Sinners at the Altar (Page 73)

“At least it’s white,” Reagan said. “It won’t show much.”

Could anything else go wrong this morning? Jessica wondered.

The front door opened, and her mother breezed into the little beach house, looking more grave than the Grim Reaper at his own funeral.

“We’re going to have to delay the wedding,” she said.

Apparently there was plenty more that could go wrong.

Chapter Three

Sed watched himself try to fix his weird-ass tie in the mirror. It wasn’t like a regular tie at all. It was very wide and the fabric thin. It reminded him of an elongated cloth napkin. Morning tuxedo, Jessica had called it. Stupid was more like it. As he attempted to knot the tie for the fourth time, he wondered if Jessica would be incredibly upset if he tossed it in the garbage and claimed to have lost it. Finally giving up when the tie ended up looking like a clown collar, he stepped out of Brian’s bedroom to ask for help. Yeah, him. Badass lead singer and rock star asking other dudes how to dress. The things he did to keep the love of his life happy.

“Does anyone know what to do with these stupid fucking ties?” he said.

He noted that all the members of his wedding party were fully dressed—with ties. Apparently he was the only dumbass who couldn’t figure out how to tie the fucking thing.

“Over, under, around and through,” Eric said, swirling his hands around as if translating Pig Latin into sign language.

“Jace tied ours,” Brian said, and Eric scowled at him for not giving him sufficient time to fuck with Sed’s head.

“Jace?” Sed asked.

“He’s like a wedding expert,” Trey said about the man in question, who was blushing furiously and trying to look like a tough guy at the same time. “Weirdest shit I’ve ever seen.”

“My mom used to play piano and organ at weddings,” Jace said. “She didn’t want to hire a babysitter, so she forced me to go with her and I learned a few tricks over the years.” He shrugged as if it were normal for a young male to pick things up about weddings. “What can I say? I was a cute little boy.”

“Don’t short-change yourself just because you’re short,” Eric said. “You’re still a cute little boy.” He pinched Jace’s cheek, distorting his face into something comical.

“Fuck you, Sticks,” Jace said, slapping at his hand.

“Aww, will you look at that face?” Eric said, stretching Jace’s cheek into an even more distorted shape. “He was obviously a fairy wedding princess in a past life and is using this cute little boy claim as a cover.”

He released Jace’s face to punch him squarely in the shoulder.

Jace ignored the assault, but Sed didn’t doubt that Jace would get even with Eric later. When Eric was least expecting it.

“Sit and I’ll tie it for you,” Jace offered to Sed.

So Sed sat on a spare ottoman and Jace stood behind him, reaching around his neck to tie his tie. Sed was going to have to beat up someone after subjecting himself to this level of feminization and having a man who wasn’t his dad tying his tie for him. It couldn’t be his dad because Dad had passed away a couple months before. Had he lived, would he have known how to tie the ridiculous accessory? Sed doubted it. His dad had been very blue collar. He’d only owned one tie—a clip-on, at that—and had only worn it on Sundays and to his grave.

Jace slapped Sed’s shoulder when he’d finished. “There you go,” he said.

“Thanks,” Sed said gruffly. He glanced down at the neat knot at his throat and the perfect creases on either side of it. “Wow, Jace really is a fairy wedding princess. What. A. Pussy.”

Sed wasn’t expecting to be tackled to the floor by Jace. Eric body-slammed Jace into Sed’s chest, and soon they were all buried in a dog pile of hard bodies and flailing arms and legs. He wasn’t able to deliver a single blow of retaliation. Sed supposed they were all feeling a bit tense and domesticated. So acting like a sextet of immature idiots—even Dave had abandoned his wheelchair to join the wrestling match—did wonders for Sed’s level of anxiety. It didn’t do much good for the perfectly pressed condition of his tuxedo, but fuck it. If today didn’t go as planned for him and Jessica, they’d get past it. The only thing that could possibly ruin his day was if she stood him up at the altar. But she wouldn’t do that to him. She couldn’t leave him in misery again. She wouldn’t.

Would she?

Of course not.

Sed grabbed someone’s arm and heard a yelp of pain from Trey. A knee landed uncomfortably close to Sed’s crotch, and he stiffened. Okay, destroying his junk would also ruin his day. He had big plans for his fifth appendage that evening.

“Off!” he yelled and then added, “Umph,” as an elbow connected with his stomach.

It took a while for everyone to feel as if they’d gotten in all the licks they were entitled to, but eventually they collected themselves enough to get into the Blake’s wheelchair-accessible van and head for the beach.

Through the windshield, Sed scowled at the dark sky overhead. He glanced at Eric in the driver’s seat.

“You don’t think it would dare rain on my wedding day, do you?”

“Rain on The Sedric Lionheart’s wedding day?”

“Yeah.”

“Rain on Mr. Lead Singer, Rock God, Control Freak, Boss of the Entire World’s wedding day?”

“It wouldn’t, would it?” Sed asked, scowling darkly at the rain clouds to put them in their fucking place.