Page 49 of Break Me Gently

She rolled off me and nudged me aside to sit on top of Sadie instead. Zach was at my side a second later, helping me up.

Sadie started swearing, but Rhea began bouncing up and down, cutting her off mid-curse. My poor mum looked horrified.

“She stole my husband,” Sadie managed to wheeze out.

Luke stood beside my mum, expression unreadable. His friend held a hand out for Rhea, but she just glared at him and bounced on Sadie’s belly some more.

The priest hurried over to the scene of the—whatever the fuck this was.

“Are you okay?” Zach whispered.

I stared at Sadie, and hysterical laughter began to bubble up inside me. Rhea’s beautiful golden ass was still bouncing on her.

“Yeah,” I whispered, before I began to laugh.

I could not take my eyes off Rhea’s butt.

Luke was consoling my mum while instructing his friend to eject Sadie from the church. The friend was busy trying to coax Rhea off a flattened Sadie, one hand hovering uselessly near her elbow like he wasn’t quite brave enough to actually grab her.

I turned to face my mum, wiping tears of laughter from my eyes.

“Best wedding ever,” I said, before cracking up again.

Zach moved in to help pull Rhea away. She rose like nothing had happened, smoothing invisible creases from her golden sari with the calm of a woman who tackled wedding-crashers on a regular basis, then flicked her hair back over one shoulder, bangles chiming with the motion.

She strutted across the aisle toward her purse—still lying exactly where she’d flung it—hips swaying with an air of triumph, as if she’d simply won something rather than assaulted a stranger in a house of God. She scooped the purse up, checked her reflection in a compact mirror pulled from inside it, and reapplied a slick of lipstick without so much as glancing at Sadie, still sprawled and wheezing on the floor behind her.

Everyone waited until we were composed and the men had returned before finally proceeding down the aisle.

“You need to get laid,” my mum said, as we reached the altar.

The priest’s eyes widened at Rhea’s reply. She was quite creative.

I don’t think we’ll be welcomed back into this church.

Pity.

Chapter 26

Zach

The marquee glowed amber and gold, strings of fairy lights looped between the tent poles, casting a warm haze over everyone still buzzing from the ceremony. Somewhere behind us, the band eased into something slow, the earlier chaos of the church already softening into laughter and clinking glasses. Champagne flowed freely, and even Isabella—still slightly flushed from her own vows—had allowed herself a small glass, propped up by Luke’s arm at her waist.

Luke was slightly off-kilter after the whole Sadie event. As I danced with Amber, my eyes kept drifting back to my new stepfather. Ugh. Disgusting, vile word. I needed to scrub it from my vocabulary entirely.

The tension had bled out of the room slowly, replaced by something almost peaceful—guests drifting between tables, the scent of roasted lamb and freshly baked bread still lingering from dinner, candlelight flickering against white linen. Amber fit against me easily, her cheek resting near my heart, her bare feet—shoes long abandoned under our table—shifting slowly against the wooden dance floor.

“Why don’t you go ask him for a dance?” Amber murmured.

“You know what they say about keeping your enemies close,” I said, bringing my attention back to the golden angel in my arms. “Don’t be putting yourself in harm’s way again.”

“I know,” she sighed, tilting her head back to grin up at me. “Who knew how lethal Rhea’s backside was.”

I shook my head, fighting a smile of my own.

These women were all nuts, but I loved how they rallied around Amber’s mum.

I drew her closer.