“You boys go get dressed. Auntie Gray can take it from here.”
Daddy shoots Gracie a stern look, but he and his brothers all file from the room. Leaving me alone with the dream version of a woman I once considered a sister and the strange construct my subconscious has created in Lanie.
“Come here, sweet girl,” Gracie croons, guiding me into a sitting position in front of the couch. I wince as my weight comes to rest fully on my well-spanked backside, despite the cushioning of the diaper. She settles behind me and gently tugs my hair free of the messy bun I usually wear it in.
“Lanie, can you hand me the brush, please?”
When I immediately tense at the request, Gracie chuckles. “Don’t worry, Josie. As long as you’re a good girl for me, you don’t have anything to fear from Auntie Gray’s brush right now. I’m just going to do your hair for the ceremony.”
“Do I really have to call you Auntie Gray?”
Dropping onto the ground in front of me, Lanie giggles. “You really do. She getsverycranky if you call her Grayson.”
“I do not getcranky. Cranky is for naughty Little girls who insist on skipping their nap time, Melanie Brynne.” There’s a gentle tugging on my hair and I close my eyes on a sigh as she pulls the brush through my tangled locks. When Auntie Gray speaks again, her voice has taken on that soft, sweet quality from before. “I know it probably all feels very odd to you, Josie, but you’ll get used to it in time.”
“This is such a strange dream,” I murmur, the tugging of the brush lulling me into an almost trance-like state. “What the hell is my subconscious trying to tell me?”
The tugging stops. “Josie…” Auntie Gray’s voice is hesitant, uncertain. “Why do you think this is a dream, honey?”
“What else would it be? My dead boyfriend suddenly comes back to life after twenty years and dresses me up as a baby so he can marry me? Granted, it’s a pretty bizarre freaking dream, but it’sdefinitelya dream.”
Silence greets my explanation, and I open my eyes to find Lanie watching me worriedly. A sickening realization settles in my stomach as strong hands come to rest on my shoulders, forcing me to turn around to face Auntie Gray. And when I find that same worry, tinged with a regret that makes my throat ache, I know the truth before she even speaks.
“Josie, sweetheart… this isn’t a dream. You aren’t going to wake up in the morning, tucked away in your bed. We are all very alive and this is all very, very real.”
CHAPTER 7
BRAM
“How’s it feel to finally be marrying sweet little Josie?”
Meeting Axel’s gaze in the mirror as I tug on my tie, I grin. “Pretty fucking great, if I’m being honest. I never thought I’d see her again, and now…”
“Yeah.” Emotion glints in my brother’s eyes. “I get it. We all love her too, you know. Not the same way, of course. She was always more like an annoying little sister to the rest of us, but we loved her all the same.”
“I know you did.” I shift my gaze to where the rest of our brothers are gathered just past him. “She’s going to need all of us. To help her adjust, to grieve the life we’re forcing her to leave behind.”
“We’ve got you, brother,” Eli grunts.
With my tie finally in place, I turn to my brothers. “All right, then. Let’s go get me married.”
Together, we head back down the stairs to where Gray is waiting with our two Little ones. But it’s Josie who draws my attention. Her dark hair has been twisted into two braids that wrap around her head. And nestled in the crown of hair is anactual crown, our mother’s wedding tiara. Dressed in nothing but the tiara, a diaper and the blue rope binding her hands together, she looks…mine. All mine.
Finally.
Reaching into my pocket, I pull out the final item in her wedding ensemble. “Something old,” I begin, smiling down at her as I slide the rubber tip of the pacifier gag between her trembling lips, “my mother’s tiara. Something new, this pacifier. Something borrowed…”
I trail off and Gray steps forward to slide her hairbrush between Josie’s clasped hands. With a grateful smile, I return my attention to my bride as I buckle the gag behind her head. “And something blue, the rope. You make a beautiful bride, my sweet Josie.”
The green-gold of her eyes shimmers with tears and she stares up at me, silently pleading with me to let her go. But not only is that not an option, as agreed upon by my family, there’s one very real, very important reason I’m not going to let her run from me.
I don’t want to.
With that in mind, I grip her elbow and guide her down the short “aisle” to where Eli is waiting for us, our worn family Bible in his hand. An expression that could almost be described as a smile graces his face as he looks from me to Josie and back again.
Gripping the Bible in his large hands, Eli clears his throat. “We are gathered here today to bind our brother, Bram Thorne, in holy matrimony to Josephine Elise Mercer. Do you, Bram, take Josie to be your wife and your Little girl, to have and to hold, to cherish and to punish? Do you promise to protect her against any threat to her health, safety, or overall wellbeing? Do you promise to be the Daddy she needs, providing for all herneeds, physically, mentally, and emotionally, as long as you both shall live?”
Looking down at my Josie, I take in her tearful eyes, the pink flush in her cheeks. This isn’t exactly how I pictured our wedding day all those years ago when we were so young and full of hope.
