Someone to Watch Over Me Page 20

  Pressing his lips to mine in a chaste and despairing kiss, he let me go. He took a step back, rubbed his palms along the hips of his jeans, and turned for the door. “I’ll be outside."

  As I watched Tate stride out the door, I dropped onto the bed, my eyes once again spilling over. This was not how I planned for my weekend to go. How did it all get so out of hand? Since when did eloping fall off the list of amazingly stupid things to do?

  I was going to kill Marshall. Slowly.

  Sunlight filtered through the small portal window of the plane, and glinted off the cluster of diamonds encircling my finger. The center was princess cut, circled by a row of smaller stones, which rested on a diamond encrusted band. The wedding band was no less appealing.

  It was every girls dream. And my worst nightmare.

  Ok, not my worst by any shot, but it was certainly unnerving.

  How many girls can say they went out for a night of partying and no strings attached sex with a rock star, and came home married? Me, Cooper Hale, that’s who. It was as if I had some small, mythical, winged creature shooting me with arrows of heartache and complication.

  “Coop?” Carter called. “Cooper!”

  “I’m in here.” Standing, I wiped my face and resumed the search for my clothes. “Do you know where my clothes are?”

  “Vegas.”

  Great. Wonderful. “My purse?”

  “Vegas.”

  “Just fuckin’ perfect.” Bending, I grabbed the dress from the floor. I tried to make heads and tails of the skirts. The bodice was lost in the bulk of tulle.

  “Give me that,” Carter grumbled, taking the dress from my hands. “This thing has pockets. You upended your bag in them last night.” He snapped his wrists and the skirts fell into conformity. “Step in.” I stared as he lowered the bodice for me. When I didn’t move, he looked up at me and nodded toward the dress. “What the fuck are you waiting for?”

  “Sorry,” I drawled. “I’m just…shocked.”

  “I have a sister. You learn these things. Now lose the robe.”

  “I don’t have anything on underneath.”

  “Nothing I haven’t seen. Besides, you didn’t seem to mind last night. You dropped trou without a second thought.” Huffing, I stepped into the dress and pulled the bodice over my waist until my ass was essentially covered, and then let the robe fall. “Now do something with your hair. We got media here trying to capitalize on your windfall.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Nope.” With the gentleness of a prison guard, Carter began yanking the laces on the back of my gown, while I wrestled my hair into a loose knot at the top of my head.

  “How do they find you guys?”

  “Reasonable deduction.”

  “Carter.”

  “Everyone and their mother knows we were in Vegas last night, Coop. And we have a show tonight. There’s only one way to get from there to here in a short amount of time.”

  “How does everyone know we were in Vegas?”

  “The wonders of social media.”

  “Do I need to ask?”

  Reaching into his pocket, Carter pulled out his phone. He tapped the screen a few times with the tip of his finger and a video popped up. “It gets good about a minute in.”

  “Oh lord.” Pressing play, I watched the still of Tate come to life.

  “Suck in Coop,” Carter ordered. The Carter on the small screen said, “Having second thoughts? We can go right now.”

  Tate scowled from the corner of his eye. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you? So you could be right there to comfort her? Fuckin’ dick.” Having second thoughts, Tate leaned in toward the camera. “Coop, if anything ever happens to me, stay away from Carter. In fact, if nothing happens to me, stay away from Carter. As a general rule, stay away from Carter.”

  The camera shook, turned black for a moment, and Carter’s face appeared on the screen. “Don’t listen to him Coop. Tate—”

  “Coveting is a mortal sin dickweed,” Tate hissed, not very quietly. “We’re in a house of God, and you’re coveting my fiancé right now.”

  “I called first dibs!”

  “I drew first blood.”

  “You sucker punched me!”

  In the vicinity, someone cleared his throat. “Gentlemen.”

  “Sorry Father.”

  “Sorry Father.”

  “Are you sure you want me watching this?” I inquired, dropping my hands to my sides. Questions atop the mountain of concern were piling in my mind. I didn’t need anything more to think about. I have enough problems already.

  “That’s nothing,” Carter shrugged off. “I just love to get Tate riled up. He’s the one who wants to marry you; I just wanted to get you in bed.”

  “You’re so charming. It’s no wonder you’re not already taken.”

  “The important stuff is coming up. Real quick, though, I wanna share something with you about Tate in case you haven’t noticed before now. When you were arguing just now, did he do the palm rubbing thing?”

  “What?”

  “His palms—did he rub them on his thighs?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “He does that when he’s scared. Tate has nerves of steel, so you don’t see it often, but when you do…man, do his palms sweat.”

  I watched on the small screen as Tate stood by the altar, his hands relaxed at his hips. Occasionally, he palmed the small velvet box in his back pocket. Other than that, he was a rock.

  “I’ve known Tate my whole life. I’m telling you, I’ve only seen him scared a handful of times. Two of those times have been since he met you if that means anything.”

  Tate’s head turned. His smile widened. The camera panned the small chapel to the opposite end. Fighting my own smile, I entered the room. Good lord, how could I not remember any of this? Maybe I did. What I felt deep inside mirrored what I saw on the screen.

  I took a few measured steps down the red, carpeted aisle, and then I gave in to all my drunken desires and danced my way to Tate while singing ‘Chapel of Love.’ Tate and Carter began laughing aloud. The pipe organ trilled in the background. A few strangers in the pews stood and began clapping along, their hips instinctively swaying to the beat. The entire jaunt up the aisle, I never took my eyes off Tate, my face glowing with euphoria.

  Carter finished tying off my laces and took his phone from my hand. Shutting the screen down, he slid it back into his pocket. “He’s scared, Coop. He thinks you’re gonna skip town.”

  Stuffing my hand into the pockets hidden in the folds of my gown, I fished out my belongings. Everything was there, but I sure was going to miss that Coach wristlet that my mother bought me. God knows, I couldn’t afford to by a replacement.

  “I’m not skipping town.”

  “In your world, men suck. In Tate’s world, women suck. It’s all up here,” Carter said, tapping his temple. “He can’t help it anymore than you can.”

  “You’re so tactful.”

  “Fuck diplomacy. I don’t have time for it,” he said, with a wave of his hand. His gaze drew to my face and then focused on my head. “Is that what you’re doing with your hair?”

  Taken off guard, I blinked and then ran a hand over my hair. “What’s wrong with it?”

  “You’re about to be on TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, Access Hollywood, Extra and E! News, Coop. Do you really want to go out there like that?”

  “Well damn, not now.”

  “Leave it down,” Carter said, tugging the rubber band from my hair. He ran his fingers into the roots and shook it out. “It looks…I don’t know…windblown. It’s sexy.”

  Ducking in front of the small mirror above the headboard, I ran my fingertips across my cheeks and slicked some gloss over my lips. “It’ll have to do.”

  “He’s not going to hurt you.”

  “Carter,” I sighed, straightening my back. “You really are an enigma.” I could barely keep up with the constant changing of conversation.

 
“All I’m saying, Coop, is that he wouldn’t have gotten involved with you unless he was absolutely certain about what he wanted.”

  “He has me.”

  “If you don’t come with us, Coop, it’ll kill him. Not literally, but he’ll be a fuckin’ mess. He won’t get any work done. He won’t sleep. He won’t eat. He’ll be worried night and day.”

  My mouth went dry.

  Dropping his head until he looked me in the eyes, Carter pulled the ace up his sleeve. “What if you’re pregnant?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Guess we’ll know soon enough.”

  “I’m not pregnant.”

  “He’s a good guy. You run off with his kid…that’s just wrong.” Refusing me the right to defend myself, Carter turned his back and walked out. Damn if that wasn’t a slap in the face. I hadn’t taken off on Grant without reason. Carter was well aware of that.

  Well, shit, I guess I had a choice to make.

  The fact that I thought I had a choice, showed how deluded I was.

  I’d made my choice long ago.

  Stuffing my lip-gloss back into my pocket, I padded to the exit. Tate was waiting just outside, talking with Carter. Evan, Taylor and Derek stood off to the side. Marshall, the chicken shit, was absent. Shane, Jake, Jess, Richard, Levy and—oh God—my parents waited in the distance. I could only imagine what they were thinking. I’d eloped. It wasn’t as if I could explain that I was drunk off my ass. Even to my own ears, it sounded appalling.

  Upon my emergence, Carter looked up. Tate followed his gaze and turned. His eyes sparkled with subdued joy. “Ready?”

  “I have one question first.”

  “Ok.”

  “The bus has a tow hitch, right?”

  Confounded, Tate scrubbed his jaw. Comprehension set in. A relieved smile spread across his face. In a few short strides, he closed the space between us. I found myself airborne and then abruptly horizontal in his arms. His lips met mine in an ardent kiss.

  Next thing I knew everyone was pelting us with grains of birdseed. It went down my dress and in my hair. I think someone was throwing overhand. Laughing, Tate broke the kiss and ducked his head against the onslaught of tiny, beige well-wishes. The last thing I needed was blessings of fertility. My fertility didn’t need any divine assistance.

  Placing a second brief kiss on my lips, Tate lowered me gently to my feet. He grasped my hand and ushered me through the crowd of friends and family, and into the limo waiting off to the side. He paused long enough to make amends with my parents—who were handling the whole event better than I would’ve expected—before climbing into the limo beside me.

  Sitting back in the seat, he dragged an arm across his forehead and then crooked a finger at me. Holding his gaze, I climbed into his lap, shaking the seeds from my hair on the way.

  “I thought you were tapping out,” Tate confessed, his hand working dubiously beneath my skirts, searching blindly through the layers of tulle for a calf or thigh. He had nothing on Carter in knowledge of feminine attire.

  “I was, but I took five minutes to wake up and gather my thoughts. And Carter beguiled me with his charming personality.”

  “He threatened you, didn’t he?”

  “Yeah, but he cares about you. He showed me the video.”

  “Video?”

  “Of the ceremony. You were drunk.”

  “Shitfaced, but things are coming back to me in bits and pieces. I think it was pretty insane.”

  I thought of the video and my drunken antics. “You have no idea.”

  “Why, Coop?” Tate asked, searching my expression.

  What had changed my mind? “You love me. I could see it in your eyes. Only Levy’s ever looked at me that way, like I’m his whole world.”

  “You are.” Finding the edge of my skirts, Tate’s lips curled up at the sides in a profligate grin.

  “Tate.”

  “Coop,” Tate said shamelessly, inching up my thigh. I grasped his hand, heading off his explorations. In the event I hadn’t already conceived, I wasn’t taking any more chances.

  “No! Absolutely not!”

  “Coop.” Twisting his wrist, he freed himself and captured mine. With his other hand, he resumed his trek up my thigh.

  “Tate.”

  “Cooper.”

  “Taaaaaattteee ungh…” My objections trailed off as he hit pay dirt. There was no chance of pregnancy with what he intended. If the slippery, silky feeling between the cleft of my arse was an indication, we were only revisiting the exploits of our wedding night. I could only hope that’s all we had done. At least that would solve the issue of pregnancy.

  As per usual, my mind went devoid of thought.

  “That’s right, babe. The amazing Tate Watkins. And you’re married to him.”

  Chapter 15

  “Are you sure it’s not going to fall off?” I asked, gazing dubiously at the steel contraption that would tow my Mini safely behind the body bag. “It doesn’t look very sturdy.”

  “It’s fine,” Marshall scoffed. “I hooked it up myself.”

  “Tate?” I said, ignoring Marshall. I wasn’t on speaking terms with him. Hadn’t been for nearly a week. Shaking his head, Marshall huffed and stalked off. I wasn’t truly mad, just giving him a hard time. I had only myself to blame for running off to Vegas. Nonetheless, friends razzed each other. It’s just something we did. I couldn’t let him off scot-free.

  “We’re not off-roading, Coop,” Tate assured. “It’ll be fine.”

  “Told you we usually tow the Escalade,” Carter added. “And that’s over three thousand pounds heavier.” Snapping off another bite of Slim Jim, Carter stared down at Levy, who was giving him puppy eyes over the beef jerky. “Get lost, kid. It’s not going to work this time.”

  Levy simply blinked ingenuously. “I hab some?”

  “No way.”

  “Pwease.”

  “God da—,” stopping mid word, Carter shook his head, “One bite. Go ahead.” Proffering the beef jerky, Carter watched as Levy took a bite. Eyeing the drip of saliva Levy left on the end of the Slim Jim, Carter’s lips curled in disgust. “You know what, it’s all yours kid.”

  “I hab it?”

  “Don’t eat it all at once.” Grumbling under his breath, Carter stalked off and trotted up the steps into the Body Bag. Levy watched with detached interest and then eyed his prize with jubilation.

  “Give me that, Mini Cooper,” Tate said, taking the huge stick of beef jerky from his hand. Breaking off a portion at the end, he passed it to Levy and kept the larger piece for himself. “Too much will give you a belly ache.”

  “Yew no getta bellyache?”

  “No,” Jake answered with a derisive snort. “He’ll just get gas. Stink the whole bus up.”

  “Do not.”

  “Do too,” Jake argued. “Prepare yourself, Coop. Maybe you can stop him from eating that sh—stuff. Darn this is going to be hard.” He was referring to curbing his language. With Levy aboard, Tate had let them all know they needed to keep things PG. I felt like a wet blanket.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s cool. Change is good. Can I take this for you?” Jake gestured to the last bag of food that I had just brought down from my apartment. He looked more interested in the contents than the actual act of assistance. They were mostly Levy’s snacks; Gummy Fruits, Nilla Wafers, granola bars, snack cakes, single serves of mac n’ cheese, applesauce cups, sliced peaches, and a couple cans of SpaghettiOs. “Oh man! Snowballs!”

  “Better not touch those,” Tate warned. “Coop will bite your hand.”

  “I will.” Snowballs were my fix when I had a sweet tooth. The things made a mess, but they were worth every florescent pink shred of coconut.

  “We’re stopping on the way out, right?” To load up. Tate explained that they packed the pantry as full as possible with whatever goodies were native to that region. Throughout the week, Tate dragged Levy and me across the city of Philadelphia. We went to the Art Mu
seum, Independence Hall, and Edgar Allen Poe’s house. We ate everywhere from Morimoto to Pat’s and Geno’s. Tate glutted himself on soft pretzels, hoagies, Texas tommies with Cheese Whiz, Bassett’s Ice Cream and Rita’s Water Ice. Anyhow, about to leave the Philly area, I wasn’t sure when I would see Snowballs again. “I’ll buy you more when we get to the store. Promise.”

  Jake grabbed the bag and ripped into the box of snowballs on his way up the stairs of the body bag. A few seconds later, I heard Carter and Shane demand a share of the goods.

  “Have everything?” Tate inquired. The butterflies in my stomach roused. This was it, the moment of truth, sort of. I was leaving, though it was temporary. In time, I would return.

  When I gave my notice at work, Molly wouldn’t accept it. She passed me a laptop with mobile access, told me I could do my job on the road. With the time difference, all communication with my vendors I handled via email. Any office meetings I could join using Skype. The company agreed with her proposal to keep me on. So, I had a job to come back to if things didn’t work out. It was all more than I could ever have expected.

  “I think so.” Dropping my house keys in Mr. Craig’s palm, I forced a smile. “Everything’s clean. I scrubbed the bathroom and the fridge this morning.”

  “I’m sure it’s spotless. I’ll have the rest of your things moved into the garage. It’ll be here when you come back for it.”

  “Thanks M—Garrison,” I said, quickly correcting myself. “Take care of that arm.” He had injured it a couple weeks ago, the day of my attack, actually. He was replacing an old stretch of barbwire fence at the back of the property and had cut himself up pretty bad.

  “It’s nothing. I wouldn’t even have waited in the ER if I hadn’t needed a tetanus shot.”

  “Men,” Em carped. “You could lose a limb and you’d say it was nothing.”

  Embarrassed over the attention, Mr. Craig shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest. “It was nothing.”

  “That’s why you hid in the house for three days.”

  “I didn’t want anyone making a fuss over it.”

  Catching my growing smile, Em rolled her eyes. “Don’t say it, Coop.”

  “What?”

  “Whatever it is you’re thinking.” Em pulled me into an embrace. Squeezed the living life out of me. “God I’m going to miss you, kid.”