The UN Series Complete Box Set (118 page)

“Have you picked out flowers yet?” Holly asks her getting my attention.

“Yes. They were the first thing I decided on.”

“Hopefully you picked black roses,” Parker says bending over into the fridge to grab some beers.

I also notice that he has been teasing her more lately. Like he’s trying to cover up the real emotion he felt when he found her in that basement and the terror in his eyes that I saw when he realized she had been drugged.

“Why black?” Angel asks turning to face him. “Oh, because black is Slade’s favorite color?” she asks.

“No.” He turns around and smirks at her. “Because marrying kills you.” He looks at me, and I don’t miss the wink he gives me. “You have totally killed the Slade I know. Now he is going to be a little bitch to a demanding pussy that has a hold of his balls forever.” He shudders. “It’s pathetic.”

Holly gasps, thinking he’s serious, and Micah starts laughing knowing he just wants to get her riled up.

Angel picks up the knife that sits in front of her with icing on it from when they had baked a cake earlier. She had been craving chocolate cake all day.

She turns to face him and leans back against the island. “You know what, Parker? One day the right girl is going to come along.” He laughs at where her point is going. “And she is going to grab a hold of you by the balls.” His laughter dies down. “And I am going to enjoy watching her squeeze the life out of you, as you so colorfully put it,” she finishes off before she slides her index finger down the knife picking up the leftover icing before putting her finger in her mouth and sucking off the icing.

Angel doesn’t know that Parker was there, that he was the one to find her down in that basement. That he lied to the cops and falsified evidence to make sure Jax would spend the rest of his life in jail, or the fact that he was there at the hospital when she had her freak outs. And we all want to keep it that way.

The drugs Tate left along with the beating he gave Jax… Parker took care of all of that and made sure it all went against Jax. I made a call about Dallas; who we had left back in his office tied to a chair and gagged. Tate made a call to give away Jax’s location, all anonymous of course. But Parker looks at her differently. He’s called every day and come over to check on her since he walked out of her hospital room after I had to have her sedated. And I know he’s just as terrified as me now that Jax is trying to get immunity but he’s gonna do whatever he can to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Parker shakes his head. “Won’t happen, sweetheart.”

“Oh it will. Look at all your friends. They all have someone.”

“Tate doesn’t,” he responds with a smile.

She rolls her eyes. “He’s the exception.”

He laughs at her excuse. “Well maybe I can be an exception as well,” he offers.

She shakes her head. “There can’t be two.”

He goes to quip some comment to her but she turns away from him clearly ending their conversation. She speaks to Holly. “I picked yellow lilies because they were my mom’s favorite flowers.” Then she looks up at me. “But if you want to do black, we can.”

Her mother’s favorite.
I walk over to her and place a kiss on her forehead. “Yellow lilies sound perfect, Angel.”

Parker’s face falls, and he looks down to his beer. “Sam I...” He’s about to apologize for mentioning black flowers. He knows how her mother passed and how hard it was on her. But his apology is cut off by her cell phone ringing.

I go to walk out of the kitchen when I catch sight of a picture of a cake sitting on the counter. “What’s this for?” I ask Holly since Angel is now on her phone.

“Oh, she has decided to make your wedding cake.” She claps her hands excitedly.

“Really?” I ask surprised. I look up to Angel as she speaks on her phone. She catches me watching and mouths
your mother
as if I was wondering who she was talking to.

I smile walking out of the kitchen.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

SAMANTHA

Two weeks goes by a lot faster than you can imagine. Slade finally started going to the firm a few days a week. Tate is starting to stay at his own house again. He is even bringing girls around. The only thing I still can’t figure out is Missy. She has been ignoring all of us. I’ve tried calling her and texting. She never answers her phone, and her texts are short. Slade just keeps telling me that it has to do with her school.

She finally answered me yesterday and sounded like she had a bad cold. I invited her to my wedding shower, but she sadly declined saying she didn’t feel like getting out, but promised she would be at the wedding. I’m pretty sure the only reason she’s coming is because she’s in it.

It’s the night before my wedding day, and we are all gathered in the Long’s living room with the exception of Missy, as I open all of my gifts. I hold up a box that says from Courtney A.K.A. Kitten on it. I rip off the white wrapping paper and silver bow to reveal a white box. I look up at her, and she smiles as she rubs her growing belly.

Opening it up, I uncover a white lace teddy. “For your wedding night,” she says with a little laugh.

I hold it up to my body and smile. “Thank you, Courtney.”

“Is there any way I can see that tonight?”

I spin around and shove it back into the box when I see Slade standing at the end of the living room with a smile on his face. He’s wearing a gray t-shirt that has black scribble across his chest and a pair of dark blue jeans on. His leather jacket hangs loose on his broad shoulders as he slumps against the doorframe.

“What are you doing here?” I ask surprised.

“I thought I would come by and say hello.” He pushes away and starts to walk toward me.

“Liar,” I say with a smile.

As he reaches me I realize his hands are behind his back. “What are you doing?” I repeat trying to see his hands.

“I had a gift to deliver,” he says bringing his hands around to his front. He is holding a small box that is wrapped in light yellow wrapping paper.

“A gift?” I ask raising an eyebrow.

He clears his throat, and I look up at him. His face is expressionless, but I can see the apprehension in his eyes.

I look around at everyone in the now silent room as they watch us. Courtney already has tears rolling down her face, but that’s not unusual. Her pregnancy hormones had her bawling yesterday when we watched a commercial for Walmart.She said that there was just something so heartwarming about a little boy riding a bicycle. It practically had her in sobs. Poor thing. What does make me pause are the tears running down Vivian’s face.

What is going on?

Does she know what’s in this box? And why is that thought making me hesitate to open it?

I bring my eyes back to Slade as he places his hand in mine. He leads me back over to the couch and sits down, pulling me beside him. He places the box on my lap and guides my chin to look over at him.

“Since you have entered my life, I have wanted to give you everything you have ever wanted.” He releases a sigh. “But there are things in life that are out of my reach, Angel. And those things tear me apart. I once told you I was going to give you the world but sometimes the world is a cruel place,” he says softly.

When he doesn’t say anything else I look down at the box, and I feel that whatever is in this box means a lot to him. And it’s going to mean a lot to me.

Everyone in the room is silent as they watch me slowly untie the beautiful off-white ribbon and carefully tear the tape holding the paper together on the sides. I take a deep breath and lift the lid off the box. Letting the breath out, I pull back the tissue paper to reveal a thin silver anklet chain that has a small silver heart locket.

Lifting it up I open the locket and see a picture of my mother. I feel a knot form in my throat and tears fill my eyes. I run my finger down the small picture. It’s of her on her wedding day. The same one I have sitting on our fireplace mantel. She is smiling and looks so happy.

I look at the other side of the locket to see it holds the other half of the picture; my father dressed in his tux with the biggest smile on his face.

I can’t hold back the sob that escapes my lips. I can’t explain the emotions that are running through me. All I know is that I can’t pull my eyes away from them.

“Angel?”

“Yes?” I croak still looking at my parents’ pictures.

“Will you look at me?” The desperation in his voice has my eyes slowly looking over at him.

His baby blue eyes are locked on mine, and he reaches up placing a hand on either side of my face. He gently runs his thumbs along my cheeks as he wipes the tears away. “I know you would give anything for them to be here with you on our wedding day. For your mother to see how beautiful you look and for your father to walk you down the aisle.”

Another sob wracks my body. “And they will be, Angel.” He looks down at the ankle bracelet and then his eyes move back to mine “Every step of the way. They will be right here with you as I vow to always love you and take care of you. My Angel.”

I close my eyes as new tears slide down my cheeks. “Thank you, Slade.” I try to sound as thankful as I truly am but it comes out forced. The lump in my throat is making it hard for me to form words.

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me into his chest. One arm holding onto me tightly while the other rubs my hair down my back. “I love you,” he says before he kisses my hair.

I can’t speak. I nod my head quickly into his shirt as I sniff. He holds me like that for several minutes until I can calm myself down. When I finally pull away he gives me a soft smile. “You okay?” he asks helping me rub the tears off of my face.

I nod. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”

He leans over again and kisses my forehead before he stands and looks around the room. “I won’t keep you ladies,” he says somewhat shyly like he just realized a room full of my girlfriends and his mother were watching our exchange.

Courtney gives him an evil look as she tries to control her tears, and Vivian stands to give him a hug goodbye.

“I’ll walk you out,” I say standing. He takes my hand, and he says one last goodbye to everyone before I walk him out to his car.

“I love you,” I say as he opens his car door.

He looks down at me and smiles. “I should have waited and done it privately,” he says frowning. “But I don’t get to see you tomorrow.”

“No. I loved that you did it in front of the girls.” I love when he shows others how much I mean to him.

He looks unsure but gives me a small smile before he kisses me one last time and gets in his car to drive off.

I walk back into the house to see everyone using tissues and it makes me laugh.

“This is not funny,” Courtney says placing her hands on her hips. I laugh harder. It’s hard to take a pregnant woman serious when she looks so adorable.

“It was very sweet.” I sigh, going to pick up the box off of the couch.

Her mouth drops. “Sweet? That’s like torture in its best form. He literally broke my heart while stitching it back together.”

I smirk as she starts to tear up again. She takes the anklet from my hand and smiles through her tears. “He was right,” she says continuing to look down at the pictures. “They will be with you every step of the way.” Then her eyes lift to mine. “They would be so proud of you, Sam.”

I huff as I feel the stinging sensation in my eyes again. “I think being around you is making me emotional,” I admit.

She smiles. “It’s that baby in your belly that’s doing it, so get used to it.” Then she pulls me in for a hug. And we let the waterworks flow.

*****

SLADE

I stand in my kitchen with Micah talking about work when I hear the front door open and close.

“You’re an ass,” Josh says entering my kitchen.

“Well hello to you too. I didn’t hear you knock,” I say with a smile.

“That’s because I didn’t,” he says flatly.

“What’s wrong with you?” I chuckle.

“The pregnant sex must not be good,” Micah chimes in from beside me.

I snort, trying to hold in my laughter, and Josh scowls at him. “No, for your information, the pregnancy sex is just as good as the everyday sex.” Then his eyes turn to me. “You gave Sam that anklet, and Courtney keeps calling my cell while she cries her eyes out.”

I frown. “Why does that make me an ass?” I thought that was a sentimental gift.

“Because she keeps saying you’re the sweetest thing ever…” He waves his hands in the air rolling his eyes. “Suck ass.”

“Maybe you need to up your game, Josh?” I tease.

He sighs. “It’s hard on her. You know she’s still trying to find her father.”

Angel and I have known this since the fight they had outside of the bar one night. Her and Josh came over afterwards and Courtney apologized saying she had been trying to find her father, and it was messing with her emotions.

“She still hasn’t found out anything yet?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “But speaking of fathers.” He pauses. “Can you guys keep a secret?”

That makes me and Micah stand up straighter, and we nod quickly. Josh sets a brown paper bag on the kitchen island and pulls out one bottle of Crown and another bottle of rum.

“Shit.” That is a ton of alcohol.

“We are celebrating, my friends.” Josh claps his hands together.

“It’s not official yet,” Micah says pointing a finger at him.

“Get used to it. We lost.” He smiles to Micah.

I look between them a few times wondering what they are talking about before Josh waves him off. “We are celebrating my best friend getting married. Thank God that he finally found the girl for him.” I smile. “And then we are celebrating the secret,” he says happily.

“Which is?” I prompt.

He gets a big smile on his face. “Courtney and I are having twins,” he says throwing his hands out to his side with a big shit-eating grin on his face.

“Holy shit.” Micah’s jaw drops to the floor.

I stand up and pull Josh into a tight hug. “That’s awesome, man. Congratulations.”

“I couldn’t believe it.” Josh shakes his head. “Two. I’m having two babies,” he says still smiling.

I turn around and get us some glasses down and pull the pop out of the fridge before filling the cups with ice.

“When did you find this out?” I ask.

“We’ve known for a while but she wanted to keep it a secret. Afraid that something would happen to one of the babies.”

I can respect that. We had done the same thing about Angel being pregnant.

“Where’s dipshit?” Josh asks looking as if he just realizes Parker’s not here.

“He’s running late,” I say.

“You don’t think he’s going to show up with strippers do you?” Micah asks.

“He better fucking not. Parker will never here the end of it,” I say pouring us some drinks.

“Never here the end of what?” Parker asks walking into the kitchen with Tate by his side.

Micah answers, “We were about to take bets if you were going to show up with strippers.”

Parker snorts as he grabs his dick through his jeans. “No thanks. I value my cock and balls too much. The devil would have them removed if I showed up at her house with strippers.” He cringes as Tate laughs out loud.

“She will have your dick and balls if she hears you call her that,” I say making his and Tate’s drink.

“What can I say? I like to live dangerously,” he states before he takes a sip. “But not too dangerously.” He cups himself again.

Parker strikes up a conversation about his brunette hottie that had him running late while I pull my cell out of my pocket and text my soon to be wife.

Me:
I hope you have a great night with the girls. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow
.

People say you have last minute jitters that make you want to run off and do something stupid before you get married. Before you ‘sign your life away’ as Parker puts it. I have none of that. I can’t wait to see her tomorrow dressed in her wedding gown and ready to take what I’ve wanted to give her since I first realized I was in love with her.

My last name.

Angel:
Hey baby. How are things going with the guys? I can’t wait for tomorrow. I love you, Slade. Xoxo

Me:
Everything is going great. I hate not being able to see you. Love you too.

Whoever invented this ‘can’t see your bride before the wedding’ is for the fucking birds. Who cares if I see her? I want to see her beautiful face when I wake up in the morning. I want to run my hands over her perfect body and soft skin.

Angel:
It’s just one night, then we have the rest of our lives.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Parker asks from behind me.

I turn around, and he sighs once he reads the messages on my phone.