Page 32 of Beautiful Life
Tony frowns. “Gabby, what are you talking about?”
Gabby looks at Jude and he immediately moves to her, puts an arm around her chest and pulls her back to him. He leans down and I barely hear him encourage her. “Just say it.”
When she looks back to Tony, she has tears and she swallows hard. “I want you to walk me down the aisle—give me away. If you want to, that is.”
I feel Tony’s arm drop away from me as he moves to her. Gabby’s tears fall down her cheeks and Jude lets go of her when Tony pulls his cousin into a big hug. “I’ll walk you down the aisle, but no way will I give you away, Gabba. Never.”
“Okay.” Gabby’s voice hitches and she burrows into his chest.
“Anything, Gabby, you know that.”
“I know,” she says through a shaky voice. Then repeats with meaning I can’t even begin to understand, “I know.”
I can’t help it, I have to wipe away my own tears. My sweet friend who lost her parents has finally found happiness and, even though she won’t have her parents here to see it, she does have a big family to love and support her. She deserves it. Gabby and Tony have always been closer than close, but I have a feeling him jumping in front of a bullet for her has brought them to a new level.
Gabby finally releases Tony and wipes her face. “I’m fine, I’m fine. I’ve got to finish packing. You two … well … get back to whatever you were doing.” I feel my face warm as I hear Jude chuckle. But Gabby forges ahead. “You’ll need to be fitted for your tux—Jude can give you the details this weekend, but it needs to be done by Monday. I can’t believe it’s only four weeks away, there’s still so much to do. I have no business leaving town for the weekend.” Then she turns to Jude. “Come on, we need to go over your list that needs to be finished while I’m gone.”
“Gabby, relax, we’re getting married whether that list is checked off or not. It’ll be fine,” Jude says nonchalantly.
“Jude Ortiz, we had a deal. That list needs to be done by Monday.” Gabby tags his hand to pull him out the door. “See you in the morning,” she calls over her shoulder as they leave, shutting the door in back of them.
Tony turns to me and I say, “That was really sweet. She loves you.”
“Yeah,” he sort of agrees as he moves around the bed to me, pinning me to the spot.
“Tony, I’ve got to get up early. I should really go to bed.”
“Yeah,” he repeats, reaching around me to grab my suitcase and tosses it to the floor.
“What are you doing?”
“Putting you to bed.” He grins while reaching over his head to grab his shirt between his shoulder blades to yank it off. I watch his shirt flit to the floor as his thumbs go to his waistband pushing his track pants down, leaving just his boxers. He grabs me at the waist at the same time he steps out of his pants. He repeats the whole turning-flopping-down-on-the-bed-move pulling me with him. I let out a surprised yelp, but this time, he rolls me instantly pressing me to the bed where he had me earlier.
His lips go right back to my neck and I remind him, “I’ve got to get up really early.”
“You’re going to a spa, gem. You’ll have plenty of time to relax.”
“Your family seems pretty high energy. I have a feeling a trip to the spa with the Carpino women won’t be the normal kind of relaxing,” I go on, but my hand slides up into his hair again.
“True,” he mutters. I feel his tongue dart out and trace my ear, making me shiver.
“You should probably stop,” I say, even though I have no desire for that to happen.
“I’m going to relax you. Again. You know, in case you can’t relax this weekend because my family’s too high energy and all.” I feel him smile against my neck.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” I respond, albeit distractedly.
“I disagree.”
I realize I don’t have the will to fight it. Over the next twenty minutes, Tony takes his time and eventually has me begging him to relax me in delightful ways before tucking me in tight. With my face tucked into his neck, his big heavy thigh smushed in between my legs, and his arms around me, I go to sleep more relaxed than I can remember from my second Tony induced orgasm.
Chapter 9 – Sleep Naked
Leigh
“This is totally Cindy Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!”
I look across the fire at Paige who is past the point of tipsy. I’ve learned Paige not only lives her life to music but comes up with a theme song to commemorate special moments. I’ve found most every moment is special to Paige because she’s an abnormally happy person, so if this trip had a playlist, it would be long and varied.
