Coming Undone

EPILOGUE

Six months later

P.J. WAS LATE TO HER OWN bridal shower. John and Victoria's early-nineteenth-century brick home was ablaze with warm, golden light by the time she and Jared pulled into the driveway. Her plane had been delayed nearly forty minutes, her baggage had taken its own sweet time getting to the carousel and just when she'd finally been reunited with Jared and thought nothing more could go wrong, they'd gotten caught in a big backup on I-70.

While Jared hung her coat in the foyer closet moments later, she straightened her gold wool dress, smoothed her hair and practiced some basic breathing exercises to calm her nerves. It was silly to feel anxious, but all the same:

"You're going to knock them dead," Jared murmured as he rejoined her. He bent to give her a reassuring kiss. Then, tucking her hand in the crook of his arm, he steered her toward his sister's living room. "Sounds like they started without us."

The noise of a successful party-clinking glassware, hearty laughter, rapidly-escalating-in-volume conversation-rolled out of the archway like a friendly greeting, and her tension eased. Jared's family had made it clear she was family now, too, so she had no real reason for feeling so nervy. It was likely just the accumulated stress of running late all day.

Or it might be from trying to deal with her mother this past week, attempting to include Jodeen in the wedding festivities. She should have known better. The public had rallied behind P.J. after the press conference last summer following Luther Menks's attack and Mama wasn't happy that the tide had turned against her. She didn't seem to care that Menks was now confined to a mental institution and was no longer a threat to her daughter. Instead she blamed Jared for exposing her own bad behavior. Still, P.J. had done her best to make her mother feel involved. It was largely a wasted effort, but Mama was the wall she couldn't seem to stop banging her head against.

Reaching the doorway, she stopped in her tracks, staring at the crowd in the elegant room. This was like no bridal shower she had ever attended.

There were men here. Hank, for starters, who hadn't said a word about coming. He and Nell were over near the open pocket doors that led to the dining room. There was a man she didn't know talking to John and Tori's son, Grayson, and oh my God, was thatEddie talking to a redhead about Esme's age over by the laden side board? This wasn't even close to what she'd expected. Spotting Gert, she wiggled her fingers in greeting. The old woman saluted her with a champagne flute and, tugging on Jared's arm, P.J. started across the room to her.

"You made it!" Esme rushed up and gave them both a hug. "Come in, come in. Welcome to your couple's shower."

"I never knew there was such a thing," P.J. admitted as she shrugged at Gert and allowed Esme to drag her into the room. "I've only been to maybe three showers in my life, but I didn't think men were usually invited to these shindigs."

"They aren't," Esme said. "But Daddy's best buddies insisted they couldn't allow Jared to marry a woman they haven't blessed with the Marines' seal of approval."

"You're kidding me," she said faintly. Jared had told her stories of the three former Marines, of course. But she hadn't realized she'd have to audition for them.

"Queen's honor. Coop, Dad and Zach are tight."

Jared snorted. "They believe Dumas wroteThe Three Musketeers just for them, Es. That goes a smidge beyond tight."

"You saying he didn't?" a deep voice demanded, and P.J. looked up to see a dark-haired man approaching them, his arm hugging a plump, pretty blonde in killer red heels to his side.

"It was written about a hundred years before you were born, old man," Jared informed him dryly, exchanging a hug that involved a lot of hearty back-thumping with the man before leaning down to gently kiss the woman. "Lily, you look beautiful as always."

"Aw, you're such a lovely-mannered boy," she said, patting his cheek. "I've always adored that about you."

Grinning, he pulled P.J. to his side, his long fingers splayed possessively over her hip. "Peej, this is Zach and Lily Taylor. Zach, Lily, this is my fiancee, Priscilla Jayne Morgan."

"And I'm Coop," another voice said, drawing P.J.'s gaze from the kind-eyed Lily, whose hand she'd been shaking, to a very large, dark-browed, blond-haired man. Whoa.Very large. Both former Marines were older, around her future brother-in-law's age. But like John, neither possessed an iota of the softness that one usually associated with middle age. "Hello," she said politely, offering her hand.

Coop enveloped it in both of his and gave her a leisurely once-over. "You're a little bit of a thing, aren't you? You sure you're up to the challenge of taking on Jared?"

She'd worked with men for too many years not to recognize a tease hoping to provoke a reaction when she saw one, and she had to squelch a grin at his good-natured cockiness. Instead she narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh, I'm up to it. Don't let my size fool you. I make up for it in pure mean."

He cocked his head, his mouth twitching. "That a fact?"

"Don't go scaring the bride, Cooper," Tori ordered, joining them. She leaned to give P.J. a hug, then said to her husband's longtime friend, "Where's your better half? Shouldn't she be here hauling on your leash?"

He laughed and leaned down from his impressive height to give P.J. a kiss on the cheek. "I like a mean woman," he told her, then turned his attention back to Tori. "Ronnie's calling home to check on the kids. They're staying with friends of ours this weekend."

"And she let you run loose on your own?"

He shrugged one large shoulder. "She did say something about behaving myself."

"A feat he's constitutionally incapable of," a brunette with pale skin, red lipstick and a striking white streak in her black hair said as she joined their group. "You must be P.J." she said warmly, eschewing a handshake to give her a hug. "I love your music."

"I love the way Jared's been all smiles since she agreed to marry him," Tori said.

P.J. dove right into getting to know this group. They were important to Jared. He'd told her stories of how the men in particular had included him in pranks and projects-how they'd made him feel a part of something. Since the Miglionnis and Gert were doing the same for her she knew firsthand how that must have made him feel. And she wanted to know everything about the people who'd given him that.

She was leaning back against Jared, talking to Zach about his boot camp for troubled boys, when Gert came up.

"There you are!" Slipping from Jared's arms, she stepped forward to greet her. "Esme whipped me in here so fast I didn't get to say hello." She gave the old lady a hug.

"Now, don't you be fussing," Gert said gruffly even as she hugged her fiercely in return. She kept an arm around P.J.'s waist when she turned to Jared. "You are one lucky man. Slow, but lucky. I was beginning to think I was going to have to knock some sense into you last summer."

"I was a little backward on the uptake," Jared agreed with a smile. "But once things clicked for me, they stayed clicked." He curled his fingers in a gimme gesture at the old woman. "My arms are starting to feel empty here. You gonna give me my girl back?"

"If I must." She turned P.J. loose but fixed a stern look on Jared. "I've said it before but I'll say it again. You be good to her or you'll have me to answer to."

Jared snorted. "Do I look stupid to you?"

Gert merely elevated her eyebrows above the rims of her cat's-eye glasses, and he laughed. "Okay, Mama Bear."

A faint flush stained the cheeks of a woman who probably hadn't blushed since the Eisenhower Administration, but Jared didn't tease her about it. He simply said, "I know exactly what I've got with Peej." He pulled her in front of him again and wrapped her in his arms. "I'm the luckiest man on the planet."

P.J. laughed and snuggled in, beaming over her shoulder at him. She felt as if she could burst, she was so happy. She'd thought she'd hit the pinnacle of contentment when her career had finally taken off, never dreaming that such happiness could exist for her on a personal level. Yet suddenly she had it all: the man she loved beyond anything in the world, her music, good friends and now a close-knit family andtheir good friends. She purely couldn't imagine life getting any better than this.

"This is just the beginning," Jared murmured, as if he somehow had a direct line to her innermost thoughts. "You and me, Peej? We're just getting started."

She smiled up at him and didn't care that her heart was probably right there for the entire party to see. What the heck, this was her wedding shower-she was supposed to wear her heart in her eyes.

"Yeah, just getting started," she whispered, going up on her toes and twisting to give him a peck on the chin. "How great is that?"