Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 589 -

*Tallon*

I fucked up. I knew I fucked up before Natalia and I even finished our conversation from when she first returned home. 'Conversation? More like a total blow-out argument,' I thought angrily to myself.

The devastated look on her face was enough to make me feel as though I'd just taken a curled fist to the gut. I didn't mean to hurt her feelings. That was never my intention. But when I found out about her plans to confront Bianca, I felt my vision turn red.

I was beyond frustrated that she'd let this nonsense with Bianca consume her life. But then I heard from Vinny that she'd asked him to help her replace Bianca's home address. Had she completely lost her mind? What if something had happened to her? What if Bianca tried to attack her on a mere whim?

I know my tone had come out harsh and on the borderline of cruel, but Natalia was everything to me. If something were to happen to her, it would've been the end of sanity as I knew it.

But of all the manic things to come flying out of my mouth that moment, I'd made the total mistake of disregarding our wedding.

'It's just a wedding. It's not that important.'

Why? Why on earth did I say that? How could I have even thought of such a ridiculous statement?

Of course, our wedding was important. Natalia has done nothing but try to ensure that our wedding would be as perfect as it could be. All the stress and mental torment Bianca put her through was worse because Natalia had been trying to make our day special. And instead of giving her a chance to explain herself, I fucking gave her a reason to leave me.

I was almost certain Vinny was going to shoot me when I'd gone to him about all this. While, yes he'd admitted to helping Natalia out, he proceeded to call me out on my bullshit behavior toward her and the situation, and rightfully so. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" Vinny shouted in my face. "Natalia tells you that Bianca has been the one trying to sabotage your wedding, and you've gone ahead and taken your anger out on your fiancée? What the hell is wrong with you?" "Apparently, everything!" I snarled back.

"Jesus Christ, Tallon. You'd think that after all the crazy ass shit the two of you have gone through in this past year alone, you'd know better than to cause a mess like this," he barked.

As much as I could have sent my fist flying at Vinny for his degradation, the bastard was absolutely right. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw in anger-anger at myself for the piss-poor way I'd treated her feelings. Son of bitch, I could have kicked myself for my loose mouth.

Thankfully, Vinny's anger at my stupidity didn't last long, then he helped me track Natalia down. The moment I received the message that one of my men spotted her car outside of Mia's apartment complex, I instantly headed for her. And thanks to my brother for sending me Mia's apartment number, I was able to rush straight up to her floor and knock on her door. My body was pulsating with anticipation. There was zero doubt that I was going to come face to face with a very pissed-off Natalia.

I wouldn't have been surprised if she opened the door and chose to slap me across the face. Honestly, I wouldn't have even batted an eye if that was her reaction to seeing me again. But, Christ, I needed to make things right between us. A moment later, the door swung open to reveal a surprised-looking Mia.

"Tallon," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to replace her," I said, pointing to Natalia, who poked her head up from across the room.

Her eyes lit up with excitement as she pulled herself up from the couch and started running at full speed right toward me.

"Tallon!"

Natalia's mouth stretched into a wide, gracious smile. "Tallon!" she repeated.

I instinctively threw my arms out to catch her, but my balance ended up betraying us both. "Natal-ugh!"

My knees bent and soon we were falling backward, and my hands curled around her side to make sure I didn't accidentally land on her as we fell. Natalia gave out a sharp squeak, followed by a series of tipsy giggles. Thank God she was okay.

Apart from our silly mishap in the open hallway, I was just glad to see that she was alright in general. Granted, her eyes were still a little red. No doubt my stupid remark had caused her feelings to be crushed. My chest ached with the thought of her crying over something I'd done.

"I'm sorry," she said.

My brows pulled together in confusion. "What?" She was apologizing? For what?

"I shouldn't have gone behind your back or got Vinny to help me "

"No, Natalia," I said, shaking my head.

I attempted to pick us both off the floor and bring us back to our feet.

"I'm the one who's supposed to be apologizing. Sweetheart, I'm so sorry for what I said about our wedding."

Her eyes started to soften as she took her lip between her teeth. I had half a mind to curl my hand through her hair and crush our lips together. I was encapsulated in her sweet, luscious scent. I needed her. I needed the painful ache in my chest to disappear now that I had her back in my arms.

"I shouldn't have said something so careless," I told her sincerely. "Of course, I care about our wedding. Everything you've been doing for the past several months means so much to me. I love that you want to make our day as special as possible."

A bright shade of pink touched her cheeks. "I still feel bad about sneaking behind your back. I didn't intend to say or do anything hurtful. I just needed to know why Bianca kept on deliberately wrecking our plans," she said airly. "I should have listened to you earlier," I remarked with a grimace.

"It's okay," Natalia said. "And for what it's worth, Bianca did say that she would stop trying to sabotage our wedding plans. She's still fairly in love with you."

I shook my head and tucked a few locks of her hair behind her ear. "Well, that may be, but Bianca is not the woman I love."

Once the two of us were standing up, I easily pulled Natalia into a proper embrace. She brightened with eager excitement and slid back into my arms. I let out an amused chuckle.

"I gotta ask, are you drunk right now?"

Natalia giggled again and held up her hand, showing a small inch of space between her thumb and forefinger.

"Maybe just a little," she laughed. "Can we go home, please?"

Warmth spread throughout my chest. I didn't think I'd ever get tired of hearing her say that. I slipped a supportive arm around her waist and nodded.

Natalia happily accepted her belongings from Mia, who handed them back over to her. She specifically handed me the keys to Natalia's car and winked.

"Thank you so much for letting me come over," Natalia said to her. She stepped away from me long enough to wrap her arms around Mia and pull her into a tight hug. Mia bubbled in laughter and jovially hugged back. "It's no problem," she said. "This was fun. We need to do it more often."

Natalia beamed and the two of them said their goodbyes. I slipped my arm back around her and bent down to place a chaste kiss on her head. As she and I made our way down to the main lobby, I turned my head and asked, "Are you hungry?"

She eagerly nodded her head. "Yes! I'm starving."

Without another word, I took us back to the compound. Just as I parked the car, I swung around the other side to help Natalia out of the passenger seat. I slipped my hand into hers, and both of us headed inside, where we were greeted by a small group of kitchen staff.

"Ah, welcome home. Dinner is ready to be served whenever you and Miss Natalia are ready, sir."

"Thank you," Natalia said with a gracious smile.

I spared a smile to our staff. "Your timing could not be more perfect."

I felt her squeeze my hand and pull us forward toward the dining room. The staff brought out several plates from the kitchen as I pulled Natalia's chair out for her to sit down. Once we were both seated and our dinner was brought out, we fell into a comfortable bout of silence.

The meal was savory and delicious, paired beautifully with a vintage bottle of red wine, though Natalia shyly opted for water instead.

What truly made it all better was that Natalia was back where she belonged, safely at home and by my side.

Looking back on our dispute from earlier, I felt foolish for how strongly I overreacted. Although I was deeply upset that she'd gone behind my back to confront Bianca, I was immensely impressed by her drive to face her problems directly. As sneaky as she'd been about it, I adored her for her independence and hoped that she would never lose it.

Nonetheless, I was glad that everything was sorted out between us and we were finally on the same page.

Natalia took a large sip of her water and spoke over the rim of her glass.

"Tallon?"

"Yes, love?"

"How long would it take to get your family here for a wedding?" she asked.

I raised my brows and gave it a solid thought. I tilted my head back and forth and gave a fairly rough estimation. "About a week, at most."

She silently nodded her head and went back to her dinner.

Between the two of us, there were significantly more people on my side as opposed to hers when it came to the guest list. Not including the immediate family, there were the cousins and their families to consider as well. If we were to actually sit down and make out a list of all the potential guests, only about ten percent of the reception would probably belong to Natalia's side.

I peeked over my own wine glass to replace my woman smiling as though she was plotting another hair-raising scheme.

I rolled a brow and tipped my head forward.

"Care to tell me what's playing around in that pretty head of yours?" I asked.

Natalia's smile deepened as she poked at the uneaten food that was still on her plate. She tried to shrug off her amusement but to no avail.

"You said that it would take about a week for your family to get here."

I nodded my head.

"Want to get married in a week then?"

I set my glass down and let myself fall back into my chair. It had just occurred to me that with all the madness we'd been dealing with-enemies, wedding venues, ex-girlfriends, and replaceing the perfect dress-the two of us had never settled on an actual date.

I didn't give an immediate answer to her question. Whether it was said out of humor or complete honesty, it brought a wave of utter devotion crashing over me. Visions of Natalia walking down that aisle, looking gorgeous in her long, white dress, danced in my mind like a teasing fantasy.

I couldn't wait for that special day to come.

'Why wait a week?' I thought heatedly to myself. 'I would marry her tomorrow if she'd let me.'