Falling into You (Falling Stars 3)

“Cowboy? Bite your tongue woman. I’m a stallion. The. Best. Man. Pretty sure everyone knows who’s the star around here.”

When Rhys claimed it, Lincoln gave him a playful shove on the shoulder. “Uh, excuse me, dude. Check yourself. I’m pretty sure I am the best man.”

Violet giggled.

Only Rhys would try to usurp the position.

“Semantics,” Rhys said with a grin. “We all know who Richey-Poo here really loves best.”

He lifted his glass higher in the direction where Violet and Richard stood, a smug, affable grin playing all over his face.

A ripple of laughter blew through. The mood light. Joy in the air.

“Just hurry it up, man, we know the way you do,” Shawn goaded, taking a drink of his beer.

Shawn was the one Violet knew least. The one member the rest of them hadn’t grown up with, but he’d become close friends with them once he’d joined the band. He was the one her sister had a mad crush on. Had gone home with the same night as Violet had gone home with Richard, though Violet was worried that was where their connection ended.

Shawn was not into her the same way.

Treating her with an air of indifference except for the times when he was in town and texted her for company.

Just a good old-fashioned booty call.

Violet hoped her Lily would cut the ties.

Shawn pointed at Rhys with the index finger of the hand he had wrapped around a beer bottle. “We leave it up to you and our poor man Richard here is gonna be missin’ out on the good stuff on his wedding night.”

It was pure suggestion.

“Fine. Fine. We definitely wouldn’t want our boy here to go without. And I mean, have you seen his wife?” Rhys said with a glint in his eye. “I’m not sure how he’s still hanging out here.”

He lifted his glass. “To one beautiful bride and one lucky asshole who gets to forever have her by his side.”

A chorus of hoots and hollers went up through the wedding party and the small number of guests, and this time Violet really was blushing when her sister was quick to add, “Have you seen her husband? I’m thinkin’ it’s my sister who is antsy to get the heck out of here.”

“Liliana,” Violet hissed under her breath with a laugh.

They were all gonna get it.

Her sister waved her off, lifting her glass, looking so gorgeous in her slinky, dusty blue chiffon dress that Violet was certain she was the one who was stealing the show. “I second what Rhys said—to one beautiful bride—the most beautiful bride to ever live—and to her husband who gets to live his days with someone as amazing as her.”

She met her sister’s eye.

Adoration pulsed.

The sincerity of what she’d said.

“I love you, Violet. I couldn’t ask for a better sister. For a better friend. There is no bigger joy than getting to witness you find the kind of joy you have found because you deserve it more than anyone else. You are the meaning of family. I respect you with all I have and can’t wait to see the love and happiness you find in this life.”

Liliana’s voice turned wry, “And to Richard because he is a great guy even though I was pretty sure I was goin’ to have to chop off his hands and another important piece of his body that first night with how handsy he got. One look, and the boy was a goner.”

She quirked a brow.

Their daddy rumbled a low grumble.

Embarrassed, Violet pressed her face into her husband’s chest, unable to believe these were the kind of toasts their friends and family were gettin’ up to, even though she shouldn’t have been surprised at all.

Richard only held her by the back of the head and laughed, his low, seductive voice reverberating through her, “All right, is someone gonna give a real toast so we can eat that cake? Because truth be told, I am anxious to get my gorgeous wife out of here.”

Violet curled her hand in his shirt and grinned up at him. “You’re in so much trouble.”

He smirked down at her. “I hope so.”

“Yes, someone is going to make a real toast,” her daddy interjected. He walked up to where Rhys had been holding the microphone, took it, and ribbed Rhys with his elbow. “My turn, cowboy,” he teased with a smile.

Chuckling, Rhys stepped aside, while Violet’s mama sidled in closer and took her free hand.

Her mama turned her gaze on her.

Her dark eyes filled with pure, absolute affection. Black hair the same color as Violet’s billowed in the wind.

Love filled Violet to overflowing.

So intense.

So much.

So beautiful.

She squeezed her mama’s hand and mouthed, I love you.

I love you more, she returned.

Her daddy lifted his glass. “To two beautiful people with the proof of love shining in their eyes. To passion. To joy. To family. To fidelity. To everything that will make your relationship continue to flourish and grow like the blooms that flourish around us. May you have a love like the love I’ve shared with your mother. The kind of love that never ends but only grows so deep in your soul it has no chance of wilting.”