Page 47 of Not Part of the Plan
“Is someone recording this?” Carter asked.
“Live streaming it,” Jax said, holding his phone up.
The women flooded out of the barn looking like the survivors of an atrocity.
“He’s just so pasty,” Joey whispered over and over again and walked into Jax’s open arms.
“I’ve seen him in his yoga briefs a hundred times, but this was so much worse,” Gia shuddered.
Emma came out next, her arm around Phoebe’s waist, both looking like a deer in headlights. Phoebe walked straight up to Franklin and snatched the beer out of his hand. “I’m going to need a case of these to forget what I just saw in there.”
“Why in the hell did you hire Fitz to strip?” Carter demanded.
“We didn’t!” Summer insisted. “He just showed up and said he heard there were some naughty ladies who needed to… to… take the law into their own hands. Oh, I think I’m going to be sick.”
Cardona came out with a handcuffed, pantless man. Beckett covered Lydia’s eyes. Bill Fitzsimmons couldn’t weigh more than 140 pounds soaking wet and wearing cement shoes. His skinny rattail of hair hung out from under the hat that was askew on his head.
Carter and Beckett hung on each other laughing while their wives clung to each other for comfort. Franklin’s glasses steamed from the tears that streamed down his face and Jax’s shoulders shook with silent laughter.
Emma met Niko’s gaze and shook her head. “He just started flailing around like a scarecrow. It was awful, but I couldn’t look away.”
Elvira Eustace sashayed out of the barn and jogged up to Donovan’s patrol car. “Excuse me, sheriff?” Donovan stopped trying to shove Fitz into the backseat.
Elvira leaned around him and stuffed a wad of bills into Fitz’s shirt pocket. “Nice job in there, cutie. Call me when you get out of jail.”
Eva shrugged. “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. He wasn’tthatbad.”
Gia looked at her sister like the woman had grown a second head.
“What?” Eva asked.
The baby monitor lit up, and an unhappy wail sounded through the speaker. “I think this party is over,” Summer said. “I’ll take the first crier.”
Carter followed her back toward the house. “Hey, you know that Beckett hates beards, right?”
Emma turned to Phoebe, whose tiara sat crookedly on her head. “I’m sorry to end your night this way. I don’t know what happened to the scheduled entertainment, but I will find out and demand a refund.”
“Oh, please don’t. This was an… unforgettable night,” Phoebe said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t change a thing. Well, except Bill’s pants. Those should have stayed on.”
Donovan yelled through the back window at Fitz to keep his sweaty balls off the upholstery. The rest of the crowd began to disperse around them.
“Are you okay to drive?” Niko asked Emma.
“I only managed to down two glasses of wine and half a dozen brownies before that hot mess arrived. If I would have had more, the scene in there would have scared me sober,” she said. “I’m going to get this straightened out with the sheriff and then take my sister home.”
“Then I’ll see you at the wedding?” Niko asked.
“See you at the wedding.” She nodded toward the barn. “Will you tell Carter we’ll take care of clean up tomorrow? I don’t think anyone wants to go back in there right now. It’s too fresh.”
He watched them go, Donovan beside him. “So, we’re seriously not going to play poker?” Donovan wondered.
Niko tilted his beer to his mouth. “I’m game. But don’t you have a prisoner?”
Donovan gave a one-shouldered shrug. “We can cuff him to a chair and play a few hands.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The day of the wedding dawned warm and bright with a gentle breeze that fluttered the walls of the white tent in Phoebe and Franklin’s front yard. Niko arrived early, camera gear at the ready and his wardrobe adhering to the casual dress code.
