I sat back with a dry chuckle. If that wasn’t an apt theme song to the day, I didn’t know a better one.
“Mal, have you noticed the dress Saylor is wearing? She put it together herself in just three days.”
I jolted at my mom’s pointed question. “Uh, yeah. You look nice, Saylor.”
Saylor sighed, no doubt annoyed I hadn’t even bothered to look her way.
Naomi’s snort underlined the point.
I glared at Naomi. I hadn’t needed to look at Saylor again. The visual of her in that black A-line dress with long sleeves and a collar like a man’s button-up shirt but open to perfectly frame her lickable cleavage was imprinted on my brain. She looked gorgeous, which was fucked considering the occasion—not that I was blaming her. I just didn’t want to rock up to the graveyard with a huge boner tenting the front of my pants.
And Naomi had promised if I let her come to the service, she’d behave.
This definitely wasn’t her behaving.
I said as much with the look I gave her.
She blinked innocently back at me.
Sighing, I turned to my wife. “You look gorgeous, Saylor. I think it’s fucking amazing that you made your dress so quickly. Do you need anything else in your workroom? Equipment or something you don’t have right now?”
The words sounded stilted coming out of my mouth, but I blamed that on our audience and not that I hadn’t spent any time with her lately.
She shook her head mutely and stared straight ahead like she was wishing she was anywhere else than here.
Same, baby girl. Same.
The car slowed to pull into a parking lot, and my stomach churned.
We were here.
In less than a heartbeat, we were surrounded. Shouted questions, camera flashes, and clicks rocked the stillness of our car, and I went from sad to pissed off in a heartbeat.
“What the fuck! Who tipped those assholes off?” I bit out.
We’d made everyone sign NDAs, from the groundskeeper to our drivers.
Fuck.
“Um, where do you want me to let you out, Mister Holt?” Our driver asked.
I groaned. “Pull around, so I’ll be the first one out. They can’t come on the property, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be assholes.” Turning to the others in the car, I said, “If any of you would rather stay in the car, I totally understand.”
“I need to say goodbye to Gio,” Mom said tremulously.
Naomi shook her head. “I’m used to it. And I want to say goodbye too.”
I nodded and turned to Saylor.
She gave me a wobbly smile. “My place is next to you. I’m going wherever you’re going.”
I grinned back at her and for a second, I felt lighter.
Then I flinched as someone’s hand slapped our window as the driver tried to pull through the crowd.
Naomi sighed and fussed with her bag.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spied the encouraging smile Saylor sent my way, and I reached over to hold her hand. For the first time that day, I felt slightly grounded. Like maybe I could actually get through this shitshow in one piece as long as I had Saylor by my side.
