14. Aubree
14
AUbrEE
WEDDING BELLS. BATMAN SMELLS
“ A lright. Seriously.” Minka peeks into the hallway somewhere in the back of Eli’s wedding reception building, where dressing rooms are provided for wedding parties to change in and brides don’t bring bad luck upon their nuptials by being seen too soon. But then she closes the door to ensure we’re alone. Which means she’s gonna say things I don’t like. Or things that rhyme with schmafia . “As your best friend, and as your boss, it’s my duty to ask what the hell is going on between you and Tim? Because I get that you’ve always been kinda friendly and all that. I get that he’s been feeding you since the dawn of time, and you’ve had nights in his apartment in the past. And there was the thirty-seven feral cats thing, and?—”
“I think there were twelve, actually.” I sit on a delicate stool and stare at myself in the vanity mirror to make sure I’m dressed. Ready. Makeup. Earrings. I check to ensure my lashes stay where they’re supposed to be, and my teeth remain free of the luscious red lipstick I slid on only minutes ago. I pat my hair and tilt my head to catch the streaks of pink peeking through the blonde. “And chocolate cake.”
“Aubree! Are you sleeping with Tim?”
I turn in my seat and tilt my head the other way as I look my boss up and down. “Not an appropriate question for an employer to ask her employee. There’s an imbalance of power that makes it impossible for me to share, or not share, information without coercion potentially being involved. ”
“Bullshit.” She moves away from the door and stalks across to sit on the table in front of me. Then she looks down at her feet, wrapped in sexy gold heels, and twists her ankle to show off the glinting best friend’s anklet I had soldered onto her body. “This isn’t boss and bum, Aubree. This is friend to friend. But it’s also Archer Malone’s wife, enquiring about Timothy Malone’s behavior. Is there something you want to talk about? Something you need to talk about?”
“Apart from the fact my stomach hurts every single time he’s within ten feet of me?”
Her eyes narrow, and heat pulses from her every pore. She’s a fierce mama bear checking on her annoying little cub. “Are you afraid of him?”
I turn again and reach up to fix my earrings. “And if I said I was? If I said I didn’t want him near me anymore? No more dinners at the bar. No more fraternizing with him, because he terrifies me. What would you do about it, Chief? He’s your brother-in-law.”
“So?” She sets her hands on the crisp, white vanity top and leans into my space, her nose just inches from mine. “I can like him, and I can have him in my life, and I can also shield you and enforce that space. I’m a multi-faceted woman, and believe it or not, but if I told him you wanted out, and you really meant it, I think he’d respect your wishes. So…?”
“So what?”
She makes a face of impatience. Wrinkled lips and flat eyes. “So, if you need me to run interference, then I will. But before I do, I need the details. You know I do nothing without the facts, Doctor Emeri, so if you feel unsafe, explain it to me. If he simply annoys you, then get in line. It’s a Malone family trait. But go back to my first question: are you sleeping with him?”
“Ya know…” I fold my ankles beneath my chair and practice my very best posture, arching my spine and elongating my neck. “It’s funny you think I need to explain my sex life to explain the rest. I could be, and that wouldn’t have any bearing on wanting him out of my life, would it?”
“Well, no. Having sex in the past isn’t a free pass for him to hound you in the future.”
“Which leads me to believe you’re just a big fat nosey noser who wants to know my business.” I rest my hands in my lap and watch the woman silently implode. “No. We haven’t had sex. In fact, I am currently a twenty-seven-year-old forensic scientist who is in love with an exceptionally experienced, powerful man. Also, I’m a virgin.”
“Ladies, you’ve gotta—” In the same second those words leave my mouth, Cato busts through the door without knocking and skids to a stop, trembling like electricity vibrates up through the soles of his shoes and out the top to sizzle his hair. “Virgin? D-did you say virgin?”
Minka shoves off the vanity and stalks to the door before I can blink. She grabs the boy’s suit sleeve, yanking him into the room with one hand while slamming the door with the other. Then she shoves his back to the wall, his six-foot something frame hitting the plaster with an aching thud. And still, he lights up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Beaming with pleasure and quivering with an animalistic frenzy.
“She said virgin!”
“She said little boys who know things they shouldn’t risk losing their nuts. One at a time, with a sharp scalpel.” She grabs Cato’s chin, digging her nails in unapologetically, and forcing his eyes away from the meal he so desperately wants to consume.
Me. I’m the meal, and he’s the kid who was never taught to go slow.
“What’s that word mafia goons use for silence amongst the ranks?”
“What?”
Except, because of how her fingers dig into his skin, the word comes out a bit like ‘ whur ’.
“Don’t play stupid, stupid. You’re New York. I know you know what I’m talking about. It’s where you choose silence. It means not talking to anyone, not even to say, ‘ Hey, cop. I’m innocent. I didn’t do it. ’ Because by saying so, you’re essentially snitching on someone else. And snitching, in the mafia, is how you end up with heavy shoes. What’s the word?”
“Omertà , ” he garbles. “It means you shut your fuckin’ mouth, or else.”
She smirks, dark and dangerous, and really quite terrifying to anyone who doesn’t really know her. “Omertà. That’s what’s happening here. You say that V word outside this room, and I’ll tear your tongue out through your stomach.”
He chokes out a carefree giggle. “Yeah, right. I?—”
“I’m not playing.” She grabs his jaw, her thumb beneath his chin and four fingers inside his mouth so she can control every movement. He can’t bite unless she lets him, and he can’t close his mouth unless she gives him the go ahead. With just a little tug down, she can cut off his air, and the only way he could stop her would be to fight her.
A different guy might. A bad guy. But not him.
“That word is her business. And it’s especially important, because that word is possibly going to become Tim’s business. But what it is not, is your business. Do you understand what I’m telling you? ”
“You make it not fun.” He practically dribbles around her fingers, slurping to keep the mess in his mouth and not on his suit. “We’re all virgins at one point. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Except his words are hampered by her hand. So ‘we-aw-a-vgen-a’-sm-pnt. Nuffin-poo-be-shamd-ob.’
“No one is ashamed,” she translates easily. “Except you, perhaps. I’m going to have to wash my hands thoroughly once we’re done here. Not a single word, Cato. Do you understand me?”
“Knock-knock?” I stand and gulp when the door opens again and Tim steps in. So friggin’ handsome in his suit and tie. His hair combed neatly and his beard styled to perfection.
He smiles at first, his eyes lifting and falling in long sweeps to study my gown, only for his expression to falter when he sees my deer in the headlights look. Then he peers to his right and finds his baby brother physically restrained by his sister-in-law.
Me: shock.
Minka: quiet rage.
Cato: giddy happiness.
“Everything…” He brings his focus back to me. “Okay?”
“He tried to grab my ass,” Minka lies, yanking her hand from Cato’s mouth and wiping her palm on his jacket. Then she claps his cheek and holds on, leading him away from the wall and around to the door so Tim is forced to choose: step back and let them out, or step in… and still let them out. “He lacks impulse control.” She smiles when Tim chooses the latter, moving into the room and clearing the doorway for her to pass. “But we knew this about him. You look handsome, Malone. Have fun out there. I’ll be taking this one back to the zoo now.”
“You’re being mean!” Cato wrestles with her in the hall. Sort of. It’s gentle and playful. “Stop manhandling me or I’m telling Christabelle.”
“She isn’t here, coward. Move your ass.”
“What was that about?” Tim slowly closes the door, leaving his baby brother to the perils of an extremely dangerous woman. Then he turns on his heels and drops both hands into his pockets, searching my eyes and nibbling on his bottom lip. “Cato making a dick of himself?”
“That’s just a normal Saturday for him. Uh…” My throat burns dry, and my heart pounds out of control. “What are you… what are you doing in here?”
“Eli told me where I’d find you, and he said Duane hasn’t showed up yet. He was supposed to escort you down the aisle, so…” He smiles, so unbelievably relaxed. So content. “Guess who got a promotion? ”
“It almost sounds convenient.” I firm my lips and turn back to the mirror to continue obsessing over things I can’t change. My height. My weight. My existential crisis and the worry I hold in my stomach for the fact my brother is often absent lately. “Did you intercept Duane on the way here and pay him a hundred bucks to be late so you could escort me down the aisle?”
He meanders across the room. Long, slow steps that tell me he’s entirely calm about being here with me. Alone . He’s thrilled to be in my space, and I… am terrified. As always. And yet, entirely incapable of staying away.
“I suppose that could have been my Plan B, had I needed one.” He stops behind me, the warmth of his chest radiating against my back and his eyes burning into mine via the reflection of the mirror. His aftershave fills my lungs, and the buttery soft fabric of his suit tickles my bare back. “Turns out I didn’t need to intercept. He’s running late and Eli asked for a favor.”
“Does he realize who he’s asking a favor of? Owing the mob is no small detail.”
He chuckles. Soft. Almost completely silent, if not for the fact his lips hover just two inches from my ear. “This one’s a freebie, considering I benefit too.” He licks his thick lips and grins when my gaze drops to the action. “You look so fucking beautiful.”
My cheeks fill and burn red. It’s my crutch in life, a humiliating telegraph that lets a man know my secrets.
Some of them, anyway.
So I sniff and glance down to break his hungry stare. “Thanks. Are you really walking with me? I have other brothers.”
“The numbers don’t match, considering one of those brothers is getting married, and the other is AWOL. That leaves me.” He drags his hands from his pockets, trailing his fingertips over the ball of my shoulder. But then he presents his left hand in my peripherals, brandishing a velvet-covered box that instantly makes my stomach jump. “We have time before the music comes on, so I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Tim…” I spin and link my hands together in front of my hips. But my eyes remain glued to his hand. “That’s a necklace box.” I shake my head vigorously. I shake so much, it’s almost as though I plan to knock a memory or two loose. “Don’t buy me jewelry.”
“But you need a necklace to finish this outfit. And I have a necklace I’d like to give you.” He cracks the box open and presents green. Emeralds. So many beautiful gems that have tears springing to my eyes. “Have I ever told you the story of Ronan and Maeve Malone?”
“No, jackass! You haven’t. But I know the story, and I know the gift has to have been found. Not bought. Not expensive.” I look down at the necklace again and purse my lips. “You failed tradition.”
“Or…” He carefully pinches the delicate chain between his thumb and finger and tugs it from the velvet-lined box. Setting the packaging down, he spins me again, his overly large hand wrapping around my ribs until it feels almost indecent. But he forces me to turn and holds my eyes in the mirror. “Perhaps I started a new tradition. Or updated an old one.”
“You don’t get to hijack and update someone else’s tradition. That’s rude and just not…” I close my eyes when he lays the disgustingly stunning necklace across my chest, the spray of green laid out almost like a vine, wrapped in gold and shaped almost suspiciously like a heart. “Tim…”
“I admit I paid for this. And I didn’t find it hidden away somewhere in an antique store. But?—”
Hesitantly, I open my eyes.
“I think tradition is allowed to be bent when the woman I’m buying for has a really awesome older brother whose literal job is to create fine pieces of jewelry.”
“Eli made this?” I drop my chin and study the jewels when he finishes with the clasp and allows the necklace to sit flat on my chest. “Eli’s been busy this week, Tim! And you didn’t even know about the wedding until a few days ago. No way you had time to commission something.”
“Right.” He lowers his hands to my side, his fingertips almost touching at the front of my torso and his chest pressing against my back. “So I gave him the parameters of what I was searching for, and I told him the family story.”
“You told my brother the story before you told me?” I meet his eyes in the mirror. “Really?”
“You knew the story already. Hush. I told him what I wanted, and he knew what you’d wear it with. Luckily, he knew the wedding color palette, including your makeup. Most importantly, he knew I required emeralds, and if it wasn’t brand-new, then all the better.”
“So this isn’t…” I bring my hand up and touch the glistening gems. “It’s secondhand?”
“No. No one else has worn it before you. But this is one of the first pieces he ever made, not so long after he opened his shop and had time to mess around. He couldn’t afford to experiment with diamonds, since those suckers cost a fortune. But he had a bunch of emeralds he’d bought off an auction site. Most of them were trash, made for lower end pieces. He saved a few of the better stones and made a necklace. He said he made it with you in mind. ”
“You’re lying.”
He lowers his head and buries his nose in my hair. “I’m not. See how it kinda looks like a plant? Like a vine?”
Dammit! That’s what I thought already.
“He said you liked to be in the garden with your mom, so while he was creating this necklace, he thought of his baby sister while she was off learning how to be a doctor for the dead. But once he was done, it went into the safe and eventually, he forgot about it. He didn’t want to sell it to anyone else, and he hadn’t thought to gift it to you yet. Then this week, I came along and told him what I wanted. It needed to be old, and it needed to be special. Emeralds were a must, and it needed to be you . All you, Aubree Grace. So, although this is not exactly Ronan and Maeve’s tradition, I consider it special enough to count. Besides, I gave you the hair clip already. So I have my bases covered on both ends.”
“This isn’t a game, you know?” Teary, I bring my focus up and search his eyes. “There are no bases. And there are no points to be scored.”
“I know.”
“There are human beings. There’s me. And I have feelings that are constantly being dinged, because sometimes I feel like the luckiest, most cherished woman in the world. And other times, I’m just a toy being argued over in a sandbox. I want stability,” I whimper. “I want honesty, no matter what. I want to wake up each morning and know what version of you and me we get to be. I don’t want to feel cherished one day, and then brushed back the next. Because it’s the uncertainty that hurts the most.”
He nods, short, fast dips of his chin. “I know.”
“I understand your world is not normal, and that you carry trauma you’ll never fully share out loud. I know you care deeply, and that you’re a good person down at your core. I’m fully aware that all the things you’ve done to irritate me since we met have come with your best intentions. But I’m tired of your inability to be completely, achingly honest with me. And I’m especially exhausted of not knowing if today is the day you drag me in or toss me out. We can’t be us until you’re ready to be what I need.”
“So you’re asking for…?”
“A commitment?” I say it like a question, and reinforce it with a shrug of my shoulders. “Not the kind where you tell my parents we’re engaged when we’re not, in fact, engaged. But the kind where you say, ‘ I’m in, Aubree ’, and then I can believe every word that comes out of your mouth. I want the ‘ I’m in ’ that means I can leave for the day and come back tomorrow, secure in the knowledge that you haven’t changed your mind overnight. ”
“I’m in, Aubree.”
“You say that! But you’ve said all sorts of things since we met. Sometimes they sounded kinda like this, and other times they sounded like, ‘ My world isn’t for you, so I’m gonna keep you away even if it hurts your feelings .’ You tell lies, right to my face, and you think because they come with good intentions that I can’t be mad about them. How do I know today isn’t an ‘ I’m in ’ day, but then something happens that upsets your sense of control tomorrow? Maybe Felix calls you, or Cato says something that triggers a reminder of where you came from. Then your protective side will come out and you’ll decide for us again? I’m always the one on the outside, Tim. I’m on the shelf?—”
“I said I’m in. So now I’m gonna kiss you.”
“And you…” My heart spasms. “What?”
He grabs my face, his thumbs on my cheeks and his palms wrapping all the way around. Then he pulls me up, so I have nowhere to escape except straight into him. “I said I’m going to kiss you. Because it’s a romantic day. You’re wearing a beautiful gown and I’m in a suit. And I sort of fulfilled the Malone tradition, telling you the story that goes with it, and now I’m telling you my intentions with us . I’m ticking the boxes, Aubree, and I’m taking the steps so you get to be safe and I no longer have to put you on a shelf. Because that loneliness you feel up there, all on your own?” He drags me closer, probing the back of my neck with the tips of his fingers. “I feel that down here, too. I look up at you. This shiny, beautiful, unreachable fucking goddess I don’t get to touch, and the loneliness is crippling.”
“So you’re choosing us over safety?”
He shakes his head, the tip of his nose brushing over mine. “I’m choosing us , if you’ll have me, and making damn sure you stay safe while you’re with me. No one can hurt you now.” He rests his forehead against mine and inhales the air I breathe. “It’s law, Aubree. No one can touch you without starting a war. And there isn’t a single Malone who won’t fight alongside me. We’re too powerful, and no one would dare.”
“How does it become law?” I search his expression for the truth. For understanding. For his bravery, to say the things he works so hard to lock away. “Explain it to me. Please. I’m begging you to tell me the truth.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He tilts my head back, extending my neck and hovers, just a hair’s breadth from my lips. “All that matters is that it’s done. So now I’m gonna kiss you. If you let me.”
“Wait…” I choke out a nervous laugh. “I mean. I suppose, if you?—”
He slams his lips to mine and swallows down my cry of surprise as warmth washes through my veins. Like a tidal wave of color and passion and emotion. Of desperation. His beard tickles my flesh, but his tongue duels with mine, so I’m left focusing only on that. On him. His lips move as though weaving magic, sucking my soul into his lungs and locking me away in a new prison.
But this one is so much better. Warmer. Safer. Compared to the shelf.
“Fuck.” He nips at my bottom lip and draws a whimper from the depths of my throat. But he growls when I wrap my arms around the back of his neck. I cinch myself closer and purr when he releases my face and grabs my ass instead.
His hands squeeze until it hurts. But it’s a good hurt. It’s a hurt that makes my blood sizzle hotter.
“Tim…”
“I’m in, Aubree.” He nips again and massages the globes of my ass. “I said I was in, so tomorrow, you can wake up and know what you’re gonna get.”
“ All in?” I press. “No take backs? And all of the truth?”
Another bite. “No take backs.”
“Aubree, it’s time—” Minka steamrolls into the room and folds her lips inwards, her cheeks flaming and her eyes dancing when I spasm in Tim’s arms. Because she’s seen enough. Too much.
And then Archer stops behind her. “Uh…”
“Mind your business,” Tim rumbles. So calm. So casual. “Turn around and leave.”
“Yeah, no.” She fists Archer’s tie and drags him across the threshold, then she closes the door until it rattles in the frame. “So here we are.” She flicks her wrist in my direction, up and down as though to swat a mosquito away. “We’re doing this?”
I drop my face to Tim’s chest and cling to the lapels of his suit. “Please go away before I die of humiliation.”
“No dying allowed,” he growls by my ear. But he abandons my ass, at least, and sets his palms on my back. “Leave, Archer. Take your wife with you.”
The younger Malone chuckles, antagonistic and taunting. “I feel you’re overestimating the power I possess right now. If she doesn’t wanna move…”
“There’s a dude out there asking for you,” Minka explains in monotone. “Tall. Bulky.” She lifts her hand, as though to illustrate his height. “Kinda handsome, if you’re into that pro football player kinda build.”
And just like that, Tim drags me off his chest and sets me aside. On my shelf, so to speak. “I’ll go talk to him. ”
“No!” I bound from my spot and grab on to his arm. I look ridiculous, digging my heels into the floor and still, being dragged along as he moves. “Tim!”
“I just wanna meet him.” He glances down and smiles at me. Angelic, and so full of shit it’s almost pouring out of his nostrils. “No body, no murder.”
“Stop it!” I’m caught between humor for this insane situation, and humiliation, because my lipstick is destroyed and my eyes are wild. “You’re not talking to him unless I’m standing right beside you.”
“It’s cute you think that, considering you’re not talking to him at all.”
Minka hisses, extra noisy just to be obnoxious. “Controlling who she can talk to right out of the gate? And isolating her from old friends? That’s two strikes, Malone. Third one comes with a painful punishment that starts and ends with my lucky scalpel.”
Tim desperately looks at Archer. “Can you deal with her? Please?”
“Not typically.” But he wraps his arm over her shoulder and tugs her in to press a kiss to her temple. “Don’t worry so much. We like them wild. It’s exhausting, for sure. And will probably be the reason we die. But tamed and domesticated isn’t really our thing.”
“Why are you here, anyway?” I search my boss’ eyes and lift a brow of impatience. “You knew I was in here. You even knew who I was with. Yet you barged in. Dead body?”
“At your brother’s wedding? I would hope not. But you have two minutes to be at the double opening doors. The music is starting.”
I cast a look at the clock on the wall. “Two minutes?”
“Yeah. But that was two minutes ago.” She breaks away from Archer and snags my hand just as the bells above us chime. Spinning on her heels, she jerks me across the room and into the hall with no time to check my lipstick. “Get Tim,” she calls back. “He needs to be out here, too. You look all flustered and sexed up, Doctor Emeri. Weddings are supposed to be about purity, aren’t they? Promises made and the expectations a groom might have of his bride.”
“Oh, hush.” I yank my hand free and stop when I find a mirror perched in a golden lillied frame. “This is a gay wedding, for starters. There are no brides.” I fix my makeup, wiping the smudges Tim’s lips created and smoothing the color back between the lines. “And I’m not sexed up. Though I might’ve liked to continue exploring that stuff we’d started.”
“Being sexed by a Malone is an experience to behold. But not,” she offers a tissue over my shoulder. “For the first time, when you only have thirty seconds to start and finish, while you’re preparing to attend your brother’s wedding. Save it for the honeymoon. Come on.” She grabs me again, tearing me off balance and catching me when I stumble. “Those bells mean you’re late, and Eli is probably gonna tear your eyelashes off your face in punishment. Nice necklace, by the way. Sex favor?”
“Shut up.” My heart tumbles as I trust my best friend to lead the way and instead, I glance down at the shining promise Tim placed square on my chest. “He told me the Malone story.”
“You knew the story already.”
“I know. But he told me a slightly different story. It’s ours, and it’s still Malone, but it’s Emeri, too. And he said he’s in.”
“In?”
“In! Like, with us. He’s in, and he’s going to be with me, and tomorrow, things will still be okay, because he’s not going to keep staying out anymore.”
“Sounds like a cheesy porno.” She forces us to a stop by a set of doors and brings me around until we’re toe to toe. “He’s in now, because he wants to be in. And he’s not gonna be out, because being out sucks.” She drags the very edge of her nail beneath my bottom lip. “In and out, Aubs. You’re a dirty girl.”
“You’re making it weird.”
“I know.” She drops her hand. “But it’s fun. You look beautiful. You look amazing. You look better than the grooms, and they might hurt you for that. But I’m confident Eli’s love is stronger than his desire to stick you with the cake-cutting knife. And if it’s not, then I’ll run interference. Assuming I’m not eating. If I’m eating, you’re gonna have to wait. Worst case scenario, I’ll autopsy you and make sure to use the best plugs, and I’ll sew your skull cap on super neat so we can have an open casket.”
“You’re a real pain in my ass, you know that?”
“Hence using the best plugs. Though that’s a pretty ballsy way to speak to your chief, Doctor Emeri.”
“It’s the weekend and my chief can kiss my ass.” I turn to Tim—My date. My… boyfriend? Maybe. Someday—as he and Archer come to a stop a few feet away. “Are you ready? We’re gonna ruin this wedding if we take any longer.”
“I’m ready.” He steps away from Archer and takes my arm with his, wrapping us close and pulling me in tight. He stares down at me that way he does, adoring and sweet and still, somehow entirely covert in the way he gives such little away. Unless he says the words out loud, or his hands are on my body, I’m rarely invited to know what’s on his mind. “I’ll save you from the bitter grooms if they pick up a knife. ”
“Aubree! I’m here.”
I spin at my brother’s shout, and smile wide when my baby brother dashes through a side door and sprints this way.
“I’m sorry I’m late.” Duane skids to a stop, almost crashing into us because he moves so fast, then he sets his hands on his knees and pants to catch his breath. “I got caught up with something else. But I texted Eli. He knows I’m here.” He heaves for air, and the back of his hair could do with a comb.
So I help him out and pat down his short locks.
“Where the heck have you been?” I frown when he straightens out, his new stance revealing a smudge of lipstick on the side of his neck. Instantly, frustration boils in my blood. “This is not okay, Duane! You should’ve been here an hour ago.” I slide my thumb across the mess and wipe the red smear away. “Eli and Curtis deserve better.”
“I know, Sissy. I’ll make it up to them.” He slips his arm around mine and turns, so we face the door. “I’m ready to get started.”
“Uh… well…” I look at a dejected Tim and drag my bottom lip between my teeth, ruining the clean lines Minka and I already fixed. He was going to be my escort, and now he’s not. And of course, it’s not his place to take my brother’s role, and I know he won’t be mad about his demotion. Family is family. And of all the men on the planet who would understand that, it’s him. But guilt still lances through my veins. “Timothy Malone,” I hold his eyes for a beat, swallowing the ball of nerves nestled at the base of my throat. Then I bring my focus to Duane. “I think you’ve met everyone else. So, Duane Emeri… this is my, uh…”
“Fiancé,” Tim inserts, taking Duane’s hand before he has a chance to offer. Palms meet with a clap, the sound of seriousness echoing along the wide hall. “Nice to meet you.”
“Um… yeah…” He’s Tim’s captive, his arm moving with a shake he has no participation in. Then he looks at me. “Your fiancé , Aubree? You have an announcement to make?”
“He’s just being sill?—”
“Announcements were made at dinner earlier this week.” Tim gives his hand once last squeeze before releasing and setting his palm on my hip. “You missed it and a delicious pot roast, all on the same night.”
“Aubree!” Eli slams the doors open, bridezilla-esque, and growls. “We. Are. Waiting!”
“Oh shoot!” I grab Duane again and quickly meet Tim’s eyes. “I’ll see you on the other side, okay?” I don’t step onto my toes and press a kiss to his cheek, though I kind of want to. And I don’t lean into his powerful body to rest against his chest.
I want to do that, too.
But I wait for his subtle nod. His acknowledgment, which is my release. Then I spin and sprint, joining my brother’s wedding late and hoping I’m not murdered for my tardiness.
“Finally!” Eli grabs my shoulders and places me where he wants me. “You’ll walk after Katie and the others. Duane.” He moves to my brother with a frown, fixing his tie and brushing unkempt hair off his brow. “Is that a bruise on your face?” He grabs Duane’s chin and tilts his head to better use the light. So I turn and look too, accepting a bouquet when Katie passes one, but studying the light grazing on my youngest brother’s jaw.
“What happened to you?”
He brushes my hand away when I try to touch it. “Nothing. Are we ready to go?”