Bad Boy's Bridesmaid(41)

     



 

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I have two babies of my own, given to me by the woman I love.  No man in his right mind is going to walk away from that blessing." He  didn't let me cry. His smile helped to rebuild what had been shattered.  "Now you have a wedding to get ready for."

I shrugged. "Lindsey doesn't want me there."

"The wedding wouldn't have happened without you. Your sister is like  your mother. They won't ask for help, and they get … defensive when  they're scared. Right now, your sister is scared. She needs you."

"What if she gets upset that I crash the wedding?"

Dad picked up the bridesmaid dress from my bed and handed it to me.  "Good thing you know best how to calm your sister down. Get changed.  I'll take you to the church."

I twisted the dress in my fingers. I wished I hadn't teared up when I said it, but at least Dad was a little misty too.

"You know I love you, Mandy-Pandy."

I smirked. "When the baby comes, I hope I'm half as good a parent as you are, Dad."

"And I hope you have a child just as perfect as you."





22





Nate





The tux wasn't mine.

Just my fucking luck.

The jacket was too tight over my arms and chest. It must have been  Josh's. I figured Bryce mixed them up when he left my tux in a pile of  formal wear bundled on my bar. My bartender said he was pissed when I  didn't show for the rehearsal dinner.

Except I had been there.

And I witnessed everything I needed to see.

I ripped the jacket off, but the rest of the tux fit like shit too. I'd have to fix it at the church.

If I went.

I spent all night trying to figure out what the hell to do, and every twisted thought in my head led to the same resolution.

I had to get Mandy back.

I was an idiot for leaving after she told me about the baby, and an even  bigger idiot for trying to sort through this shit without her. Christ,  it had only been two days since she revealed the truth to me. How the  hell had she dealt with that monster of a secret for three months?  Alone.

It still pissed me off that she hadn't told me, but it didn't matter now that the truth was out.

Mandy was mine, and I'd be damned if I sat by and let another man take her from me.

The church was packed. The wedding party had crashed inside one of the  Sunday school rooms. I hauled Josh out of the clouds of hairspray and  shrieking, tipsy bridesmaids attempting to fix Carmen's melted hair  extensions. He wasn't happy about swimming in a tux two sizes too big  for his scrawny ass frame.

I patted his shoulder and pointed him towards the bathroom so we could switch.

"There you are!" Bryce charged at me. "Where the fuck have you been?"

Suddenly my best friend sounded like his former, non-wedding planning self.

"Sorry," I said. "Something came up."

"Dude, this is my wedding. If it isn't perfect, Lindsey is going to have  my balls for the next fifty years, if she doesn't kill me first."

"I know. I'm here now."

I searched over the insanity that was the staging room. Music played,  panty hose ripped, wine bottles toppled. If it wasn't for the church,  I'd have thought the scene was out of one of my old parties.

I couldn't find Mandy. That didn't mean anything. Knowing the Prescotts,  they tossed her into the rafters to light the candles with flint and  steel or ordered her outside to trim the grass with a pair of manicure  scissors.

"Where's Mandy?" I asked. "I gotta talk to her."

Bryce actually flinched. "You didn't hear?"

"Hear what?"

"I thought she would have told you. There was a … problem earlier."

A problem?

Oh no. My vision hazed, and my heart nearly ripped from my chest.

Something was wrong. What if I got her upset? She was stressed. What if I hurt her?

Jesus fuck, what if something happened to the baby?

The kid was so new to me, but goddamn did it feel real. I'd sulked in  the middle of the night, pissed and raging after the rehearsal dinner. I  didn't know what to do, so I hopped in the car and toured Target's baby  section. I bought the cutest damned onesie I could find.

Green, cause Mandy didn't tell me the gender. Not that it mattered. I just wanted the baby

And I wanted to raise him or her with Mandy.

My voice caught, ragged and pained. "What happened? Is she okay?"

"She had a fight with Lindsey at the salon. She's kinda … " He apologized with a shrug. "Uninvited to the wedding."

"What?"

"It's been one hell of a day." Bryce slapped my shoulder. "Thanks for showing up. We're lining up in fifteen minutes."         

     



 

Son of a bitch.

I couldn't stay for this. Knowing Mandy, she'd be goddamned radioactive  now. I wasn't about to let her get upset and endanger herself or the  baby.

"I gotta go find her," I said. "Sorry, Bryce."

"Nate, no!" Bryce trembled uncontrollably. "Please, dude. Find her after the ceremony. Don't leave or Lindsey will kill me."

I already wasted enough time fucking with my own idiocy. I hated to dick around more, but I couldn't screw over my best friends.

I'd call her. Make sure she was okay. Then, as soon as they said I Do, I'd be gone.

"All right. Josh and I gotta switch tuxes." I pointed him towards the bathroom again.

"No. Stay here. Sandra has to go over the routine once the ceremony  starts. You weren't at the rehearsal. You don't know what to do."

I grunted. "I walk Carmen down the aisle and stand on your side of the altar. It's not rocket science."

"It's a wedding. It's worse! Change here."

"What?"

"I swear to God, Nate-"

"Fine." I waved him off. "Whatever. Josh, strip."

Josh was a nervous kid who went into accounting because he didn't like  working in open spaces. I hated causing someone's nightmare to come to  life, but we didn't have a choice. His fingers trembled just unbuttoning  his coat.

Our shirts switched first. I kicked off my shoes and unbuckled the pants, but Lindsey's shriek echoed over the church.

"Oh, no you don't, pretty boy!"

Bryce panicked upon seeing his bride and turned away, hiding his eyes. I wasn't lucky enough to have permission to flee.

Lindsey tripped over the layers upon layers of fluffy white lace and  whatever they used to puff the wedding dresses out like old-school  princesses gowns. She poked a finger in my chest then aimed south.

"Oh no. I know what you're firing down there. Your pants stay on."

"These … aren't my pants."

"Well, you're not getting in Mandy's anymore, so forget it."

"Thanks … " I gritted my teeth. "But I'm trying to get in Josh's now."

Lindsey snorted. "Well, at least he doesn't have a uterus. Knock yourself out before you knock someone else up."

If my pants weren't at my ankles, and if every bridesmaid I'd slept with  wasn't staring at the moneymaker I used to knock up the bride's  innocent little sister, I'd have let Lindsey know exactly what I thought  of her damn wedding. Instead I kicked the trousers to Josh and worked  on buttoning the dress shirt.

That's when I saw the son of a bitch.

Mandy wasn't here, but her knight-in-shining-armor dared to show his  face. Granted, I couldn't fault the best man for attending his brother's  wedding, but he had a lot of balls to confront me.

Too bad mine were bigger … and very nearly on display for the bridal party.

Rick wasn't a classy bastard, but he thought he was witty. He glanced at my boxers and gave me a goddamned smirk.

"So who's the lucky lady today?"

I didn't give him the pleasure of an argument. This was only gonna get settled one way.

I reared back and swung, punching him clean on the cheek.

"Jesus fuck!" Rick howled and staggered backward.

Rick wasn't a physical guy, but he never backed down from a fight. Today was no different. He leapt at me, pushing at my chest.

"What the hell is your problem?"

The bridesmaids all squealed a different octave of drunken harmony. Rick swiped for my jaw, but I dodged his punch.

I decked him again. "What the hell are you doing proposing to Mandy?"

Rick made the mistake of getting too close. I captured him in a headlock  and rammed his back into the wall. A crucifix fell, and the wedding  party shrieked. Bryce tried to peel me off his brother.

"I gave her an option!" Rick swore. "In case you didn't!"

"Fuck you! You had no idea what I was going to do!"

"Neither did Mandy!"

Jesus. I'd put his goddamned head through the wall. We grunted, and I blocked his kick.

"I trusted you, man. When Jada hit on me, I turned her down because I  knew she was your wife. But the instant Mandy gets upset, you offer to  marry her? What the fuck!"

"I wanted to be there in case you didn't take responsibility."

The rage stiffened my spine. I launched at him, pummeling him with three more blows.

"That's my baby!"

The bridesmaids abandoned their posts, kicked off their shoes, and  rushed me with their bouquets. A nasty arrangement of roses smacked my  head. They hadn't stripped the thorns. The barbs dug into my ear and  ripped. Another bridesmaid whipped my ass with her bouquet. A third bit  my elbow.