The Love Losers Bonus Story

The Love Losers bonus story

Rosie

Three years later

“What about sky-diving?” I ask as I squeeze into my bridesmaid dress. I’m not huge yet, but my brother Seamus is already joking that I must have swallowed a basketball. Declan’s totally going to be the godfather, and Seamus will only have himself to blame. “We haven’t gone sky-diving before, and I’m guessing some of the residents would go for it. Joe in 5F is a total danger hound.”

“Takes one to know one,” says my gorgeous husband with a smirk that shows off both of his dimples. My sister-in-law, Claire, and I picked out the suits for the groomsmen, and Anthony looks so impossibly dreamy that everyone at the wedding is going to be jealous of me. As they should be. “But I think maybe let’s put a pause on the sky-diving until after the baby’s born.”

“Baby Broomhilda is going to love going on adventures with her parents. She’ll be born with a bucket list.”

He shakes his head slightly, settling his hand on my…well, basketball. “Baby Edith is going to be very calm, very demure.”

I scrunch my nose. “How did you think of something worse than Broomhilda?”

“It’s a talent. You ready?” His gaze moves over me, pausing at my tits, which have become positively enormous, so I can hardly blame him. “You look ready. You look like a goddess.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. “And you look like you’d like to ravage me.”
“I would,” he says with a grin, lowering his head into my cleavage and biting the side of my boob. Then he lifts his head, the look in his eyes devilish, but sadly apologetic, and says “But I’m terrified of my mother.”

“Me too.”

Still, he kisses me like a man who doesn’t know the meaning of the word terror, and I suck his lips, making it very hard for him to pull away, the way we both know he needs to.

It’s not every day when both you and your husband have roles in the same wedding. And it’s definitely not every day when you and everyone in your family is involved in the same wedding.

We need to get to Smith House, post haste.

Besides, I just got an alert and our Uber driver is already waiting outside.

“Mmm,” I say into his mouth. “We need to get downstairs. He’s here.”

“He can definitely wait,” he says against my lips, backing me into the wall next to the door. “You know, on second thought, it won’t take me very long.”

“Just what every woman likes to hear.”

He grins at me, and I want to trace every last square inch of his face and memorize it. “I meant it wouldn’t take me very long to make you come.”

“You spoil me.”

“I’d rather despoil you.”

I think about our friend, waiting downstairs, but Anthony’s already getting down onto his knees. Who could blame me for lifting the skirt of my dress?

We make it outside a few minutes later. Anthony’s hair is a bit messy from my hands, but I’m not about to tell him. I like it that way.

“There you are!” Dom says from the driver’s seat. “I was starting to worry.”

Dom still works at the new-and-slightly-improved Peanut Bar and lives in The Ware, but he decided to start driving for Uber as something to do during the daylight hours. He claimed it would keep him out of trouble; Anthony has a less gracious interpretation and says he uses it as a way to find new customers for his cheap pot.

Okay, Anthony knows that’s what he’s doing. Gene told us so.

“Sorry,” I say, grinning at my husband. “Anthony just couldn’t stop working his mouth.”

“You know me,” he says easily, opening the door to the car and unnecessarily helping me in. He slides into the seat next to me, and seconds later we’re buckled in and headed for Smith House.

“You guys must be pretty excited,” Dom says. “Family wedding, I mean. Did you ever think it was going to happen.”

“No,” Anthony says with a snort. “I thought it definitely wasn’t going to happen. But that’s family for you. They like to surprise you.”

“You know—” Dom glances at me in the rearview mirror. “I was thinking. What about having a naming contest for your kid? Like, I know me and Gene both have a dozen great ideas, and I was talking to Mary in 3C the other day, and she said she had the best idea, only she wouldn’t tell me. Anyway, I figured it could be fun, and hey, you can put your own ideas in there, too, so if you hate everyone else’s you could be the winner.”

Gene lives in The Ware too, now, after much persuasion from Anthony, me, and Dom. He ultimately only agreed because we pointed out that it would be a hell of a lot easier for him to get from his home to his usual bar booth if he actually lived in the same building as the bar. It’s our way of making sure he has someone checking in on him—Dom, usually. Their best-friendship, like my enduring best-friendship with Joy, is proof that age-gap relationships don’t have to be about daddy dom sex.

Anthony and I exchange a glance, and a delighted smile crosses my face. “Oh, hell, yeah, it’s happening.”

He laughs and squeezes my thigh. “If Rosie likes it, Rosie gets it.”

“Oh, my God, you’re going for it?” Dom asks, delighted. “I bet you’ll pick one of my names. What do you think of Lex Luthor for a girl? Unexpected, right?”

“Very unexpected,” Anthony says drily.

We keep chatting, and several minutes later, we pull up to the Smith House gate. A valet is parking cars, but Dom’s not coming to the wedding, just bringing us there and picking us up. So we say goodbye to him and head inside to the drawing room, where pre-wedding drinks are being served to the small guestlist.

We’ve barely made it two steps inside, before Seamus barrels up to us his fancy suits. “My favorite basketball player.”

“My God,” I say, “you look like you stole the identity and suit of a rich person.”

“You’re not far off.”

“You two confound me,” Anthony says, which is basically foreplay for him and Seamus. Their brother-in-law love language is working each other up.

“And you have the vocabulary of an old British man,” Seamus banters back.

“So your sister tells me every day.” Anthony pats him on the back. “But I’m lucky enough that that’s what does it for her.”
“Well, there’s no accounting for taste.”

“Are you ready?” I push my brother’s arm, grinning at him.
“Are you?” he rebuts with a smirk. “If your water breaks while you’re walking down the aisle, it’ll really steal the show from her. She won’t like that. I imagine we’d be hearing about it for years.”

Emma’s laugh is throaty as she walks up to us from behind an enormous arrangement of flowers on a pillar. Her dress is the same as mine—minus the ballooned middle. “It’s her fourth wedding,” she says. “I think we might need a little water-breaking for excitement.”
“You know what they say,” I put in. “Fourth time’s a charm.”

“Someone had to say it for the first time, I guess,” Seamus says, smirking.

“But you know what?” Anthony says, wrapping his big hand around the side of my waist. “I think the fourth time really will be a charm. I’ve never seen her so happy.”

“She’s almost agreeable,” Emma adds. “It’s uncanny. Or at least I thought it was before I saw her this morning. There’s very little that’s agreeable about her this morning. I gave her a very strong gin and tonic, though, so here’s hoping that helps.”
I laugh. “Good on you. How’s your non-alcoholic drink game?”

“Piss poor,” Seamus says, giving her an arch look. “I wouldn’t say it’s her expertise.”

“I can do anything I set my mind to,” Emma tells him viciously. “Anything.”

He should know. She’s given him any number of reasons to.

“Did anyone see the finished cake?” I ask. Claire has been working on it for so long that I have to wonder if it will be stale under the many layers of loveliness, but even if it is, I’ll take a big bite and declare it delicious. Because that’s what sisters do.

“Go take a look yourself,” Emma says. “It’s already out in the ballroom. Claire’s in there bodyguarding it from her sister. And Jake and Lainey are in there too.” Then she lifts a finger and gives me her best intimidating look. “But no pregnant woman shenanigans. If you try to taste the frosting, that woman will know.”

“Which one? Claire or Mrs. Rosings?”

“Both.”

She clearly means it, but I still laugh. It’s hard not to. I’m feeling on top of the world today—like Baby Broomhilda Edith Lex Luthor and I really are sky-diving, hand-in-hand with Anthony. Our family is about to get larger. Again. And nearly everyone we love will be celebrating in Smith House. Speaking of which…

I grab my cell phone out of my purse and check for a message from Joy.

Running a little late, dear. I have a very special present for our friend.

I show it to Anthony, who sighs and says, “Here we go again.”

He’s probably right, and I couldn’t be more excited for what comes next. I'm going to barrel into it the same way I barrel into everything: with joy leading the charge.

Want to know how this could have possibly come to pass? HA! Check out the last book in the Unlucky in Love series, The Love Destroyers.

Available 2/3 to 2/5:

Available 2/6:

I also have a standalone Christmas romcom featuring Jake's brother, The Thief Who Saved Christmas, that releases in November!