Page 98 of Lady Sings the Blues

28.

Beau

The morning starts a little tense as Elise frets about all the setup which needs to get done. Always the Brimstone old lady, she takes the responsibility on even when she’s supposed to concentrate on gettin’ herself ready.

I assure her the brothers have our backs. We’ll have a fuckin’ fantastic wedding. Then I force her to lay back down, and head out to the kitchen to bring her breakfast in bed. Though I’m not a great cook, I make a decent French toast. Sprinkled with powdered sugar. Served with a side of sliced strawberries, sausage links and an alcohol-free mimosa. That bein’ alcohol-free sparkling wine and orange juice.

When I leave her to check setup, when her girls show up to start hair and shit, she’s calm. And I’m at peace knowin’ I gave her that calm.

Finally we arrive at the big moment. It’s about damn time, as I been waitin’ seven years for today. Blood has kept a little distance from our group, but Tommy, Chaos and Sneak have been standin’ at my side for the last ten minutes, givin’ me shit about my life as I know it bein’ over now that I’m about to be hitched to an old ball ‘n chain.Whatever.Tommy and Sneak would lay down their lives for their wives without thinking twice about it, and Chaos, Chaos’ll slip a ring on Liv’s finger soon as we’re clear of Houdini. Maybe sooner.

I have no doubt, and go to tell him that as the house band from Lady’s starts the first bluesy rock chords of the wedding march. My head whips to look down the aisle and that’s when I see her.Fuck.The most beautiful woman in the world, my woman, my bride stands at the end of that aisle on Duke’s arm, she’s wearin’ the sexiest most biker wedding dress ever designed—fitted head to toe white leather. The top of her dress, a vest like one of our cuts, but it’s corseted and plumps her tits to absolute perfection. The bottom skims over her curves, including that slight baby bump, only to flair out at her shoes. Her hair’s done up in this braided side bun thing, which fuckin’ takes my breath away.

My eyes never leave her. Her eyes never leave me. Though as she and Duke pass our brethren guests, laughter erupts from each row. Once they get to me, I see what they’d been laughing at. Elise has a flaming devil head on the back of her dress, but the devil head has a pink bow tied to the top flame as if it was hair, with the words:Brimstone Ladywritten in old English above it. Below it,Bossman. Elise. Forever.

Don’t know how she pulled it off, but damn if I can’t stop my laugh from breaking out too.

Carver looks to Duke. “Prez, say your peace.”

In a black dress shirt, his cut, black jeans and his boots, like all my groomsmen, he turns to speak. With his normally unruly goatee and unkempt black hair, just beginnin’ to silver around the temples, trimmed for the occasion, he shows his respect for me and Elise and our day. It means a fuck of a lot.

“Take care of him, sweetheart. He’s a good man,” Duke says. “And Boss, Doc ain’t here, so it’s been a sad privilege to act in his stead. Take care of this girl and the family you’re creating. What you got is precious. Don’t ever take it for granted.”

The laughing had died down completely once Duke started to talk. As I look from Elise, who started with the tears the moment her dad was mentioned, out to all the brothers gathered to celebrate with us today, I know Duke’s right.

“Nothin’ in the world more important,” I tell our prez, specifically. And then I repeat myself louder for the rest. “Nothin’ in the world more important.”

He guides her hand into mine with another firm nod and backs away to sit in the front row.

Carver starts to officiate once more. “We’ve faced a lot ‘a shit recently. As a club, as a family. This little lady didn’t make it easy on Boss once he decided to woo her again. But, God’s honest truth, I can’t picture any other woman on the planet able to handle him the way she does. Made for each other these two. So Boss, you got something you wanna say to this beauty standing next to you?”

“Boy, do I ever,” I say, to the soft laughter of the room surrounding us.

Elise turns to me at the same time I turn to her, still holding her hand.

“Darlin’. Seven years ago when you showed up in town in front of the Whippy Dip, I knew I was fucked. Saw it. Saw it as sure as I’m standin’ here now that my world would never be the same. And damn if I wasn’t right on that.”

More laughter from my brothers.

“You sure pulled me through the wringer. Thing is, I don’t mind a damn bit ‘cuz all of it brought me to right here, right now. So now, don’t matter my world’s never gonna be the same. Far as I see it, that’s a good thing so long as I have you along for the ride. We walk this life path together, nothin’ else matters. Even through—”

“Your first kid datin’.” Tommy cuts me off.

“Pregnancy scares.” Chaos adds.

“Shotgun weddings.” Sneak finally finishes, to the amusement of everybody but me.

“Piss off.” I squeeze Elise’s hand a bit tighter. “But yeah, even through all that shit, Elise, you and I are together, we’ll deal. Always.”

She blinks at me a few times, laughter and tears together before she starts. “I don’t even know where to begin. Everything you said is true. I put you through the wringer, even when I didn’t mean to. I did it. But you haven’t always made things easy for me either, Beau Hollister.”

Elise is beautiful whether she’s smilin’ or cryin’ like she is now. She wouldn’t agree. But where most women’s skin turns splotchy, hers blushes. The way she scrunches her nose and bites her lip, one of the cutest ways I’ve seen a woman cry.

With tears streamin’ down her cheeks, squeezin’ the stems of her bouquet of daisies until they start to bend, she swallows and gulps back some air, and then swipes her thumb under her eyes before continuing.

“But none of that matters anymore,” she says. “None of it. Because my dad’s gone. My mom stopped talking to me years ago, but here we are, getting married. And in seven months we’re having a baby. You gave me you, Beau. And in doing so, you gave me a family. In every sense of the word. So if having a family means kids dating, pregnancy scares or shotgun weddings, so long as I got your hand to hold while dealing with it…” she stops then whispers with a shuddered breath, “I love you Beau.”

No one’s laughing now.

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