Page 121 of For Pleasure Or Worse

“Are you calling my husband old?” I poked at her.

“I’m calling this all miraculous.” She gestured around. “That we’ve all made it here to this exact moment, a series of perfectly timed events and circumstances that truly makes love feel exactly like magic. What happened for the two of you can only be described as that. I always thought Natalia would end up with someone who was the male version of me, to be quite honest.” Another humored murmur sifted across the floor. “Someone who would make sure she doesn’t sleep in too late, tell her she can’t live off of iced coffee and the passing carb, and remind her that an inappropriate joke has a time and place, and one of those places is not while getting a bikini wax. But it turns out I was so wrong.

“What she needed was the person who was going to slow down life to be with her, not try to get her up to speed. The guy who would sleep in beside her until eleven, order that late-night takeout with no remorse, and be the Bob to her Lucille, even if it means traumatizing an unassuming esthetician. And Mateo is that man.

“You are absolutely perfect for each other. There are some things in life that find you when you expect them the least and need them the most, and sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s standing right in front of you, and I think both of you ended up in the right place at the right time. I know every single person at that table agrees with me.” She pointed to our wedding party, and everyone reacted with a smirk while biting their tongues.

“Before I screw this up, let’s toast to you both.” Glasses lifted into the sky. “For a love that lasts forever, and a party that lasts all night.”

Awhoopshot out of the crowd. It was Tyler; it was always Tyler. He was like a human ball of serotonin, but he worked the room as effortlessly as Ophelia nailed that off-the-cuff speech. Tyler stood like he was about to take his turn with themicrophone but Sam grabbed him by the elbow and yanked him back down into his chair.

“I love you so fucking much.” I leaned into a hug from Phee, squeezing her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. “Both of you.” I reached for Frankie next. “Seriously, this wedding wouldn’t have been half as special without the two of you long-distance directing the entire thing and showing up every single time we needed you. We promise to repay the favor.” My eyebrows wiggled at Frankie and I swore there was a faint blush and a hidden smile in return.

“If it weren’t for everything I tried to plan going wrong, I don’t think anything would have gone this right,” she mentioned humorously. “It’s been perfect, and you should reap the benefits of a well-earned reception by getting so drunk you pass out on the beach later. I’ll be right there with you.”

“Can I bring my husband?” I joked. Mateo’s hand slid from my hip to my ass and gave it a small squeeze. I still hadn’t stopped wondering what he’d look like naked with nothing but his wedding ring on his finger, so the gesture stirred something awake inside my lower belly again.

Shoving him into a cabana closet for a blow job was not entirely off the table.

Phee twisted her lips. “I guess he’s invited.”

“Then I’ll be there with a bottle of rum and my pirate boy.”

We danced for hours,laughing, drinking, and fumbling over one another in the bathroom as my sisters and Phee tag-teamed unbuttoning my dress in the stall so I didn’t pee myself—on more than occasion. The music was so electric that it thudded through our bones and roused our tipsy, satisfiedfriends and family to their feet. Even my parents, who I was pretty sure hadn’t shared a dance since their own wedding, ventured out onto the floor to sway in each other’s arms when it was time for Mateo and me to have our first dance. Tyler took my sisters with him on a conga line into the thrum of cousins and coworkers, and even my father-in-law came out with his shirt unbuttoned down his gray-haired chest to twirl Anna in circles under the twinkling lights.

I tossed my bouquet into a very energetic swarm of women, and like the fate she spoke about in her maid-of-honor speech, Ophelia caught it. She stuck her hand out and closed her eyes and the bramble of flowers landed perfectly in her open palm. So when Mateo sat me down in front of the entire squealing reception of people to slide his deft hands up the inside of my dress and work my white lace garter belt down to my ankle in the most lethally antagonizing way possible, he didn’t even bother flinging it. He walked it right over to Frankie to fulfill the tradition.

“I think now is the perfect time to have the boys pay up for losing the scavenger hunt.” Mia saddled up beside me with a sinful grin. Her body was glistening with a sheen of sweat from the dance floor, and her hair was clipped on top of her head, keeping her shoulders cool.

I’d completely lost track of time. It’d been at least an hour since I’d slow danced with Dad, and more than that since I had a conversation with Mateo. I searched the outside venue for our bridal party, counting them off on my fingers like sheep. Bella and Cami were sharing a conversation with our aunt Loren, Ophelia was with my mom, Mateo was already in a little huddle with his brother and Tyler and Frankie near the bar, and Sam was nowhere to be found—though he was presumably with his date, Hailey, who was also missing when I glanced around for her, which could only mean one of two things.

They both excused themselves to the bathroom separately, or they excused themselves to the bathroom together, and there was only one way to find out.

I borrowed the microphone from the DJ and he cut the sound that was playing with the scratch of a record. “I’m requesting a much-anticipated group dance from the groomsmen,” I called out. Mateo and the other three at the bar deflated on a whim, like pulling a pin out of a balloon. “You didn’t think we’d forget about the bet, did you?”

Mateo did the same cursory glance I did a minute ago, scanning the entire reception space looking for Sam. His results were the same as mine. “We can’t do it without Wink.” He shrugged, delighted by that change in fortune. “Sorry, baby.”

“Sam Swan, you are being summoned!” I announced through the speakers. “You can shove your tongue back down her throat later!”

There was a yelp by the oyster bar, and then a commotion of dishes and silverware that whipped me and everyone else around toward the noise, seconds before the unthinkable happened and the massive flamingo-shaped ice sculpture crashed legs over feathers onto the floor. Shards of ice ricocheted as far as the toe of my heels.

“Well, throwing a temper tantrum about it seems a little dramatic,” Tyler commented.

Hailey was standing there in her long red dress, reaching her arms out toward the mess, eyes wide and mouth agape. She looked a second away from breaking down in tears from embarrassment while the venue staff rushed around her with a broom to sweep it off the platform and into the sand. “I am so,sosorry,” she managed to squeak out. Sam stood behind her, fingers laced together at the back of his head. His pale cheeks were dusted pink, and his neck corded on a long swallow.

The sculpture falling left me momentarily speechless, but then the shock turned into pure, unbridled amusement and a cackle bubbled from my throat, cutting into the awkward, pregnant silence. As soon as I started laughing, everyone else did, too, as if they were granted permission. Hailey’s body relaxed slightly, though she was still clearly mortified by what had happened, and I couldn’t blame her for that. I would have felt the same way in her shoes. Getting caught doingwhateverI was doing with my date, and then taking out an expensive, frankly obnoxious wedding decoration, was going to go on her list of most embarrassing moments, if not shoot straight to the top.

I, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less about the damn thing. Three months ago, this would have sent me into a spiral. But letting go of the expectation around the wedding had made even a pretty massive flub the least of my worries.

“Hey, at least it wasn’t the cake,” I said to her, throwing a shrug and a warm, understanding smile. “We were just going to send Pinky off to sea later anyway. This was so much more Shakespearean. I personally live for theatrics.”

“I swear I’ll pay for that,” she promised. Her fists were balled together, and she was looking at Sam with such hopelessly apologetic blue eyes it made me want to drag her behind the ice sculpture and kiss her, too.

“I’ll take care of it, Tally. It was my fault.” Sam took the blame. I’d never seen him so frazzled in his life, and not by the unfortunate accident—by the woman in front of him. I could nearly see his pulse beating out of the vein in his neck. He reached out to put a hand on the small of her back, but decided differently, and my brows pinched together. I’d make my own assumptions and leave the rest alone; these things always had a funny way of working themselves out.

“I’m collecting payment right now, Casanova.” I beckoned him over and Mateo and the rest of the groomsmen made their way to the wide-open dance floor, ravenous for the opportunity to give him hell. Frankie and Tyler took turns shouldering Sam until he was so beet red and blushing that I was worried for his health. Eventually they split into two halves facing one another, Mateo on one side with Sam and Frankie, Tyler and Angelo on the other.

“Don’t say I never did anything for you,” Mateo tossed my way with a sweet smirk. Little did he know that taking the loss for the Elvis impersonator had earned my selfless husband a free pass to anything he wanted for life. Which was just as thrilling for me when I thought about it, because that man lived to please.

---