“Ya know, we really need to talk about how easily you let Ronnie order you around,” I answered with a grin as I tugged at my tie. Fuck, why would anyone ever want to wear something like this?
Groot barked at her name.
Fluffy chuckled. “Whatever. I’m going to assume by the pitched tent in your pants you liked whatever it was she showed you while I was getting ice?”
I ignored him.
“That going to be gone soon?” he asked. “Or are you planning on her father hating you for life?”
I grunted. “I have a feeling he already does.” Giving up on the tie, I dragged my hands through my hair. “How much longer?”
Fluffy shot his wrist a quick look. “Ten minutes.”
“Let’s go.” I needed to move. Walking down to the private beach where the ceremony was taking place would at least get the blood in my cock moving to other parts of my body.
With a snort and a laugh, Fluffy walked out of the suite.
“Here we go,” I whispered, checking my fucking tie one more time.
Dressed in a snug red dress that showed off her killer forty-five-year-old body, Lila stood smiling at us beneath the archway made out of driftwood and threaded with jasmine vines and hibiscus flowers. I have no idea who made it—again, Fluffy had taken charge of so many aspects of this moment, I would never be able to show him my full gratitude. Standing off to the side was Tannah, Fluffy’s paramedic, and beside her, Ronnie’s parents.
Ronnie’s mother beamed at us, curling her fingers around Fluffy’s wrist when we walked up to them and tugging him down to kiss his cheek.
“The tux suits you, Fluffy,” she approved.
Fluffy blushed. Fucking blushed. The guy’s upbringing had almost been as shit as mine, with his mother going AWOL when he was fifteen. Ronnie’s mother had taken to him like a duck to water when they first met. Was that because she’d spent almost an hour pressing her hand to the bullet hole in his shoulder, or because he was just a big, menacing-looking cupcake? I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. Fluffy deserved someone maternal thinking he was worth it, and Janice had filled that hole in his life.
As for Ronnie’s father…
William Underwood looked at me. “Lucas,” he grunted.
“William,” I said, jaw clenched. When was he going to get it through his head that I loved his daughter more than life?
Of course, it hadn’t helped that he’d come back from a cruise to discover Ronnie covered in blood after the…altercation with Queen B. Or the fact he’d punched me and had me arrested.
Janice patted Fluffy’s cheek and rolled her eyes. “You two need to check your testosterone at the door and get yourselves sorted out. William—” she pointed a finger at her husband, “—remember what I told you.”
“If Veronica is happy, I’m happy,” William intoned,
Janice rolled her eyes again and then caught my wrist. She tugged me down to her level like she had Fluffy and kissed my cheek. “You look very handsome, Lucas.”
My gut clenched. I’d never been good with receiving compliments, probably because I rarely got any growing up. Ducking my head, I let out a wobbly snort. “Thanks, Mrs. U.”
Stepping up to me, Lila cupped my cheek in a steady hand. It always messed with my head that she knew how to kill a person a hundred different ways just with her hands alone. “You deserve this, Lucas,” she whispered. “You deserve to be happy.”
I did. I fucking did.
And Ronnie was my happy.
Regardless of what her father thought.
As soon as we returned from our honeymoon, Lila and I would track down the person who sent me the wire message, tidy up that thread, and our life—Mr. and Mrs. Pratt’s life—would begin.
“Ahh,” Tannah cleared her throat just as I heard Groot let out a playful bark. “I think we’ve begun.”
I turned in the direction she was looking, and my heart slammed into my throat.
Ronnie stood on the edge of the beach where the lush grass met the sand, smiling at us, Groot wagging his tail beside her.