And now, with my hair now officially past my chin, we were getting married.
I pulled open the wrapping and started to laugh. I couldn’t help it. Picking up the card, I already knew what it would say.
“Are those white sneakers?” Bridget bent over the box. Her green dress was perfectly fit to her. Strapless. Elegant. I’d picked them out and adored how my gorgeous sisters looked in them.
Layla, wear these. I got some insider info that the dress is long enough to cover them. If you decide to run, I don’t want you to tear up your feet on the stones. Also, there is a car waiting. If you decide to run, get in that. It’ll take you anywhere. But just know, I will chase you. Because you are mine. From now until eternity. I can’t live without your heart. Please choose me today. I’ll be the one at the end of the aisle.
Tears came to my eyes. Dang it, I was going to have to fix my makeup. But that was okay. I would be choosing him. Then and always.
Hope quickly dried my tears, and we put the rest of me together, laughing the whole time. I slipped into my dress. One I had picked for myself. It was long. White with rose coloring. Strapless like the bridesmaid’s dresses, and I felt like a princess in it. Zeke’s princess.
He stood at the end of the aisle as I walked alone toward him. My sisters. His oldest friends. Michael Li. Our winemaker. They all stood watching the tiny ceremony. Just what I wanted.
I took Zeke’s hand at the end of the aisle, and he squeezed his fingers in mine. I was already his. This was making it official. And as my future laid out before me, I smiled at him, knowing that we belonged to each other. Now and always. Forever.
Epilogue
Zeke
I stared at the screen. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I lowered my voice. It was doubtful that Layla could hear me across the house, but I didn’t want to wake her. It was three in the morning. Noah would be up soon, if he weren’t already, and I liked to sit with her when she did the night feedings. At three months, he was starting to space them out by a little but not much. Neither of us minded. He was ours to care for, ours to cherish. Whatever he needed, that’s what he got.
And right now, he needed to sleep and have me not lose my temper at the news Michael Li delivered to me. “I wish I was.”
I sighed. “He’s in Russia?”
“Yes, and I think Justin is there, too.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “He’s made contact with another faction. Claiming to be able to raise them money. But he’s pissed off the original faction. That’s how I heard. The Russian mob? Whichever group? Bad news.”
The sick fucking part of this was that Andrew probably could do it. On a good day, in a good year, he was a guaranteed money maker. That’s how I sold him for so long. He might be able to do it.
“Do we tell the girls?”
Michael always called them that. The girls. He’d been watching them or sending others to for so long that he definitely felt a certain attachment to them. When Layla had been taken, he’d been focused like I’d never seen before. I’d known he was going to save her, even as I’d lost my mind.
The pictures of him holding her had made me wonder if he had feelings for her. But it wasn’t Layla he loved. I wasn’t always good at telling these things, but I was pretty sure the man had been in love with Bridget for a long time. I’d never ask him, because it was one of those things.
“I don’t keep secrets from Layla. I’ll tell her. You can tell Hope and Bridget. Are we in danger here?”
The vineyard was a fortress, but nowhere was impenetrable.
“No. My source says Layla is off limits. You are considered a formidable problem. Hope? Bridget? Yes.”
I wasn’t going to count on it. Layla and Noah would be safe. I’d see to it. But she’d never be okay with her sisters not being safe, too. They had to be okay too.
“I’ll get to Bridget,” he said. I bet he would. “She’s in Hong Kong.”
I hadn’t known that. “Okay. Hope will know as soon as Layla knows.” Washington state to New York might have a time change, but my love and her sister hadn’t seemed to notice.
“On it.” Michael nodded. “I’ll talk when I have more information.”
I leaned forward. “Who’s your source, Li?”
He scowled. Obviously, he didn’t want to tell me, but for now, I was the boss. That would change some day. I was sure of it. Michael wasn’t a guy who would ever take permanent orders from anyone else. “Justin.”
Well…I’d be damned.
I ended our conversation and checked all the doors. There was security everywhere outside, but just in case, I always did.
I walked quietly through the house Layla had decorated so it was comfortable yet also beautiful. It was our home. I was never leaving it. Well…unless she wanted to.
Papers were strewn on her desk as I checked the back door. Designs she was doing for our wines. The ones we’d never sell because they weren’t yet good enough. Almost there but not yet.
I stopped in the doorway of our bedroom. She lay there, Noah attached to her breast, his eyes closed as he fed in his sleep. His little baby breaths filling the room with sound. Her eyes were closed as well as she leaned to the side. But she wasn’t sleeping. She rested while she nursed, but she never fell asleep.
I’d always know if she was. There had never been a time I hadn’t been able to tell when my wife was asleep.
Her eyes flew open, and the smile she gave me melted my heart. “Ezekiel. Come back to bed.”
“I am.” I climbed in on my side, placing my hand on Noah’s back. Our honeymoon baby. I kissed the back of his neck to get his baby smell, his dark hair a mess, even in the low light. Poor kid. It was going to be a long road to get that hair manageable.
Oh, how I loved him. And his mama.
“How is Michael?”
I lifted my eyes to hers. She hadn’t heard. But she knew. Layla never missed anything. Even how much I loved her when I hadn’t been able to admit it. I almost lost everything.
“Don’t think about that.”
She never missed a thing. I sighed. “I can tell you now or in the morning, princess.”
Layla took my hand in hers. We held our palms together, over our son’s small body, as he took what he needed. I understood him. I needed her to survive, too. She was why I existed.
“In the morning.”
There would be time to explain it. I watched her feed Noah. She was the love of my life. I was undeserving of her. But she was mine. My redhead. The only one. As far as I was concerned.
My one. My only.