Picture Perfect (31 page)

I loved my life, loved the people that had blended into the fabric of my life seamlessly.

The barbeque was great.  Having all of the important people in our lives together in one place was magical.  If things went the way I wanted them to, we were going to be doing this together for the rest of our lives.

Earlier in the day, under the guise of going to finalize things with the caterer, I’d gone and had lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton.  I’d been a nervous wreck, but there was no way I was going forward without following the rules.  I was damn shaky when I asked for their permission to ask Tessa to marry me, and then was over the moon ecstatic when they gave
their blessing.

Tomorrow morning while Tessa was with our tour trainer doing kickboxing, I was taking Jess with me to the jeweler to pick out an engagement ring.  In a matter of days I’d be down on my bended knee asking the love of my life to marry me, and I couldn’t wait.

I spent a lot of time during the barbeque watching Delilah and Spencer, taking in their pregnant joy.  If Tessa was amenable, we wouldn’t be waiting very long to start our own family.

My sister had suddenly popped
and now had a small baby bump.  Spencer pointed this out to everyone as if we were blind, babbling on about how they woke up one morning and her stomach had started to grow.  “Hands down one of the best mornings of my life,” he bragged, “because now everyone can tell that my wife is pregnant.”

Spencer was a sappy son of a bitch, but I liked him a hell of a lot.  You couldn’t find fault with the way he worshipped my sister, or the way she worshipped him in return.

My dad and my grandparents had the perpetual look of people who just found out that they had fairy godparents who were busy granting wishes, and I loved that my sister was giving them something that they so desperately wanted.

Things with my dad and Sandra
had gotten very serious.  They’d come out to Dominique and Delilah and admitted that they were dating, much to everyone’s delight.  Seeing my father hold hands with a woman complete with a love-struck smile on his face whenever he looked at her made me happier than I can even explain.

I kept a close but discreet eye on my other sister, Dominique.  Again and again I noticed the way that she and Dillon watched each other, and as always, it niggled something in my head that I still couldn’t access. 

It wasn’t until we were all saying our goodnights and everyone went to leave that I realized what it was about the two of them that I’d noticed but couldn’t quite put my finger on.  When everyone had been gathering to leave, Dillon had gotten Dominique’s purse for her.  No one else noticed, but I did. 

The reason I noticed was two-fold.  One, the
purse was brand new.  She’d been out with Tessa yesterday and they’d bought matching purses in different colors.  The second reason I noticed?  Dillon hadn’t been at my house yet when Dominique put her purse down, which meant he shouldn’t have known which one was hers. 

What had niggled me about them from the very beginning was the odd sense of familiarity that they had around each other.  They tried too hard to stay away from each other, spent too much time avoiding contact.  Now I realized that what my brain had been picking up on the whole time was that they knew each other- probably intimately. I couldn’t be sure that I was right about that part, but I was damn sure that they liked each other.  I was also sure that no one else knew that, because they really did go out of their way to act like polite strangers.  Interesting.
  Maybe I was finally starting to figure out the complicated maze that was my puzzle of a sister.

The next morning I was up bright and early, barely able to contain my nervous energy.  As soon as Tess left the house, Jess and I went to the jeweler.  I’d made arrangements to park in the back and enter at the employee entrance, and the entire appointment would be taking place in a private office.  I had no problem letting the world know that Tessa was going to be my wife, but I needed HER to know that first.

Two trays of engagement rings that were here size were brought out, but I spotted the one I wanted before either of the trays were set down.  Reaching forward, I picked up a square cut diamond surrounded by chocolate diamonds.  The platinum band was encased in chocolate diamonds as well, and I just felt like it was
the
ring.  I twirled it in my fingers and looked at it from every angle, smiling at how perfect it was.

Turning to Jess I said, “I think this is it, unless you tell me you think she’ll hate it.  The chocolate diamonds remind me of her eyes.  What do you think?”

Eyes wet with tears she beamed at me.  “It’s so perfectly her, and so funny, too.  You are just always going to have a thing for her eyes, aren’t you?  I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I didn’t think I’d ever said anything in front of Jess about Tessa’s eyes, and I looked at her in confusion.  “How do you know that?”

Gasping, her hand flew up and covered her mouth as her eyes went wide.  “Oh, my God.  Flynn, you can’t say anything.  She will literally light me on fire and burn me in effigy in your backyard for blabbing.”

Putting up a hand to halt her from speaking, I turned to the jeweler
and pulled out my black Amex card from my wallet to hand it to him.  “That’s the one.  Can you box it up for me right now?”

With a swift nod, the jeweler smiled at me.  “Of course Mr. Rand.  I will return in a few minutes.”

When the door closed behind him, I looked back at Jess.  “Okay, what is it that I don’t know?”

Twisting her hands in her lap, she looked around the room for a minute before looking at me. 

“I’m sure you don’t even remember this because it’s something lead singers do.  You pick a person in the audience to focus on and sing to, like a talisman for the night. Duh! Look who I’m explaining this too.  Jesus. Anyway, six years ago, Tessa and I were front row center at your concert in Philadelphia.  For almost three solid hours, you sang right to her.  Your eyes were like laser beams for her.  It was, hands down, one of the most erotic things I’ve ever seen.  The most intense part was during the encore when you sang Devour to her.  Oh my Lord, I think the girl needed an industrial strength fire hose to cool down.  I never saw you sing to another girl like that again, but I guess that’s because the subsequent tours haven’t been as wild and sexual.  I’ve always teased her about that night, even bought a bootleg DVD of the concert from eBay and…” Throwing her hand over her mouth, she shook her head.  “Yeah, I’m going to shut up now.”

The lack of oxygen going to my brain was alarming, and I felt dizzy as that night finally came back into focus and exploded in my brain.  I’d been hung over, pissed off, grumpy and miserable.  Then, those fucking eyes pulled me in.  How had I forgotten that for even a minute?  My entire life had changed after that night, because of her.

My jaw had dropped while the memories flooded back.  Turning to look at Jess I said, “Oh my God… she’s fucking Priscilla.”

Raising her eyebrows at me in confusion, Jess asked, “What?”

Shaking my head to clear my mental cobwebs, I started to explain.  “We were in a horrible place back then and things were really coming to a head.  After the show I got blackout drunk and until you just jarred my memory, I’ve never had anything from that night, even though the entire band spent six months calling me Elvis.  You know, because Elvis met Priscilla when she was like fourteen and then moved her into his house?  Now I remember that the nickname started when we came off the stage that night and Cole told me that the girl I’d spent three hours singing to was my Priscilla.  Even though I couldn’t remember her, I woke up the next day positive that I needed to change my life to be worthy.  That night changed the path I was on forever.  I can’t believe it was Tessa… that fucking blows my mind.  If I hadn’t known before that she was the love of my life, I know now that she’s been my destiny since the moment I laid eyes on her.  That’s fucking huge.”

Grabbing a tissue from the jeweler’s desk, Jess dabbed her eyes.  “Like I already didn’t want to choke a bitch because she hit man lottery, now you’re telling me that fate brought you together?  Don’t be alarmed when you see me begging her to rub herself all over me in the hopes that some of that luck will come off on me.  I’m kidding of course- well, not about the rubbing.  That’s happening.  But I’m not going to choke her, unless she gets all
Bridezilla
on me, that is.  What you just told me is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard and I couldn’t be happier for her.  She deserves the fairytale because her heart has always been so pure.”

That made me laugh.  I really liked Jess because it was so obvious how much she loved Tessa.
  Suddenly, a key portion of what she said came to the front of my head.  “Wait, you said there’s a DVD of the show?”

Laughing, she nodded her head.  “Yeah, and believe it or not, I have it with me.  I figured that while you were at practice one day I was going to watch it with her for old times sake.”

The jeweler came back into the room right at that moment, handing me back my black Amex card and the velvet box that contained Tessa’s engagement ring.  After checking to make sure that the ring was there, I stood and thanked the jeweler.

On the way out, I asked Jess if she’d be willing to lend me the DVD.  She raised and eyebrow but I shook my head and told her my plan was a secret.  Nodding, she agreed to give me the DVD when we got back to my house and then she promised not to tell Tessa that she’d brought it with her.

After I got home from the jeweler with Jess and she’d handed the DVD over to me, I locked myself in the office and watched most of it.  Now I could see that it had always been so fucking intense with her. 

I made a shit ton of plans, pulling everything together for the night.  I’d been planning to wait for two more days, but fuck that.  I was asking her tonight, because I needed her to be wearing my ring from here on out.

My dad and Sandra were taking Tessa’s parents to dinner, and Jess was going to hang out with the band and some of the tour crew at Cole’s house.  That freed Tessa up to come with me without worrying about leaving our guests behind, and when I told her I wanted to have dinner with her alone, she agreed.

We showered and dressed together.  She wore a beautiful white summer dress that touched the top of her sandals, and I found it perfect that she looked somewhat bridal.  I was wearing a pair of black dress pants and a button down shirt, and Jess was kind enough to take pictures of us before we headed out.

I can get pretty down on being famous, but right then it worked in my favor because I’d been able to get people to do what I needed quickly.  The lookout that I’d taken her to on our first date had been decorated with hundreds of white roses, a small pergola was decorated with a variety of flowers, and hundreds of flameless candles were spread around.  In the middle of all this sat a table that had been lavishly decorated. A bottle of chilled champagne was on the table along with two silver covered dinner plates.

Taking it all in, Tessa gasped in wonder.  “Flynn! It’s magical.  I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

Looking only at her, I nodded my agreement.  “Me either baby.”

Pulling out her chair, I helped her to sit down before pulling off the cover on her plate.  When she saw what the dinner consisted of, she laughed out loud.  It was Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, fried chicken and broccoli in cheddar cheese sauce. 

“Oh honey… I love you so much.  This is heaven on a plate.  Thank you for doing this.”

Smiling, I reached into the cooler next to the table and pulled out an ice-cold bottle of cherry Pepsi.  “Nothing but the best for the love of my life.”

It was a dinner that I’d normally have inhaled and asked for seconds, or even thirds of, but I was so nervous that I had to choke the whole thing down past the lump in my throat.  I knew she loved me, but it was still scary shit asking a question that I wasn’t positive I knew the answer to.

When we had finished dinner, I placed our plates in the empty cooler that had been left for that purpose.  Reaching under the table, I pulled out my computer and booted it up.  Tessa raised her eyebrows at me in query, and I held out my hand and asked her to come sit in my lap.  Once she was in position, I pressed play and the screen came to life with me singing “Devour” to her all those years ago.

Gasping, she turned and looked down into my eyes.  “Oh my God… how did you know?”

Cupping her cheek in my hand, I began to explain.  “I didn’t remember the details of that night until earlier today when Jess triggered my memory.  But here’s the thing- that night was pivotal for me.  I couldn’t remember who you were, but I can tell you that singing to a fan for three hours was something I never did before and have never done since.  My fuzzy memory from that night involved chocolate eyes, and even though the band tortured me for months afterward by calling me Elvis once Cole insisted that you were my Priscilla, I never had the memory back.  Now I do, and I just… It’s blown me the fuck away, to be honest.”

Caressing her cheek, I went on  “My crazy life started to change six years ago when I looked out into a crowd of twenty thousand and picked you out. Saw those eyes staring at me and knew
you deserved better than what I was
.  Knew it, and worked my ass off to become better, even though I didn’t fucking remember what I was changing for.  I changed
for you
baby, before you ever said a word to me.  You know why that is?  It’s because you’re my soul mate.  I know it, and I’m living it with you every day.  You looked at a picture of me when you were thirteen and you fell so in love that you couldn’t let yourself go when other people touched with you.  That wasn’t groupie shit baby; that was pure soul mate.  Sometimes things happen that are beautiful, and there is no real explanation for it.  Those things are miracles baby, and
we
are
each other’s
miracles.