“You have reached your destination.” The woman’s voice fills the car. “Your destination is on the right.” I look out of the window at the huge house on the side. Cars line the whole street in both directions. People look like they are running around in a panic. I spot my cousins and I can’t help the smile that fills my face. It’s been way too long since I’ve seen them last.
“Finally,” Jenna huffs from beside me, “I feel like we’ve been in this car for five days.”
I look over at her. “It’s been two hours.” I shake my head.
“Two hours since we got into this car, you are forgetting driving nine hours before this.” She opens the car door and steps out, stretching as she looks around.
“I wasn’t going to miss this wedding.” I open my own car door and step out, the humidity hitting me right away. “They grounded all planes in San Francisco because of the fog, what did you think was going to happen?”
“I didn’t expect you to say, let’s drive to Vegas and take a plane from there,” she huffs again, and I close my eyes, wondering if bringing her was a mistake. We’ve only been dating for over a month.
“You could have stayed back.” I open the trunk, grabbing my luggage. “I told you I was only going to be here for three days.”
“How would that look to your family if your girlfriend decided to skip the wedding?” She pushes her blond hair behind her ear before folding her arms over her chest. “It would look like I don’t want to see them.”
“I don’t think my family would give it that much thought, they have other things to worry about besides why you wouldn’t have been here,” I tell her as I hear the sound of gunshots.
Jenna jumps up and then ducks down. “What the fuck was that?”
“Sounds like gunshots,” I say, trying to hide my laugh. “Do you want me to grab your bag or are you okay?”
“A gentleman never asks.” She glares at me.
I chuckle at her. “If I would grab one of my sisters’ or my cousins’ bags, they would kick me in the balls and then wait for me to bend over and then kick me straight in the ass,” I inform her. “I’ve seen it happen to many others.”
“Well, I’m not your sister or your cousin, I’m your girlfriend,” she declares, opening the back door of the car, “and I’m okay with you carrying my bag.”
I walk over to the back of the car, grabbing her bag before I see a golf cart zoom across the grass going toward the barn with a pink tractor in front of it. The woman’s long blond hair flies in the wind.
“Look who the cat dragged in.” I turn my head toward the voice of my cousin Stone. I dump my bag and Jenna’s bag on the ground, going over to him and hugging him. “Dad said you might not make it.”
“I would have called in every single favor I have to get here,” I tell him when we let each other go, my hand slapping his shoulder and I squeeze. “You look skinny.”
“Fuck you,” he retorts. “You look like you’ve been skipping the gym.” He taps me on the stomach but there is nothing there but muscle.
“Think again.” I give him the chin up. “Stone, this is Jenna,” I introduce her to Stone. “Jenna, this is one of my many cousins, Stone.”
“He forgot best cousin,” Stone says, going over to her and kissing her cheek. “Nice to meet you.”
“Do you know where we have to go?” I ask him, looking around and spotting my uncles Matthew and Max trying to talk to another guy. I stare a little more and see that they are holding shotguns, and I’m about to ask questions when Stone starts talking.
“The women are in there.” Stone points over to the barn. “And then the men are in there.” He points at a house that isn’t far away from the barn.
“There is also a changing whatever you call it, over there.” He points at the small house in the back of the big house.
“I’ll go over there and change,” Jenna says, “I’ll meet you later.” She comes to me and kisses me.
“I’ll be around,” I tell her as she grabs her bag and walks away from us.
“Bringing a girl to a wedding,” Stone grumbles as soon as she is far enough away. “What the hell are you even thinking?”
“What was I supposed to say to her, you can’t come?” I throw back, grabbing my bag.
“Um. Yeah,” he states and I laugh. “It’s been a week.”
“It’s a month,” I point out, which doesn’t make it any better. We met a month ago when I was working for the company she is employed with.
He slaps my shoulder. “Did you tell your parents you were bringing her?” he asks me.
“Did you tell Romeo you are hooking up with his sister?” I counter and he stops.
“I’m not hooking up with his sister.” He stops walking. “I’m trying to hook up with her, there is a difference.”
“The difference is, you aren’t used to people telling you no,” I point out to him as I walk up the steps to the house, and I can already hear the guys’ voices.
“Here we go,” Stone says, opening the door. “Look at what I found.” He walks in and all the heads turn toward the door.
“Stefano!” everyone shouts my name. I can’t help but smile when I look around the room at all my cousins. I mean, technically we aren’t blood related, but my mother, Vivienne, has been with the family from before I was even born. They are her second family and we have grown up together.
“Look who it is,” I say, seeing Matty, who is standing with a beer in his hand. I drop my bag and walk over to him.
“How you doing?” I ask him, giving him a hug. He slaps me on the back before letting me go.
“I feel so fucking great right now!” he exclaims, his chest puffing out. “What about you?”
“I’m good. Driving in was fun,” I say, chuckling. “I felt like I was going through security checks every five minutes.” He just looks at me. “There are cameras everywhere taking pictures. Did you guys not see?” I ask the room, and all of the guys just shake their heads.
‘What did you expect?” I hear a voice say from the front door. “That we are going to let just anyone drive in?”
I look him up and down, but he needs no introduction. I mean, he doesn’t to me because I’ve already checked him out a while ago. Casey Barnes. Owner of CBS Corporation. The biggest security firm in the world. He has major contracts with the US government and some that no one knows about. Well, except for me, that is.
“Relax,” my uncle Matthew soothes, coming into the room. “Stefano.” He comes over to me and gives me a hug. “I see you’ve already riled his feathers.” He laughs. “Casey.” He looks over at the man. “Meet the biggest pain in your ass you will ever meet.” He squeezes my shoulder. I look over at Casey and just nod at him.
“Nice to meet you,” I say, and I can see him sizing me up. When Matty started dating Sofia again, we found out who her family was. I got a call from my uncle, and when I heard the name, even my balls shriveled up. You didn’t do my job and not know who Casey Barnes was.
He walks over to me and holds out his hand. “Finally get to see the man who cracked my firewall,” he jokes, and all I can do is laugh.
“If it makes you feel better,” I reply, shaking his hand, “it took me a whole day.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better at all,” he returns, letting go of my hand. “What would have made me feel better is knowing someone was cracking my firewall.”
“What is going on right now?” Matty asks, looking at me and then at Casey.
“Shop talk,” Casey shares, putting his hands in his pockets and smirking when he knows it bothers Matthew not being in control.
“Where is Dad?” I turn around, looking for him.
“He was with Quinn, Sofia’s uncle,” Matty says. “They are discussing bringing some of the dogs to his rehabilitation center.” My father used to play professional hockey but always had a side business of dog walkers. You would think it was a funny business but he not only opened them in big cities, but smaller ones, too; he was one of the first to start doggy daycares also. Now he has over two hundred and fifty stores all around the country. They cater to dog walking, dog daycares, dog sitting, and newly, dog training.
“Nice,” I say, looking around. “I should go and get changed.”
I grab my bag and walk up to Matty. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“I’m good,” he replies and his eyes beam with happiness. “I’ll show you where to change.”
He leads me up the stairs to one of the bedrooms where there are three suits hanging. “You can change in here. One of those is yours.” He points at the three suits hanging and I see one of them has SD on it, so it must be mine.
I dump my bag on the bed. “I can’t believe you are getting married,” I state, unbuttoning my jeans and kicking them off.
“I can’t fucking wait.” His face goes into a smile right away. “I would have married her as soon as we got back together.” I nod at him.
“Shit,” he swears, his face going white. “I forgot the gift.” He rushes over to his bag on the chair in the corner. He grabs the light-blue box out of his bag with a white ribbon. “I had one job.”
“I think you had more than one job,” I tease, grabbing my tan linen pants and slipping them on. “It’s no time to stress. I’m going to get dressed and I’ll go over and give it to her.”
He runs his hands through his hair. “Thank you. I would take it over myself, but I think my mother will shoot me in the foot.”
“I did hear shots when I got here,” I tell him, taking off my white T-shirt and grabbing the white linen shirt. “Vest or no vest?”
“Vest for the ceremony and no vest for the reception. I’m sorry I can’t have all of you standing up with me at the altar.” I shake my head and laugh.
“Can you imagine how many bridesmaids she would need?” I shake my head. There are a couple of things I love more than anything in this world, and my family is number one on that list. We may each have our own lives and everyone is scattered around the world, but once a year we all get together. It’s chaotic and we used to always bitch about it, but now it’s the one time of year I look forward to. Well, that and Christmas but that usually lasts a day or two. The vacation is always two weeks.
Matty walks over to me and hands me the box. “I can’t wait for her to be my wife.”
I look at him. “Do you want me to tell her that?” I grab the box. “I mean, I will but…”
“It’s in the note.” He glares and hisses all at the same time before turning and walking back to the bag. “I guess I’m more nervous than I thought I would be.” He grabs the white card and hands it to me.
“Hey,” I say to him, “you’ve got this.”
“Yeah.” He takes a huge inhale when someone calls his name from downstairs. “You good?”
“I’m good, go and do the groom things.” He nods at me, smirking.
“I’m getting married,” he states, his chest beaming with pride. “It feels good, you should try it.”
“Let’s calm down there.” I hold up my hand. “My longest relationship was five months, I think. And that was only because I didn’t see her for like three and a half months of that.”
“Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet someone you can’t live without,” he says right before he walks out of the room.
I grab the box and card after putting on my shoes. “Who knows?” I repeat once I get downstairs and walk out the door. “Maybe I just might.”
