Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(58)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Hopefully it was nothing too obnoxious.

“No, I don’t recall you using your phone at all. You pretty much passed out in the limo, then we got you in here and dropped you on the couch.”

Beautiful. “Thanks for hauling my sorry ass around. According to my phone, I called Suz at 2:02 A.M. and I don’t remember doing it. God, I’m such a moron.”

“You told me about the baby, you know.”

“I did? Of course I did.” Ryder sighed. “I am happy about the baby, you know, really happy. But why can’t Suzanne and I figure out how to be together?”

“I don’t know, Ryder.” Elec perched on the edge of his chair, coffee mug in his hands. “But I do know that the two of you love each other and you’re having a baby, so I think you should do your best to figure it out.”

Hunter came running back into the room in her pit stop pajamas, her hair flying behind her. “Put your coffee down!” she demanded of Elec.

“Please.”

“Please!”

Elec complied and she jumped on his lap, immediately flinging herself backward while he held her so that she was dangling upside down. The thought of being upside down made Ryder want to die immediately and swiftly. “Isn’t she going to toss her pancakes?” he asked. She must have shoveled them in at warp speed.

Elec shrugged. “Nah. She has an iron stomach. Don’t you, baby girl? You have a gut lined with metal?” He blew a raspberry on her stomach, making her laugh hysterically.

Tammy came wandering in wearing sweatpants and a thermal shirt. “How are you feeling, Ryder?”

“Like you’d expect,” he told her. “And no better than I deserve. Thanks for putting me up, I appreciate it.”

“No problem.”

Pete came in, too, and it suddenly occurred to Ryder that it was Thursday and they shouldn’t all be home. “Don’t you all have school?” he asked Pete.

“It’s the first day of Christmas break,” Pete told him.

“I’ve been off for a week already,” Tammy said. “My college students won’t be back until January sixteenth, thank goodness.”

Well, this wasn’t exactly going to be a merry Christmas. “I can’t believe Strickland’s wedding is Saturday. I’ll be glad to be done with that business.”

“No kidding.” Elec nodded.

“How was the bachelorette party?” Ryder asked Tammy.

“We left at eleven, does that tell you anything?”

“Suz leave with you?”

“Yes.”

Ryder winced. He’d called her at two. She had to have been asleep. Had he left a voice mail? He had no clue.

He wasn’t sure if he should call her and apologize or not. But there was one thing he was sure of. As he watched Tammy and Elec in their cozy family room with their two pj-wearing, bed-head kids, he wanted the same life for himself.

He wanted that with Suzanne so bad the thought of not having it was driving him to pound rum and make an ass out of himself on the dance floor.

What a disaster.

THERE was no doubting that Suzanne was pregnant because when Nikki’s mother opened the door and Suzanne saw Nikki for the first time in her Cinderella wedding gown, she actually teared up, completely touched by how sweet Nikki looked. The bride was smiling, and for a second Suzanne forgot all the tantrums and all the pouting when Nikki waved to her excitedly, her eyes sparkling and her complexion glowing.

“Suzanne! Thank you, thank you, everything is perfect.” She enveloped Suzanne in a zero-body-contact hug so she wouldn’t wreck her hair or makeup.

“You’re welcome. You look beautiful. Jonas is a lucky man.” Maybe that was an exaggeration, but it seemed the appropriate thing to say, and hell, Jonas seemed to think he was lucky, so maybe it was the truth. “So the other bridesmaids know to meet us at the hotel at four, right? Maybe I should text all of them.”

“It will be fine,” Nikki assured her, touching the skirt of her gown over and over, like she couldn’t get enough of the voluminous fabric.

Hearing Nikki be zen did Suzanne proud. “The carriage will meet us two blocks from the hotel, so you won’t be freezing your buns off. We’ll just drive up to the hotel for effect. The limo is here to take us now, so whenever you’re ready, we can go.”

Nikki looked at herself in the mirror one last time while Suzanne conferred with Nikki’s mother and gathered up the bouquet, Nikki’s bag of makeup and supplies, and her winter white cape and gloves.

“I know everyone thought I was crazy for getting married so quickly,” Nikki said. “And everyone is always saying that marriage is really hard and takes a lot of work.”

Suzanne froze with a garment bag over her arm and her purse slapping her in the thigh. She looked at Nikki in the mirror, wondering where this monologue was coming from. “Yeah?” she said, because it seemed like there was a point Nikki hadn’t quite gotten around to yet.

“But the thing is, Suzanne, when you know that you love someone, those things don’t matter. You have to push all the everyday things and the outside world away, and just enjoy knowing that this is the man who has the chest your head is meant to lie on.”

Oh, my God. “That’s beautiful, Nikki.” And Suzanne had a serious lump in her throat. Why the hell couldn’t she and Ryder do that? Honestly? Just enjoy each other.

There was no other man whose chest she belonged on.

“Anyhoo,” Nikki said, waving her head. “Did I tell you I got my clit pierced as a wedding gift to Jonas? He’s going to be happily surprised tonight.” She giggled.

With that, the moment of sage Nikki passed as quickly as it had arrived, and the natural order was restored.

RYDER stood at the front of the ballroom having a crisis. He was wearing a tux, the room was decorated in an explosion of flowers and tulle, and Suzanne was standing at the end of the aisle looking stunningly beautiful.

And it wasn’t their wedding. It should be their wedding. Hell, this should have been their wedding six years earlier. He should have given this to Suzanne, the whole pomp and circumstance, the huge party. Getting married was a big goddamn deal and he had never really asked Suzanne if she had been okay with eloping.

He was just standing there aching everywhere, wanting to be with her so bad he was sweating.

“Can you stop with the foot?” Ty murmured next to him.

“Huh?” Ryder watched Suzanne bustling back and forth, checking details and talking to the pianist. She was wearing pink, and even though the dress was a little loose, she looked amazing. As usual.