DOTTY (The Naughty Ones Book 3) (11 page)

Enlightenment and the Next YouTube Hit

Dot

It’s officially Friday and I’m sweating again. And I’ve puked so much that Indie and Percy have banned me from going near Hector who’s in the church and crossing himself as we speak.

I’m a ball of freaking nerves here and I feel sadder than I did yesterday because I learned two things. Paul went home and just gave up on me.

I tear up whenever I think of that.

And I still don’t have all my answers. Give me a break, this isn’t like a movie. A clue doesn’t just fall into my lap from out of nowhere so that I can wrap this up with a nice little bow and prance on my merry way.

But that’s not so important right now, even if the mystery of it is killing me where I stand. No, what’s most important right now is what is about to go down.

Hence my sweating pits and the need to puke yet again. I am a wallflower, well, not anymore, but that doesn’t mean I purposely want to cause a big scene and put it on the Internet.

I’m going to, though. I am so going to because it’s my one gift and offering to Paul that may just have the power to erase what I said to him two days ago and get him to give me another chance.

“Stop worrying and come on over here so I can finish your hair off,” Callie mutters, shoving me back down in front of the mirror.

I’m dressed in mother’s wedding gown—after some alterations that made me believe my boobs may be growing. My hair and makeup is done, hiding the dark circles and green tinge that I’ve been sporting for days.

I’m ready. Now all I have to do is stop shaking and find a way to walk down the freaking aisle without blowing chunks.

“I’m scared.”

“Good, that just means that what you’re doing is worth doing,” Luci trills from her seat where she’s drinking a beer and relishing the fact that she’s four kids less for the next few minutes.

Poor Freddie.

“Easy for you to say. Yours didn’t go on the Internet,” I mutter, getting a side slap from Callie.

“No, mine did and I can tell you that it isn’t that bad.”

“Because Jack keeps getting it removed whenever Indie posts it again!”

Callie grins and flips Indie the bird before turning back to me and squeezing my shoulders.

“You can do this, Dotty. Remember, this is the last leg and then you can go home to your cow crap and that hot hunk of a man.”

Sure.

“If he’ll let me. Soph said he was just angry when he went to see her and I don’t blame him. I basically spit in his face and insulted his life, Callie!”

Yeah. I feel like shit now that I’ve had time and more time to think about what I said.

              A knock at the door has me tensing and I fully expect Dracula’s bride, AKA Mother dearest, to come prancing in. Color me purple when instead a middle-aged, balding man stands in the doorway instead, looking very ill at ease.

“Miss Dorothea Harper?”

“This hot bitch right here, Bilbo,” Percy says, waving her beer bottle at me.

Don’t ask me why my crew are boozing in a church. That should be pretty self-explanatory, I think.

The man turns bright red at the giggled insult and seems to gird himself when he enters and Callie closes the door, leaving him alone in a room with five not so sober women.

Except Callie, but that animal does not need booze to be a clown.

“What’s up? Is this where Al has me signing a prenup, because that would just be redundant,” I snort, taking a large swallow of my own brew.

What! I need it. Actually I need hard liquor but Percy told me Jesus is watching so I had to settle for this weak shit and hope he doesn’t take too much offense to it.”Er, no. I, um, I am Mr. Fredericson, attorney-at-law, representing the vested interests of the late Mister Elisha Summers and Theodore Harper.”

Um, okay.

“Yeah?”

My gramps was not my number one fan, cold asshole. And I have never in my life met the deceased Elisha Summers.

“Well, the thing is, now that you are fulfilling the contractual clause within the will and last testament left by Mr. Summers, it is up to me to ensure that you receive the money left to you.”

Screeching freaking tires.

No wait, that’s the girls hooting and screaming like a pack of wolves and hyenas. I have to admit that I’m a little lost still and it’s not just the beer talking, no matter how much I want to say it is.

My brain’s just frozen as he keeps babbling about some deal the great-grandfathers stuck as a safety net for both families should they reach a time of crisis.

When I marry a Summers male we will both receive an amount of three hundred million dollars when the ink on the marriage licence is dry.

“Holy fucking shit. Holy, holy shit!” Indie yells, jumping up so fast she bobs and weaves a little. “Are you saying that she could marry any Summers male and still be rich as fuck?”

The swearing is a dead giveaway that her cute butt is going straight to the warm place but I can’t even find it within me to chastise her as the truth knocks me sideways.

Those greedy assholes!

“Are you telling me that once I marry that little turd…?”

“He’ll receive his money as will you and…did you not know this, Miss Harper? I was so sure you were aware after Mr. Summers and your father consulted with me on this matter.”

“No! I should have known this, though. Why didn’t I know this? Cancer my ass!” I yell, letting the rage take me.

It’s poor form to tear up a church, but as I take it all in and finally realize that my damn parents are nothing more than greedy pigs, I just can’t seem to care about what happens to me afterward.

I want to rage and yell and start ripping heads off.

“Now, Dotty darling, deep breaths. Save the animal rage for those idiots out there,” Indie says slowly, approaching me with caution.

“This is why he fucked up my happiness? This is why I’ve spent months killing myself when Mother all of a sudden wanted me in their lives? For money!” I screech, so loudly poor Bilbo leaps a foot back and swallows audibly.

“Well, look, it could be worse?”

Yeah right, I snort, casting Luci a fulminating glare.

A few deep breaths later I feel less like a volcano about to erupt and I turn to the attorney with a sweet smile that I know looks evil without me even having to see myself.

“What happens to that money once I marry a Summers?”

“Well, it goes right to you. No red tape, no wait. All I need are account numbers for the transfer and that’s it.”

“That won’t be happening today, though. In about a week, definitely, but not today. I’ll need your card with your personal contact numbers. Girls! Let’s do this thing.”

The man all but flees when my girls jump up and start hooting with excitement. They look and sound like a pack of jackals but as I smile, fluff my dress, and march to the door I feel all kinds of satisfied with the debacle I’m about to cause.

YouTube, get ready. This girl’s about to break your shit.

***

Paul

I’m standing in the shadow of the balcony in the church with my gut churning and my heart so heavy, breathing hurts. I didn’t want to come back here and witness my woman marrying that little shit but Jack personally came out yesterday to drag me back here, saying it was something I needed to do.

According to him I should never overlook Dot and the lengths she’ll go to for those she loves. That pissed me off because hell, how can I be okay with that knowing that she’s finally buckled beneath her parents and is making the biggest mistake of her life?

She belongs to me. She loves me. Why can’t she see past all the other shit and see that?

“Chill, bro. Don’t go ruining this for everyone by melting down now,” Woody cautions me when I growl at Alex’s appearance at the altar.

He looks so smug and self-satisfied that I want to jump down there and beat him into a coma with my bare hands.

I won’t, though. I would never humiliate Dot that way and take her choices away from her. She’s chosen Alex, for whatever reason she’s spinning in that little head of hers, and I can’t do a thing about it but watch the woman I love go through with this.

              The wedding march starts playing in the background, softly, getting louder as the minutes tick by and I feel myself go tense when the doors open and a vision in white appears, her red hair so stark against the pure white of her dress that I feel my lungs stall.

“God in heaven,” I breathe when she smiles sweetly and starts to slowly make her way down the aisle.

Her girls all flank her and blow kisses, generally making a spectacle of themselves and I almost swallow my tongue when I see my own mother standing off to the side, grinning broadly as she trains a camera on the procession.

“What the fuck is Mom doing here? Is that Grammy?” I wheeze when I hear a deep, manly cackle ring out when Percy starts jamming and jigging her way down the aisle.

I could laugh and I do, chuckling softly when all five women seem to take the cue and start dancing around and down the passage in an uncoordinated melee of movement.

I laugh harder when my very own Dot starts doing the robot and segues into the shuffle, laughing so hard I hear her snort as she catches her breath and moves onto the electric slide. At least her version of it.

Woody laughs beside me and hands me his hip flask as we watch the debacle unfold beneath us.

“What are they doing?” I wheeze, choking on the whiskey when a very pregnant Callie starts shaking her belly and hopping forward all the way to the altar.

Jack and Freddie are pissing themselves and I even spot Gruffy bowing to the crowd with pride, obviously acknowledging them as her handiwork.

“Putting on a show, bro.” Woody chuckles, shaking his head.

Dot finally reaches the altar and a fuming Alex, stupid bastard. How can he not be impressed by that? I turn away then, unable to watch as he takes her hand and pulls her into place as the guests all sit and await what I feel like is the end of my world.

“Watch,” Woody growls, shoving at my shoulder.

“I can’t. I need to get out of here before I do something—”

“Christ! Just watch, you fucking fool. You think Dot shimmied her way down the aisle, as shy as she is, because she’s just tickled to be marrying that asshole? Watch.”

I give in and turn as the priest who is still smiling widely starts doing his thing about love and commitment and the holiness of a loving marriage.

Loving? She loves me! Not him. Me.

He finally stops making my ears bleed and gets to the part I vowed to ignore, though it takes a herculean effort for me not to yell out and get my ass down there to her.

“If any should object to this holy union, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Alex just grins and I see Dot smirk before she shakes his hand off and turns to the crowd.

“Seriously? No one? You’re all just going to sit there and pretend that you’re not trying to marry me off to Satan’s helper?” she yells, shaking her head and looking heavenward before sighing deeply and looking back at her Naughties with a smile. “You were so right, guys. My parents are greedy assholes with not a scrap of humanity left in them.”

The whispering starts and I see them go stiff as Alex grabs her arm and swings her around roughly.

“Chill. Watch,” Woody growls, handing me the flask again.

He must be arguing with her, though I don’t hear a damn word before she pulls away again and stomps her little foot.

“No! You behave! Did you really think that I would break off my engagement with Paul, the man I freaking love with all my heart, to marry your weak ass! What a freaking crock. You’re like what, five years old mentally?” she sneers, making my heart leap.

“Stop this at once!”

“No you stop, you stinking pile of garbage! You and those…those people who call themselves my parents have been dogging me for months to marry you when I told you all along I don’t even like you. I love Paul! Do you hear that, Alexander Summers? I love Paul. Remember him? He’s the guy who walked in on you and his ex making the ugly, nasty beast with two backs. He’s the guy who kept you in his life even though you aren’t worth one of his precious breaths, and he’s the guy who saved me from marrying you in the first place and making the biggest mistake of my life.”

I need to get to her right now but Woody grabs me and restrains me before I can move, shaking his head and looking back down at my girl as she starts laughing and slaps Alex’s hands away.

“Don’t you dare touch me, you pig. Hey, everyone! Did you all know that Mr. Hotshot over here lost all his money on investments a two-year-old wouldn’t make? He did! He’s broke, without a blue bean, and living on credit that’s about to be called in since his dad cut him off.”

“Dorothea, stop this nonsense at once,” he yells, getting handsy so fast I feel my blood spike.

I shouldn’t have worried, though, because the two violent ones step forward immediately, ready to lay him flat just as Dot pulls her arm back and knocks him on his ass.