Page 105 of Forbidden King (Magnolia Falls)

Hayes deserved to have family in his corner.

And he deserved an apology from my mother.

It was a start.

But that wasn’t what was weighing on me at the moment.

It was my own relationship with my brother.

King’s relationship with my brother.

I needed him to be okay with King and me being together. Because I loved my brother fiercely.

But I knew that King was the love of my life, and my brother was going to have to get on board with it.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I’d felt good about the progress my mom and I were making, and I couldn’t wait to tell Hayes about Barry, so I’d called him right away.

He sounded relieved and happy—in that certain Hayes way that was never too enthusiastic, but you knew he was smiling on the other end of the phone.

Peyton, Ruby, and I had spent the last few hours decorating Whiskey Falls. We’d rented the place out for the night. This was a perk of Ruby’s dad owning the bar and letting us have the place to ourselves.

It was also a small town, so most of the women in town were coming, so there was that, too. It wasn’t like we were closing down a nightclub in a big city. But we were thrilled to have the whole afternoon to decorate. Peyton was very excited about setting this place up.

“I mean, after Demi’s mother’sBridgerton-themed bridal shower suited for an eighty-year-old queen, we need to make this a little sexy and fun for our girl. It’s a bachelorette party, for God’s sake.” Peyton swung the two large rubber penises around in her hands.

“Girl, I have never seen so many dicks in one place,” Ruby said over her laughter. She and I had just hung several banners around the bar that read:The Last Hoedown, Demi’s Last Rodeo,Let’s Go Girls, She Said Yee-Haw, and Save a Horse, Ride The Cowboy.

We’d convinced Peyton to let us do a theme because we knew that Demi would love that. And since she loved to ride, we thought we could tie in her love for horses with her bachelorette party. Peyton had agreed, but she’d taken the theme up a notch and had a cake made that said:I’d rather ride my man than your horse any day.

Ruby and I had fallen over laughing, and I knew Demi would do the same. I wasn’t quite sure how her mom would respond, as she’d be coming with all her girlfriends tonight.

The biggest surprise was the mechanical bull that we’d rented for the party, because we were going to make this lots of fun. We had pink cowboy hats for everyone that were stacked on a table by the entrance.

Penis cookies, penis straws, and penis sunglasses accompanied the pink balloon arch with giant cowboy boots. It was a cornucopia of cute and ridiculously inappropriate.

The bar was stocked, and we were serving Pornstar Martinis and Ride ‘Em Cowboy Coladas for the drinks tonight.

Midge was catering all the food for the party as Ruby couldn’t bring herself to ask Calvin to make the items that Peyton had chosen.

After-Sex Antipasto, Romeo Pork Sausages, Slide In Me Beef Sliders, Forbidden Fruit, My Husband’s Stuffed Meatballs, Better-than-Sex Chocolate-Covered Bananas, and lastly, Sex on the Brownie.

She’d worked hard coming up with her raunchy foods, so we were embracing it.

“So, I don’t want you guys to be mad, but I do have one little surprise planned.” Peyton chewed on her thumbnail.

“What?” Ruby whipped around. “She was pretty clear about what she wanted and didn’t want.”

“Listen, she’s marrying her dream man. Her wedding and her bridal shower can be tame. But tonight, we’re going to make sure our girl has some fun.” Peyton raised a brow.

“The mechanical bull and the Blow Me bubble gum station aren’t enough?” I asked.

“No. We’re a bunch of horny women. We deserve a good old-fashioned cowboy striptease.” She waggled her brows.

“Okayyyy. I see we’re just taking the bull by the horns. Literally and figuratively,” Ruby said over a fit of laughter.

“Wow. Okay. Strippers it is.” I chuckled.

“I asked for the hottest guys they had. It’ll be short and sweet.” Peyton raised a brow. “Well, the timeline will be. I asked for a man who was hung like a racehorse. You know, to keep with the theme.”

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