“My bad,” he carefully cut a thick slice of the cake and transferred it to a plate, placing it in front ofher.
When he stared at her instead of cutting more slices for himself or his father, she nudged him on. “Go on, finish serving the cake. I’ll wait foryou.”
“Right, right.” Arthur made haste of cutting two other slices and placing them in front of Tristan andhimself.
Both played with their dessert, while watching her. “You’re freaking me out. What’s going onhere?”
“Mom, will you please eat your cake? Likenow?”
She was indeed in her menstrual period and those guys were playing with fire. She rolled her eyes and muttered through gritted teeth, “Fine!” Her fork stopped its descending movement midway through her slice. She glanced at Tristan and Arthur and found out their stares were glued to face. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. What have you twodone?”
Tristan’s lips curved in amusement. “Son, your mother sucks at romance.” He poked her slice of cake with his fork, dismantling the thing, until a red box emerged from the brown ruins. He winked. “There.Happy?”
Speechless, she bounced her gaze between the two men she loved themost.
Tristan opened the box to reveal the most exquisite Claddagh ring she had ever seen. A large red diamond in the shape of a heart, held in place by two golden hands, and crowned by an emerald flanked by two whitediamonds.
Izzie’s hand flew to her mouth as she fought tears and gasped for air. She cut her stare to Tristan, on one knee beside her chair. “Will you make me the luckiest bastard in the world? Will you be mywife?”
“Fuck yeah.” She pounced on him, knocking him off balance, and they tumbled to the floor, laughing. Mouths locked in a passionate kiss, fingers pulling hair, and legsintertwined.
“Ew, guys. Kid in the room here.” Arthur’s voice broke through her daze, and Izzie chuckled inside Tristan’smouth.
“Better get used to it, son. You’ll get a lot of PDA in this house. I’ve no intention of taking my hands off your mom’s ass when I’m aroundher.”
“You’re scarring me for life, you know.” He winked and sat down on the chair Izzie had occupied until a moment ago, crossing his outstretched legs at his ankles, and watching his parents roll on the floor. “Goon.”
Izzie gazed into Tristan’s loving stare. “He’s got your sense ofhumor.”
“You’re soscrewed.”
“Don’t I knowit?”
Epilogue
A Couple of Years Down the Road
Tristan
Goingunder for the transplant surgery had been a walk in the park on a warm summer afternoon compared to what Tristan was about to face. Almost as terrifying as the day his mom got accepted into that top-notch research program for a new kidney drug. Seventy thousand raging fans, in all senses of the word, could make them or break them. The first stadium concert in the meteoric career of the Knight’s Edge band. A game-changer for the band members. He hoped the concert would turned out to be as successful as Arthur’s transplant, and Lilly’s recovering health. Like his son’s and mom’s ordeals, any small slipup could cause the band members everything they had worked for so far. And throw their future into the trash can ofHistory.
No wonder he got thejitters.
Glancing about, he found out his band mates wore the same shade of green on their expressions. Given the fact their queasiness didn’t result from hangover, Tristan burst laughing. “We make for a sad bunch. Come on, cheer up! We’re fucking going to rock thisplace.”
Aidan, Duke, and Noah whooped and slapped Tristan’s outstretched hand. They filed out of the dressing room and toward the end of the corridor leading to the stage. He now regretted agreeing with Izzie, and the other ladies, that they should come backstage only after the band had gone onstage. He need his wife to kill those damn butterflies knocking themselves around in hisstomach.
Fuck. Izzie calms me down. I don’t want to do this withouther.
As he stepped onto the stage, blinded by the spotlight, his ears got pierced by the roar of the fans. Blinking, he caught Noah’s stare as he perched on stool behind the drum set. They high-fived and Noah shouted over the fan’s shrieks, “We’ve made it,bro.”
“We’re almost there, almostthere.”
Laughing out loud, Noah ruffled the drums as Tristan’s assistant handed him his guitar. A wide grin split his lips, and he hurled into the mic, “This is Knight’s Edge. Are you ready torock?”
Seventy thousand voices shoutedSim, the Portuguese word foryes. The band had chosen São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, to kick off the first leg of their first stadium tour with twenty sold-out concerts in seven different cities in South America. Florianópolis would be the last one. The concerts had sold-out in hours, which convinced the sponsors to expand the tour. A second leg was going to take the band around the United States also with sold-out concerts in everycity.
Knowing they were going to perform to full houses every night had translated into more pressure for the band. They had rehearsed, and planned, and rehearsed, and strategized, and rehearsed some more. They were terrified they would blew their big chance. The four band mates had sat down and laid out rules for the performance, the idea being they wanted to avoid small incidents they had dealt with in the past. Small incidents in bars or arenas could potentially become huge disasters if they happened instadiums.
