5
Holt strode into the rental house he shared with Jonah, Brax on his heels. He had his orders, and they were many, but he intended to execute them without a hitch because Cayla deserved nothing less.
Jonah emerged from the kitchen, a Coke in his hand. “You’re back.”
“They’re getting married.” Brax blurted the news with all the enthusiasm of a rich housewife spilling the tea.
Jonah’s mouth fell open. “I’m sorry, what now?”
Holt grunted an acknowledgment. “Everything go all right after Brax left?”
“The bakery is fine. I sold every crumb, save for the last two apple cinnamon oatmeal bars because I got hungry. Don’t be avoiding the subject. Married?”
“Married,” Brax confirmed, his tone full of delight and metaphorical popcorn. “The real deal.”
Giving them both up as lost causes, Holt headed straight for his room, hauling an enormous duffel bag out of the closet and starting to fill it with the essentials. Before he’d emptied his underwear drawer, his friends were crowding into the room.
Jonah inserted himself between Holt and the bag. “Hold up. How the fuck did you go from some kind of guard duty request on Cayla’s mom and daughter to marriage?”
“Cayla’s ex-husband is out of prison and threatening to come after Maddie. I’m making sure that doesn’t happen.” He skirted around his buddy and added a stack of jeans and cargo pants to the bag.
“What kind of threat? Kidnapping? Why aren’t we talking about setting up a protection detail instead of matrimony?”
Holt sent up a prayer of gratitude that his friends immediately went to protection, without question. “Because I told the son of a bitch I was her husband.”
“Uh… and you did that why?”
“Because he’s the kind of fucker who thinks a woman is property, and he’s more likely to respect the claim of another man than her own boundaries.” And if claiming her that way had felt natural as breathing in the moment, Holt didn’t have the bandwidth to process it just now. He had gym clothes to pack.
“Okay. So the ex is an asshole Neanderthal. I follow that logic. How did that lead to actual wedding bells?”
Holt headed for the bathroom and began loading his toiletries into a bag as Brax explained.
Jonah didn’t look convinced when Holt came back out. “I mean, that’s noble and shit, but aren’t you the one who said you weren’t looking for the whole package deal? That you’d done your time as a caretaker with Hadley?”
Hands braced on the duffel, Holt paused and dropped his head. “Yeah. Yeah, I said that.” And he’d meant it. He’d spent all his childhood, all his youth, and a good portion of his adult years being a parent to his baby sister. He’d never resented Hadley, but he’d resented the hell out of the necessity. Out of the fact that his life had never been his own because their mother had never stepped the fuck up. So he hadn’t planned on getting married, playing house, doing the family thing. Not now. Maybe not ever.
He turned to face his friends. “None of it mattered a good damn when I walked in and saw her looking like a fucking ghost, while she faced off with her worst nightmare. I can’t let her deal with that alone. I won’t.”
“Again, noble. That’s kinda your schtick. But this isn’t just a bodyguard detail, man. There are gonna be feelings involved. Already are, on your side, from where I’m standing.”
He was getting married in a few hours. It didn’t seem worth denying it. “I feel more for them both than I wanted to. Tried to stop. It didn’t work. That kid is in here.” With one fist, he thumped at his chest. “That alone would’ve been enough for me to do this. But Cayla. She’s…”
There is nothing monstrous about you.
He could still feel her hand against his cheek, see the conviction in those big brown eyes. Without even trying, she’d rocked him to the core, evaporating all his good intentions. He wanted her on levels he hadn’t even begun to process. “There’s something there, whether I want it or not. So I have to do this. I have to protect both of them.”
Jonah’s green eyes were sharp, assessing. “And when the threat is past?”
Who the hell knew when that would be? “We’ll just have to figure out the rest when we get there. This is the immediate priority.”
Jonah and Brax exchanged a look, and he braced for judgment. For them to call him out for being completely nuts. Hell, he knew he was. It didn’t change a damned thing.
His buddy nodded. “All right. I guess I’m gonna be digging out my suit. Brax, you’ve got one floating around in your closet somewhere, right?”
“I’ll have Mia grab it. She’s not gonna want to miss this.”
“Why can’t you get it yourself? When is the wedding?”
“They have an appointment with a judge in Johnson City at four-thirty,” Brax announced. “Called the courthouse myself.”
“Today?” Jonah dragged out his phone. “Shit. I’m calling Mom. You need a haircut if you’re tying the knot.”
Holt dragged a hand through his too-shaggy hair. Yeah, serious occasion called for a proper cleanup. “Appreciate it.”
Brax was next. “On a more serious note, what do you need?”
He reviewed his mental list. Clothes and shit for a couple of weeks, at least. He needed to go on and dress for the ceremony here, as he didn’t want to mess with a wardrobe change and his prosthesis in a public bathroom. There hadn’t been time to discuss the full details of him moving in with Cayla before she’d been whisked off by her mom to do everything on her list. He didn’t want to just show up with everything he owned tonight. She was facing enough shock and change today. But they’d need to make that transition sooner rather than later.
“I’m packing a bag with the essentials for the night, but I expect I’ll need to pack the rest of my stuff to get it ready to move over, quick and quiet. We’re keeping this under the radar and not making a big production of the when we got married.”
“Yeah, we can help take care of that.” Brax waved the details away. “But there are some other things to consider for today.”
“Like what?” He had his ID. Cayla had to take care of the lion’s share of other requirements for their marriage license since she had to produce her dated divorce decree.
Brax rolled his eyes. “Like the fact that this is your wedding day, man. More importantly, it’s her wedding day. This is not just about all the technical shit. Yeah, okay, it’s unconventional. But any woman deserves something special. And Cayla’s a freaking wedding planner. I know there’s not a lot of time, and there’s no opportunity to put together the kind of shindig she would, but let’s figure something out to make this a positive, memorable occasion and not some kind of business transaction, okay?”
Jonah punched Brax in the shoulder. “Marriage has turned you into a hopeless romantic.”
“Shut up, asshole. I know what I’m talking about.”
That was a fair point. Holt checked his watch. “It’s, what, an hour to the courthouse?”
“Yeah, about that.”
“I’ve got an idea. If I hurry, there’ll be just enough time.”
* * *