Chapter Nine

Where most brides-to-be would likely want a really flashy bachelorette party, and despite the fact that Nicola was one of the world’s biggest pop stars and money and location were no object, Marcus’s fiancée clearly didn’t have any interest whatsoever in flashy or crazy. On the contrary, both Nicola and Marcus seemed to be of like mind that mellow was what was on the menu tonight.

Mia laughed when she found out that Marcus was having his “bachelor party” barbecue on the opposite side of his house. She couldn’t think of another couple who had set up their bachelorette and bachelor parties with all of the women on one side of the house and the men on the other. But given the way Nicola disappeared twice in the first thirty minutes, Mia suspected the setup was all about the fact that the bride and groom couldn’t stand to be apart from one another. Especially not on the eve of one of the most important days of their lives, when they were about to make vows of forever to one another.

Mia was sitting next to her cousin Sophie, who had another little Sullivan on her lap. Jackie wasn’t quite at the walking or talking stage, but she’d clearly already had quite a big day, because all she wanted to do was cuddle when Mia asked to hold her. Jackie’s twin brother was at the boys’ barbecue with his father, Jake.

“I can take her back if she’s getting too heavy for you,” Sophie offered when Jackie’s eyes immediately fluttered closed.

But Mia loved the soft weight of the baby on her lap. She wasn’t yet ready for children herself, which was why having so many cousins with kids was so much fun. “You get her all the time. Don’t you dare take her from me tonight,” Mia said as she drew Jackie closer to breathe in her fresh baby smell.

Off mommy duty for a few minutes, Sophie relaxed deeper into the plush outdoor couch they were sitting on together and picked up her glass of wine. The view out over the vines as the sun fell in the sky was pretty darn mind-blowing. It didn’t hurt that a full bottle of Marcus’s finest cabernet was within reach.

“We had such a great time up at the lake with all of you this past summer,” Sophie said. “Jake wants to head up to Seattle to show the kids the Space Needle. And since he refuses to accept that they might still be a little young to remember anything about the trip,” Sophie said with a laugh, “I’d expect us to be knocking on your door any day now.”

When Mia had first heard that her soft-spoken librarian cousin Sophie had hooked up with tattooed Irish pub owner Jake McCann—and had gotten pregnant from a one-night stand, no less—she’d been pretty shocked. Especially since Sophie’s nickname was Nice, and nice girls didn’t usually seduce tattooed bad boys. But though they seemed very different, obviously they were an absolutely perfect fit.

Just as with Nicola and Marcus, Mia had learned from watching her cousins fall in love over the years that love didn’t always make sense on paper. But it didn’t have to. The only people love needed to make sense to were the two people falling for each other.

“Definitely sign me up as your tour guide for the visit. Although,” Mia clarified, “I’m afraid my guide duties won’t include diaper duty.”

“You get used to changing them after a while.”

Mia scrunched up her nose. “Right...you just keep telling yourself that, and maybe one day you’ll actually believe it.”

Her cousin Gabe’s wife, Megan, sat down on a couch facing them. “Believe what?”

“That changing these little beauties,” she pointed at Jackie’s bottom, “isn’t totally gross.”

“I honestly don’t remember, it’s been such a long time since the diaper days with Summer. Funny,” Megan said as she looked down at her about-to-pop-any-second-now stomach, “I thought I was done with all of that after she was finally potty trained. But I never bet on meeting Gabe.”

Seriously, Mia thought as she sat with the girls in the setting Napa Valley sun, there was so much freaking love in the Sullivan family. All of her San Francisco cousins, and her brother Rafe, were either married or engaged. It was fabulous. She was super happy for all of them. And, maybe, just a teensy bit jealous about how perfectly all of their lives were working out.

Especially when hers was such a mess.

Mia was watching Chloe out on the grass holding Emma’s hand while her daughter jumped on a mini-trampoline, when Valentina appeared around the corner. Her fiancé, Smith, was holding her hand, and before he let her go, he pulled her back into him for a lingering kiss. One that had everyone watching from the outdoor couches sighing at how sweet they were together. When Smith finally let Valentina head over to the rest of the girls, he took over trampoline duty with Emma.

Mia’s cousin Smith was one of the world’s biggest movie stars, but he’d never played the star with his family, and Mia often forgot that just the sight of him sent most other women into cardiac arrest. He and Valentina had met when Valentina’s sister, Tatiana, starred in the movie Gravity with him. From what Mia had heard, Valentina had tried her hardest to resist him, but in the end she hadn’t had a chance of keeping her heart safe. Considering the kinds of crazy things Smith had to deal with in Hollywood, it was great that Valentina was such a steady, solid person who wasn’t at all interested in the spotlight.

Valentina had her cell phone to her ear as she walked past the pool onto the patio where everyone was sitting. After a really quick conversation, Mia heard her say, “Sounds great, T—see you soon.” Valentina slipped her phone back into the pocket of her elegant dress. “My sister will be here soon. She says her interview ran a little long, but she’s just about to leave the hotel.”

Mia loved Tatiana Landon. Only in her early twenties, she was an actress on the rise, especially after her star turn with Smith. But somehow, instead of turning into a vapid shell under the harsh spotlights of Hollywood, she remained totally sweet and unaffected.

Valentina looked great in a yellow linen dress that skimmed her curves and floated around her calves. “It’s great to see you again, Mia,” she said before pressing a kiss to sleeping Jackie’s cheek. “I call dibs on the baby for her next nap,” Valentina informed everyone as she grabbed a glass of wine from a circulating waiter and sat down beside Gabe’s wife. “As long as that’s all right with you, Soph.”

“Of course it is,” Sophie said with a smile. “What parent wouldn’t want their kid to have more than a half dozen of the coolest aunts in the world who can’t wait to spend time with her? And speaking of cool, here comes the woman we’re all celebrating.”

Nicola appeared from within the house and came out to the patio. In perfect pop-star fashion, her hair was streaked with light pink and blue, but Mia was amazed at how elegant it looked on her.

“Can I squeeze in?” She shimmied her h*ps into the space on the couch between Mia and Sophie. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright enough that Mia easily guessed she’d just been off on another little meet-up with Marcus.

There were more women laughing together over by the fountain, including Mia’s mother, Nicola’s mother, Brooke, Sophie’s twin Lori, Ryan’s fiancée Vicki, and Zach’s fiancée Heather. Mia knew she’d get a chance to spend time with all of them later, but for right now, this group of women she was sitting with was just the perfect size so that they could all easily talk together.

Nicola was stroking a gentle fingertip back and forth across the bottom of one of baby Jackie’s feet as she gave each woman sitting with her a big smile. “I’m so happy that you’re all here.” Her blue eyes grew damp as she said, “I love having all my favorite women in one place. What do you say we get together like this every weekend?”

“There are certainly enough Sullivan weddings coming up,” Mia said, “that I think we could probably pull it off.”

“There’s so much love everywhere in this family,” Nicola agreed as everyone laughed, “that when I want to write a good breakup song, I end up having to harass my band and dancers to mine whatever messy things are going on in their lives.”

“You could always just call me,” Mia blurted before she realized what she was saying. She’d said it in a joking voice, but of course every pair of eyes landed on her.

“Do tell,” Sophie encouraged.

Mia forced a grin she didn’t completely feel. “You know the story—if he’s bad news, I’ve got to have him.”

Fortunately, instead of digging for more info, Sophie nodded her head. “Boy, do I know what you’re talking about.” She looked at Mia. “Jake had to be one of the biggest players on the planet when I finally decided to seduce him. Talk about bad news.”

“Fortunately,” Mia said, “he was smart enough to appreciate that you were the best thing that ever happened to him.”

Megan raised her wine glass in a toast. “To our men appreciating us.”

As Mia shifted Jackie’s weight slightly in her left arm so that she could lift her glass and clink it with everyone else’s, she noticed that every one of the women she was sitting with had the same happy smile. Wanting to drown the stupid sense of jealousy that they’d all found love when she was as far from it as she could possibly be, Mia took a long drink from her glass.

“I’ve never seen Marcus like this, Nicola,” Sophie said. “He’s always been so calm and steady, but today he was practically bouncing off the walls, he’s so excited about finally getting to marry you.”

Nicola’s skin hadn’t yet lost the flush from her latest secret assignation with Marcus, and now that they were talking about him, the pretty rose color flooded even more deeply into her cheeks. “I’m crazy excited, too. Sometimes—” She stopped and shook her head as if she didn’t quite know how to put everything she was feeling into words. “Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky. I mean, if I hadn’t met him that night at the club, and then if Lori hadn’t been choreographing my video and invited him to watch rehearsals the next day, I would have missed out on the best thing in my life.”

“If not at the club that night, you and Marcus would have met another place, another way,” Valentina said softly, which surprised Mia, because she would have said Valentina was more practical than dreamy. “Smith and I always talk about how the two of us circled each other in the film and TV business for years without ever actually meeting, until my sister was offered the part in Gravity. But I think the reason we didn’t meet until last year is because the timing wasn’t right, and neither of us would have been ready for the other.”

“Or you all could have just followed my example and thrown yourself na**d at the guy you’d been wanting your entire life so that you ended up knocked up with twins,” Sophie said with a grin.

The group’s laughter was accompanied by more wine and snacks being passed around. As each fell naturally into conversation with the person next to her, Nicola shifted to turn her pretty gaze to Mia.

“It’s really great to see you. I wish Marcus and I had had more time in Seattle after the last show to spend some time with you.”

“And what a show it was,” Mia said. “You were amazing. And you have to know how cute Marcus was out in the audience with me. He’s so proud of you.”

“Poor guy has heard these songs a thousand times already, at least.”

“And he’d gladly sign up for another thousand,” Mia said with utter certainty. “But can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” the other woman said. “Anything. Especially if you’ll pass the baby over to me first.”

“Nope, I’m not done getting my cuddles in yet. Besides, Valentina already called dibs on the next lap session.”

“But I’m the one getting married,” Nicola protested. “That should push me up to the top of the dibs list.”

“Nice try,” Mia said as she snuggled Jackie a little closer, “but you’re still going to have to get in line for baby love.”

Nothing could make a person feel better about the world than a soft, warm bundle on her lap breathing evenly in sleep. Unlike her friends, Mia had loved to babysit the little ones when she was a teenager. Sure, sometimes they were fussy, but they were also so darned cute. Kids were yet another thing she and Ford hadn’t talked about during their week together. Yes, she’d fallen in love with him, but clearly there hadn’t been any real foundation to it. Not like yesterday, when he’d talked about kids running through the house she’d showed him.

Darn it, why was she thinking of him again?

“So what’s up?” Nicola asked, bringing Mia back to the question she’d been wanting to ask.

“How do you and Marcus make things work so well? Not just that,” she added before Nicola could respond, “but you make it look so easy. And I know it can’t possibly be, with your busy touring and recording schedule and the demands of this vineyard.”

“No,” Nicola agreed with a small smile, “it definitely isn’t easy. And I don’t know how much you know about our relationship, but we were a mess at first. A total mess, actually. I was so adamant that he couldn’t handle the circus of my life that I literally kicked him out of it, even when it was the very last thing I really wanted because I was already head over heels in love with him. But you know Marcus.” Nicola’s face softened even further with a look of pure love. “When he made up his mind that he could most definitely deal with the circus, he was suddenly showing up at all of my shows all over the country. How was I supposed to resist focus and determination like that? Especially when it proved how much he was willing to change his own life for me. I’m not going to lie and say that figuring out how to make our two schedules work together is always a perfectly smooth ride, but I’ll take a few bumps in the road over being without him, anytime.” With that, she popped a grape into her mouth, then asked Mia a question of her own. “Does this question have anything to do with this bad news man of yours, who I’m going to assume is super hot, too?”

“Not just bad news. Old news,” Mia said with a careless wave of her free hand. But obviously feeling her tense at the blatant lie, Jackie made a face in her sleep and shifted in Mia’s arms. “Sorry, baby girl,” she whispered before turning her gaze back up to Nicola. “I did meet a cute guy on the flight out here, though.”

Nicola raised an eyebrow, clearly not about to fall for the diversion Mia was trying to throw at her. “If it takes me all weekend, I’ll get you to spill the details on your secret hot guy. Although, speaking of hot guys, I just got some great news about a guest who told me he can come to the wedding tomorrow, after all. I’ll give you a hint—he’s one of the most amazing rockers on the planet.”

Even as Mia tried to be rational and think about the odds against his name coming out of Nicola’s mouth, she couldn’t stop a heavy feeling from coming over her. Her mouth felt dry, and it took every ounce of self-control to keep from fidgeting so that she didn’t wake up the baby in her arms.

“Ford Vincent!” Nicola was so excited that she didn’t notice the way all the blood drained out of Mia’s face. “I’m such a huge fan that I always get a little giddy every time I listen to him sing, and he’s also really nice.”

Ford made other big stars like Nicola giddy. But Mia was anything but giddy right now.

More like sick to her stomach.

Of course Ford and Nicola would know each other. They were in the same business, for God’s sake. Now that she thought about it, hadn’t the two of them played some shows together before Nicola had met Marcus?

“Ford is coming here?” Mia’s voice sounded hollow to her own ears. “To the winery? For your wedding?”

One dumb question after another kept falling from her lips, but she couldn’t stop any of them. Not when she felt like she was barely keeping it together. If not for the baby on her lap, she might have jumped up off the couch to go running like little Emma through the vineyard.

Nicola was giving Mia a strange look when Sophie’s ears finally picked up on Ford’s name. “Wait a minute,” she said, echoing Mia’s questions for everyone to hear, “are you telling us that Ford Vincent is coming here for the wedding? How did I not know that?”

“He couldn’t come at first because of a scheduling conflict,” Nicola explained. “He called my cell yesterday afternoon out of the blue and asked if the invitation was still open.”

“Yesterday afternoon. Of course that’s when he would have called,” Mia said, almost to herself. There was no way that call could have been a coincidence. He hadn’t come after her in Miami five years ago, but now he wouldn’t take get the hell out of my life for an answer. Clearly, everything always had to be on his terms, and if he wasn’t the one to say goodbye, then those words didn’t count.

Again, Nicola frowned in Mia’s direction, but Sophie’s twin, Lori, had walked over to the group by then. Nicknamed Naughty to Sophie’s Nice, Lori was wearing a cowboy hat and the cutest red cowboy boots with her short, strapless red dress. The women in the group were beautiful, but of them all, Lori was the most immediately striking. Whether she was dancing on stage or getting dirty with the pigs on the farm she shared with her husband, Grayson, people simply couldn’t take their eyes off her.

“You’re not going to believe who’s coming to the wedding,” Sophie told her twin. “Ford Vincent!”

Mia was shocked when Lori gasped. Actually gasped. “Don’t mess with me, Soph.” She turned to Nicola with big eyes. “Is this for real? Is he really going to be here?”

Nicola was nodding and about to say something more about it when Mia simply couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m just not getting what the big deal is about him. So he has some pretty good songs, but all of you have totally great men already.”

“You’re joking, right?” Lori said. “I love my husband to pieces, but I’m not dead.”

“It’s true,” Megan murmured. “Ford is pretty darn gorgeous.”

Mia watched with shock as one after the other, each woman, including the level-headed Valentina, agreed that Ford was a special exclusion to their usual rule of not noticing other men. Of course, her tension passed through to the baby in her arms, because right then Jackie abruptly woke up, looked into eyes that weren’t her mother’s, and her face scrunched up into a pre-wail.

“Uh-oh,” Sophie said, quickly standing and lifting her little girl onto her hip, “looks like someone’s hungry. Which means her brother is probably about to give the boys trouble, too. I’ll be back soon.”

With no bundle of joy on her lap, Mia felt stripped na**d in front of her family, with all of her stupid emotions out in the open. Which was the very last place she wanted them.

Lori turned to Brooke as she walked up to the group. “You’re a Ford Vincent fan, aren’t you?”

Brooke immediately made an angry face. “No. I hate him.”

Everyone’s eyes got huge, and Mia realized she needed to do some major damage control—and fast. “What Brooke means is that she hates how hot he is when she’s only supposed to be thinking about my brother now.”

Brooke gave her a confused look before it suddenly dawned on her that she’d very nearly given something away to the group.

“He’s coming to the wedding this weekend,” Mia told Brooke.

She tried really hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but when Brooke grabbed her arm and said, “Could you help me with my dress inside? There’s something weird going on with the zipper,” Mia knew she hadn’t succeeded.

No doubt everyone was wondering what was wrong with the two of them, but both Mia and Brooke continued to act like nothing was amiss until they were back inside the house and behind the locked door of Marcus’s home office.

“How can he even think of intruding on Nicola’s wedding like this? I don’t care if he was invited, he should know better than to ruin this weekend for you.” Brooke, who was one of the sweetest, gentlest souls Mia had ever known, looked like a general preparing to go to war. “I simply cannot wait to tear that man to pieces and then sic all of your brothers and cousins on him.”

“No, please don’t do that. If anyone finds out what happened between us, it will become a whole huge thing. And I’ll never forgive myself if I let him ruin Marcus and Nicola’s wedding.”

But Brooke was right. Showing up at the open house was one thing, but coming to a family wedding was another entirely.

“I’ve had enough of his little surprises. As soon as Ford gets here, he and I are going to have a rational, adult discussion about things in private. And by the time we’re done, I’ll make damn sure he understands that everything that was once between us will be firmly, and totally, in the past.”