Rogue Devil (The Rourkes #11) - Kylie Gilmore Page 0,71

starts down the aisle with him.

Olivia doesn’t need any prompting. She’s carrying a basket of rose petals and, for a toddler, she’s incredibly graceful, sort of dancing down the aisle, stretching her little arm out and flinging a petal, doing a twirl, taking a few steps, and then doing another long stretch and fling.

“Just like her mom,” Dylan says proudly. “Little ballerina.”

Ariana shrugs. “I didn’t teach her that.”

Everyone oohs and aahs over the adorable kids.

The music changes to the wedding march, and suddenly it all feels real. I didn’t have a wedding march or a procession for my practical courthouse wedding. Oh, I’m so glad I get the chance now!

Adrian offers me his arm, and I take it.

And then I walk down the aisle to my husband, prepared to marry him all over again.

Brendan

Welp, if she didn’t know it already, she does now—my family is nuts. They understood about our courthouse wedding, but they just couldn’t help themselves with the reenactment. Since Chloe got on board so easily, I’m going to declare tonight our wedding night part two. She was a wildcat that night.

I grin as she wipes a bit of icing from the corner of my mouth. Everyone’s eating wedding cake and drinking champagne. Someone let the toddlers have sugar, and now they’re racing circles around the room just for the hell of it.

Chloe spears another forkful of cake. “This was so amazing I think we should do it again. You know, a vow renewal on a cool anniversary, like for our twenty-fifth or something.”

“Or how about the tenth anniversary on a beach ceremony in Hawaii, huh?”

Her eyes widen. “I love that. You’re awesome at this planning stuff. You’re officially in charge of planning cool vacations and all future vow renewals.”

I kiss her cheek. It’s not that great an honor. She doesn’t enjoy planning, all of her focus on her studies. And me, of course. She’s only grown more loving and affectionate with each passing day. It’s like she had to learn to trust that I was really sticking around like I said I would. I understand. Losing both your parents at a young age can give you serious abandonment issues. It was tough on her.

Dylan guides his huge pregnant wife past us, heading to the patio door. Ariana’s due next month with twin girls. They both say three kids is plenty. Dylan is going to be so outnumbered in his house with three daughters and a wife.

“Everything okay?” I ask him.

He smiles. “Everything’s good. She just needs a little walk. Getting crowded in there with twins.”

“Congratulations again, you two,” Ariana says, holding her big belly and letting out a breath. “So happy for you.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spy a blur of long dark hair barreling toward Ariana. I scoop my niece up before she can knock her mom off balance. I turn her upside down. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Olivia laughs hysterically as I lift her up so we’re eye to eye.

“Careful, Bren,” Dylan says. “She just ate cake.”

I set her down again, and she grabs onto Dylan’s jeans, staring up at me with her big brown eyes and smiling shyly. She’s like a mini-Ariana. Dylan plucks his daughter off the ground and tucks her into the crook of his arm. She looks perfectly content, unfazed by the movement. He guides Ariana out. “See ya in a bit,” he says over his shoulder.

Chloe turns to me. “Do you ever look at your niece and all your pregnant sisters-in-laws and wish we were having babies sooner rather than later?”

“Nah. All these nieces and nephews will be our practice. Like when you get a puppy to make sure you can keep something alive before the human variety.”

She laughs.

I lean down to her ear and whisper, “It does seem like something’s in the water around here, doesn’t it?” Not only is Ariana pregnant, but Jack’s wife, Riley, is seven months along, and we just found out today that Connor’s wife, Becca, is three months pregnant. My parents are thrilled. They love being grandparents. Josie and Sean are waiting. She’s young and her acting career is taking off. She just landed a sitcom that she stars in. The nice thing is they’re filming in New York.

Chloe nudges my shoulder. “It’s not the water. It’s too much testosterone. All that virility.”

“I think it’s the women. They can’t resist a Rourke.”

She smiles up at me. “I’m a Rourke now, so that means you can’t resist me.”

“And vice versa.” I