Hold On (Page 191)

He then saw his wife’s purse on the bed.

He grabbed it and their key card.

After that, he walked out of their hotel room to help his wife round up their kids so they could meet up with Cal, Vi, and their brood and they all could go watch his nephew get married.

When they got that done, he could come back.

And celebrate with his wife.

* * * * *

Garrett

May, Four Years Later

“Serious as hell, brown eyes, someone should outlaw this shit.”

Cher turned to him and he lifted up, taking his mouth from her ear to catch her eyes.

Those brown eyes he loved were bright with unshed tears and she was also moving like she was about to throw up.

He knew she wasn’t going to vomit.

And she also wasn’t going to cry.

She might shed a tear but only if she didn’t manage to swallow back the laughter she was fighting.

Their chairs pulled close so he could throw his arm easily around the back of hers, he curled her to his side.

She made a choking noise.

He dipped his mouth again to her ear.

“Hold it in,” he muttered.

“You’re not helping, Merry,” she wheezed.

“You can’t bust a gut laughin’ during the best man’s speech. Especially at this wedding.”

“Just let me deep breathe,” she forced out.

“You’re not breathing at all.”

She turned and whacked him one on his arm.

He smiled down at her.

She glared at him.

That was one way to get her not to laugh.

He knew a better way, and to keep her from laughing, he employed it, leaning in and taking her mouth in a hard, sweet kiss.

When he was done, she lifted her hand and rested it on his neck, her thumb stroking his throat.

He kissed her nose.

She melted into him and turned in his arm, giving her attention back to the best man.

Garrett didn’t give his attention to the drunken best man, who was totally fucking up his speech.

He looked at the groom.

When he did, he saw Ethan looking at him.

Garrett held his boy’s eyes, grabbed his glass, and lifted it his way.

Ethan dipped his chin.

His drunk friend quit jabbering and managed to slur out his request for everyone to toast the happy couple.

They did.

This meant, thankfully, the fool was done and conversation began to resume. Ethan stood and took the microphone from his bud.

Conversation stopped when he spoke into it.

“I have a few things to say.”

Cher’s attention perked up.

So did Garrett’s.

Ethan looked to his bride.

“I’m a lucky man today,” he said softly into the microphone.

Cher pressed closer.

Ethan’s woman’s face flushed with happiness.

“Thank you, baby, for saying yes,” Ethan went on.

His new wife put her hand to her mouth, and even though her new husband stood at her side, she blew him a kiss.

“So sweet,” Eve whispered.

Garrett looked to his right, seeing his daughter leaned into her elbows on the table, watching her brother.

He looked beyond her and saw his eldest girl, Shelby, doing the same except not with her elbows on the table.

He and Cher got two and two.

Shelby had her mother’s eyes.

Eve had her father’s.

Garrett looked to the wedding party and saw Matt up there with his brother.

And Mathias’s eyes were blue.

Garrett looked to Ethan when he again spoke.

“I need to say what I gotta say, and I need to say it now with everyone in this room who means something to me, to my wife.” He looked down at her again then back at the room. “And I need to say it so you all know. Because you all should know, today of all days. You should know I made some vows in a church. And they mean something to me. I signed a legal paper. And that means something to me too. But I’m gonna make some vows right now that mean everything.”

He stopped talking and he looked right at Garrett.

And witnessing the expression on Ethan’s face, Garrett felt his chest depress.

“Right now, in front of all of you, I’m gonna make the vows my dad showed me you should make when you fall in love with a woman.”

“Oh shit,” Cher murmured.

Ethan turned and looked down at his bride. “I vow to take care of you. I vow that every day you’ll feel safe because you know that down to your bones, seein’ as I’ll be breakin’ my back givin’ it to you. And I vow to give you shit when you’re bein’ a wiseass.”

Laughter filled the room, but Ethan was not done speaking.

“I also vow to take your shit when I’m bein’ one. I vow to make sure you got what you want as often as I can give it to you. I vow to love the children we make, spend time with them as often as humanly possible, and knock myself out to make them feel safe. I vow to guide them to the right paths in life, showin’ them I’m proud they’re mine, they’re ours, even when they don’t do anything special to make me feel that way.”

His voice dipped before he went on.

“And most importantly, green eyes, I vow to make you laugh at least once every day for the rest of the beautiful life I also vow to give you. I vow to make you do it hard. I vow to give it from the heart so I can make it come from your gut, and you’ll never forget how happy you make me because I vow to bust my ass to make you the same. I love you, baby, and I cherish you, and that’s what you’re gonna get from me until one or the other of us stops breathing.”

“Oh, Ethan!” his girl cried, surging out of her seat, throwing herself in Ethan Merrick’s arms, and shoving her face in his neck.