AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Joey straightened up and loudly said, “I do.”
“Little lady,” Elvis said. “Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?”
Smiling at Joey and trying desperately not to cry amid the laughter, I nodded. “I do.”
“I now pronounce you man and wife, ah ha.”
Joey and I sniggered.
“You may kiss your bri?—”
Joey had me in his arms and kissed me before Elvis could finish his sentence. He cupped my face, kissing me long and slow and it meant everything. It was the beginning of our story, and I was so grateful it wasn’t the end that I had stupidly pushed for.
“I love you,” I said as we pulled away from each other. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Never, Daisy. I’d never give up on you.” He kissed me again. “I love you more than you will ever know, and I will love you until the final beat.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Elvis said, gaining our attention. “You may now leave the building, thank ya very much.”
We burst out laughing and did just that. We then drank mocktails in the Paris Hotel casino while playing the slotmachines, later going to Barry Manilow’s show and I loved every minute of it.Thatnight then became the best one of my life.
EPILOGUE
BEAU
Ten Years Later
Ihated award events. They were full of overstuffed execs who thought their shit didn’t stink and that everyone owed their success to them. Those from Tenfold and Concepta were prime examples. They were all comparing dicks, trying to prove whodiddiscover Warrior Creek. We’d avoided them, thank god. Ali had made sure of that. She might not have been our manager any longer, but she still had our backs. She and Connor Miller, who she’d put us in touch with just in case we needed any help, seeing as we now managed ourselves. He was good, no Ali Bennet, but he was a good guy who had our best interests at heart if we ever had to call upon him.
It was also his damn fault we were all attending our inauguration into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. He’d insisted we should do it. Plus, he’d sent another manager friend of his to listen to Ethan and his band. That meant I kind of owed him a favour so had to come.
“Hey, you okay?” Sim slipped her hand into mine and my stomach flipped. Even after nine years of marriage her touch still excited me.
“I am now you’re here.” I dipped my head to kiss her, taking my time and threading a hand through her hair. When we finally pulled apart I couldn’t draw my eyes away from hers. “You look beautiful tonight. I mean, you always look beautiful, but tonight you’re just…” I trailed off, unable to put into words how gorgeous she looked and how I felt about her. I had loved Cassie with all my heart, she was everything to me, and I still thought about her, still loved her in fact. What I had with Simone, though, was just as deep, just as wonderful and I was one lucky bastard to have had two great loves in my life. I had a feeling Cassie, and my beautiful Bobby were looking down and smiling, happy that I had found peace and happiness again. Fuck it, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Cassie hadn’t arranged it all.
Sim smiled, clearly able to understand what I had been trying to say. “Thank you.” She kissed me softly on the lips, placing a palm against my chest. “And just so you know, I just spoke to your mum, and you still have two angry daughters back at the hotel.”
I grinned, knowing all too well how angry those two dark haired cherubs would be. Ivy was eight and Elsie six and they had a real temper on them when they wanted something they couldn’t have. Tonight, they’d wanted to come to the award ceremony, but we’d made them stay back at the hotel with my mother and Ronnie’s auntie, Mo. Not even the party dresses I’d taken them out to buy had smoothed things over. Nor the burgers that we’d arranged for room service to deliver. They were both daddy’s girls and were not happy that they weren’t spending the night watching Daddy getting his award.
“Where’s Ethan anyway?” I looked around for my son. The boy I thought of as my own, and who I was so damn proud of. He was an amazing son and an even better big brother and when things got too girly at home I could guarantee he’d redress the balance. We’d either have a jam session or play some Xbox and Iwouldn’t feel so bad about wearing pink eyeshadow or a sparkly tiara at the insistence of one of my girls. I would miss him when he went off to university.Ifhe went off to university. He had a place at Bristol studying music production, but his band was good. Bloody good in fact, so good that we were all pretty sure they were going to be big. We’d tried not to help them too much. Ethan didn’t want it anyway. It was his band, his and his best friend Olly’s, and while they asked for advice they never ever asked for a leg up. The only thing I had done was to ask Connor to get someone to go and see them, anything after that was all down to Tough Mission. I had to admit, I loved their name even though it was Ronnie who came up with it.
Simone flapped her hand in the direction of the bar. “I think he’s at the bar. It’s free, babe, where else would he be?”
I laughed because Ethan had decided he quite liked a beer. We kept an eye on him, because of Joey I knew the downward slope drink could lead to, but we also wanted him to enjoy being a teenager. When he was sixteen, we’d even had the obligatory call from a party to collect him because he was wasted on vodka. That had resulted in his mum grounding him for a couple of weeks, while I’d told him to maybe stick to beer for a while. Then when he reached eighteen and started going out properly, we decided we needed to talk to him about drugs, a more in depth talk than the one the school had given to him and his classmates. Actually, scrap that, Joey had talked to him about it. Joey had shown him some pictures of himself during his addiction and told him a few stories about those dark days, including waking up under a railway bridge having shit himself, just before the agony he’d gone through getting clean. From the look of horror and pain on Ethan’s face, I was pretty sure it had done the trick, so if getting drunk from time to time was all we had to worry about then I was fine with it.
Girls, however, were another matter altogether. There were already hordes of them hanging around the band’s rehearsals. All four band members were good looking boys, but my boy seemed to be the one they all swooned over. Also, Simone didn’t know but I’d caught him sneaking a girl out to a waiting taxi at five one morning. We had the ‘treat girls and this house with respect’ chat, but I had to admit I mentally high-fived him for it. There’d been a time, when he was a little boy, when we’d wondered if he’d ever speak, never mind to a girl who he’d then sneak into his bedroom.
I turned back to my wife, who was looking sexy in a tight leather dress. “We have time before the ceremony starts,” I said, pulling her closer with an arm around her waist. “So, how about we sneak out to some dark corner and maybe I could get those sexy knickers of yours off. What do you say?”
She licked her lips and opened the slim clutch bag she was carrying. “Would that be these knickers?”
I peeked inside the bag and saw a flash of red lace. Instantly I was hard and so grabbed her hand and rushed out of there like my arse was on fire. I needed to fuck my wife, award ceremony or not. I needed to be as close to her as possible, because without her I wasn’t sure I’d still be alive. I owed her so much. I loved her and cherished her, and it was my life’s ambition to make her happy, even if it was for ten minutes in a cloakroom.
ELLIOT
“Where are they going?” I asked Belle as Simone and Beau rushed past us.
She shrugged. “No idea. They’re obviously desperate to get there, though.” She moved closer and ran a hand down my shirt. “You look very sexy tonight in this suit.”
