Ready to Wed (Ready #1.5)(12)

Jackass.

“No, he didn’t hurt me. We had a good time. A very, very…very good time.”

“Seriously, don’t need details,” I said, raising my hands up in defense.

“But that’s all it was. I would prefer to go on with my life not ever talking about Declan James again. It was one night, and that’s it. No use talking about it anymore.”

Her lips were saying one thing, but her body language was saying something entirely different. She looked edgy and pissed. Her arms wrapped around her chest, and her eyes narrowed in front of her like she was ready to shoot laser beams out of them at a moment’s notice.

“Okaaay.”

Women were weird. Like batshit crazy weird. And I was living with two of them now. My only prayer… and I didn’t pray often…was that if Clare and I were blessed enough to have more children—for my sanity, please make it a boy.

~Clare~

“Grandma Cece!” Maddie exclaimed, giggling and running over to meet Logan’s mother, who gladly caught my daughter in her arms, burying her head in her hair like she’d been counting down the minutes until their reunion.

“I missed you, Sweetheart!” Cece said. “Did you get bigger? You did, didn’t you?”

Maddie laughed, and squirmed when Cece’s fingers started tickling all the right spots, although, to be fair, there really wasn’t a bad spot. Everywhere on Maddie was fair game when it came to tickling.

“She’s eating like a horse, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s shot up about five feet since we were in New York,” Logan said, coming up behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and placed a soft kiss on my bare shoulder.

His mother caught his sweet gesture and I saw the smile in her eyes.

“The other day, I ate all of my chicken nuggets, and I was still hungry. So, Logan gave me all of his and even his mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes. He even let me make a mashed potato snow man before I ate them.”

Hearing my fiancé wasn’t eating tugged at my nerves, but I promised I wouldn’t nag him. He’d sworn he was fine, and things were okay. He’d said he was just getting used to the medicine and it would take time, but the part of me that had lost someone wanted to put him in a plastic bubble and force feed him just to make sure he was strong enough to take on anything.

I was marrying a doctor.

I had to keep reminding myself of that fact.

He wouldn’t purposely hurt himself. Seeing the way he looked at Maddie and me, I knew he wouldn’t risk his health. Not now. Not when he had so much to lose.

So I needed to do the impossible. I needed to trust fate, that cruel, twisted bitch who’d already taken so much from me. I needed to trust that he would fight this and would be here with me at the end, holding my hand, kissing my shoulder, just like he was today.

Because the alternative was just too hard to imagine.

After receiving a proper welcome from Maddie, Cece, or Cecelia as she was properly known, made her way around the room greeting everyone. She finally made her way back to us, and gave us both long, lingering hugs.

“I love you, Logan,” she whispered as she held on to her son. So many years had been lost between them and I knew she was trying to make up for the time lost. For the time she’d wasted.

“I love you too, Mom.”

Tears glistened in her eyes, and she nodded, giving me a small smile. She cupped my chin briefly before being dragged off by Maddie once again. We said our hellos to her new husband, Richard, and made our way around the room, greeting our other guests that had made it in that day.

“Dude, vasectomy. I’m telling you. Get one. Now,” I heard Logan’s best friend Colin say.

“It can’t possibly be that bad, Colin. Millions of people have babies every day.”

“I haven’t slept in f**king days, Logan. Days. I swear that little monster is trying to make me slowly go insane. He’s smart. Like freaky smart. I think he somehow knows when I’m about to fall asleep, because he’ll pick that exact moment to scream bloody murder. My nerves are shot man.”

I tried not to laugh. I really did.

“It will get easier, Colin. I promise,” I said.

“I don’t know, Clare. I think this is my punishment. I think this is what I get for trying to clone pure awesomeness—a baby demon.”

Logan and I just stared blankly at him, completely unable to form words.

“What?” he said.

“I’m so telling your wife you just called your son a baby demon,” Logan said.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I would. And you wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it, because tomorrow’s my wedding. That makes it like an unofficial holiday, so I guess I’m the unofficial king.”

“What do you want?”

Colin must be really afraid of his wife if he was willing to strike up a bargain with Logan just to avoid the backlash. Of course, I’d seen Colin and Ella in action and part of me understood. They worked well together, but they were both very passionate. Colin was arrogant and full of himself and Ella was self-assured and independent. They both pretended not to need the other but they did. Badly.

“I want you to be the best damn best man in the history of best men. If there was an award for it, I’d want to see your face plastered on the top of a trophy. Got it?”