Black Flag (Racing on the Edge) (71 page)

When it was finally
time for our first dance, I was relieved to find that Sway was relaxed,
settling contentedly in my arms as she let me lead her around the floor. We
chose
Can’t Help Falling in Love
as our first dance. That was one aspect
of the wedding we were adamant on was our music selection. If Emma had her way,
we’d be dancing to some Miley Cyrus song.

I was vaguely aware of
photographs being taken, but tuned out the crowd to concentrate on my bride,
singing quietly to her.

I let go of her hand
and twirled her around before capturing her once again in my arms. Everyone
stayed off the dance floor, snapping pictures while we danced, lost in the
moment together.

“Are you enjoying
yourself, Mrs. Riley?” I whispered to her, deciding to give those particular
words a try.

She laughed. “That
sounds good to hear and yes, I am, Mr. Riley.”

“I hoped you feel that
way. I intend to say it a lot.” I replied happily. 

We made our way back to
the wedding table where everyone decided to give us toasts. Handing a
microphone to my family really was a bad idea, particularly when intoxicated.

Spencer started.
“Before we get this party started
...
I
wanted to congratulate you guys. Sway, you’ve always been like a little sister
to me and I’m glad my brother finally pulled his head out of his ass and asked
you to marry him. We have all waited a long time for this wedding so
...
Let’s party!” he exclaimed pumping his
fists in the air while our guests cheered.

Alley took the
microphone from him while holding Lane. “Welcome to the madness, Sway.” she
said with a smile.

Lane leaned down into
the microphone. “Happy wedding,” he said shyly and handed the microphone to
Aiden before he buried his head in his mom’s shoulder.

“Whew!” was all he
managed to say throwing his champagne around in the air. He must have been
trying to compete with Tommy.

Emma then took the
microphone while Sway and I laughed at how
drunk
Aiden
was. Aiden was always lively when drunk but he was unskilled at staying on his
own two feet.

“You know, once
...
hey
...
I wasn’t done—”

Dad snatched the
microphone from her before she could go off on another one of her speeches,
knocking over a few glasses of champagne as he did so.

“I think what Emma
meant to say was
...
LET’S PARTY!”

My entire family was
drunk if you didn’t know, even my mom who was dancing with Charlie.

When the speeches were
finished, I led Sway out to the dance floor where Spencer
queued
the sounds of
September
by Earth, Wind and Fire.

Although it was hard to
dance with Sway and her round belly, we made due. She didn’t hesitate to rub
her ass against me either to tease me.

“You better watch out
wife. I’ll get even with you.” I growled against her neck in a rough strained
voice. “You shouldn’t tease me.”

“I’m looking forward to
it, husband.” Sway whispered in my ear as she once again pushed against my
camshaft.

Two more weeks
...
two more weeks
...
I chanted to myself. How I was going to
make it two more weeks was beyond me. I wasn’t sure I could make it through
tonight with how amazing she looked in this dress.

We danced for hours to
a variety of different songs. Everyone took turns dedicating songs to us. Some
were appropriate—some were not.

“Now
...
I remember one particular party at our
house
...
sorry dad
...
” Spencer flashed our dad a smile. If
only he really knew the parties we threw in our teenage years. “This song was
playing that night and I remember my little bro here dancing with Sway to it
...
so here’s to you two.” He signaled the
DJ and the sounds of DJ
Kool’s
Let Me Clear My
Throat
pulsed through the speakers. The memories of that evening came to
mind as I watched her shake her ass in front of me. For being eight months
pregnant, she could still shake her ass with the best of them.

There were so many
memories of my childhood with Sway in them. It was refreshing to know we’d be
creating more for years to come and I couldn’t wait.

My composure had long
since vanished watching Spencer dance around beside us. He looked like an
asshole on the dance floor or a coked out version of Evander Holyfield, only
white, the size is the same.

I was now vacillating
between snorting and violently shaking as I tried to hang onto my beer while laughing
uncontrollably and keeping one arm around Sway.

I don’t think I’d ever
danced this much in my life or laughed at how ridiculous our families were when
drunk together. One thing was true; our families were one in the same.

My legs were starting
to feel weak when Spencer approached us.

I’m not sure what was
more entertaining to me, him trying to stand on his own two feet, or me.

“Enough for fuck’s
sake,” Spencer said as he strode up to cut in. “Let me dance with her. This
could be my last chance to tease her before this baby pops out and I have to
watch my mouth around it.”

Alley slapped him. “You
don’t watch your mouth around Lane
...
”

“He’s used to it.”
Spencer replied with a shrug reaching for Sway.

I gave her a quick kiss
on the cheek, and relinquished her hand to Spencer. “Keep your hands to
yourself.” I warned before walking past them.

I noticed that Tate and
Bobby were standing off to the side of the dance floor and didn’t mind the idea
of a few minutes with them.

It was another hour or
so before I was able to extricate myself from talking with more of our guests
and claim my bride once again. Everyone wanted to congratulate me on the win
when all I wanted to do was focus on Sway. Today was for her and she deserved
my undivided attention.

When I walked toward
her, I caught a glimpse of who she was dancing with and immediately resorted
back to my caveman tendencies.

Who the fuck invited
him is what I wanted to know.

Emma and Spencer were
beside me before I could make a scene—I assumed I had that look to me.

“Whoa there, calm
down.” Spencer urged. “They are only dancing.”

“I don’t give a fuck.”
I snapped glaring toward Emma. “Why was he invited?”

She gave me this look
that was in between stupid and annoyed. “There was a time when you were friends
with him.”

That was true but ever
since Spencer’s wedding night; I didn’t care to ever see him again.

“I don’t care. You
shouldn’t have invited him.” I pushed past Spencer, only to be caught by my
mom.

“Jameson, you make a
scene on this perfect day for Sway and I will kill you. My son or not, I will
murder my own son.”

I flashed a smile; she
continued to glare. “I’m only going to claim my
wife
again.”

Sway’s face was pure
panic when she saw me approach them. I stopped a foot shy and tapped on his
left shoulder. “Pardon me Cooper—I’d like to dance with my
wife
again.”
I nearly spat the word
wife
in his face.

“Oh sure
...
sorry about that,” he apologized with a
nervous chuckle. “Congratulations on the championship man. I knew you’d pull it
off.”

“Thanks.” I muttered
clutching Sway to my chest tightly, relaxing into the feel of her soft body in
my arms.

Cooper stepped away
after that and I focused all my attention on Sway, where it belonged.

“Sorry about that.” She
said after a moment of silence. 

“Don’t be,” I leaned
down to kiss her forehead.

“This I could get used
to this,” she murmured happily, as her footsteps followed my lead. “Even though
I feel like a
Shamoo
doing tricks at Sea World,” She
laughed. “Do you want to toss me a fish? I bet I could catch it.”

I chucked at her joke,
my mercurial mood returning and pulled back to look into her eyes.

Suddenly overcome with
the urge to kiss her, I leaned down and brushed my lips over hers softly, then back
again. I kissed her again, gently, slow but building in intensity as we both
got lost.

Despite the fact that
other couples were dancing around us, I had managed to tune them out and had
kind of forgotten that we were still in the middle of the dance floor until I
heard Emma calling for Sway.

She stood on her
tiptoes to kiss me again, but wasn’t strong enough to hold on when Emma gave
her an impatient tug, dragging her away. She looked back at me wistfully as the
guests around us, having noticed the scene,
chuckled
with amusement.

“Good luck controlling
yourself
tonight,” Spencer teased. He and Alley had been
dancing right next to us. I hadn’t noticed they were there.

“I swear to god
...
if you say penetration
...
I will kill you.” I threatened.

Alley stepped in as
Spencer smiled. “Spencer, behave,” She rolled her eyes at me. “You may want to
do something about the lipstick on your face, Jameson.”

With a smirk, I pulled
a handkerchief out of my pocket, and tried to get the lipstick off as I left
the dance floor. I supposed it was a good thing Emma had used a light shade on
Sway.

Charlie was waiting for
me off to the side.  

I watched him for a
minute, his chocolate hair cut short now. He had the remnants of a glass of
champagne in his hand and a contemplative expression on his face. I knew
immediately what he wanted to say, and braced myself to let him say it. I could
tell he already felt uncomfortable about it, but needed to get it off his
chest. To be honest with you, we hadn’t really had a talk since I asked to
marry his daughter.

“Hey kid
...
” he began, after a somewhat awkward
pause. He took another swallow of champagne. “I just want to say—I’m glad she
has you but it was still hard to give her away. I won’t be around much longer
and I’m,” his expression took on a distant gaze. “
relieved
to know that my only daughter is happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for her,
and I know that she is. She’s ecstatic, in fact. And that’s because of you.
Sway loves you, and I can see how much you love her.” He smiled. “So
...
I wanted to welcome you to the family
son. If Rachel was still alive I know she would have loved you and I’m sure
she’d say the same.”

“Thank you, Charlie.
That means a lot.”

“I can’t thank you
enough for what you
...
” he paused and I knew
what he was about to say. I think he also knew not to actually say his name
around me. “Did to
...
just, thank
you.
I also know you’ll take care of her. She’ll
always
be my little girl. So I’m entrusting her to your care now. Understand?”

“Of
course.
You don’t have to worry about that.” I told him with confidence. “I will take
care of her.”

I could see tears
glistening in his eyes, and looked away so that he wouldn’t feel comfortable
that I noticed. Before I knew it, he yanked me into a tight hug and then pulled
away. “It was an amazing thing watching you battle these last few months and
even greater seeing you holding that championship trophy as a rookie. I’m proud
of you son.”

“Thanks,
dad.”
We both smiled.

After another brief
moment, I discerned that he had said everything he was going to say and that it
was time for me to give him a minute alone. “Um—Sorry, Charlie, but I think I
had better go change. Emma has us on a tight schedule.”

“Of course,” he
harrumphed

I smiled and headed for
the bathroom, to ditch the tuxedo for something more comfortable for the night.

I had barely finished
when I heard Emma yelling for me. When she appeared, Sway once again took my
breath away.

Emma had chosen
perfectly, of course—a silk jersey wrap dress in violet that best set off
Sway’s coloring. Her hair; let loose from its pins and now hung in gentle waves
over her shoulders. Her rapturous smile made her eyes sparkle. She reached for
my hand as soon as she approached me.

The crowd parted to let
us through the doors. I wrapped an arm around Sway’s waist. “Are you ready?”

“I am,” she replied
simply, confidently. “Are you?”

“I am,” with a soft
groan against the side of her head.

We paused for effect at
the door while I kissed her once again for the benefit of the crowd and my mom
who hadn’t stopped taking pictures. Applause and a shower of rice followed us
to the carriage. Spencer doing his best to make sure as much of it as possible
bounced off my head.