Page 11 of Wedding Daddy

Yet all she wanted was the man with the salt-and-pepper hair who called her Princess and made her wet when he told her she’d been a good girl. Everyone else looked dull in comparison, and her only hope was that she quickly overcame this silly crush. She had spent a lot of money on this vacation, and the last thing she needed was to waste it pining for a man she would never see again.

Pushing every thought of the stranger out of her mind, she made her way to the hall for the rehearsal dinner. Terry and his fiancée had chosen to have a small ceremony with only a few dozen family members and friends, so not that many people were in the hall. She quickly found her brother surrounded by a bevy of people and waved at him. He smiled and waved her over.

Jill approached him and his fiancée. The first time she met Emma was at a dinner her brother invited her to, and it took only a few minutes to see how she was with her brother to know that the two of them were wildly in love. She had known even then that a proposal was coming soon. In Terry’s words, he would have proposed a lot sooner, but he needed to figure some things out.

Marriage was a hard thing for him, given the way their parents’ relationship had ended, and she was proud of him for overcoming that emotional wound and giving love a chance. It was inevitable that she would face the same conundrum when it was her turn to get married, but she didn’t have to worry about that for a long time.

“Hey, Jill,” Emma exclaimed, grinning widely as she threw her arms around her. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

“Glad to be here too,” Jill replied. She had learned from her last encounter with Emma that she was a big hugger and had prepared accordingly.

“Terry told me you missed your second flight and had to catch another one. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright. I got some help along the way.”

“Well, I hope that was the worst of it, and the rest of your journey here went fine.”

Jill remembered the way her legs kept shaking after her orgasm on the plane and looked down as she cleared her throat. “Yes, it was fine.”

“Good.” Emma grinned at her. “Now that you’re here, I should let you know Terry was really worried you were not going to make it.”

She glanced at him. “I told you I would.”

He grinned ruefully. “I know. I just wished you’d arrive two days earlier instead of the day before the wedding. That was cutting it real close already, and then you texted to say you missed your flight. You know how anxious I get about this stuff.”

“I do. I’m sorry, Terry. You know I would have been here a lot earlier if I could help it.” She had taken a few extra shifts at work because she needed the money, but she would not tell him that. “But I promise nothing would have kept me from seeing you get married.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here now,” he said, smiling as he reached down and kissed her on the cheek. “Come on, I’ll take you around the room and introduce you to some of Jill’s family. They’ve all been expecting you.”

Walking with Terry and Emma, Jill met cousins and aunts, nephews and nieces of her brother’s fiancée. It took a few moments to get used to the idea that all these people would bea part of her family now, but they all seemed like a nice bunch and greeted her enthusiastically. Terry had always wanted a big family and seemed to have settled in quite nicely with them. She watched them laugh and tease each other with a familiarity that she would have found unsettling, but Terry seemed to love it, and that was all that mattered.

“Looks like you’re enjoying yourself,” she said to him as they stopped in the middle of the tour around the room. Emma had stepped away to attend to something, so it was just the two of them. “How do you know all these people so well?”

“Spent a few holidays with Emma and her family,” he replied. “Remember all those invitations I sent you? The ones you were too busy to attend,” he teased.

“Terry, you know I would have come if I could. I just...”

“I know,” he chimed in. “You were too busy with school and work.”

She felt guilty and promised to do better in the future. “Well, I’m done with school now, so I’m free for every holiday. I won’t turn down another invitation.”

“Really?”

Seeing the way his eyes lit up made her feel guiltier. “Yes, I promise. And I'm sorry for all the ones I missed. If I had known they were that important to you?—”

“It’s okay.” He stopped her. “It’s not like we don’t see each other. Plus, we talk on the phone all the time.”

That was true, but this was different. Their father had done his best to raise them alone but had never really been big on holidays, so she grew up not putting much importance on them. She realized Terry did take them seriously, and for him, she would do anything. A server walked past, and she grabbed a flute of champagne from his tray before he walked away.

“Where’s Emma?” she asked, looking around.

“I think she went to look for her father. He was around earlier, and he’s dying to meet you.”

Jill narrowed her eyes. “Why? You didn’t tell him anything bad about me, did you? Terry, please tell me you’re still not going around telling people I work at NASA.” It was a game he liked to play where he introduced her to his friends by telling them she worked at the space agency.

“No,” he said, chuckling, “but you have to admit it is a great joke.”

“Easy for you to say. I’m the one who has to explain that I don’t work at NASA and have never been to the moon or the International Space Station. Remember that guy who won’t stop asking me questions even after I told him I don’t work at NASA.”

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