Page 98 of Redemption

She wraps her legs around me, and I pepper kisses all over her face, making her giggle as we both try to catch our breath.

Eventually, I move, somewhat reluctantly.

As she settles on my chest, her leg thrown over mine, I kiss the top of her head.

“I love you, Princess,” I mutter quietly.

“I love you too, Atty,” she replies.

I fall into a surprisingly restful sleep, and it’s all thanks to having Ever wrapped up in my arms.

She’s always been able to chase the demons away.

Ever

Today has been an absolute whirlwind. Despite how late we all got to sleep last night, we were up bright and early doing the last few things that we needed to do to ensure that Pete and Elijah’s wedding goes off without a hitch. We’re heading over to the venue first thing tomorrow, but for now Lyric and her guys, and Marty, Noel, and Callan are all up here helping to get things ready for the ‘night before’ party tonight.

I say Lyric, but everyone is insisting that she rests as much as she can when she needs to, and she’s promised all of us that she won’t overdo it. Fortunately, Ophelia needs feeding pretty often, and that means that Lyric has to sit down and do it. It may not be resting, resting, but it does mean she isn’t up a ladder, which her men are very grateful for.

While their overprotectiveness is coming from a place of absolute adoration, I imagine that Lyric’s going to get fed up with it at some point. She’s already said that she’s fine, healing well, and is listening to her body.

They’re just worried about her.

None of them have done this before, and they’re all learning on the go.

We haven’t got too much longer, and everyone is going to start to arrive for the party.

When we were talking about it, Pete briefly toyed with the idea of having all the parents and everyone up here as well, but his dads are flying in late tonight and staying at the venue so that they can start to coordinate everything, and there’s nothing for Pete and Elijah to worry about. All of our parents can make it to the wedding, apart from Riot’s aunt, which none of us are particularly surprised about. She’s pretty much nonexistent now when it comes to his life, and he’s fine with that. Because of the short notice though, the parents can only come out for the day, and then they’ll all be heading home straight after the reception.

There are actually quite a few guests who can’t make it because of the change in date, but neither Pete nor Eli seem to be too bothered. In their words, the most important people can make it, and that’s all that they really care about.

I’ve been wracking my brains ever since we searched Linda’s place, trying to find a way that we can help Pete, and I feel like the solution is right there, but I just can’t quite see it yet.

“When is Jynx supposed to be here?” Callan asks curiously. “It’s been fucking ages since we saw them all.”

“Any minute now, I think,” I reply with a slight frown.

I’m not going to lie, I am definitely worried that they aren’t going to turn up, and if they don’t, that means that whatever is going on is even more serious than I thought.

Jynx would never miss something like this.

Never.

“My ears are burning,” Jynx says as she walks into the front room with a huge smile on her face.

I didn’t even hear the door go.

“Jynx!” Pete yells happily, pulling her into a tight hug and then pushing her away and holding her at arm's length. “Well, you look okay.”

“I am,” Jynx replies, with a smile.

There is lots of happy hugging and talking as the guys all greet each other and catch up.

Jynx walks over to me and hugs me tightly, holding on just a little longer than she normally would.

“Are you okay?” I whisper. “Really?”

“Better than I was, but fuck,” Jynx replies, pure exhaustion in her tone.