Page 155 of Born to Sin
Quinn had insisted on no tie for either of them. “I want everybody to be comfortable,” she’d said. “It’s my wedding. Brides are supposed to get their wish, right? And my wish is that everybody’s comfortable. It’s August. No ties, a taco truck, an ice-cream truck, and sprinklers for the kids to run through afterwards. I may run through them myself.”
Troy said, now, “This is very exciting. Bacon is excited, too.”Baconhad a bow tie. The only one of them who did. Bacon also had the rings fastened to his collar. Beckett hadn’t been one bit sure about that, but Quinn had said, “Weddings need something funny. And something beautiful. My mom will take care of that, because Bam’s garden is the best. Think she’ll come over and make my garden look like that while we’re doing the honeymoon thing at the Great Barrier Reef? I cannot believe I get a snorkeling honeymoon. Is this the best wedding ever, or what?” All but bouncing off the walls. For all that she kept talking about “comfortable” and “casual," he could tell she was nervous as hell. Which madehimnervous.
“If I say you’ll be the beautiful part,” he’d said, trying to get her to relax, “will you hit me?”
She’d eyed him narrowly. “Only if you don’t say the thing again about how much my dress cost. I should never have told you.”
“I’m sure it’s excellent,” he said. “An excellent eighty-dollar wedding dress.”
She sighed. “I definitely shouldn’t have told you. But you asked me whether you could contribute, and when I said no, you said that you didn’t want me spending thousands, because it wasn’t right. AndIsaid that you bought the engagement ring, andyouhad to say that it only cost twenty-five hundred dollars, as if that’s a bad thing. Twenty-five hundred dollars is a lot of money! And I love my ring.” She checked it out with every appearance of satisfaction. Three rubies with two small diamonds between them, set in a warm, mellow chunk of 18-carat gold. Two hundred twenty-five years old and still glowing. “I love that it’s old,” she said. “I love to imagine that somebody was married for fifty years with this ring on her finger. Queen Victoria popularized the wearing of engagement rings, you know, which is why I think this was one. Some dashing young Englishman—maybe a cavalry officer in the Horse Guards—didget down on one knee and offer it to a woman who couldn’t wait to get married, because she secretly wanted to do all the things her mother had told her were her duty, and he had a gleam in his eye that told her he wanted the same things, because when she raised her skirts to get into the carriage, he looked at her ankles. And she wore that ring every day after the wedding until she could go to bed with him at night. Every day until she was old, when she gave it to her grandson.”
“Crikey,” Beckett said. “Who knew you were so romantic? I’m just some rough-as-guts Aussie, not a dashing young cavalry officer in the Horse Guards.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “You’ll do.”
Now, he looked at himself in the mirror in Quinn’s parents’ guest bath. White shirt, gray trousers, no tie. He told himself,You know how to do this. How to be a husband.
And how to be a father.
* * *
Bam asked, “About ready?”
“Yes,” Quinn said. “And, Mom, could you go see if Beckett’s ready to start? I’m oddly nervous. I shouldn’t be, I know. It’s just a—”
“Well, yes,” Bam said. “It’s just your wedding.”
Janey said, “I think it’s very romantic. It’s exactly a year since you first met Dad. Since weallmet you, and Troy was scared of the crows and tried to fight them off for you and got ice cream all over your dress. I thought you and Dad were going to be engaged for longer, but—”
“Well, yes,” Quinn said. “So did I. But it turns out that I don’t care what statistics say about how long to date before the wedding, or anything else. And I’m having this baby, too.”
“My sister,” Janey said with satisfaction.
“And starting the new District Judge job,” Bam said. “That’s enough going on without planning a wedding, too. Better to do it now.”
“What was your wedding like?” Janey asked.
“Who, me?” Bam laughed. “Cash would say, ‘Shotgun,’ but that’s just because he likes to tease me. It was inmymom’s backyard, and I was pregnant, too. And I didn’t care about any of it. I’d have done it in the courthouse and not been one bit disappointed.”
“Yeah.” Quinn was twisting the ring on her finger. “It’s time to take this off, I know, so Beckett can put the …” She did her best to breathe. “The wedding ring on.” She clutched her bouquet tighter. Flowers from her mother’s garden. Daisies and columbine, poppies and roses and lavender, all mixed up together. She’d thought they’d be perfect. She’d thought it wouldallbe perfect.
Bam looked at her, then asked Janey, “Would you run tell your dad it’s time to go stand under the arbor? And tell Cash to come on in here, because he needs to walk this bride down the aisle.”
“OK,” Janey said.
When she was gone, Bam asked, “Honey. What is it?”
Quinn took another breath. She couldn’t help that it was shaky. “I usually know how to do things. Or I can figure them out. But what if I … can’t? The baby.” She touched the five-month bump under the ruched white fabric. “Let’s face it, I’ve never had a baby. I’ve never been married. I’ve never been a District Judge. I’ve never been a stepmother.And I’ve sure never been a wife.I’m not a worrier, and I’m … well, I’m worried. I’m more worried than I was when Samantha was trying to kill me. Well, all right, I’m not, but close.” She tried to laugh, but the tears choking her throat were making it hard.
Bam said, “Hang on a minute,” and turned for the bedroom door.
“Mom. What? You’re supposed to reassure me! Where’s the bracing talk?”
“I’m not the best one for that,” Bam said, going out and closing the door behind her.
Oh. She was off to get Cash. He’d be good. Cash always told you the truth.
Even if he tells you to put it off? You know you don’t want to put it off!