Craving Hawk (The Aces' Sons 3)

“Damn, that’s going to look fantastic on you,” Trix said, nodding her head.

“Tommy better not wear a dirty t-shirt,” I muttered as I looked back at the dress. I pulled the price tag away from the sleeve and almost swallowed my tongue.

“Don’t look at that,” Mel ordered, taking the dress out of my hands. “Oh, Jesus. Mom gave me literally ten times that much to pay for your wedding dress.”

“She did?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s working today, but she wrote me a check.”

“Oh.”

“It’s all good,” Mel said with a smirk. “We’ll find other uses for the money.”

“Thatta girl,” Brenna said, speaking up for the first time. “We still need flowers, manicures and pedicures, something for your hair—”

“A headband,” Molly announced, cutting Brenna off. “That dress needs a blingy headband.”

“Enough!” Farrah announced, raising her hands in the air. “I promised Hawk a surprise first.”

Mel paid at the register as everyone else filed out of the store, but I couldn’t make myself walk away from the dress. I knew things were getting out of control, and I felt my stomach churn, but I still couldn’t look away from that gorgeous dress.

“It doesn’t need to be wrapped up,” Mel said quickly, when the employee reached for my dress with grimy hands. “Thanks, though!”

A couple minutes later we were flying down the freeway with my dress hanging in the seat next to me. I reached out to touch it and ran my fingers over the silky fabric. I was pretty sure it was real silk. My heart began to race.

Long white gowns weren’t my thing. I wore pop culture t-shirts and tie dyed shorts. Doc Martens. My favorite dress had little anatomically correct hearts all over it. I swallowed hard and opened my eyes wide, trying not to cry. What the fuck was I doing?

“We’re here,” Farrah announced outside a brightly painted house.

“This is my surprise?” I asked, quickly following her out of the car.

“Trust me,” she said again. I really wished she’d stop saying that, but I had to admit that her last surprise had been pretty epic.

I followed her up the porch steps and through the front door, and I couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across my face.

“This is where you’ll spend your mom’s money,” Farrah announced, her tone making clear exactly how she felt about my mom’s absence. She nodded toward one of the display cases and I walked over to it slowly.

Inside was row after row of body jewelry. It wasn’t the cheap stuff either. It was gold, and diamonds, and emeralds, and sapphires.

“Perfect,” I whispered, catching sight of a delicate diamond stud shaped like a flower.

“Need help?” someone asked, walking out from behind a curtain where I could hear tattoo needles buzzing.

“Can I see that one?” I asked, pointing to the one I wanted.

“Sure. You looking for something for your nostril, too?” she asked, pulling out the little case. “This one has a coordinating ring.”

She pulled out another case and pointed out the nostril ring. It was gold, too, and along the edge that would wrap around the outside of my nostril was a row of tiny diamonds.

“Oh, look,” Trix joked, looking over my shoulder. “Those diamonds are the same size as your engagement ring.”

“Shut it,” I joked, lifting my eyes to the woman helping me. “I want those.”

She named a price that was insane and I glanced at my sister.

“Whatever you want,” Mel said. “Get ’em.”

“Do you want to switch them out now?” the woman asked, reaching under the counter for my sterilized jewelry.

I bit my lip. There was no way I could change them out myself, but I kind of didn’t want Tommy to see them until the wedding. It was stupid. It wasn’t a real wedding, no matter what he said, but…

“I can switch them for you,” Farrah called out from across the room where she was looking in another case. “If you want to wait.”

“I’ll wait,” I said, glancing at my sister again to find her giving me a small smile.

The rest of the day was spent running all over town. We went to a flower stand and bought a shit ton of flowers, back to the bridal store that I’d balked at for a headband, to a salon for a touch-up on my blonde and to get my completely massacred nails done, and finally ended up back at Farrah’s house where the women sat around her huge kitchen table picking through the flowers we’d bought.

“We didn’t get a cake,” I said as I sat back in my chair. “We can just get one from the grocery store right?”

I was halfway out of my chair before Callie spoke. “It’s taken care of.”

“It is?” I asked, dropping back into my seat.

“Yep. Don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t worried,” I answered automatically, making everyone laugh.

Oh, God. What was I doing? Somewhere along the line I’d gotten caught up in their planning and I’d forgotten reality. My stomach turned.