“I can’t help but worry,” he muttered, as he pressed another kiss to my mouth before he slid his tongue against my bottom lip. “Still, now I’ve heard from her… want to get married?”
Though my heart skipped a beat, I laughed. “Okay.”
“Okay?” His eyebrow quirked. “You don’t sound too excited.”
“Are you pouting?” Laughter escaped me, but when he pouted some more, I stopped snickering and declared, “Vegas. Next weekend.”
He squinted at me. “That isn’t a church.”
I shrugged. “You want the church or me as your wife?”
“Can’t I have both?”
Because his tone was wistful, I stared at him in surprise. “I thought you’d be glad to get away from a big ceremony.”
“You’ll think it’s crazy.”
I shrugged again. “Maybe. Don’t let it stop you while you’re on a roll.”
He snorted, but said, “Ever since I watched that show…”
“Which show?”
“You know, The Big Fat Gypsy Wedding one.” I blinked, because I hadn’t anticipated that answer. “Well, I’ve always wanted to get married like that.”
My mouth dropped open. “Are you kissing me?”
A chuckle escaped him. “Freudian slip there, Thea.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“‘Are you kissing me?’” he repeated with a grin, before he dropped his head and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Now, I’m kissing you.”
I huffed. “You know what I meant. Kidding. Are you messing around? You want a crazy, big wedding even though we legit don’t like that many people? I mean, there’s Lori, Renee too, but I can’t really think of anyone else—”
“I want you in a massive meringue dress, and the few people we do care about in the pew. I want everyone to fucking know you’re mine.” Fire lit in his eyes. “I want a massive party, I want the press there, and I want my mother to see it all.” His chin jerked up. “Even if it means I have to take away her Valium to get her standing upright.”
I arched a brow. “Punishment?”
He sniffed. “She treated us with fire and brimstone, why shouldn’t we treat her the same way?”
“Very Christian of you,” I teased, but I wasn’t averse to the suggestion.
To say I hated Anna was an understatement. I mean, I’d disliked her before, but Adam had shared too much with me in the dark of night… had told me how he wanted us to raise Freddie without any violence.
To me, that had gone without saying. I wasn’t going to hit my kids. But Adam? It was like he was justifying it or something, then he’d told me what Anna used to do to him. It was too much like what my father had done to me.
Maybe that was why he wanted to clarify things. Make sure that neither of us were going to bring our pasts into the present, and fuck up Freddie’s future.
Then, of course, there were all the little things I remembered, all the many miseries I could lay at Anna’s door. I didn’t like to think I was vengeful, but, equally, I wanted to rub Anna’s nose in it. She was still obsessed with her golden boy, still couldn’t get over the fact that Cain was in prison, that he’d murdered someone… She mourned him, while totally forgetting her other son was a wonderful man, a great dad, a beautiful spirit—
No.
Anna could come.
Fuck, I’d even wear a big meringue dress complete with fairy lights in the hem if it meant shoving her face in our love.
I grinned at the thought. “I’m feeling stabby.”
He blinked. “Huh?”
“Stabby. You know? Bloodthirsty.”
His brow arched. “Clarify.”
“I would like to rub your mom’s nose in the pile of shit she made for herself.”
Understanding hit him, and his confusion disappeared. “How do you feel about that, then, I don’t know, going on honeymoon to, say, the Maldives or something, and getting married on a beach together?”
A laugh escaped me. “That sounds like something I could do.”
“Fuck, we’re cruel, aren’t we?” he said with a groan, pressing his forehead to mine.
“Payback’s a bitch. She made us miserable, Adam. She nearly destroyed our—”
“Our everything.” He blew out a breath. “But…”
“But?”
“I don’t want to waste time on her. As much as I do want all that, and as much as I want you in a meringue—”
“You’re obsessed with wedding dresses all of a sudden. Is this some kind of fetish I didn’t know about?”
He ignored me. “—I want it to be all about us.”
I snorted. “Seems like you’re the one who’s bothered about the how. I just want it done.”
A twinkle appeared in his eyes. “How very forward-thinking of you.”