I catch Pop’s eyes from his seat in the front row. His eyes wrinkle in the corners, a big smile graces his face, and I swear to Christ, the fucker might have a tear or two in his eyes. Ma’s scowl has turned weepy as she lays her head on Pop’s shoulder and wipes her nose with a tissue. Shit. Now she’s crying, and from the looks of it in the small crowd, so are half the women here.
“Look what you did,” Michael says and elbows me in my side. Blood or not, maybe I shouldn’t have put this asshole in my wedding party. Ma looks at us fondly and blows her nose.
“This shit is getting sappy,” Ryan complains.
“It’s a wedding. Show some respect,” Michael says quietly in warning. These two assholes won’t ever get along, I just know it.
“I’ll show some respect,” Ryan says tauntingly. “I’ll show some respect when I’m plowing your sister later.”
I rub my hand over my eyes to block them out. One normal day, just one normal fucking day is all I ask for, and my brothers can’t shut the fuck up long enough to give me that. They’re bickering but trying to keep it quiet. Even Ma’s getting pissed about it.
Mindy’s bridesmaids walk down the aisle in simple black dresses sans human escorts because these two assholes next to me fought over who’d walk Alex down the aisle and Holly thought she would walk with Grady even though I didn’t put him on my list of groomsmen. If I included my patched brothers, every fucker we knew would be in the wedding party, so we went nontraditional in a few ways. Not that anyone should expect any different from us.
Alex has PJ walking beside her with flowers tucked into the poor dog’s collar. Holly comes down the aisle next with Moose, the Doberman I got to replace Tegan. He also has flowers in his collar. I knew Mindy was going to work the dogs into the ceremony, but I didn’t realize she was going to subject them to looking like walking bouquets. Joey is going to need to get pictures of this so he knows what his highly bred killing machines are up to.
The moment Mindy and Harry come into view from the hallway, the air whooshes from my chest. I don’t know if I’m not breathing or what, but I can’t get any air. Harry is wearing his dress uniform, which makes people laugh and snicker when they catch sight of him. The outlaw marries the cop’s daughter, and of course Daddy has to show up reminding everybody of which side of the law he stays on. Missy and Punk walk beside them, with Missy definitely being better behaved than her son. Punk stops at every person he sees to sniff their shoes and growl at the scents he doesn’t care for. As he’s grown, the differences in the lengths of his legs has become more pronounced, and he kind of hobbles. He’s one of the most pathetic-looking dogs I’ve ever seen, but he’s ours. I can’t wait until the fucker grows up a little more though. He chews on everything, but even still, I can’t imagine coming home and not having him in our house.
Our guests may be watching Harry, but it’s Mindy I can’t take my eyes off of. Instead of wearing white, my girl has on a dark red dress that hugs her figure to about mid-thigh, leaving her creamy legs exposed. She joked last night in bed that she was going to be easy today—I just didn’t realize she meant easy access. Fuck yes.
It seems we don’t have a bit of white in our wedding, which is fitting, I guess. I don’t know how I got so fucking lucky to have this woman in my life, let alone to somehow convince her to marry me.
The ceremony is short and goes by in a blur. The dude marrying us is the same guy who delivered the eulogy at Chief’s funeral. I don’t know whose idea that was, but as long as this marriage is legally binding when we’re done, I don’t give a single fuck.
“You’re fucking beautiful.” The words just rush out now that she’s in front of me. Harry gives me a sad smile and walks to his seat beside his wife. Mindy has heavy eye makeup and bright red lips. I’d kill for the honor of touching her even just once. Not that I haven’t killed for her already, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
My girl, my strong, beautiful, crazy girl, stares at me with tears in her eyes. She holds them back and smiles ruefully.
“You promised that you wouldn’t make me cry,” she says and clears her throat.
“I lied,” I say and kiss her forehead. There’s gorgeous and then there’s Mindy Mercer. I don’t care how much I sound like a pussy right now. I’m whipped, and I like it this way. I didn’t know I could have something like this. I was resigned to being alone. It didn’t bother me. I just didn’t realize what I was missing out on.
It’s time for me to say my vows. Until last night, I was going to go with the standard shit, but it didn’t sit right. Fuck. What the hell am I doing here?
“I don’t like the traditional shit they wanted us to say, so I’m doing my own thing,” I say nervously.
“We didn’t talk about this,” Mindy says, anxious. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t have anything prepared.”