“There is a lady here with a dress,” Melody's husband says from the backdoor.

“He had a dress sent here?” I stand up from my chair. I shouldn’t be surprised in the least. Jonas always did whatever he thought would make me happy.

“He said you were getting married today,” Melody reminds me. I didn't forget. I just thought I was going to get married in blue jeans right here in the backyard. “We had already picked one out before everything happened. Remember?”

“I do.” Melody had planned a few small things for the wedding. Nothing had been set in stone. The dress was something I’d tried on one day when we’d been walking past a bridal store. We had been so excited about it.

“I called and told them to bring it over.”

“Are there more surprises? Is that what Jonas is off doing right now?”

“I think we all know what Jonas is doing,” Melody's husband says. Yes, he is dealing with Gran. I have no idea how that will go but I’m guessing not well. I tried to reason with her once. That had cost me years of my life. I refuse to let that woman take anything else from me.

“Daddy!” I hear Jax scream from the playhouse. It’s going to take a while to get used to hearing him say it. I look over to see that Melody has tears in her eyes again as she watches Jax run through the grass into Jonas’ open arms. Jonas picks him up, swinging him around as he giggles uncontrollably. My heart explodes with happiness. Jax can feel it, too. From the moment he laid eyes on Jonas, he took to him. Calling him Daddy was second nature to him.

“You going to be my best man?” Jonas kisses his cheek. Jax will agree to do anything Jonas asks him.

“Can I be the flower girl?” Veronica asks.

“Of course you can,” I tell her.

“Why don’t you pick out one of your dresses, pretty girl?” Melody tells her daughter, who doesn't have to be asked twice before bolting inside.

“You’ve got an hour.” Jonas walks over toward me, giving me a kiss next. I smile against his mouth. I think an hour is one hour too long.

“You okay?” I lean into him as I look up at him. He wraps an arm around me.

“In an hour, I’m going to have everything I ever wanted. You and Jax are all I’ll ever need.”

“Hey! I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just say that,” Melody chimes in.

“I thought you wanted more babies,” I tease. Jax lays his head against Jonas’. Veronica clearly wore him out. I’m sure the ice cream he ate a little while ago will kick in soon and he’ll have his second wind.

“I’ll want all the babies you’ll give me.” With a husband like him I am more than happy to oblige. “Might have one in you already.”

“Okay. I’ll take Jax and check on the dress.” Melody holds her hands out for Jax, who doesn't look like he wants to leave his daddy anytime soon. “I got popsicles.” That has his head lifting up and arms reaching for her in no time at all for them to make their way inside. They leave Jonas and me alone in the backyard.

“Everything really okay?”

“How can it not be okay? I not only got you back, I got Jax. Nothing else fucking matters. We’ll work the rest out in time.” He is right. This is all that matters.

He lifts my hand from off his chest, slipping a ring on to my finger. When he first asked me to marry him, it was our first date. He pulled my hair from my ponytail and used the hair band to tie around my finger. I thought it was romantic but he insisted he would replace it the next day.

It wasn't exactly the next day that I got a replacement because we didn't get out of bed for a good three days after he’d put that temporary ring on my finger. I told him I didn't need anything big. Hell, I didn't need anything at all. All I wanted was him. But Jonas being Jonas went out and bought me a giant ring. He said it wasn't about the money. He just didn't want anyone missing it. From the weight on my finger I have a feeling this one is no different. I probably shouldn't find his possessiveness sexy, but I do. The man loves me so damn much he wants the world to know.

“Fifty-eight minutes.” I lift up on my tiptoes to kiss him. “Then I’ll be your wife.”

“You’ve been my wife since the moment I put that hair tie around your finger. Now we’ll be a family.” He kisses me once more before I run like hell to get ready for my happily ever after.

Chapter 21

Jonas

The spring air smells crisp and the setting sun turns everything a golden color. Luca shifts in the chair next to me, silently puffing on his cigar. His sister, Gia, and Darby are over by the new pond we put in. It’s empty for now. Darby’s not sure what fish she wants to put in. Jax wants a turtle and a frog, and so the fish need to be compatible with those animals. We moved out of the penthouse a month ago into this three story five bedroom brick house. I told Darby that I wasn’t sure if it was big enough for the number of kids we were planning to have but she said if we had more than four, I’d have to get a new wife. I told her that four sounded like the perfect number of children. For now, though, we only have the one.

“Broken! Broken!” Jax yells. He runs up and deposits two large plastic pieces in my lap. I fit the blocks together and hand them back. He raises his toy in the air as if it’s a championship belt and shouts, “Yay! Yay! Daddy fix! Daddy fix!” and then he runs off.

“You put together two blocks and he looked at you like you just built the Taj Mahal,” marvels Luca.

“Kids are great,” I say with a self-satisfied smile. My gaze drifts toward Darby, whose hot as fuck figure is shrouded in a shapeless dress. I picked it out this morning when I remembered the Wards were visiting. There was no reason for Luca to see one curve of Darby’s lush figure since she’s mine and he needs to find his own damn wife. Darby’s stomach is flat but we’ve been working hard at getting her pregnant. Her monthly hasn’t come yet so our hopes for a second child might be coming true. If not, I’ll put in the hard work of fucking her over every surface possible. Oh, the task of being me. If the Wards weren’t here and Jax was with his nanny, I could bend Darby over the cushioned bench, ruck up the hem of that dress and have my cock inside of her steaming pussy in less than thirty seconds.

“Your shit eating grin tells me you aren’t thinking about kids,” Luca says, interrupting my fantasies.

“You’d be wrong.”

“Then you were thinking of making kids and it doesn’t count.”

I lift the snifter of brandy to my lips to hide a smile. “You should think about making your own instead of coveting my family,” I reply over the rim of the tumbler.

Luca puffs on his cigar for a few moments before answering. “It’s hard to believe I had Darby in my home for two years and I couldn’t convince her that life with me was better than the one she lived over my garage.”

My fingers tighten around the crystal, the sharp edges of glass digging into my palm. “It’s good that you didn’t. I would’ve hated to put your sister through an unnecessary period of mourning.”

“You would’ve put me in the hospital?” Luca jokes.