I looked over to Lyric and the other cops waiting. “Don’t they want to go?”
Lyric joined the conversation. “It’s two at a time. You guys go first and then you can see Gemma and the baby. That way your man can get you home and you can stop worrying. I know you’re tired.”
That was sweet. I thanked Lyric, and once again with my hand clasped in Paxton’s, headed down the hall to see my friends. Not only was Gemma my friend but Bronson now held a very special place in my heart.
As we walked down the hall, I told my soon-to-be husband something I was determined to tell him every single day because you never knew from one to the next what could happen.
“I love you,” I said softly.
He glanced over as we moved as one toward the room Bronson had just been put in.
“I love you too, darlin’.”
ChapterThirty
PAXTON
“Breathe, dude, before you turn blue,”Bodie said.
A gush of air burst from my lungs on his command. I wasn’t having second thoughts, I wasn’t nervous, I just couldn’t wait another second to make Capri my wife.
It was still an hour until we said our vows and I was going out of my mind.
We’d planned to get married in mid-March after Gemma had her baby but when the baby came early and the drive-by happened, we pushed it out to mid-April to give everyone more time to recoup.
As I stood at the kitchen island in Bodie and Gemma’s house, impatiently waiting until I could go claim my bride, I smiled at the memory of Capri’s cute as hell pout on her face when the girls told her we had to sleep separately the night before. The girls convinced her it would make the moment we saw each other more breathtaking.
It still killed me to sleep away from her because we hadn’t done that since the break in at her bakery. I was also terrified for her safety, but I was right next door at Bodie’s and the girls all stayed with her at our place. Of course we had a phenomenal security system and they had protection inside, complements of Lyric and Bronson.
Bronson had been recovering well and was still willing to help us. In fact, Capri may have deemed him her new best friend. She was bound and determined to get to the bottom of the girl named Lake, thinking she could create a love connection. Or maybe even a second chance from what she saw in the other woman’s eyes the night she saw Bronson on that stretcher. I knew she’d enlist the other ladies to help.
I should’ve probably been jealous as fuck that my fiancée was gushing over another man, but I owed the guy everything. He saved the woman I loved and my child. Capri bonded with him and I was okay with that because I knew without a doubt it was me that held her heart.
“You going to make it another forty-five minutes?” Kace asked, as he slapped his hand down on my shoulder and brought my attention back to the guys in the room.
I had to restrain myself from rolling my eyes at him like a girl when I heard his teasing tone and turned to see the smirk on his face.
“You can’t tell me you couldn’t wait to marry Teal. All you fuckers are head-over-heels in love and probably were in my shoes before so shut the hell up.”
My voice was teasing right back and they all roared with laughter.
“Touché,” Kace replied.
“And on that note,” Gyth said as he started pouring shots of whiskey. “Let’s toast to the newly fallen lovesick man of the group.”
“To Paxton,” everyone said in unison, before tossing back the amber-colored liquid.
“Just a bit longer, buddy,” Braxton said. “Just wait until you see her, the anticipation will have been worth it.”
I looked around the room at the guys that were there. Braxton, Gyth, Landon, Kace, Rowan, and Bodie. They all had expressions on their faces as if they remembered exactly the moment they said, “I Do.”
Fuck, I was looking forward to that moment.
* * *
The girls had been right.
With not seeing Capri the night before and the anticipation that had built during that time, my adrenaline had spiked as I waited for her to appear. The second my eyes landed on her, my heart started pounding, and it felt like I was a live bomb about to explode but I managed a smile for her.
