“I’m not having second thoughts,” Brian said. “I think maybe she is.”
“She’s not.” Sed’s deep voice sounded just behind Brian’s left shoulder. “She’s happy. With you. I’m not sure why, exactly, when she could have had me...”
Brian snapped his head up to glare at Sed, and Sed chuckled.
“Easy, Sinclair.” Sed shoved his shoulder. “Your prize is safe. I’m just fucking with you.”
Brian wasn’t so sure. Sed had a way with women. Brian’s women. And Sed had been moping all day about his ex-fiancée. The one who had left and ripped his heart out. The one he’d seen the night before for the first time in two years. The one who caused grown men to fight burly bouncers for reasons still not entirely clear. Sed might be trying to play it cool, but Brian knew better. Jessica had wrecked the man and until Sed let her go for good, he wasn’t ever going to get out of his romantic slump. Or stop imposing that romantic slump on those around him.
“So what are you going to say to her?” Jace asked.
Brian glanced across the table at their bass player. Jace had been on edge all day. The youngest member of the band checked the time again, before briefly meeting Brian’s eyes. Something was going on with Jace, not that he’d ever share what it was. But he was acting weird even for Jace.
Perplexed, Brian said, “Say to her?” He had absolutely nothing nice to say to Jessica Chase.
“Your vows,” Jace clarified. “They’re kind of important.”
Oh. He’d meant that her. The important one.
“I don’t know,” Brian said. “I figured it would be best to wing it. So it’s more sincere.”
“Wrong,” Trey said. “As nervous as you are now, how do you think you’re going to feel during the actual ceremony?”
The only thing Brian was nervous about was that the wedding might not take place. What was taking her so long to get ready?
“Do you still have the rings?” he asked Trey.
“Yes. I promise I didn’t hock them for beer money.”
“Let me see.”
Trey sighed and lifted his butt out of the bench seat so he could slide his hand into the front pocket of his jeans. He slid his hand deeper, a confused look on his face. “I’m sure they’re in here somewhere.”
Brian’s heart stuttered in his chest.
Trey checked his other pocket. “This is not good,” he said. “Maybe you need to check for me.” He held his pocket open in invitation.
“Stop fucking around, Trey.” Brian reached across the table and grabbed Trey around the neck.
Trey’s pained outrush of breath gave Brian pause. He’d forgotten about Trey’s head injury. They’d all gotten into that little fight at the strip club the night before and were suffering various afflictions. Perhaps Brian had gotten off easy with his two black eyes. At least he didn’t have a huge knot on the back of his head.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Trey closed his eyes and lifted a finger at Brian. After a moment, he opened his eyes. “Yeah. It comes and goes.”
“I still think we need to take him to a hospital,” Sed said.
“Brian’s getting married today,” Trey said.
“So?”
“I’m the best man.”
“We’ll go after the wedding, then.”
“We have a concert.”
“And?” Sed’s look of warning would have sent most men running, but Trey just shook his head in annoyance.
“Dare will rip off my junk and feed it to jackals if we miss this performance,” Trey said.
Sinners just so happened to be opening for Dare’s band, Exodus End, at Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay in about four hours.
Eric burst out laughing. “Where’s he going to find a jackal?”
“The zoo. How the hell should I know? He’s Dare. He has connections.”
If Trey needed a doctor, Brian didn’t want him to put off getting treatment for any reason. Not even the much anticipated wedding that he and Myrna had been planning for two entire days. “Myrna and I could postpone—”
“I’m not going to the hospital.”
“You will if we make you,” Sed said.
“I’m fine. Fuck. Get off my back.”
“I think you should go,” Brian said. “If you’re fine, they’ll just look you over and send you on your way.”
“After I sit in the ER waiting room for five hours.” Trey unwrapped a cherry sucker and stuck it into his mouth. “Not going.”
Brian heard the bedroom door open. His heart leapt to his throat. He was on his feet even before his bride appeared in the doorway.
The fitted bodice of her gorgeous white dress pressed her breasts up and together in a most beguiling manner while its gathered skirt made her waist look impossibly tiny and her hips look extra curvy. Myrna covered the center of her chest with one dainty hand. Light caught the diamond engagement ring on her finger. The ring Brian had put there a couple of hours ago. The ring that proved she’d agreed to be his. The ring that he’d convinced her to accept even though she’d protested its expense. He was proud of his small victory. The diamond was ginormous. No guy would ever consider hitting on her with that rock on her finger.
Myrna’s auburn hair was pulled back in an elegant twist with loose tendrils framing her beautiful face. She’d applied her make-up to make the green in her hazel eyes pop, and the coral color that had been applied to her soft, pouty lips made them look even more kissable than usual.