“What? But it looks perfect on her. I want this one,” Dad grumbled. “Why can’t we have this one? Does it cost extra or something? Because I’ll pay whatever the hell he wants.”
“The dress will be made to her specific measurements,” Natalie tried to explain. “And we can make any changes she wants during the process.”
“No changes,” Dad commanded. “I want it just the way it is.”
“Let’s let Lucy make that decision, babe,” Mom told him, patting his hand.
Dad had a sheepish expression on his face as he came up beside me. “You want any changes made, Lucy?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I love it the way it is.”
“And you’re a hundred percent sure you want this dress?” I nodded. “Okay, then, we’re taking this dress.”
“No, Daddy,” I said with a laugh. “This dress has been tried on who knows how many times. I want a brand-new dress. One that only I’ve put on.”
“Oh.” He seemed to chew that over for a second, then nodded. “You’re right. You’re getting a brand-new dress. Made just for you.”
Lana hid her grin as she pretended to fix my veil. “You have that man tied so tight around your finger, it might fall off,” she said with a soft snicker.
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Dad said as he nudged her out of the way so he could stand in front of me. “Anything else you want,
Lu? Just say the word, and it’s yours.”
“No, Daddy. This is perfect.” I gave him a tight hug. “Thank you for everything.”
“Anything for my baby girl.”
“One thing down. Forty-nine hundred and ninety-nine things to go,” I heard Kin mutter. She was right, but I didn’t groan at all the other things I still had to get through before the wedding. Right then, in that dream of a dress, everything was perfect.
If only everything could have stayed that way.
Chapter 5
Harris
September
The tension in my head was going to make it explode off my shoulders, and these four blond chicks were about to witness it firsthand. For once, it wasn’t because of something the Blonde Bombshells had done.
I had to admit I had questioned how well an all-female rock band would do in my club, even with the talent I had seen the first time they auditioned. There had been five of them then, but with Peyton’s drama girl bullshit, I had given them the choice of kicking her to the curb or following her when I banned the bitch from my club. Fortunately, both for them and me, they had decided their future in the rock world was more important than the skank. Because I hit a small jackpot when I had decided to give the Blonde Bombshells a weekly gig. The four were sex on legs, and while London, Genesis, and Aubree were talented as hell, it was Roanna who kept the customers fighting to get in on Thursday nights.
That chick had a talent I had never seen before, and because of it, I extended their one-year contract into two. I hadn’t even accepted auditions for their spot because I didn’t think there was another band out there that could draw the crowds they did.
“If you think I’m going to put up with sexual harassment in my club, you’re dumber than you look,” I snarled at the man before me. “I don’t know what you were used to at the last club you bartended at, but here, if you say shit like that to anyone I employ, I’ll lay your ass out then have Tiny throw you in the dumpsters out back.”
The guy lifted his hands in mock surrender, a grin on his face, but he couldn’t hide the nervousness in his eyes. When one of my bartenders quit without notice the week before, I’d had to hire someone to fill the position in a hurry. Todd had come with a good reference from the last club he’d worked at, but now I was wondering what kind of seedy-ass place that was. I’d just walked onto the main floor where the Blondes were practicing their new song before their show later that night, to find Todd talking to Roanna like she was a hooker he wanted to take out back.
Even after a year and half of the girl band playing in my club, I still didn’t know the chicks all that well. But what I did know was that the Roanna who went on stage was like a witch who put every single person who heard her voice under her spell. She was sultry and hypnotic when she sang, and every word that came out of her mouth when she was playing up the crowd only spiked heart rates skyward. She was a confident little badass who knew her power over the human population. But offstage, she was a little mouse who seemed scared of her own shadow on the best of days. I didn’t know how she turned into the bold rock machine she became every Thursday when she stepped onto the stage. Maybe she really was a witch.
Honestly, I didn’t give a fuck how she did it. All I cared about was that she had made my club an even bigger success than it was before. And I wasn’t about to let a little shit like this idiot mistreat her or anyone else. Every employee I had was under my personal protection the moment they walked through the doors of First Bass for their shift. And I would protect each and every one of them—even from my other employees.
“Easy there, man. I meant no offense.”
“You just asked her to suck your dick after we were done,” Aubree yelled at him, getting in his face. “And when she ignored you, you offered her twenty bucks. How the fuck is that not offensive, motherfucker?”
I sighed and lifted the little blond off her feet and calmly deposited her beside me. Of the four Blondes, Aubree was the feistiest. Lucy loved them all, but Aubree cracked her up every time the band hung out with us. I couldn’t have my girl killing me for letting her favorite Blonde get arrested for assault.
“Say that shit to me,” London bit out, using my distraction with Aubree to get in Todd’s face next. “Go ahead. I dare you. Then we’ll see how far I can kick your balls up into your ass.”