The UN Series Complete Box Set (120 page)

Laura looks from Tate over to Missy. “You have your work cut out for you.”

I look at Laura wide-eyed. Is Missy’s breakdown that obvious to people who don’t even know her?

Missy’s head turns to her, and she wears the same surprised expression. “Excuse me?” Missy asks.

Laura smiles at her. “Every person in this place can see how much you love my son. And they can also see that he does not care.”

“Laura,” I scold her. Tate has already hurt Missy enough.

“No. It’s okay,” Missy says softly. “You’re right. He doesn’t care about me.”

“That is not what I said.” Missy and I continue to stare at Laura confused. “I said he doesn’t care that you love him. I didn’t say he doesn’t care about you.”

“Is there a difference?” Missy asks.

“Of course. Your love for him can’t change him. But he knows the love he could have for you would. Tate needs someone strong, Missy. Tate hides things very well. He keeps things bottled up and tries to fight all his demons by himself.”

Missy shakes her head and says, “Nothing’s going to happen between us.”

Laura smiles, and I have a feeling Laura knows something that we don’t. “Just stay strong. Animals prey on the weak,” she says with a straight face.

I stand there looking at Laura in total shock. She has changed so much from what I remember of her. But I know that she’s speaking from experience. She was once the prey of an animal. An animal that would chew her up and spit her out.

Missy nods at her before she walks off looking more confused than upset now.

“Thanks again for coming,” I say and hug her once again before I head back to my table. I smile as I sit down next to Slade.

Courtney plops down beside me with a wad of tissues in her hand as Holly sits down next to Slade.

“Okay don’t be mad,” Josh says with a laugh as he eyes Slade.

“What did you guys do?” He looks from Josh to Micah skeptically.

“We had made a bet,” Holly says surprising me.

We all turn to look at her. “A bet on what? That Slade would run?” I ask with amusement.

She laughs. “No. We made a bet that he would marry you,” she said matter-of-fact. “And I won.” She wiggles her eyebrows before she looks up at Micah and Josh. “So pay up, boys,” she says with a smile on her face.

“You made a bet we would get married?” Slade questions sounding confused.

“Yes,” Josh answers.

“Why would that make me mad?” he then asks.

“Well because it was sort of a setup,” Holly says with a smile.

I frown. “Which part?”

She lets out a long breath. “All of it.”

“I’m confused,” I say with a laugh.

“The first night at Larry’s. We set you two up.” She smiles proudly. “All of it.”

I sit there listening to one of my best friends as she tells us she had planned on pairing us together. I don’t know if I want to be mad or kiss her.

Definitely kiss her!

Her eyes turn on me. “Remember when I helped you move into your rent house and Micah had called me while you were putting clothes up in your closet?” I nod. “That was Micah telling me that Slade was going out as well. Then after I left I called and told you to wear that white dress.”

“You told her to wear that dress?” Slade asks surprised. Then he turns to look at me. “I loved that dress,” he says breathlessly as if he’s remembering it.

I laugh. “What I don’t understand is why the bet?” I look up at the guys. “You guys bet against her?” They didn’t think we would fall for one another?

“No. We knew it would happen. We just bet on how long it would take for it to happen. But we all knew you two would end up together.” Josh smiles. “Although I knew Sam would make you work for it.”

“Is that what you meant when you found us in the hallway by the bathrooms?” I ask, remembering him walking down the hall toward us. He had slapped Slade on the back with the words,
“Good luck with that, Slade.”

“Yep,” he says with a smile. “I knew he’d crash and burn with you at first, which you did quite a few times,” he reminds Slade. They all let out a laugh. “And I wanted a front row seat.”

Slade pushes me away from his side and turns to face me. He places his hands on my face and smiles. “I’m pretty sure I fell in love with you the first night you called me,” he admits. “Even if our friends hadn’t orchestrated that first night at Larry’s, I still would have found you.”

I smile and give a little laugh when I hear Courtney’s little sob behind me.

Josh frowns and looks over to her. “What’s wrong, baby?” He comes around our table, and we all watch as he bends down beside her.

She holds her head in her hand as she shakes it. “I hate these fucking pregnancy hormones. They are messing with me,” she cries. Josh holds in his laugh with a smirk as he rubs her back softly.

“I told them,” he says quietly to her.

I frown as her head snaps up to look at him. She gives him a death glare. “Why? Why?” she cries. “We decided we were going to wait.”

He gives her a smile. “You can’t expect me to keep that a secret, baby.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask. “You told us what?”

“I should rephrase that. I told the guys,” he adds.

Courtney sighs as if she hates what she is about to say. “We found out that we are having...”

“A girl?” Holly interrupts excited.

Courtney shakes her head as tears run down her face. “It’s too early to know the sex. We are having twins,” she announces.

“No way,” I say looking from Josh to Courtney. I turn to look at Slade. “You knew?”

“Hey I just found out last night,” he says in defense.

“We wanted to wait a little longer,” Courtney says getting my attention. “We wanted to make sure we were out in the clear.”

“Why? Are you having problems with your pregnancy?” I ask worried.

She shakes her head. “We just wanted to make sure.”

“That is amazing,” I say as tears fill my eyes again.

“Why is everyone over here crying?” Parker approaches the table with his arms thrown over Holly’s cousin’s shoulders. She smiles, and Holly frowns.

“What are you doing?” she asks her cousin with narrowed eyes.

This is the same cousin that she found him with at her wedding.

“We just finished...dancing.” She blushes at her lie.

“I saw everyone over here crying so I thought I would see what was up with that,” Parker says pulling away from her.

“We were talking about Courtney and Josh having twins,” I inform him.

“Oh, that?” He waves a hand in the air. “I was told that last night,” he adds as if it’s no big deal—and to him it probably isn’t.

“Uh. Even Parker knew before I did,” I whine.

He grabs the girl’s hand and pulls her away, probably to go to the nearest coat closet. As Tate comes up to sit down next to us, I watch as his eyes dart over to Missy.

She sits at the end of the table with the saddest look on her beautiful face. She looks out over the dance floor as if in a daze. Braxton is sitting next to her, his hand lazily running up and down her arm. He’s softly speaking to her, but she doesn’t acknowledge him.

Tate stares at her with an expressionless glare. He watches as she slowly lifts her glass of wine and takes a sip. She continues to stare off into the distance, and my heart breaks for her.

Tate’s eyes roam her face, and then he frowns. He can see it. Whatever she is going through, he sees it. I expect him to do something, even with Braxton sitting there with her. Tate isn’t the type of guy to care if Braxton is here or not. If he has something to say, he will—maybe ask her to dance—but he doesn’t. Instead he turns and looks right at me. I should look away, pretend like I wasn’t watching him watch her, but why? He knows I was watching him.

He arches his eyebrows as if to ask me ‘what?’ and I just shake my head with a frown on my face.

They will never be friends again, and I hope that I haven’t lost her as a friend as well because of that.

*****

SLADE

I stand on the end of the dance floor with one hand in my pocket of my dress slacks and the other holding the second glass of scotch that my father handed me. I look over the dance floor and smile when I see Tate twirl my wife around. I hate that she doesn’t know who he really is. What she really means to him. It’s time she knows. It’s time for him to sit her down and tell her the truth. And as soon as we get back from our honeymoon, I’m going to tell her myself.

“Woo,” Parker breathes walking up to me. “I love weddings,” he says straightening the collar on his button up shirt.

“Get ya some action?” I ask bringing the glass to my lips

“Of course,” he snorts. “What’s a wedding without getting some ass?”

I laugh then get serious for a second. “How are things going at work?” I ask.

I don’t miss the stiffening of his body. “Good,” he says curtly. “No worries. There will be no immunity for Jax.” He did things to guarantee that.

He looks over at me. “How is she doing?” He nods over to the dance floor at Angel.

I swirl my glass of scotch. “She’s great.” She quit waking up in the middle of the night screaming. I think the wedding and the baby have taken her mind off of what happened. She’s always trying to show me what our future holds not the pain of the memories in our past.

“How are you doing?” His eyes drop down to my scotch then back up to me.

I shrug. “I don’t want to kill anymore,” I say truthfully.

“Well, that’s a start,” he responds seriously.

“Did you ever find out any information on that guy, J?”

He shake his head. “That Dallas guy was lying to you.”

I figured.
The bastard.
Should have broken his legs as well.

He takes a step to me and speaks quietly. “I got a call this morning that the house is registered to a man by the name of White. There is no paperwork trail suggesting that a man named J lives there.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Maybe I should go visit Jax,” I offer.

He shrugs. “You could. But would he tell you anything?”

“Doubtful,” I answer before taking a sip of the scotch.

“Then I would say forget him.” He turns his body to look over at Angel now dancing with my father, and he smiles. “She really is perfect for you,” he states, surprising me. “You’re lucky.”

“I know,” I say with a smile. “If you will excuse me—” I throw back the rest of the scotch ignoring the burn. “I’m going to go dance with my wife.”

I hand him my glass and make my way to her on the dance floor. I see her now dancing with my father. He looks up to notice me and steps away from her. “She’s all yours.”

She turns to face me and smiles, but I catch the tears that slowly roll down her face. “You don’t dance.”

I wipe them away softly with my thumbs. I know they are from dancing with my father, and I hate it that hers wasn’t here for her. Thankfully, my father doesn’t mind taking that role.

I wrap my arms around her waist and can’t help but think of what she will look like three months from now. I still have to remind myself that we are expecting a baby.

“I wouldn’t miss this dance for anything,” I say leaning down to kiss her. It’s slow and soft as she controls it. We still haven’t made that move to have sex. I haven’t even tried and neither has she since our argument that night in our kitchen.

“I love you,” she whispers as she pulls her lips away from mine.

“I love you too, baby.” I rest my forehead on hers as we slowly move around the dance floor to a song I’ve never even heard before. But now it’s a song I will never forget.

I spin around when I hear someone tap on a microphone. “Hello everyone,” Holly says with a smirk as she stands up on the stage at the end of the dance floor where the band is set up.

We hired Missy’s brother and his band to play for our wedding. They’ve already set up but don’t come on until the end of the reception.

We had seen them play on the night of my birthday after the Ram’s game. When Angel said she wanted them, I gladly hired them. They are an awesome band.

“Hello,” we all say back to her.

She laughs. “I hope Sam and Slade don’t mind but I have some entertainment for you guys.” She’s smiling so big her face has to be hurting.

“Oh God,” Angel giggles beside of me.

Holly licks her lips and then begins to speak again. “Let’s just say I won a bet.” She winks at us. “And it’s time for Josh and Micah to pay up.” She points over to Courtney who pushes a button on a Karaoke machine that my mother insisted we needed. I was afraid she wanted it ‘cause she was going to get drunk and want to sing. Now I’m thinking that it was just for this bet.

“Now, pull your phones out and make sure to record this. Because you will want this for blackmail.” She laughs at her own joke.

She then jumps off of the stage and comes to stand beside me.