Then she disappeared.
Indy handed a bowl of cashews to me and asked, “Can you put that on the table?”
“Sure thing,” I muttered as Indy started dashing around the kitchen.
I moved to the door and heard as I walked through it, “Liam Nightingale! Get back here and grab those bowls of chips.”
Ha-ha.
Lee got it from Indy.
Yeah, so I was a thirty-eight year old pregnant woman with a husband and a daughter.
I was still a Rock Chick.
And a little sister.
Some things never change.
That meant I was grinning as I entered the great room.
I put the cashews on the table covered in food and was immediately attacked by my niece, Leah, three years old. Roxie and Hank’s first.
I bent, lifted her up, tossed her in the air and then pulled her close to me.
“Hey, beautiful,” I whispered as her eyes, Hank’s eyes, my eyes, looked back at me.
“Heyannieally,” she replied, all in one word, and it sounded like a song.
“You having fun?” I asked.
She nodded.
“You being nice to your brother and cousins?” I asked and her eyes wandered.
This meant no.
Total Rock Chick in the making, even at three.
Roxie loved it. She thought it was a hoot.
Hank was screwed. And he knew it.
But he secretly loved it, too. I knew that.
Then again, he just adored his little girl.
May, a close friend we met during Jules’s Rock Chick Ride, sidled up to me with Harry, Jules and Vance’s youngest at her hip.
“Are we allowed to eat yet?” she asked out of the side of her mouth.
“They’re almost here,” I answered out of the side of mine. “But if you’re about to expire, a few cashews probably won’t be missed.”
She didn’t reply. She went for some cashews, took a handful, then disappeared in the crowd.
I was going to go back to the kitchen to help Indy but Daisy, snuggling a sleepy Tallulah, Stella and Mace’s first (and only, so far), caught me.
By the way, Stella and Mace did get married on a beach in Hawaii. As Tod called it, she also wore a white crochet bikini, a sarong, a lei and a band of flowers around her forehead (Mace wore jeans and a white shirt). She looked awesome. Mace looked hot. The entire wedding was the bomb, even if, at the reception, there was a helicopter circling.
Furthering the coolness of their nuptials, it was in Us magazine.
Ren and I, if you’re curious, had the Pope’s blessing (I hoped) because I’d converted.
But I still got my red and black wedding. Tod did it up sah-weet. It was awesome.
I also got a three week honeymoon that started in Vegas and ended in the Bahamas.
Everything I ever wanted.
Especially the husband.
“You wanted to talk, sugar?” she asked, reaching for some cashews and not bothering to do it stealthily.
“A little later, they’re almost here,” I told her.
She looked up at me. “Is everything good?”
I smiled at her. “Yeah, totally.”
She screwed up her face and studied me for two seconds before her eyes went wide, her face got bright and she opened her mouth.
She figured it out.
I moved fast and covered her mouth with my hand. Not to be left out, Leah leaned over and covered my hand on Daisy’s mouth. Tallulah, thinking it was a game, did the same, but she did it slapping and giggling.
“Don’t say anything,” I whispered. “Indy doesn’t know.”
A drowned-out tinkly bell giggle escaped the three hands (two of them tiny, but still) and Daisy, eyes now dancing, nodded.
I took away my hand, taking the girls’ with me.
“After the big thing, we’ll share Ren and my big thing, but quietly,” I told her.
Daisy, through more tinkling giggles, nodded.
I tipped my head, studied her and guessed, “You can’t talk because if you open your mouth, you’ll shriek. Right?”
She nodded again.
I shook my head, but did it grinning and bumping into her with my shoulder.
Tallulah put her hand over Daisy’s mouth again.
Daisy gave it a raspberry.
I spied a runaway toddler, followed by another one, both females. These two were followed by a lumbering black man nearly bent double.
He caught up, scooped both up with arms at their bellies, and straightened
Smithie with Suki in one arm, Lola, Sadie and Hector’s firstborn, in the other.
The girls were giggling and squirming.
Smithie was scowling.
“Jesus. You bitches breed like rabbits,” he bitched then totally gave it all away by bending in while lifting up Lola and shoving his face in her neck.
She squealed in glee as Smithie turned and strolled away.
“Smithie,” Jet murmured as she passed us, putting something on the food table and finishing, “Total softie.”
That was the damned truth.
My eyes slid through the crowd and I saw Amalea now had Katie. This was because Mom was chasing after Callum.
Jeez.
We did.
We bred like rabbits.
I kept looking through the throng and stopped when I saw Ren, Dom and Sissy standing with Vito and Angela.
We’ll just say that after I was kidnapped and we nearly lost Darius, I was right. Vito had had a wakeup call. His “excommunication” of Ren lasted about eight hours. Then it was back to family.
I knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it up.
And I loved being right.
Especially this time.
This wasn’t to say that Ren went back to him. He’d made a commitment to Marcus. He’d followed through with his resignation and we had our two weeks at the beach where we did nothing but drink rum and fuck on the beach under the stars (and elsewhere). When we came back, Ren went into partnership with Marcus.
Dom went with him.
Vito decided to retire early, turning over the reins of the Zano criminal empire to Santo and Lucky.
Word on the street, they were doing well which was both good news (because I liked them) and bad news (because they were running a criminal empire).
This meant Dawn lost her job (the first order of business for Santo and Lucky was canning her; and luckily they let me watch, it was awesome). I’d done a check on her just because I was nosy. I found out she was living in Alabama. Still single. Still a receptionist.
But doing it far, far away.
Which worked for me.
It also meant Marcus and Ren took over the Zano Holdings offices.
So, when we could, my man and I carpooled.
“Their car’s coming up to the curb,” Stella’s throaty voice could be heard calling from the front of the house.
Everyone moved that way.
Once in positions, we waited.
The door opened and Darius walked through, holding to his hip a gorgeous little girl with cute little pompom pigtails sticking out at the top sides of her head.
He was followed by Dorothea.
And Dorothea was followed by Malia.
Coming up the rear was Liam.
“Now!” Shirleen shouted and we all started doing what she’d been browbeating us to practice for the last week.
We sang Ten Thousand Men of Harvard.
And we did it poorly.
Luckily, Tex got into it and his booming baritone drowned the rest of us out.
But it didn’t seem to matter.
Because through it, Liam stood there grinning.
Then again, what else did you do when you were serenaded by family at your college graduation party?
It.
Was.
Righteous.
* * * * *
By the way, Darius lived in LA now. He worked at Mace’s security agency.
&n
bsp; At Mace’s request, I flew out to do jobs with them occasionally, and if you thought the Hot Bunch was hot…
Just saying…
Seriously.
* * * * *
Malia lived in LA with Darius.
Don’t ask, it’s a huge-ass story.
But, as you can tell, it had a happy ending.
* * * * *
Liam lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
That was, until very recently.
* * * * *
An hour later, I was standing having some alone time with Gracie, Luke and Ava’s first little girl. I was holding her close to my front. She was fascinated with my guitar pendant and I could see this was fascinating. I’d worn it every day for years and I was still fascinated with it.
But right then, I was fascinated with her little girl fascination.
I felt a presence get close and looked to the side to see Darius moving in there.
“Yo,” I greeted.
He grinned. “Ally.”
I looked across the room at Liam standing with Dorothea and Shirleen. He and his grandmother were grinning at Shirleen. She was saying something she really meant because her head was shaking and her afro was swaying.
I looked back to Darius to see his eyes on the same thing.
“Thanks for bringing him here so we could celebrate with him,” I said.
His gaze came to me. “Not a problem.”
I grinned at him. “So, am I still a pain in your ass?”
He grinned back and answered, “Yes.”
I frowned. “How can I still be a pain in your ass? You live hundreds of miles away.”
“Your brand of pain in the assedness extends great lengths. It might even span dimensions.”
I rolled my eyes, and on the roll back to Darius, declared, “‘Assedness’ is not a word, Darius.”
“Badasses can make up words, Ally.”
This was true. They could do whatever the hell they wanted.
Darius reached in and confiscated Gracie from me. I wanted to protest, but when she smiled up at him, put her hand to his cheek and I watched him turn his head to kiss her palm, I decided against it.
I looked back across the room when I heard Liam and Dorothea laugh, Liam now holding his grandma close to his side with his arm around her shoulders.
Then I felt warmth sweep through me when I felt Darius kiss the side of my hair.
In my ear, he whispered, “Love you, Ally.”
That?
Sheer beauty.
I turned my head, caught his eyes, mine were hot, and replied, “I know.”
* * * * *
Ren and I were on one of Indy and Lee’s couches. Katie was crawling on her daddy and doing it with Gus, Sadie and Hector’s youngest.
Alex and Dante, Jet and Eddie’s eldest and middle boys, were sitting next to me, eating cake and ice cream. Or smushing it all over their faces and getting it all over their tees.
But they were little kids. That shit happened.
So, whatever.
I was supposed to be watching Alex and Dante.
What I was doing was scanning the room.
A motley crew of cops and crooks, bounty hunters and baristas, PIs and rock stars, hot guys and Rock Chicks.
My people.
My family.
All together, safe and happy.
I turned to look at my man just in time to see him yank his little girl tight to his chest and set her squealing as he tickled her.
My man.
My girl.
My family.
Katie pretended to try to get away and Ren pretended to let her, going after Gus, probably to tickle him too, when he felt my eyes on him and he looked at me.
“What,” he asked.
“We did it,” I told him.
His head tipped to the side and his eyes grew intent, probably because he was reading the look on my face.
And reading the look on my face, his voice went sweet when he asked quietly, “We did what?”
“That night, after we found out Indy was carrying Callum and we made a pact to work on being that happy for the rest of our lives?” I reminded him.
He got me.
I knew this when his face got the look.
“We did it,” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
He pulled Katie and Gus close so he didn’t lose them when he leaned into me.
His kiss wasn’t long, but it did include a touch of tongues so it was righteous.
Then again, they all were.
“Can I steal her?”
Ren and I broke apart and looked up to see Indy standing there, eyes to Ren.
“Sure,” he replied.
I studied my BFF.
Then I turned to Alex and Dante and said, “Hey, buddies. Do me a favor and scooch closer to Uncle Ren while you eat, yeah?”
They looked up at me, both with big black eyes, chocolate crumbles and vanilla cream all over their faces, and nodded.
I turned to my husband, leaned in and touched lips, then I did the same on my daughter’s wet mouth.
When I was done, she shoved her face in her daddy’s neck and giggled. This was because her daddy was tickling her again.
As for me, I just smiled at her daddy.
Then I followed Indy through the room to the stairs.
She led us to her bedroom. In it were Jet, Roxie, Jules, Ava, Stella, Sadie, Daisy and Shirleen.
Oh man.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Ava answered.
“Oh God, please tell me no one’s pregnant. I can’t keep the birthdays straight already,” Roxie moaned.
Daisy gave me a look.
I ignored it.
Indy went into her walk-in closet saying, “Be right back.”
“Does anybody know what’s happening?” Sadie asked.
“Not me,” Stella answered.
All eyes came to me.
I shrugged.
All eyes grew dubious.
I threw up my hands. “Seriously,” I snapped. “I don’t know.”
Luckily, at this juncture, Indy came out of the bathroom carrying a bubble envelope.
“I hope that isn’t a secret mission we all have to go on because I’m kind of liking this kidnapping-free, stun-gun-free, car-explosion-free lifestyle,” Jules said. “And for a while now, we’ve had a good roll going.”
“That’s because you don’t live in LA,” Stella muttered.
We all looked to Stella and nodded.
We got her.
Suffice it to say, Mace’s men in LA had much the same taste in women as the men in Denver.
But in LA, you could get up to all kinds of crazy.
“Um… just to say, I kinda miss stun gunning,” Jet admitted
That was when we all looked to her and nodded.
We got her.
Though, I didn’t share that I’d stun-gunned someone just last week.
“It’s not a mission,” Indy told Jules and handed the envelope to me, her eyes coming to mine. “It’s from Jane.” She looked through the girls. “She wanted us all together and she wanted Ally to open it.”
I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
Because after pink and through green, lilac, blue, peach, salmon and ice blue, Jane had asked us to do the same thing.
I didn’t know why Jane didn’t participate in the festivities, but I did know that was her way.
With all eyes again on me, I slit open the envelope and slid out what was inside.
It was a berry colored book with a film strip and a white title.
Rock Chick.
Up the side in black, there was a strip that said Revolution.
It was my turn.
Righteous.
One thing I knew.
That book was going to be interesting.
And another thing I knew.
An Italian hothead was not going to be very happy.
I wasn’t
worried. He’d get over it.
Because by then, he was used to it.
But mostly because he’d do it like all the men did it.
In his case: for me.
(And he didn’t fool me. I’d seen him grinning when he was reading the other ones.)
I scanned the cover and saw on the bottom, stuck to the side, was a sticky note. On it was an arrow pointing to the name, “Kristen Ashley” that said under it, New York Times Bestselling Author.
And next to that was written:
See?
Told you.
Fairytales come true.
I couldn’t help it and didn’t try.
I burst into tears.
At the same time I burst out laughing.
Then I flipped the book around for all to see.
That meant all the Rock Chicks gathered around me did the exact same thing.
Through my laughter and tears I lifted my hand straight up in the air, index finger and pinkie extended in devil’s horns.
The Rock Chicks did the same as me.
And because we were Rock Chicks, at the same time, we shouted two words.
We did it loud.
And we did it proud.
“Rock on!”
Except Shirleen.
She shook her head, looked around and muttered, “White women.”
Which of course meant we quit crying.
But we kept laughing.
Stay tuned.
We’re gonna follow Mace and Stella to Los Angeles.
‘Cause you can get up to all kinds of crazy there.
####
About the Author
Kristen Ashley grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).
Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.
And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
*****
Discover other titles by Kristen Ashley:
Rock Chick Series:
Rock Chick
Rock Chick Rescue
Rock Chick Redemption