Rock Wedding (Rock Kiss #4) - Nalini Singh Page 0,117

a delicate diamond necklace Abe remembered his father giving his mother on their twentieth wedding anniversary.

The bouquet in her hand was a profusion of color.

She looked like his every dream come to life.

“There you are,” he said when she reached him, immediately taking her hands into his after she passed her bouquet back to Lola. His beaming mother waved him down, kissed his cheek, then did the same to Sarah before stepping back to let Elvis begin the ceremony.

Mostly all Abe remembered was the unhidden love in Sarah’s eyes and the joy flooding his veins. When Elvis declared them husband and wife, he couldn’t hold it in. He gave a roof-shaking whoop and then kissed a laughing Sarah until everyone hollered and Elvis offered to rent them a room.

Grinning, he clasped Sarah’s hand in his and they walked out as a group… straight into the flash of a camera.

Basil froze, his eyes huge in his pasty face. “Shit,” he whispered. “I think I just got the exclusive of a lifetime.”

Abe looked at Sarah, lifted an eyebrow.

She laughed and, turning to the photographer, said, “It’s your lucky day, Basil.” She tilted up her head, Abe bent, and they kissed while their friends showered them in flower petals the women must’ve brought in with them.

Vegas sparkled and shone around them, bystanders gathered to applaud, but all Abe cared about was the woman in his arms. The woman who was now his wife.

CHAPTER 39

BASIL, FOR ALL HIS FAULTS, proved to be an amazing wedding photographer. He even sent a whole set of the images to Thea—after he’d gotten his exclusive splashed all over not the tabloids but the glossiest magazine in the business. “I always wanted to be a wedding photographer,” he’d written in the accompanying note. “With the money from this exclusive, I can follow my dream. Thank you.”

Going through the photos the week after the wedding, Abe reveled in the joy he saw on Sarah’s face in every shot. The same joy suffused his.

According to Thea, the social media outlets had gone crazy.

Abe ignored the noise of the world, he and Sarah cozily ensconced in a spacious villa an hour from Los Angeles that he’d rented so they could have a small honeymoon, free from media intrusion, before they went home to prepare for the baby’s arrival. That’d happen in about two to three weeks, depending on if the peanut decided on a little extra womb time.

David had dropped off Flossie too, the villa owners happy to welcome a canine guest. Abe had known Sarah would miss her pet if they were apart too long, and Flossie had settled right in, was currently curled up at Abe’s side on the sofa, as interested in the photos as he was.

“Abra is now set in stone,” Thea had said when she came by with the photos a couple of hours earlier. “My favorite headline so far is: ABRACADABRA, ROCK REUNION!”

“Kill it,” Abe had ordered. “Kill it dead now.”

“Too late.”

Abe didn’t really mind the sobriquet. What the hell. He was with Sarah. What did he care?

“Abe.” Sarah’s voice was shaky.

He turned his head to look over the back of the sofa, got up at his first glimpse of her face. “What’s wrong?” She’d gone to the restroom after a quick look at the photos, had been excited to come back and look through them more slowly, but now her skin was pale, her hand on her abdomen.

“I think I just had a contraction.” She swallowed, her fingers trembling. “It’s too early.”

“Only by a couple of weeks,” he reassured her even as his own heart thumped. “You okay for me to drive you or should I call an ambulance?” Stay calm, Abe. Stay calm. “We’re not that far from the hospital you wanted to use if I put pedal to the metal.”

“You drive.” She winced, but it passed quickly. “I don’t think the baby’s in a rush.” Her voice held, but he heard the tremors beneath. “We should have plenty of time.”

Taking his cue from Sarah, Abe drove fast but not recklessly. No way in hell was he getting into a wreck; no way was he hurting Sarah or the baby. At first it all proceeded slowly with Sarah’s contractions quite far apart. He was beginning to calm down, thinking they’d have plenty of time to get her settled in at the hospital—hell, the doc might even send her home until the labor was more advanced. He’d read that some women were in labor for