Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(114)

In a way, I think it fits our whole family.” She looked across the room at Adrienne. “That okay?”

Crying, and making every attempt not to make an ugly face while she did so, Adrienne nodded. Badger squeezed her hand and stood, leading her to the dance floor.

“Good. I hope you like it. It’s called ‘Home,’ and wait till you hear Zeke.”

She adjusted the mic, and Zeke stepped up. He started to whistle a few notes before Cory started to play, and then she sang—and then Zeke sang, a deep, gorgeous bass. Adrienne knew the song. It was a bright, happy duet about finding home in the place where you’re loved.

Adrienne hadn’t been a good dancer before her legs were hurt. She was a worse dancer now. She and Badger had never danced together. It didn’t matter. He pulled her close, she rested her cheek on his strong chest, and they swayed to music of the love their family bore them.



oOo



They left about an hour of that first dance, after the band had started and she’d danced a father-daughter dance with Show, and then a dance with Hank, and then taken a turn with each member of the Horde. Show and Shannon assured them that they’d take care of the gifts, and they left their guests to get as rowdy as they wanted.

Hector was staying with Penny at Len and Tasha’s tonight. Adrienne thought it was sweet the way the littermates were still staying together in a way, and having sleepovers and play dates with each other.

Badger had been quiet most of the evening—not in a way that made her worried or uncomfortable, but as if he were too overwhelmed for speech. She found comfort in the way he’d watched her and touched her all night. There was love in his silence.

As soon as they were in their bedroom, she took off Shannon’s earrings—she’d checked again and again all night to make sure she’d always had two—and set them on her dresser. Badger fed his hands into her hair.

“I’ve been feeling these hard things all night. What’s in there?”

“Pins. This mop isn’t staying up with magic.” She reached up to remove the tiara and start pulling pins, but he brushed her hand away.

“You look like a princess tonight. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life. I can’t believe you love me.”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “What?”

“No. I mean I can’t believe how lucky I am that you do.” He gently pulled the tiara free and set it on her dresser next to the earrings, then went in and started pulling pins.

“Oh. Good. Because I really do.”

“Jesus, there’s like a hundred pins in here. How can that be comfortable?”

“It’s not. My head itches like you wouldn’t believe. But it was pretty. I wanted to be pretty to marry you.”

“You’re pretty no matter what. More than pretty.”

When he got all the pins out and her hair tumbled loose, he ran his fingers through it, over her scalp, tenderly massaging. She sighed at the pleasure and relief. He swept his hand from her shoulder, across her back, catching her waves of hair and pushing them over her other shoulder. Then he began to unfasten her dress. As he pulled the zipper down, he grazed his fingers over his mark. And then he stopped.

“Babe, what are you wearing?”

Looking back over her shoulder again, she sent him what she hoped was a saucy smile. “Your wedding present.”

“Fuck. Are there…stockings?”

“Get me out of the dress and find out.”

He pulled the zipper the rest of the way and found out. The corset, garters, and stockings weren’t fancy —just plain, ivory satin and sheer silk, with little lace panties to match—but she felt sexy and special wearing them. And Badger was obviously impressed. He pushed the dress off her shoulders, and as she stepped out of it, she was glad to see that he didn’t just drop the elegant lace. He laid it carefully over the arms of the chair, and then he turned and took her in.

“God.” He lifted his eyes and met hers. “I love you, Adrienne. I’m so damn sorry I ever hurt you. But I am going to do everything I can to be what you deserve. My whole life, I’m going to work to be what you need.”

“You don’t have to, Badge. You already are. You’re my home.”

The reverence in the kiss he gave her then had taste. When she felt drunk with emotion, he pulled back, swept her off her feet, and carried her to their wedding bed.




CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR



With the wedding so close to Christmas, and the whole town in attendance, the Horde decided to forgo the traditional clubhouse Christmas party. On Christmas Day, members and their families met at Isaac and Lilli’s house for a more subdued day.

Badger and Adrienne were the last to arrive—mainly because waking up next to his wife every day made him twice as horny in the morning as he’d already been. His wife. Adrienne was his wife. Holy f*ck.

Before he’d even open his eyes, he could feel her next to him, usually tucked snugly against him, and then he’d open his eyes and see his Granny Elma’s ring on her finger, and there was no way either of them was getting out of bed right away.

She still wasn’t pregnant. He hadn’t put a condom on since the day they’d come home from their fight with the Perros, which was more than two months ago. Almost three months. He wasn’t sure whether it was time to start worrying about that, but Adrienne didn’t seem to be stressing, so he set any worry aside. It would happen. Maybe next year, they’d be buying Christmas gifts for their own little rugrat.