“Don’t worry, she doesn’t want to do it today. We’ll leave that to Haydn and Teela. I can make an announcement, tell everyone about the switcheroo. A party is a party, no vampire teeth will have been wasted.”
“I’m not asking about the vampire teeth, but our feet are all warmed up now,” Jay said.
“Toasty warm,” said Evie. “
“Because you were right,” Jay said. “We are a tight unit and we don’t need to change anything, and marriage is more about legal stuff and the symbolism. A bit of paper doesn’t make couples stay together.”
Evie took Jay’s hand. “He’s big into the symbolism.”
Jay used it to pull Evie closer to his side. “She’s hot for legal stuff.”
Grip got to his feet. “Are you telling me I haven’t failed as your bridesman?”
“We want to be together, symbolically, legally and all the other ways there is,” Jay said.
Evie took his hand, joining the three of them, “And you’re the best bridesman a couple could ask for.”
They went out to the deck then, the Labrador on their six, and with Evie’s dad, Errol, Jay’s mum, Janina and his bandmates in their fangs at his back, Grip stood beside Evie and Jay as they said vows they’d written about being each other’s light and strength and truth.
He held Evie’s flowers. He passed over the rings. He had a drum solo playing in his chest, strong, steady, lift the roof off memorable.
And then he stood holding Mena’s hand when Haydn and Teela were married with repurposed flowers and Evie and Teela’s assistant Sophie as bridesmaids, and Haydn’s bodyguard, Rick and everyone’s favorite limo driver, Hassan as best men.
Haydn’s dad, Teela’s mum, and five well-behaved dogs were in attendance. Grip looked at Rick and Sophie and bells started ringing in his head and nearly everyone including the dogs howled because Haydn teared up when Teela said I do, and they could all see the guy wasn’t acting.
Over the popping of champagne corks, Grip pulled Mena into his arms and breathed her heady perfume in.
“Let’s have a wedding as lovely as this,” she said, her arms around him.
He couldn’t agree more. The wet stuff was back in his eyes and he felt no need to wipe his face. He’d just learned what tears of joy were.
Mena touched his cheek. “Oh, honey, you’re upset.”
He shook his head, no. “Just feeling it all.”
He got kissed for that. He got kissed often and well and it was always better than banging things.
He took Mena’s hand, disappeared it inside his. She pulled his head down and kissed him and it didn’t matter that his emotions were wagging all over the place. He was loved by a woman he adored and admired. These new pants weren’t so unlucky after all, and it was a very good day to be a bridesman.
I hope you enjoyed One Wicked Lick from the Drummer
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The other books in The One series are:
One Night with the Sexiest Man Alive
One Kiss from the King of Rock
Read on for the first chapter of
One Night with the Sexiest Man Alive
Bonus chapter from the Sidelined series
Offensive Behavior
ONE NIGHT WITH THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE
There must be worse ways to be uninvited to the glamorous dinner at the conclusion of the exclusive event you’d spent months of your life managing, but it was difficult for Teela Carpenter to think of one as the door to the function room shut in her face.
Her chance to enjoy an excellent meal and observe Hollywood royalty in an intimate setting closed with a polite, crisp snick.
And it’s not like that was an everyday opportunity. People had paid a small fortune for the privilege.
Not that she was devastated. Exactly. It was just business.
She was thirsty, and her feet ached, and it would be tedious explaining to potential new clients that yes, she had managed the detail of a much-talked-about global forum that brought together household-name leaders in technology, politics, business, and social welfare. And yes, the star of the show, in his first public outing as an activist and not a movie star, was heartthrob, Haydn Delany. And that no, she had not personally met the man dubbed the sexiest alive.
All of which was annoying.
But it was difficult to be too disappointed, what with all the sparky new feathers in her professional cap and the part where she was the architect of her own rejection.
In the seconds after her client, the event promoter, Lynda Chen, had stuttered in pink-faced panic about her mother, not so affectionately referred to as Dragon One, showing up uninvited, and being a place-setting short for dinner, Teela summoned the last reserves of her grace under pressure and volunteered her seat at the table.
It was the right thing to do.
Her assistant Sophie was unlikely to agree. Harsh.
Carpenter Conference management might have handled everything from venue selection, ticketing and insurance, travel and accommodation to the staging, run order and the fragrant native floral table centers she wasn’t going to get to see in situ, but Teela was the hired help, not a paying guest, and her inclusion at the official dinner had been a courtesy.
It wasn’t going to be easy to explain to everyone back at the office, her family or her bestie, Evie, how she’d willingly missed out on having dinner in the same room as the Sexiest Man Alive, given she’d been in his general proximity for a good part of the day and
