Eric glanced at the clock and went pale. “When did it get so late?”
“When you were seeing the bride in her dress before the ceremony,” Jace said. “That’s bad luck, you know.”
“I’m currently the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. I’m not worried about some lame superstition.”
Jace blinked at him and shook his head. “Okay, that’s a first. First you deviate from your ‘dye your weird hair a different ugly color every forty-nine days’ routine, and now this?”
“I always wondered why you dye it every forty-nine days,” Rebekah said. “Sixty-nine seems a more likely number for Eric Half-Porn-Star/Half-Rock-Star Sticks to base a superstition around.”
Eric grinned, probably thinking of sixty-nines past.
“While sixty-nine might result in two people getting lucky, seven has always been my lucky number.”
Rebekah’s brow furrowed. “There’s no seven in forty-nine,” she said.
“There are seven sevens in forty-nine. Which makes it the luckiest number in existence.”
“That’s exactly why I’m so surprised you’ve stopped caring about your luck,” Jace said.
“I used my lifetime supply to win the girl,” Eric said. “Now that I have everything I want, I don’t need luck anymore.”
Rebekah melted at his declaration. Jace gagged and pantomimed shoving his finger down his throat. Eric checked out the clock and grabbed Rebekah’s hand.
“Is everyone there already?” Eric asked Jace as they raced toward the exit. “Thanks for letting us use your store!” he called to the proprietor on his way out the door. “We’ll come back again soon.”
“Welcome to Malachi’s Cos…” the man murmured in his sleep.
“You might want to empty out the trash in the dressing room,” Eric added. “Just saying.”
Rebekah felt her face go warm as she thought about all those used tissues and wet wipes they’d placed in the trash.
“They’re still waiting on Trey,” Jace said when they stepped outside. “But I think he’s on his way.”
“Just how many people did you invite to our small private ceremony?” Rebekah asked. Not that she minded. She was just surprised. When had Eric even had time to invite them? Had that been why he’d slipped outside and spent twenty minutes on the phone? And kept annoying her by checking the damned device instead of giving her his undivided attention?
“I invited only family,” he said.
And since he had no real family to speak of, that meant his band. When she was on the road running Sinners’ soundboard, they were like her surrogate family too. She was glad Eric had invited them. The dress meant a lot to her, but it would mean even more if those she cared about got to see her wear it when she pledged to love Eric for the rest of her life. She hoped that would be a very long time.
Chapter Three
Eric opened the passenger door of his recently awesomified vintage Corvette and helped his beautiful bride get her dress into the car without catching it in the door. When he leaned over the open convertible top and kissed her forehead, she smiled up at him, her blue eyes twinkling with happiness.
That look right there—he wanted to be the cause of that look on her face for the rest of his life. His heart swelled so big that he found it difficult to draw air. This woman meant everything to him and for those few horrible minutes while they’d been waiting for her biopsy result that morning, he’d thought he might have to figure out how to live without her. He wasn’t sure he’d have been able to do it. He was determined to fill every moment they spent together with joy and love because even if she lived to be a hundred and twenty, there still wouldn’t be enough time to show her how much she meant to him.
“You’re looking particularly sappy at the moment,” Rebekah said. She reached up to tap his nose with her index finger.
“Do you prefer my horny look? I’m sure I can find it if I stare at your cleavage for a couple of seconds.”
She did look spectacular in her wedding dress. Her mother’s wedding dress, some cock-blocking synapse in his brain reminded him.
She laughed. “Get in the car. I need to marry you now.”
“Well, that’s not going to get rid of my sappy look. If anything, it’ll intensify it.”
She took his hand and kissed his knuckles before pressing them against her cheek. “I’ll figure out a way to put up with it somehow,” she whispered.
She released his hand, and he stole a quick kiss before climbing behind the wheel and starting the car. It roared to life with none of the knocking, glugging, or grinding it used to produce. Produce, that is, when he was actually able to get it started. “You’re a genius mechanic, baby,” he said, flashing a grin at his bride-to-be.
“Are we going to work on my Camaro tonight?”
Eric laughed. “Not unless we’re using the back seat for consummation purposes.”
He pulled into traffic and drove to the courthouse, wondering if Rebekah would be okay with all the quick plans he’d made to make their day a bit more special. He knew women liked to plan these things, and he’d never heard of a groom making all the arrangements, but they weren’t a typical couple. Nope. He was sure they were much happier.
Jace waited outside next to his motorcycle while Eric helped Rebekah out of the car and into the courthouse.
“Isn’t he your witness?” Rebekah asked. “I should call my mom to let her know we’ve made it.”