The Rocker That Holds Her (The Rocker...) (15 page)

Wedding Day

I woke up in an empty bed.

Groaning, I turned over on the king sized mattress, burying my face in the pillows and wishing that Emmie was beside me. My body ached with need for her, having spent the last two days without her. Layla, Lana, and Harper had taken Emmie to some spa for the last two days. Their version of a bachelorette party.

I was glad that Emmie was off having fun, being spoiled rotten and pampered as she got ready for our wedding. My aching dick on the other hand wanted to strangle all three of the females that had become vital parts of our family.

“
Da-da!”

I raised my head, my body instantly cooling down at the sound of Mia. My partially closed bedroom door opened and in toddled my baby girl. Emmie was going to freak when she found out that Mia could climb out of her crib now, something that she had been doing for the last two days.

Sixteen month old Mia pushed her tousled red hair back from her baby doll face. Big, sleepy green eyes spotted me as I sat up in bed. “Da-da!” she exclaimed, running toward me as fast as her chubby little legs could carry her while she held on tightly to the little bear in her arms. As soon as she reached my side of the bed, I swung her up into my arms.

She clung happily to my neck. “Da-da…” She pulled back, noticing that the spot beside me was empty yet again. Her bottom lip trembled. “Mo-ma?”

I gave her a reassuring smile. “Momma will be home today, baby doll.” I brushed a kiss over her sweet smelling hair. “And you get to wear your pretty flower fairy dress.”

Mia didn’t seem to care that she was going to get to dress up in the beautiful dress that Emmie and Layla had picked out for her last month. She looked up at me with a pout before climbing down from my lap and snuggling into her mother’s pillows. “Mo-ma.”

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, she was too much like her mother. And whether Emmie realized it or not, Mia was just as much a momma’s girl as she was a daddy’s girl. I jumped out of bed, anxious to start the day. By tonight Emmie would be my wife, and I was finding it hard to contain my nervous excitement.

Downstairs I found Jesse, Shane, and Drake already sitting at the kitchen table. There was a pot of Jesse’s special recipe coffee sitting in the middle while my three band brothers sat quietly.

“What’s up?” I questioned, going to the cabinet to grab a mug along with a box of Cheerios and a bowl for Mia, who was already climbing onto Drake’s lap.

“
Just remembering the old days,” Jesse muttered, frowning down into his mug. His jaw was clenched and he kept averting his eyes.

“
It seems like yesterday that Emmie was just a dirty little rag doll that we tried to take care of…” Shane sighed, a sound that sounded a little sad.

Drake arranged Mia on his lap so she could eat her breakfast and still hug him. I let my eyes linger on my daughter, suddenly understanding what was wrong with my friends. It was going to be hard for me when it came time for Mia to get married. I was already dreading the day when I had to hand my baby doll over to some nameless asshole.

For the guys—but especially for Jesse—that was what they were doing today. They loved Emmie in an entirely different way than I did. For them she was their sister, and in some ways their daughter. Jesse had always been the one that came the closest to being the only father figure that Em ever had. Today he was handing his little girl over into my safe keeping, even if she had already been there for years.

I reached over and clasped his shoulder. “I’ll take good care of her, man.”

Jesse clenched his jaw, looked away, and nodded his bald head. “Yeah…” he cleared his throat “…yeah, man. I know you will.”

An hour later people started showing up. The caterers started setting up in the kitchen while outside a tent was being set up on the beach. February was the wettest month in Malibu, and Emmie hadn’t wanted to chance being rained on. But she hadn’t needed to worry. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature continued to rise higher than normal.

I kept Mia inside. The guys and I played with her non stop trying to pass the hours away until it was time to start getting ready. The wedding wasn’t until six and the girls weren’t going to arrive until three. By that time I was expected to be in the guest house with the guys, keeping away from Emmie until she walked down the aisle.

At two thirty I ushered Mia outside and into the guesthouse. Four tuxes were already hanging up in the bedroom along with Mia’s dress. As the time slowly ticked down, I found myself taking on the characteristics of my band brothers. I started pacing, trying to burn off some of the anxiety. My fingers tugged at my hair as I alternated between fear of Emmie deciding that she didn’t want to get married after all and calm because I knew Emmie would never do that to me.

At three thirty Lucy walked into the guesthouse. She looked adorable in her silvery dress with flowers and little jewels braided into her dark hair. Lucy handed Jesse a folded piece of paper. “Dad, you aren’t answering your phone. Aunt Em said to give this to you.”

Jesse frowned and reached for his cellphone in his back pocket. “It’s dead.” Taking the paper his ever changing dark eyes narrowed and he crumbled the paper in his hands. “Okay. Tell Em I’ll take care of it.”

Lucy only nodded and rushed off to relay the message. My heart was beating me to death in my chest. “What?” I demanded. “What’s wrong?”

Jesse shook his head. “It’s nothing, man. Just a little disagreement with Rich. I’ll deal with it.”

I muttered a curse. We had fired Rich as our manager the second week of January. Our contract had expired on New Year’s Day and Rich hadn’t seemed to wonder why we hadn’t signed a new one. When he had realized that we weren’t going to, he had gone ballistic. OtherWorld had dropped Rich the year before, and now with Demon’s Wings doing the same thing, Rich was going to lose clients left and right. Rumors were already flying that he might have to file bankruptcy by the end of the year if any other big names fired him.

We hadn’t found a new manger to replace Rich because Demon’s Wings had always had one. Emmie had taken care of us practically from the day she moved in with us. After all those years of learning the ropes she had the know-how as well as the connections to make sure that Demon’s Wings stayed at the top of their game. Our record label hadn’t even batted an eye. They didn’t care one way or another who was managing us as long as we were selling albums and making new ones.

I hadn’t wanted Emmie working as hard as she had been for so many years so I asked her to hire help. Drake and Shane’s sister Natalie had been the perfect answer. She was going to college part-time and wanted a job. It was convenient that she lived on the East Coast because she could help Emmie take care of Drake’s needs when it came to America’s Rocker. Natalie was smart and efficient. A bonus was that she didn’t take crap off of Em, who could easily walk over a person without even realizing it. Emmie called the girl her right arm, not understanding how she had managed so long without her help.

“
Rich is here?” I demanded, anger making me tense.

“
He’s trying to get past the security gate,” Jesse told me, already reaching for his keys. When I started to follow him, he shook his head. “No. You are going to stay here. I don’t want to take the chance of things getting ugly like they did last month. That’s why Em asked me to take care of this.”

I grimaced, knowing he was right. In Rich’s rage he had done the one thing that would sign his death warrant. He had threatened Emmie. He had taken one menacing step toward her, and I had laid him flat on his back with a punch to his glass jaw. The guys and I had left him lying on the floor in his conference room at his office. That bastard was lucky I hadn’t done more than hit him. At that moment I had wanted to tear him apart.

His secretary had called the cops and the police had actually showed up here at the house. Rich had wanted to press charges against me. But when Emmie had told the cops what had really happened, they hadn’t tried to arrest me. Instead they had asked if Em wanted to take out a restraining order on Rich. Emmie had and when the tabloids had gotten their hands on that juicy little bit of information all hell had broken lose for Rich.

If Rich was here now, even if he was at the gates that lead into our community he was in violation of the restraining order and could be arrested. But I knew that Emmie didn’t want that kind of publicity on our wedding day. That she was asking Jesse to handle it rather than just calling the cops told me that much.

Not long after Jesse had left, Lana and Harper came over to check on me. I was already showered, and had gotten as far as putting on my dress pants. I was walking around with no shirt on which had the girls stopping and gawking at me.

“
Nice ink!” Lana exclaimed, stepping closer to get a better look.

I glanced at the new tattoo I had gotten just the night before. I hadn’t gotten the tattoo I had wanted when we were staying in Florida the summer Emmie had been pregnant with Mia. Every time I had made plans to go to Miami something had always seemed to come up. But with Emmie away I decided it was now or never.

A heart engulfed in flames on my left pectoral. Inside, in cursive black ink, was fan-favorite lyric from
Ember
, the song I had written for Emmie. It had made it to number one for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard chart.
There’s this Ember in my heart that has hold of me and it won’t let go…

“
So that’s where you and Shane were when I called last night.” Harper grinned. “I thought it was him getting the ink though.”

I shrugged. “He got some ink too.” But I would let Shane show it to her. Just as my ink was a surprise for Em, Shane’s was one for Harper.

Drake came out of the bedroom, a towel wrapped around his lean waist. Upon seeing his wife, he seemed to light up from the inside out. “Hey, Angel. Enjoy your time at the Spa?”

“
Not as much as I thought I would.” Lana walked into Drake’s waiting arms. “I missed you.”

“
So, did you get new ink too?” Harper asked, bending to pick up Mia who was holding her arms out to the beautiful violet-eyed woman.

“
I didn’t leave the house. Someone had to watch Mia.” And he never missed out on a chance to spend time with Mia. Drake brushed a tender kiss over Lana’s lips and stepped back. “I have to get dressed, Angel. No, don’t come in here. Shane’s in the shower.”

“
But…” Lana’s bottom lip stuck out in a small pout. “I haven’t seen you in two days.”

Drake laughed, something he did a lot more often these days. I wasn’t ever going to get tired of hearing it. There had been too many years when Drake hadn’t even smiled, let alone laughed. “Five more minutes isn’t going to be the end of the world, Angel.” But he ended up rushing to get dressed and was back within two minutes, fingers combing his long dark hair.

“Let’s take Mia for a walk on the beach,” Lana suggested, taking the baby from Harper and reaching for Drake’s hand. “I’m sure she is getting restless stuck in here.”

“
She could use some fresh air.” I brushed a kiss over Mia’s cheek as they passed. “Bye, baby doll.”

“
Bye, Da-da.” Mia waved her chubby little fingers then blew me a kiss over Lana’s shoulder before the door shut behind them.

Left alone with Harper I turned to face the girl I was sure would end up my sister-in-law eventually. “How is Emmie?”

Harper grinned, violet eyes lighting up. “Well …”

“
Is it that bad?” Was Emmie having second thoughts?

“
No, it’s not bad at all.” Harper rushed to assure me, seeing how pale my face suddenly got. “That’s not what I meant, silly. It’s just that Em is a control freak and all the caterers are running for their lives because someone forgot to include those little franks in a blanket that you love so much.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, okay.”

“Relax, big guy. Emmie isn’t going anywhere. All she could talk about for the last two days was you and how much she couldn’t wait to be your wife.”

I knew I had a goofy grin on my face. “Good.”

When Shane came out, he took one look at Harper and they disappeared into the bedroom again. The violet eyes Drake had sketched up for him looked so alluringly real and was now inked into his chest. Harper had been both speechless and teary eyed. When I started hearing Shane’s groans, I grabbed my shirt and headed for the door. Yeah, that wasn’t awkward at all! I liked Harper a lot; she wasn’t like Shane’s normal type. Listening while the two of them fucked in the guesthouse bedroom made me feel all kinds of wrong.

The tent was still being set up, along with chairs and a few tables that would be groaning under the weight of food later. I stood at the back of the tent watching everyone hard at work. I wanted to make Emmie’s day a little easier if possible and was willing to step in if needed. But knowing Emmie, she wouldn’t stop rushing around, even if she had a hundred people to help her.

I could hear Mia laughing farther down the beach and the sounds of Drake laughing in between making growling monster sounds. I grinned to myself at the sound of such happiness coming from two people that I loved so much.