“It’s the truth, though.”

Why did he care if he disrespected them? They deserved it! They spoke so badly about him when they didn’t even know him. He was a good man, the right man for her, and even though her family treated him like the scum on their shoe, he still cared about their feelings. It was mind-blowing, but she knew it was because he loved her, and that meant the world to her.

Karson nodded. “You’re right, but still I shouldn’t—”

“You know what?” she asked, interrupting him.

“What?”

“I don’t care,” she admitted. “I have allowed them to control me my whole life. Where I went to school. What I wore. When I got new breasts. Who I loved. Everything and anything, I allowed them to have a say. I even allowed them to break my heart, but no more. I will not feel guilty for my love for you. I won’t regret this decision because I am finally happy. I don’t care that it’s going to be hell running a business that is based out of Chicago in Nashville, especially when my sister-in-law is hell-bent on bringing me home. All I care about is us and the life we are going to make.”

Brushing kisses along her bottom lip, he said, “That’s all I care about. But I just want to make you happy, and your family does make you happy when they aren’t being assholes. You need them in your life.”

“I do, but if they don’t accept you, I’ll deal. You are my happiness.”

He eyed her, his heart pounding so hard, it vibrated her own chest. “You’re mine, Lacey, always have been.”

He took her mouth with his, kissing her so hard it curled her toes against the cold marble floor. Pulling back, he kissed her nose and whispered, “It’s me and you, baby.”

“Forever,” she promised.

“Forever.”

“How long is the ride?”

Karson looked back at Lacey as he opened her door. “About twenty minutes, why?”

She grinned as she crossed her legs, holding her mother’s dress close to her chest. “I gotta pee and I don’t think I can wait. Can you stuff this in while I run inside real quick?”

He leaned over and kissed her nose before taking the dress. “Sure, hurry up. My mom is waiting.”

“Always so bossy,” she teased, her eyes locked with his.

“You don’t know my mom and her impatient self. If we don’t hurry up, she’ll come after us.”

“I got you. Be right back!”

He watched as she ran off to the bathroom inside the rental car place before tucking her mother’s dress in the back along with their bags. They had been married for a whole day. One full of drama and lots of sex, but even with all the shit with her family and his own, he couldn’t help the grin that sat on his face.

He was one lucky bastard.

Leaning against the door as he waited for her, he pulled out his phone and checked his Facebook. After posting a status of wedded bliss that he was sure everyone would be disgusted by, he was about to Like a picture that Shea had posted of his hockey team of children when his phone started ringing; it was Kacey.

“Hey you,” he answered happily. Even though it was about to be a freak show once he brought Lacey home, he was excited to see his family.

“Hey! Where you guys at? You land yet?”

He rolled his eyes. “Obviously since I’m talking to you.”

She paused. “Eff off, you on your way?”

“No, waiting on my wife to pee and then we will be leaving. Just got the car packed. Everything okay?” he asked, tucking his hand in his pocket for warmth. He should sit in the car, but he wanted to help Lacey in, make sure she was settled before he got in himself. The car was running with the heat on full blast, which was good since he was freezing his balls off. Shivering in his coat, he wished he was back in Tennessee. At least there if it was cold one day, it was warm the next. In Wisconsin, though, it was just fucking cold. All the time.

“Yeah, well, Ma is driving me insane getting ready for you two. I was hoping you were almost here so I wouldn’t have to deal with her.”

“Well, if you got your own place, you wouldn’t have to,” he suggested. “I mean, what twenty-seven-year-old female wants to live with her parents? Don’t you have a girlfriend yet?”

She let out a frustrated breath as he grinned like a kid with his hand in the candy jar. It was his life mission to drive his baby sister crazy, and bringing up her sexual orientation was the newest button he had discovered that really riled her up.

“I’ve told you a billion times, I’m not gay, and I like living with our parents because there are no bills. Since I am training for the Olympics, I can’t work much. You know this. Don’t make me kick your ass in front of your new wife,” she sneered. “And for your information, I am dating a guy right now.”

He rolled his eyes. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure she liked guys, and it would help him out if she’d just admit that she liked women. She played harder than some men he knew and she was ball-buster; she took no shit at all. Yeah, she may date guys, but they ran off as soon as she wrestled them to the ground and made them cry uncle. She was a tomboy through and through and crazy as hell. She even had her hair in a short pixie cut because long hair got in her way, or so she told everyone. He was pretty sure she just wanted to be a guy. He had never even seen in her a dress. Like, ever. That had to mean something.

“Whatever you say, sis. You know I’ll love you no matter what.”