Untamed

My family got out of their vehicles, and the swarm of us headed toward the dark stone church. Once my daughters were spotted, they were both stolen from me. I wasn’t even sure who grabbed them, they were just gone. Clumps of oohing and aahing people pinpointed where they were though, and I caught glimpses of Gibson’s skirt as she twirled in a circle. She finally had a group of people paying attention to just her; Gibby’s adjustment period to the new baby wasn’t going as smoothly as A

Matt and Evan were standing together near the doors. As I headed their way I saw Matt shake his head and hand Evan a ten-dollar bill. With a sigh, Matt told Evan, “Wow, I really thought I had that.”

Wondering what Matt had thought he’d had, I asked him, “What was that for?”

Matt smiled. “I bet him that you’d be incinerated the instant you set foot on holy soil, but, here you are…not burning.”

“Fu

Looking around, I spotted Kiera talking to Abby; Abby looked like she was only half listening to her client as she cooed at O

Beyond them A

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Evan shrug. “Sure, why not?”

Twisting my head, I glared at each of them. “You guys are assholes.”

Evan frowned and looked over at Matt. “I think I’m go

I stepped inside the church and instantly heard Matt groan. Looking back, I saw him muttering something as he handed Evan more money. Just to further emphasize his loss, I stood in the church’s doorway and, using my feet to hold the heavy doors open, I flipped him off with both hands. Incinerate that, asshole.

That was when I noticed A

Turning around, I ignored him and continued on into the church. I’d tried, but the odds of that man ever warming to me were slim to none. Oh well, his loss. The doors boomed shut behind me, and the people inside the quiet space twisted to look. While I gave the group of women closest to me finger guns, I spotted a few more friends and family. De

Liam’s face was alight when I walked up to him; I hadn’t seen him this excited in a while. Maybe he’d just found out that he’d gotten that new gig after all. If so, I didn’t have time to hear about it. He opened his mouth, and I could tell he was going to start spouting about his newfound opportunity. I held up my hands to stop him. “Later. We gotta get this ball moving.”

Sweeping past Liam, I spotted the pastor who was performing the ceremony today and made a beeline for him. Time to ring the bell, or bang the gong, or rev up the organ. Whatever they did to a

“Good afternoon, Griffin,” he said, smoothing a purple stole around his neck.

“Yo, Pops, or Father, or…whatever. We good to start?”

He looked about to correct me, or chide me, or start in on a four-hour speech about the errors of my ways, but instead, he closed his mouth, smiled, and nodded. “Yes, we’re all set to begin. I’ll go tell everyone to come inside.”

As I watched him saunter off toward the doors, my gaze came across De

Ignoring them, I found a hard pew in front and sat down. God, I was tired. Today had been a superlong, exhausting day, and I didn’t even feel like I’d done anything. A

I closed my eyes, just to rest them, and heard people entering the church and finding places to sit. I recognized A

A

Cracking my eye open, I shot A

Kiera reached over to grab his hand, and he gave her a brief smile. While I watched them, Matt sat behind me. Leaning over the pew, he murmured, “Hey, we’re all getting together to work on the album after this. It’s almost halfway done, and if we keep plugging away at it, we could finish it next month. Then we can start on promotion.”

That made me groan. I didn’t want to work on it today. I had a house full of people, a tired wife, a daughter who was probably plotting the demise of her sister, and a newborn who needed me. I was beat, and I didn’t have it in me to jam on songs that I’d had zero input on. Irritated, I snapped at the last comment he’d made. “Why do we have to do promotional shit? Isn’t that what we pay De

Matt snorted and made some comment that we didn’t pay him quite that much, but De

De

That got my attention. I’d already packed up all my crap and moved once because of Kellan. I wasn’t thrilled about doing it again, not without a really, really, really good reason. Leaning forward, I peered past A

The church had started quieting as everyone found seats. I vaguely noticed the pastor take center stage and start his introduction speech, but I tuned him out. If Kellan was disrupting our unit, I needed to know. Rehearsals would be a bitch if I had to fly somewhere else to do them. And knowing Kellan, he was probably taking his family and moving somewhere even more remote. One of the Dakotas, or something.