded. “That’s my plan, ma’am. For the rest of my life,” I assured her.
Chapter Fourty
Jones
I stared at the television, my head on Charlie’s lap and his fingers in my hair. Tonight, actually happened. We told his father that we were married, and now, well, we were going to have to wait. Wait for his retaliation. Wait to see what he did to try to break us up again. If that meant he was going to ruin Charlie’s career, his life. And that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted us to have a future racing together, and that might not happen now. And I was terrified about what would happen to Mama. She had given up everything to marry Remi. I wouldn’t let her go back to working at the diner. I would take care of her. She deserved the world.
“You’re quiet, Bashful,” Charlie commented, his hand stilling on my head. “Are you having second thoughts about things?”
I sat up to stare at him. “What? No. Are you?” Fear niggled into my gut at the thought of that. What if Charlie decided he wasn’t willing to give everything up for me? That he didn’t want to be with me?
“Jonesy,” Charlie murmured. “I have a lot of regrets, but you are not one of them,” he assured me and pulled me into his lap. “Ghosting you, yes, but marrying you? Never ever.”
I sighed happily and wrapped my arms around his neck. “The press is going to have a field day with this.”
“We should probably tell our PR people before it gets out. I mean, wedding certificates are public information, and if someone were to go snooping, they would find it.”
“Can we wait just a little longer? I like this bubble we’re in. It’s safe.”
Charlie chuckled softly. “We can wait, but I want to be able to walk into that garage next week holding your hand, so that everyone can see we’re together. That you’re my husband. I don’t want to remove my ring and pretend I don’t know you. That I haven’t been inside of you.”
“Me, too,” I whispered. “We’re on opposing teams. That’s going to be a lot of speculation. That I’m telling you things.”
Charlie pressed his mouth against mine. “That what? You’re giving insider information?”
“It’s possible.” He gripped my head with his big hands. “People are going to gossip.”
I giggled. “This week. Next week, it will be someone else. I’m not worried about it. I mean, they have been talking about me a lot more since the accident with Holt, but something else will take the conversation away from us.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Duh, I’m always right.”
Charlie laughed loud and hard. “Is that the way it’s going to be, Bashful?”
“Yep,” I teased and then squealed when Charlie stood up with me in his arms. “Don’t drop me.” I wrapped my legs around his waist.
Charlie kissed me softly. “I promise that I will never drop you, Jonesy. I will protect you until my last breath.”
“I love you,” I whispered.
