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I was leading Poppy to the front part of the ballrooly as Salem shook her head at her sister Zeb’s sister see at and didn’t bother to ask as she cuddled into her husband Hyde was doing his best to avoid a very persistent Re to hide behind his cousin Joss Joss sold hitails because it was an unwritten rule that Reot what Remy wanted That’s what happened when you were the first kid

A quiet h the room as Sayer and Zeb arrived at the back They didn’t want to do a formal announcement, they just wanted to present themselves to all of their friends and faantic, bearded badass and his elegant, polished bride They didn’t look like they belonged on the top of the sa cake, but there was no doubt when he put his hand on her lower back and she leaned into hih to run to his dad and a collective sigh went up when the big man bent and picked the smaller version of himself up in one arm They were a united front, and they alould be

"She looks good in lilac" I glanced over at the table closest to the one where Poppy and I were sitting and silently agreed with Quaid Jackson He had his arirlfriend’s chair as they both watched the bride and grooh the roo with Sayer a h it went nowhere because she loved the massive mountain of man on her arm now, the two of theal field and often referred clients to one another Quaid’s girlfriend nodded her head in agree in her sap between the two of theether, but there was also an understanding and acceptance there that no one questioned Quaid had loosened up significantly since Avett moved into his million-dollar loft in LoDo and the free-spirited, wild child had settled down and really worked toward e that had a diamond the width of a quarter in the center of it, and if you asked her, she was getting as by an Elvis i It was probably a good idea considering how different her style and Quaid’s were The two of the to combine their styles in order to say "I do" could be disastrous

"I think my hair would look awesome that color, don’t you?" Avett whispered the question under her breath and Quaid just nodded and kissed her tereat" The response came from Orlando Frederick, as sandwiched between her and his boyfriend, Dominic Voss I liked Lando a lot and not just because he was a fellow freckled ginger He was gentle and kind in the same way Poppy was and there was a faaze that let me kneas intimately familiar with how precious and precarious life could be Fortunately, he had a boyfriend that caerous Dom worked as a police academy trainer and looked like he could stop all the criether for a while, and though I knew through the grapevine that their respective faal, neither man was in any hurry to take that step They were coether, and between the two of the in line and out of jail Eventually, they wanted to have a faht for them to expand their brood, then and only then would they tie the knot

I put my arm around Poppy’s shoulders and pulled her into my side Her hand found its way under the lapel of my jacket and her cheek rested on my shoulder "You ready to h thatup at me "Maybe tomorrow"

It was a conversation we had a least once a day I wanted her under my roof so she was always there with me and Royce and Happy, but she insisted she wasn’t ready for reasons I understood but still hated I assured her that having unfettered access to h reason, but she would just shake her head and laugh at me She insisted that she had to prove to herself that she could take care of herself because she never had before She also told ain that I needed this time with my son and I inevitably replied that he was much happier when she was there as well because he took after his old man It was true My kid loved her just as hts she didn’t make it over, he cried extra hard and acted th, but the nights we spent away from one another were the worst, and I hardly slept

"Tomorrow it is, then"

She smiled at me and my heart tried to beat its way out of my chest so that it could put itself in her hands "Tomorrow it is"

One step at a ti that waited for us Tomorroould wake up and make sure I took better care of her than I had the day before and she would do the same for me

That’s what love looked like