Page 110 of End It All

"Real enough," he said. "I meant it when I said you ain't going nowhere after this."

I laughed. "My mom's not even here." That made my chest ache a little. "Even if it's a formality, I feel bad."

Quincy pulled me into his arms. "When your mom comes, we'll throw the biggest fucking wedding in the world. Your whole family will be there."

Now, that made me feel good. Until I realized I'd just agreed to marry Quincy. For real. Again. In the future. I was still all twisted up about my feelings for him, and I was already looking at the future? Yeah, something was definitely wrong with my head.

"We don't have all night, you two!" Paolo called as he banged on the door. "Come on. Some of us have kids to wake up for school in a couple hours!"

Quincy placed one last kiss on my lips, this one full of smoke. We both exhaled a huge cloud, coughed, and he put out the joint in an ashtray. He gripped my hand in his, squeezing hard as we left the room and stepped into the living room full of Vitale's.

"About time," Gin called as he hopped to his feet. "Damn, y’all could fit those? I brought one of my tiger shirts."

Quincy groaned. "So glad these fit well enough."

I snickered. "I don't know. You'd probably look pretty badass in one of those."

"You know how I said we couldn't divorce, peaches? I lied."

I elbowed him in his ribs and he grunted. The satisfied smile on my face quickly evaporated when I realized that everyone was staring at us. My skin suddenly felt hot.

"What?" I asked.

"No one told us you two actually cared about each other," Enzo said as a large man grinned from behind him. "We thought this was all a sham."

"It is," I said.

"It's not," Benito answered through his teeth. "The priest needs to believe it's real, so when he comes out of the bathroom, shut up and stop looking so shocked."

"I'm Ash, do you remember me?" he asked as he smiled at me.

"A little. I think I've seen you around Benito's office."

He nodded. "You have! That's Tex, he belongs to Enzo."

"Do you have to say ‘belongs to’ like I'm a German Shepherd or something?" Tex asked.

"We all know you're a golden retriever," Harlow teased.

Tex groaned. "You all suck."

"Of course you know Harlow, and that's York," Ash continued as he pointed out a tall, black man with calm features. "He has two daughters, twins. They're great. Are you sure they can't come? They really like Quincy!"

"That's because they're cool," Quincy added.

York shook his head. "They have school soon. I thought it was best to let them sleep." He turned to me. "Nice to meet you. Blake, right? Everyone's been talking about you."

They had? My stomach fluttered and quickly went into a knot. Was it crazy that I was both happy and felt like I was going to throw up at the same time? I wrapped an arm around myself. Quincy tugged me closer against his side as if shielding me. I looked up at him and he winked before he gave me a smile. Just like that, I calmed down.

"Oh, am I marrying these two?"

We all turned to the man that stepped out of the bathroom. He was older, with graying hair on his temples, and a thick Italian accent. As he walked over to Benito, my brother nodded.

"Yes, this is them. We should get started. I know it's late."

"Hey, things happen," the man said before he pulled out his bible. "Let's get started."

If I had any more butterflies in my stomach they were going to shoot out of me. Quincy pulsed my hand in his, and I loved that he stayed there, guiding me through this. Most of the man's words were garbled, a mix of syllables that my brain refused to digest. It wasn't until he asked us for rings that I blinked back to reality and realized we had none.