Chapter Six

Gage

“You look fucking sexy as hell, man,” Zandor says, looking me up and down. “I mean, damn, I think if you looked this good in high school, we may have—”

“Shut the fuck up, Z,” I tell him, trying not to laugh.

“No, seriously, I’m stiffening up looking at you in that tux,” he continues.

“Lines, you’re crossing them.”

“At least you and I are friends. You didn’t even know the tranny you hooked up with on the dating app, and—”

“You fucked a tranny?” Garrett gasps.

From between my teeth, I hiss, “Fuck no, and Z, cut the shit.”

“I’m just trying to loosen you the fuck up. Just like I would in a locker room with some KY before showing you just how hot you make me.”

When I turn and glare at him, he stops talking shit. Then, like a domino effect, Garrett, Grayson, Zandor, Xavier, Jase, and fucking Ricco start laughing.

“Boys.” Mags’ stern voice shuts them the fuck up, and they all look down. “You all look very handsome in your tuxes, very grown up and mature. Could you possibly act that way, as well?” she continues.

A mixture of “Yes, ma’am’s” and “Yes. Mags” are whispered by them all.

I look at her, and she winks at me. I give her one right back.

Today, Mags is going to marry Phoenix and me. Not that the soon-to-be and last ever Mrs. Gage Falcon didn’t know we were all sorts of fucked up on each other from the beginning. We did. But Mags, she knew it was what we were both avoiding, and luckily, she gave it a softer touch in explaining to Phoenix, with words, that I was worth it, when I was just trying to fuck her so damn good she would never leave.

Mags is one of the main reasons Phoenix Star knew it was okay to fall for me, even when nothing was right. Nothing except her and Mags.

As the violins start to play, Mags smiles. “That’s our cue.”

We all follow Mags into the barn through the back door and take the stage.

Brand and Phoenix’s sisters, one on each side of him, arms linked through his, begin walking toward us.

I look at Garrett, and he looks back at me.

“Our little man looks like a million bucks,” Garrett whispers.

Our little man.

Finally, the sting is gone from what those words mean. Because, he truly is ours. Garrett’s son, my nephew—the titles mean shit. Blood is blood, love is love, and he, Brandon Falcon, is love.

And then, well, then he slows down.

“Aw, fuck,” Garrett whispers.

Brandon unlinks his arms from the very confused girls he’s walking with and pulls a flower out of his sleeve. When he starts walking to the right, I know—hell, we all know—where he’s heading.

“Excuse me,” he whispers to Josephina Steel as he makes his way toward her.

“At least he’s using his manners,” I whisper to Garrett, who chuckles.

“Excuse me,” he says as he walks past Josephina’s husband, Thomas. Then he’s standing in front of Bell Steel.

As he holds out the flower, she looks at her sister Kiki, who is scowling at her.

“Bell, I planted the friendship seeds. This grew. It’s yours,” he says, taking her unmoving hand and placing the stem in it.

The people gathered all make the “aw” sound.

Kiki snatches it out of Bell’s hand and glares at him. Brand looks shocked.

An audible gasp comes from our guests.

“Oh, hell,” Jase whispers. “Momma Joe, do something.”

Cyrus, Xavier, Zandor, and Garrett are chuckling, while Garrett and I are holding our damn breaths.

“Friendship doesn’t grow into flowers,” Kiki snaps at him.

“Does so,” Brand tells her.

“Does not,” she retorts, looking down at the flower.

Everyone is now giggling and chuckling.

“Brand,” Josephina says quietly, “you think we should continue?” She nods toward us.

He sighs and shrugs. “I suppose so, now that she ruined it.”

“Did not,” Kiki says a little louder.

“Brandon,” Josephina says quietly again.

“Yes,” he says, trying his damnedest not to be rude when he’s clearly pissed off.

She smiles and nods to us, and he sighs again before walking back out, looking behind him one last time.

“I’m not giving up,” he tells Bell.

“Game over.” Kiki sticks her tongue out then tosses the flower on the ground.

“There’s a whole garden, Kiki,” he hisses at her.

She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her body. “And there’re bugs.”

As the violins begin again, Brand and Phoenix’s sisters start walking down the aisle again, Brand looking annoyed this time and the girls looking confused.

When he gets up to us, Garrett grips his shoulder and leans down, whispering, “Not today, Brand. It’s Gage’s big day.”

Brand passes me an apologetic look, and I nod an okay.

One by one, the women start walking down the aisle, all in red dresses, none the same style. Phoenix wanted them all to pick what they liked best.

“They look pretty,” Brand whispers, taking my hand.

I look down at him and nod.

“Who are all these people?” he asks, pointing with his other hand out at the crowd.

“Friends,” I whisper.

He nods then looks toward Garrett. “There are more here than at yours and Mom’s.”

“Phoenix’s family has a lot more people in it,” I tell him, to which he looks back at me.

“So, they’re all …” Brand stops talking mid-sentence, and I look up.

“Christ,” I whisper, and Mags giggles.

Phoenix is in a red dress, not white, red, and it’s sexy as fuck. The bodice is form-fitting, silk, I think, with lots of sparkling stones. Just below her hips, it flows. Lots of fucking material. Seas of it, actually. She looks so ridiculously sexy I am getting hard.

Her lips match her dress, reminding me of fireball night at Carlin’s. Her hair is in loose curls, one side swept up slightly, the other hanging down.

As she walks toward me, her smile that started out as shy and fake, brightens, relaxes, and gets bigger.

When she stops in front of me, her father kisses her cheek then puts her hand in mine.

“Today, we celebrate love,” Mags says, her voice almost a song. “The love of a man, and the love of a woman. Neither searched for it, or sought it out. No, not these two. They fought it until love was bigger than even him, or the two combined.”

Phoenix is beaming as she looks up at me, and I am emotional as fuck.

She puts her hand on my cheek and smiles. I press my face into it and do my best to smile back.

“Their love is a combined storm that’s darkness has no choice but to give in to a love brighter than the sun.” She pauses, putting her hand on mine, the one holding Phoenix’s.

Mags’ hand, her voice, her words spoken for Phoenix and me to repeat our promises to one another, calms me. But Phoenix, she has the opposite effect.

I love her, fucking love her, and she needs to know just how fucking much.

When we are done with the vows, I look at Mags. “I have something to say.”

She nods. “I’m sure you do.”

I look at an almost stunned Phoenix and shake my head. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she says, tears now filling her beautiful brown eyes.

“Never thought it could be all-consuming like this. Never thought I would look at a little bit of a person like you and think, this one, this one’s the one who could crush me.”

“I never would.”

“I know that, but you could, squirt.” I correct myself, “You could have. Not now. Now, you’re mine, I’m yours, and I’m not a big believer in something bigger than oneself, but you, little bit of everything, are so much bigger than you even know. Together, we’re unstoppable. Forever, Phoenix, you and me, nothing less.”

“Forever, Gage, you and me, nothing less.”

I don’t wait to put a piece of metal on her finger. I wrap an arm around her, lift her up, and kiss those lips, because I didn’t get to last night, and now, well, now I’m never ever going to have to stop.