Page 66 of Skip a Beat

“Oh please,” Aiden says. “Have you seen our guests? We’re surrounded by pregnant women, cops, and grandmothers. This isn’t exactly one of those wild parties people always assume that rock stars throw. More like a family get together than a party, really. And we’d love it if you stayed as long as you like.”

“I’d watch the kids if they’re hanging out with the old ladies, though. They probably will be a bad influence on them. I’d hate to see what those grannies would teach young children.”

“Oh.” Finley blinks several times. “Wow, yeah, OK. Thank you.” She grins at the two of us before heading to the couch to talk to her kids.

Our friend circle is certainly an odd collection of people. Aiden was right that we’re not really the sort of group to have wild parties. At least not with the particular assortment of people here at this party right now. And really, I haven’t seen much from the rest of the guys in the band in the last few weeks being around them that would make me think they like to party anymore either. I like it. It’s like meeting your favourite actor and discovering they like nothing better than to go visit their mom and eat marshmallow cereal out of a mixing bowl. Or like when I first met Marcus and he offered to put the hurt on Aiden if necessary.

“Are we ready to make our announcement, babe?” Aiden whispers in my ear.

“I think so,” I say. “Is everyone here now?” I haven’t been able to keep track of everyone because they’ve all been touring the two properties and splitting their time between inside and outside on the back deck.

“The only people I haven’t seen yet are Johnny and Becca,” Aiden says. “But it’s getting pretty late now, so maybe they’re not coming? I don’t want to wait any longer for them to show up, anyway. I’m dying for everyone to know that you agreed to marry me.” He pulls me into a deep kiss. “And then I’m probably going to take you to bed so we can have our own celebration.” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

“Well, I guess we do need to try out the new bed. Plus, it’s our first night in the house. Our new home.” I smile up at him and reach around to pinch his butt, something I do as often as I can. “Did you get the bedroom set up already?”

“Yes, ma’am. That was the first thing I did when the furniture was delivered. I figured as long as the bed is ready to go, we can take our time with everything else.”

Aiden kisses me briefly before going out to the deck to send everyone inside for our announcement. Gran notices I’m standing alone and comes over to talk.

“Well, girlie,” she says as she hugs me. “Welcome to the family. I knew this would work out between you two.”

“What!? Aiden told you already?” That sneaky son of a bitch. We were supposed to tell everyone together. “When did he even have time? It’s only been a couple of hours since he proposed.”

Gran chuckles. “No, silly girl. You just told me now.” She kisses me on the cheek. “That move works every time. I won’t tell anyone else yet. I have a feeling we won’t be waiting too long for the official announcement, anyway. I’m going to go sit with Gladys to make sure she doesn’t get too upset when she finds out another dick is forever beyond her reach.” She shoots me a wink and walks away.

I’m still laughing to myself about Gran when Aiden comes back to me after rounding up the guests.

“That Gran is devious. She just tricked me into telling her first by pretending she already knew.” I shake my head. “I should know better than that. I was a cop. I interrogated people for a living. That’s like interrogation 101.”

Aiden pulls me into a hug. “Aw, babe. She is the sneakiest person I have ever met. It’s fun having her around though, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.” I pout a little. I can’t believe she pulled one over on me. God, I love that woman.

Aiden pulls away and gets two glasses of champagne from the counter behind us. He passes one to me, then calls out to the crowd of guests.

“Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for coming tonight to celebrate with us in our new home.” He raises his glass a little and gives a small nod.

“And thank you for accepting me into your lives the way you have. I’ve had very few friends and family around me throughout my life and having you all here means so much to me.” My eyes are already getting a little misty. Most of these people aren’t related in any way, but they’re the best family I’ve ever had.

“There’s one more thing we wanted to celebrate tonight, since we are all here together.” Aiden smiles down at me and pulls tightly to his side. “Shortly before you all arrived tonight, I asked Rhea to marry me.”

“And I said yes!” I finish with a slight squeal and hold my hand up to show off the ring.

A chorus of congratulations and cheers goes up, and we get rushed by everyone wanting to hug us. Several minutes of hugging and kissing go by before we have time to breathe.

“I knew this would happen,” Xena says, squeezing me tightly. “This is all because I arranged for Aiden to bang your worries away. I’m such a good matchmaker.”

I raise my eyebrows at Aiden. If only Xena knew it was the parts of our relationship she involved herself in that caused us the most trouble. I’m not going to tell her, though. She’s so happy with this result that I’ll let her think she helped make it happen.

“So, who’s next to make it down the aisle, do you think?” Devon asks. “You two, or Alex and Connor?”

Travis comes walking up to us, his phone in his hand, and a confused look on his face. “I don’t think it’s going to be either of them, actually,” he says, holding his phone up for us to see. “Looks like Johnny got the jump on both of you guys.”

A short video plays on Travis’s phone of Johnny and Becca standing in front of Elvis as he announces them husband and wife and tells Johnny to kiss his bride. We all watch, dumbfounded, as Johnny and Becca launch themselves at each and kiss passionately.

Several moments of silence go by before someone finally speaks.

“Well, shit,” says Gladys. “Better get over here and unzip those pants, Travis. Looks like you’re my last chance.”