Next to me, Jameson chuckled. “You’ve finally tied the knot. About fucking time. Don’t let her get away.”
I never took my eyes off of my wife. “I won’t,” I promised.
“Good,” my friend replied. “I see a brunette over there who looks a little lonely. Maybe I’ll find wife number four tonight.”
“Thank you.” I squeezed his shoulder in gratitude.
He nodded, understanding that I still wasn’t a man of too many words when it came to others besides my wife.
“Thank you,” he replied, jokingly. “I’m about to get lucky tonight because of you.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
With a shake of my head, I wrapped an arm around Jameson and slapped him on the shoulder before watching him go off.
I surveyed the over a hundred guests who came to celebrate with us. Most of them were focused on the dance floor, watching Mia and her father. I dipped my head at Damon Richmond who sat with his wife, Sandra. He’d become a friend as well through his friendship with Joshua and his underground fighting club. Beside Damon and his wife, sat Connor O’Brien and his wife, Resha. Both also an important part of the Townsend extended family.
At the same table as Connor and Damon was Connor’s younger brother, Mark, with his wife. I raised my champagne flute at the table and all of the men did the same to me.
Family.
I once thought the Townsends were just a job—the family I worked for. But they’d become my family.
I let that sink in before I turned my attention back to my wife and father-in-law. My father was right, she was glowing. And it had nothing to do with the spotlight on her. She shined naturally. But in the white, floor-length, satin gown, with her hair swept up in an intricate braided crown around her head, and the ebullient smile on her face, she appeared as if she floated in mid-air.
There was another reason for her glow as well. One we had yet to confess to our families. But it was the glow that came with a bundle of joy at the end of nine months. Just thinking about Mia carrying my child had my smile growing wider.
“You look like the cat who ate the rabbit,” Tyler said as he and his brothers strolled up beside me.
“The canary,” Carter corrected his younger brother with a roll of his eyes.
“What the fuck ever.”
Chuckling, I shook my head but kept my eyes on Mia. I couldn’t tear them away.
“He’s not going to tell us,” Joshua said.
“We know anyway,” Aaron added.
That caught my attention. I spared them a look. “Know what?”
Carter chuckled, and Aaron’s lips twitched, which was as much of a smile I’d get out of him.
“We’re all familiar with that glow.” Tyler dipped his head toward Mia.
“Looks like the ladies will have another baby shower to plan,” Joshua said.
“No shit!” my father said, surprised. “Is she really—”
“Shshsh, shut up,” I bark-whispered at him. “If she finds out anyone knows before we tell them, she’ll wring my damn neck.”
“Our lips are sealed,” Carter promised. “God knows we’ve kept a hell of a lot worse secrets than a pregnancy,” he murmured.
All of the men snorted in agreement, including me. I’d kept theirs for years, and they held on to mine.
The night Taggert kidnapped Mia, Aaron and Joshua had somehow gotten his beaten and battered dead body back into the car. Within seconds of them doing so, the vehicle erupted in flames. The ambulance had arrived before the police and fire departments. By the time they came, flames had engulfed Taggert’s car with his body inside, and Mia and I were in the ambulance to the hospital.
Taggert had blamed me for the downfall of his life. Not only had he lost his livelihood, but the numerous affairs he had came to light in addition to the fact that he’d driven his family into hundreds of dollars’ worth of debt, trying to keep up his fake lifestyle for his mistresses.
His wife left him and took their children. As she should have. All of that was his doing, but he failed to hold himself responsible for any of it. And the bitch paid with his life.
