Finding Joy (The Joy Series) (Volume 2) (38 page)

She giggled again. “He’s one very smart cat.”

“No, I am. Which reminds me … I want to show you something. Can you get up?”

“Yeah, I need to anyway. We need to go see a man about some teeth.”

“Are you sure? Cause maybe we could keep you like this for just a little while.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She winced as I pulled her to her feet.

I wanted to pick her up and carry her, but doing so might hurt her more than just letting her walk on her own. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Show me what you got.”

I led her into the bathroom. When I was standing in front of the mirror, I reached back and pulled my shirt over my head. I watched her expression in the mirror. Her eyes went wide, her chin dropped, and she made that whistley sound again. Hearing it, she self-consciously covered her mouth with her hand.

“Wow,” she said. “That’s one sweet pussy tattoo. Only you could make that look manly.”

I laughed. She didn’t need to know that I’d gotten it in a drunken stupor. She didn’t need to know that I didn’t remember it and had no idea where the idea had come from.

The new tat was as perfect as my toothless girl.

CHAPTER 23

Alexis

“You look stunning,” Carly said. “Are you ready to go?”

Standing in front of my bedroom mirror, I gave myself a final once-over. My face had mostly healed. The bruises had faded away to nothing, and the newer skin on my cheek and chin was just barely detectable. I pressed my lips together to blot my lipstick and smiled at my reflection. My new teeth gleamed back at me. Unless told, no one would guess that they were implants.

The only real reminder of my injuries was the scar under my chin, but I’d been assured that it was also healing nicely. The stitches had come out a few days before so I wasn’t going to have to get married with a train track of black threads on my face.

“Yep. Let’s do this,” I said, brushing my hands down my less than conventional wedding dress. It wasn’t white and fluffy, and I didn’t look like a princess. But as my mother had reminded me, we had been ‘living in sin for months.’ I probably didn’t need to be wearing white anyway. Black would do just fine and would be more infinitely more appropriate for the party we had planned for later.

“Yay,” Carly said, jumping up and down and clapping her hands together. “To the courthouse we go!”

Adam

“Nice,” Burke said. “I expected less from you. Really, I did.”

He was referring to my clothes. Allie wasn’t expecting much either, but I’d gone all out today with an actual suit and collared shirt. I hadn’t worn a tie, but I’d sent my shirt to the cleaners. It was nice and crisp and a little itchy. “Yeah, well, I had to church it up a little for my girl.”

“I halfway expected you to show up in a t-shirt. One of those sorry tuxedo t-shirts with the little bowtie printed on them.”

“I have one in the car. I thought I’d change before we go to the bar.”

“Of course you do. Do you have my shirt?”

“I do, and don’t think you’re getting out of this. My cat shits in the toilet and yours doesn’t,” I said, mocking him.

“I don’t have a cat,” he huffed.

“The hell you don’t.”

“Yeah … okay … there might be some truth to that. Are you nervous?” he asked, shifting from one foot to the other.

“Not at all,” I said, checking the time on my phone.

“Then why are you looking at your phone?”

“Because she should be here by now.”

“She’ll be here,” he said, stomping off while furiously punching buttons on his phone.

I would bet everything in my pocket … including one big ass diamond ring … that he was calling Carly to find out where they were. Honestly, he seemed more nervous than me.

If I was nervous, it wasn’t because I was getting married. It was because this was the first time in more than two weeks that she had been out of the apartment without me.

After the attack, she took the rest of the year off from work. They had found someone else to take over her work on the big case that was going to trial next month. If she was disappointed about it, she hadn’t let on.

In fact, I think she really enjoyed her time off. For the last two and half weeks, we’d done nothing but lay around the apartment, reading books and watching movies while she recuperated. I had ventured out a couple of times without her to take my finals and to pick up Lizzie for a visit, but we’d mostly just been lying low and pretending to be hermits.

We had stayed in by ourselves on Christmas and hadn’t even gone to my graduation ceremony. She had offered, but I’d been relieved to skip it. I didn’t need it. I knew I was graduating. I also knew I needed a job since I turned down the internship in L.A. The studio had called the day after I’d returned to Manhattan, but turning it down had been a no-brainer.

Allie and I had spent the last two weeks making plans … lots and lots of plans … and none of them involved moving to California. With the baby coming in less than two months, this wasn’t the right time for us to be moving across the country. I had, however, been secretly searching online for two-bedroom apartments. Just like Allie had been secretly searching online for baby beds and other baby paraphernalia that would soon be taking over our apartment.

Whenever I’d caught her, she’d snapped her computer shut and looked at me with a hand-in-the-candy-jar expression. She still seemed to think that I was going to backpedal on the whole baby thing, but I was all in. This was the right thing for us.

“Are you nervous?” Ethan asked, walking up. He’d clearly come straight from work and was also dressed in a suit, though he looked more comfortable in his than I felt in mine.

“No. Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Gee, I don’t know – because two weeks ago you didn’t know where you stood with each other and now you’re promising the rest of your life? Have you considered that this may be a little rash?”

I laughed. “No. And I don’t think you believe that either.”

“No, you’re right. You guys are going to be blissfully happy,” he said, looking wistfully at the brunette next to him.

Wait. What?
She looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place her. One thing I did know: she was not Jillian.

She had a few years on Jillian. And, unbelievably, looked even more uptight in her pencil skirt and button-down shirt.

“Hi, I’m Adam,” I said, sticking my hand out to shake her hand.

“Hello,” she said stiffly. “I’m Constance. Ms. Harper’s secretary.”

Oh.
Oh
. Well, this was an interesting development.

“I’m sure Allie will be happy you’re here,” I said, even though the only time Allie had ever mentioned her was after we’d seen her at the Halloween party. Remembering the Brittany Spears outfit, it suddenly made sense why she was here with Ethan today.

“I’m sure she won’t care in the least,” she said briskly. “I only came because Mr. Anderson said you needed two witnesses.”

I arched an eyebrow at Ethan, and he looked away. “Of course. We really appreciate you being here … to witness and all.
Mr. Anderson
always thinks of everything.”

“Yes, Mr. Anderson is very conscientious at work. I’m sure he is in his relationships as well.”

“For the love of God, can you two please stop calling me ‘Mr. Anderson’ and using words like ‘conscientious.’”

I was unable to stop myself from laughing. “I’m going to go check in with Burke to see if he’s heard from the girls. Glad you could make it, Constance.” I excused myself and left them to figure out what she should call him.

 “They’re here,” Burke said, flying around the corner and nearly taking me out. “But Carly is insisting that Allie make a grand entrance.”

“Sounds good to me.” I couldn’t wait for her grand entrance.

We walked back over to Ethan and Constance, who were standing silently, neither one looking at the other. “Okay, well, let’s get this party started. The justice said just to knock when we were ready. So I guess we should go in.”

Constance eyed Burke warily. Since women usually eyed Burke warily, this was nothing new.

“I see you have plenty of witnesses so I’m going to go ahead and excuse myself.”

“You should stay,” Ethan responded too quickly. “Allie would want you here. Plus, we’re going out afterwards to celebrate.”

She was already backing down the hall. “Ummm, I don’t think so,” she said to him, before turning to me. “Congratulations … er … Mr. Harper.”

“Mr. Hill,” I said, laughing. “Tomorrow, Allie will be Mrs. Hill.”

“Oh, right. How silly of me. You know what? I’m just going to go back to the office and get started on changing her name on everything. She’s going to need new business cards … a new nameplate for her door. Really, there’s a lot to do.”

“She’ll appreciate that, I’m sure.”

“Right then,” she said, turning on her heel and scurrying down the hall.

“Thanks a lot, cock blocker,” Ethan said, shoving me.

“I don’t think there was anything to block,” I said, smirking at him.

The judge made small talk with us while we waited for the girls. After a few minutes, there was a light rap on the door. Ethan opened it for the girls, and Carly walked in first.

Behind her stood Allie. My beautiful, gorgeous Allie.

Dressed in black, she didn’t look like the bride that she had probably envisioned as a little girl, and for a split second, I wondered if we’d made a mistake doing it this way. She deserved the big, beautiful wedding of her dreams. But she had insisted that she didn’t want it. I had to admit that with all the issues we’d had with our families, it was easier this way. I just hoped that she didn’t look back on the most important day of our lives and feel cheated.

She wasn’t getting cheated on the honeymoon though. Tomorrow afternoon, we were leaving and would be gone for 10 days. She had no idea and thought she was going back to work in two days. But I’d arranged it with her dad, and he’d taken care of everything at the office. She’d already been out for two and a half weeks. By the time we got back, she would’ve been off for almost a month, but he assured me this wasn’t a problem. Since he was the boss, I was willing to take his word for it.

Our apartment was littered with pictures of Allie with her parents at their place in the Caymans. She had a lot of great memories from there, and that’s where I wanted to take her. We were going to start off the new year by making our own memories. The last year had been a rough one, but this was going to be our year.

The problem with the Cayman plan had been that I had no choice but to tell her parents about the wedding. Allie had wanted to wait and tell them after it was over and done. I’d weighed my options and decided that using their house was more important than keeping them in the dark about it. It wasn’t about the money. We could have stayed at a hotel, but I wanted the memories. I wanted the familiarity. I wanted to be a permanent fixture in Allie’s life.

The price of full disclosure had been agreeing to allow them to join us on the last two days of our vacation. It had seemed like a small price to pay. We would have eight days alone before they made their appearance. Surprisingly, I wasn’t dreading it. Allie would be happy to see them, and it didn’t bother me at all to have them tagging along.

As Allie walked toward me, my heart stuttered. To look at her, you would never know that 18 days ago she’d had the shit beaten out of her and her teeth knocked out. She looked fantastic.

“You dressed up,” she whispered.

“All for you.”

“I like it.”

“I thought you might.”

“Well, if we’re ready to start,” the justice of the peace interrupted. “We are gathered here today to witness the union of Adam and Alexis ….”

_________________________

“I can’t believe you guys are married,” Carly squealed. “Burke, you asshole. When are you going to make an honest woman outta me.”

“I knew this was going to happen,” Burke muttered, as he walked away.

“Does it feel different? I bet it feels different. Just think, Allie, you’re Mrs. Adam Hill.” She seemed to swoon on her feet.

“Yes, I am,” Allie said proudly. Just hearing it said, made my chest swell.

“But seriously. I’m so excited for you. As the maid of honor, I want to propose a toast.” She raised her beer bottle, and Brian, Krista, and Barnacle gathered around. Burke wandered over again with a fresh beer in his hand.

“I thought I was the maid of honor,” Ethan interjected.

“You were the man of honor,” Allie whispered.

“To my favorite couple,” Carly began. “From the first day Adam brought her to the bar, I knew. I knew that she was a game changer for him … and for all of us.” She stopped to wipe one of her eyes that appeared to have sprung a leak.

“Look, I’m messing up my makeup, and I have to get on stage in a minute.” She fanned her face with her hand. “Anyway, I have always known that you are perfect for each other. Even when you each had your doubts, I knew that your love would transcend all things, and it has. So may you have many years of happiness. God knows you’ve earned it.” She raised her bottle and clinked it against Allie’s before knocking it against everyone else’s.

It was Allie’s turn to wipe her eyes. “Thanks, Carl.”

“My pleasure,” Carly said. “I thank my lucky stars that Adam brought you around. If he hadn’t, I would still be hanging out with my pain-in-the-ass sister all the time.”

“I like your sister,” Allie replied.

“I’m out,” Ethan said, putting his palms up and walking away.