11. Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
Aiden
“There,” Rose said, pinning a cluster of pink flowers to Cal’s lapel.
They matched his tie. Only Rowan Stevens could get Caleb Cardoso to wear baby pink and smile about it. Fortunately, she’d gone with light green for the groomsmen. Not that I’d have complained. I wore purple for Fiona’s wedding and fucking polka dots for Ciara’s. Thankfully, Kayleigh eloped or I’d have been the same age as Rowan’s brother in her wedding and just as nervous.
I gripped Chris’s shoulders and gave him a little shake. “You got this, kid. You face down cornerbacks who want to shove you into the field every play. This is easy. You stand behind me, watch your sister get married, then copy what I do when we walk out.”
He nodded, but he still looked like he was headed into the most important game of his life. “I don’t want to mess up.”
“Even if you do, Rowan won’t care. That’s one of the only perks of being the baby brother. If you fall on your face, she’ll be worried you got a boo boo, not that you screwed up the wedding video.”
Chris smirked and some of the tension left his face.
“Your turn, Chris,” Rose said.
Someone knocked on the door.
“That’s probably the photographer,” she said around the pins in her mouth. “She’s coming here before she goes to the bridal suite.”
Since Cal was fussing with Theo’s tie, I got the door.
I hadn’t expected to see Poppy before the ceremony. Like Theo, she’d somehow managed to keep her bad-ass-goth vibe in formal wedding attire. Even more impressive, she’d pulled it off in head-to-toe pink. “Hell Cat! What can I do for you?”
Her mask slipped and my stomach sank. “Is my mom in there?” she asked in a small voice.
I stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind me. “What’s wrong?”
“Not much,” she said, twisting her hands. “Lauren got food poisoning and looks like death; my sister is bawling her eyes out because Dad’s not here to walk her down the aisle; and Cammie’s running around like a crazy woman trying to take care of them both. I mean, I get it, but it’s kind of a weird tradition, don’t you think? It’s not like he’d really be ‘giving Rowan away.’”
Adrenaline spiked through my body. “Does Lauren need to go to the hospital?”
Lauren had seemed off last night during the rehearsal. Even more than what had become our usual. Since we got back from the trip, she’d actively ignored me. Last night, she’d looked too tired to pretend I didn’t exist. She’d taken my arm as we practiced walking down the aisle from the altar without hesitation or a single sarcastic jab.
Poppy gave me an odd look and shook her head. “Even if she did, there’s no way she’d miss the wedding. So head’s up since you’re escorting her. Is my mom inside or not?”
I pushed down thoughts of Lauren and focused on the problem in front of me. “Yeah, but if you tell her Rowan’s upset in front of Cal, he’ll get worked up. She’s almost done putting on the flowers.”
The door opened behind us, and I expected it’d be Rose ready to pin me. Instead, Chris took one look at his sister and joined us in the hall. “Pop?”
“Rowan’s crying because she has to walk down the aisle alone.”
He nodded. “I’ve got this,” he said, wrapping his arm around Poppy and walking with her toward the elevator.
I felt a burst of pride. It wasn’t the first time the kid had made me proud. I’d trained him for hours before his football tryouts last summer and cheered him on all season. He had real talent and the same love for the game I had at his age. Coaching him and being back in the high school stadium had been the highlight of my year. But it’s not like I had anything to do with him taking charge of the current situation. Chris had always been a good brother. It didn’t stop the warmth in my chest or the smile on my face.
Good thing too, since Cal looked like a ball of nerves when I reentered the room. He paced between the two beds, his eyes glued to the plastic clock on the nightstand.
“Pin me, Rose,” I said, holding my arms wide.
She attached a sprig of greenery to my lapel and gave me an assessing look.
“You’re needed upstairs,” I said as quietly as I could.
She nodded and plastered on a smile for Cal. “You guys look great,” she shouted over her shoulder as she booked it out the door.
“That poor woman,” Theo said, taking a seat on one of the beds. “She should have let you hire another florist, Cal. She’ll be exhausted before the wedding starts.”
Theo wasn’t the chatty type. But Cal was. And right now, it looked like he needed to get out of his head. He wanted to marry Rowan. Hell, he needed to marry her if he had any chance at a happy life, but Cal could clamshell tighter than anyone I knew.
“Just like your girlfriend shouldn’t have been finishing the cake this morning,” Cal said, taking the bait. He took a seat on the other bed across from Theo. “What time did Poppy get up?”
Theo chuckled. “Four. It’s like she’d downed five espressos in her sleep.”
Cal laughed and then glanced around the room. “Where’s Chris?”
“Family picture, upstairs,” I said.
“We’re that close?” he asked. The nerves Theo had unwound pulled taut again. “I thought that was right before we walked down the aisle?”
“Change of plans. Better get the toast in before the kid gets back,” I said because no amount of chit chat was chilling Cal now. I kneeled and opened the cabinet that hid the mini fridge and pulled out two IPAs and a Liquid Death. I passed Theo the sparkling water, Cal a beer, and popped the top on my own.
“To Logan,” we said in unison and drank. Theo and Cal’s eyes both went a little glassy in the silence that followed, but as usual mine stayed dry.
“I wish he was here,” Cal said, setting his can on the nightstand after a sip. He needed to take down more than that if we had any shot of getting through this without his nerves taking over. Until then, I guess we were stuck with chit chat.
I put my drink on the dresser and leaned against it, trying to look as relaxed as possible and searching my brain for something to talk about. “You wouldn’t be here if he was,” I said, surprising myself. Not that I hadn’t thought about it before, but to actually say it out loud?
Theo and Cal both looked at me like I’d lost my mind, which maybe I had. I shrugged, playing the hand I’d dealt myself. Make lemons out of lemonade or some shit, right? “Think about it. You only became a PT because you went through rehab yourself, and you only got with Rowan because she was your patient.”
Cal’s eyes hardened. “I’d have needed PT even if Logan hadn’t died.”
I nodded, the usual guilt pressing so hard in my chest I could barely breathe. “If he’d been buckled in, you mean.”
Because when it came down to it, Logan’s death was my fault. I would have lost my football scholarship and Cal would have needed PT, but Logan would still be alive and Theo wouldn’t be a felon if I’d just kept my ass buckled in that car.
Theo stood and walked to me. He set his can down so hard on the dresser the tinny sound echoed in the room. “Not today, man,” he said, gripping my shoulders in a hold that almost hurt. “We can hash this out a million times, and I will, whenever you want, but not today.”
I nodded because of course he was right. Today was about Cal. I should have said I missed Logan too and told a funny story about him before switching to something lighter. Which was exactly what I planned to do.
“So, you’re proposing to Hell Cat,” I said. Theo almost smiled. Instead, he shook his head and gave my shoulder a good-natured thump.
“What?” Cal said, standing.
“I was going to tell you after you got back from your honeymoon,” Theo said. “This asshole only knows because he walked in on me making the ring last week.”
“Hey,” I said, giving him a shove. “I was measuring the bedroom for new carpet. You’re welcome, by the way. Just be glad I wasn’t Poppy.”
“Are you serious?” Cal asked. The joy on his face eased what little guilt I had for spilling Theo’s secret.
“Yeah, brother,” Theo said with a shit-eating grin.
Cal pulled him into a tight hug. “We’re going to be actual brothers.”
“We already are,” Theo said. “Only now it won’t be weird that I spend every holiday with you.”
Cal laughed and they started talking about the proposal. I smiled and said enough that they wouldn’t realize what the conversation did to me.
They were going to be family, their lives twisted tighter than they already were. They’d celebrate every Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and Fourth of July together while I celebrated with my family and Logan’s. New ties would bind them. They’d be uncles to each other’s children. Then grand-uncles. Their place in each other’s lives would deepen and mine would shallow.
As kids, football brought us together. As adults, we’d maintained the bond with our shared guilt and grief. Sometimes I wondered if the three of us would even be friends today if the accident never happened. No question, Theo and Cal would still be joined at the hip. Just like I imagined Logan and I would be, if he was still alive. But would the four of us have remained close after high school?
I knew the answer. Theo and I probably would have drifted apart when he stopped playing football if he weren’t Cal’s best friend. As QB and wide receiver, Cal’s and my friendship would have lasted on some level past high school. No doubt, I’d be at his wedding, Logan too. Whether either of us would be groomsmen was debatable.
But Logan wasn’t here. I was the third wheel in our sad trio. For now, at least.
The electronic lock buzzed, and Chris dashed in.
“How’d it go?” Cal asked.
“Um.” He glanced at me.
“The kid took pictures with his mom and sisters. He smiled. The photographer clicked. What’s there to say?”
“Um, yeah.” Chris shrugged and did his best to look like an apathetic teen.
Theo glanced at him and back at me. He knew something had happened, but as expected, he steered the conversation from any landmines by asking Cal a question about dog training. Not that Cal’s dog, Skye, had ever been trained. Every visit to Cal’s house filled me with terror at some point. Fucking dogs. I’d hated them ever since a neighbor’s mutt chased me and bit my leg. At least Theo’s puppy was small, if excitable. Both dogs were unpredictable, which was the only reason Skye wasn’t dashing around the hotel room with a flower collar, waiting to be the ring bearer and/or flower girl.
“Everything good?” I whispered to Chris while Cal went on about spray bottles and clickers.
The kid looked at me with pure terror in his eyes. “I’m walking Ann down the aisle. I’m sure Mom would have done it, but I offered before she got there.”
I nodded. “Good. They’d have sobbed the entire way if they walked together. At least now the photographer has a chance to get a decent shot before Cal lets out the waterworks. It’s game over then.”
“What about me?” Cal asked.
“Aiden said you’ll cry like a baby when you see my sister.”
“Shit, I’ll probably cry,” Theo said with a laugh.
Chris paled. “You don’t think I’ll cry in front of everyone, do you?”
I shrugged. “They haven’t been conditioned like we have. Plus, who cares? Those cousins of Cal’s you were eying up at the rehearsal dinner would melt if you did.”
Cal looked torn between protecting his teenaged cousins and putting his future brother-in-law at ease. Theo decided for him.
“No question. Big tough football player getting weepy at his sister’s wedding, they’ll be putty in your hands.”
Some of the color returned to Chris’s face. “Guess it’s a win-win for me.”
“You’ll do great, kid,” I said, slapping him on the back.
I’d hand him the rest of my beer if I didn’t think Cal would throttle me. What seventeen-year-old guy wouldn’t need a little liquid courage to walk his sister down the aisle? Instead, I just rolled my eyes to the can on the dresser when Cal and Theo started talking again. Then I stepped in front of Chris to hide him from view. Being a junior on the football team, it didn’t take him long.
He shot me a grateful look and ducked into the bathroom, no doubt to steal some of Cal’s mouthwash. I wanted to follow him and ask about Lauren. The fact he hadn’t mentioned her meant she must be ok. Unless she wasn’t in the bridal suite. A knot formed in my stomach. Everyone would be so focused on Rowan, it’d be easy to miss Lauren getting worse.
I pulled out my phone and texted Cammie.
Does Lauren need a doctor?
Three dots appeared, then disappeared before Cammie texted back.
She’s fine
It didn’t take three sisters and two honorary ones to know that wasn’t good.