Chapter 36
I’ve stood in front of people more times than I can count.
On stages. In the bar. In rooms packed with strangers.
But I’ve never been as nervous as I am today.
When I offered to officiate for Josie and Tyler, I was borderline cocky about it.
How hard could it be? Say a few heartfelt lines, tell ’em to kiss and badaboom, husband and wife. Done.
Now, standing in the driveway while a rental company erects a massive white tent in Josie’s backyard, I’m pacing back and forth beside my truck, dress shoes already cramping my toes.
Somewhere inside the house, my friends and family are getting ready.
Laughing. Tying ties. Prepping for what feels like the wedding of the century.
From what I’ve heard, Josie tried to keep it small and intimate.
But in a town like ours? That was never going to happen.
You can’t love people the way she does and expect them not to show up.
I bring the cigarette to my lips and take a drag, hold it in my lungs for a beat and push the smoke out through my nose.
All right. Get it together, man.
With the heel of my shoe, I stomp out my cigarette, roll my shoulders and shake out my limbs. Planting my feet in front of my driver’s side window I stare at my reflection. “Okay,” I mutter. “From the top.”
“What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life—to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain—”
And there it is. That catch in my throat that happens every damn time.
I know the poem is about marriage, romantic love.
But I can’t hear it without thinking about friendship too.
Josie and I may give each other shit 85 percent of the time, and she might not be my sister by blood, but she sure as hell feels like it.
I barely remember a time when Josie wasn’t around, running through my house with Penny, buying me alcohol when I was too young with a threat that if I got caught or did something stupid she’d never help me out again. I stuck to that. Some.
Years later, as adults, I picked her off the floor more times than I can count after her divorce from what’s his name.
The week after Julie died, Josie found me flat on my back on the floor of my childhood bedroom, staring at nothing.
She didn’t ask a single question. Didn’t speak the same platitudes everyone else kept saying.
She just stretched out beside me, understanding that sitting silent with a friend is what I needed.
She deserves every single one of these words. Her and Tyler both.
Movement in the window catches my eye.
Dark hair.
Cassie in Josie’s kitchen. Time to go inside.
Pushing through the back door, I’m met with chaos.
People are everywhere. Abby is saying something to Jay before huffing a breath and stomping up the stairs.
From the kitchen, Jackson and Cassie’s aunt laugh and the strumming of a guitar drifts from somewhere upstairs.
I make my way down the hall to the tiny bathroom under the stairs when I nearly bump right into Cassie.
“Easy there,” I say, as her hands brace against my chest. When she hears my voice, her head snaps up.
Her hands fall away and I take a step back, my mouth going dry at the vision standing before me.
Cassie’s dark green dress is made of some silky kind of material and it shimmers in the light.
The front has a little swoop that shows off her dermals, pointing straight at the slightest hint of cleavage.
What would she do if I leaned in and swirled my tongue around each one?
And those tiny ass spaghetti straps are doing the bare minimum.
Her hair is draped across one shoulder and when she angles her head slightly I see she’d done it in some kind of pretty little sideways braid across the back leaving the ends loose.
“Liam,” she says, voice breathless.
After a beat I realize I still haven’t spoken. I don’t think I’ve even blinked.
“You look—” I stop to clear my throat and try again. “Thy beauty, such a wondrous thing, awakens the beast within.”
Pink rises onto Cassie’s cheeks. “What famous poet wrote that line?”
“Me. Just now. That’s what you do to me.”
She holds my gaze for the span of a heartbeat and whispers a quiet, “Thank you.”
“Cassie, did you find the sewing kit?” her aunt yells from the kitchen. “I think it’s in the side pocket.”
This brings us back to reality.
“Found it,” she calls back. “Liam, I’m struggling.
” She turns her back to me and stretches an arm to point to her strap, which I now see has come unsewn from the dress.
“I found the sewing kit in my aunt’s purse”—she waves the needle and thread in the air—“but this is a two-person job. I was actually looking for you.”
Some type of gold powder dusts her shoulders and for a split second all I can do is stare, my gaze trailing up the delicate curve of her neck.
She looks at me over one shoulder. “Can you help? Today is not the day for a wardrobe malfunction.”
Dumbly, I take the needle and thread. Of course I can do this. How hard can it be? A few stitches in soft fabric that rests against the warm, smooth skin of her back. Nothing to it.
I follow her to the bathroom, stepping in to examine the strap. Today she’s wearing some kind of perfume I haven’t smelled before, and I clench my jaw at the effort it takes not to lean in for a quick inhale.
Focusing on the tiny needle, I loop the thread through the material several times, careful not to stab Cassie. My knuckles graze her shoulder blade with each pass and it’s a damn delight when I see goose bumps rise on her arms.
I’m just tying off the thread when I realize I don’t have any scissors. Without thinking, I lower my mouth and rip the thread with my teeth.
Bad fucking idea.
This close to her skin I can’t help myself.
She smells too good and what would it hurt?
With the tip of my nose, I map a path up her shoulder blade, drag it up the side of her neck until I reach that tender skin just below her ear.
On a deep inhale, I breathe her in, letting my lips barely ghost against her pulse point.
“Wh-what are you doing?” Cassie whispers on a shaky breath.
“Enjoying how good my girlfriend smells,” I murmur into her ear.
Cassie goes still as a statue, so still I’m not sure she’s even breathing. Then she slowly turns until she’s facing me in this tiny bathroom, our bodies inches apart, the air between us humming.
“Is there a question buried somewhere in that very presumptuous statement?”
I rumble out a deep laugh. Presumptuous my ass and she knows it.
“Cassandra James, will you be my girlfriend?” I feel like I’m in fucking high school again but I’d say it a hundred times if she asked me to.
Cassie tilts her chin and crosses her arms in a way that only pulls her cleavage higher and I’d bet all my poker winnings she knows the effect that has on me.
The curve of a smile reveals itself, then it transforms into a full-on smirk. “I’ll think about it,” she replies, moving to step around me.
But I catch my little minx by the wrist and haul her to my chest. The impact draws a soft gasp from her that I feel everywhere. “Think about it, my ass.”
Cassie snorts a barely stifled laugh. “You’re lucky you have such a pretty face.”
I can’t fight the smirk I shoot her way. “You really do like my face, don’t you?”
One hand goes to rest on my cheek and she returns my smirk. “Of course. And you also like your face.”
“Is that a yes?”
In her heels, we’re almost eye to eye, hers the color of autumn leaves and impossible to look away from.
“It’s a yes.” Cassie closes the very short distance between us and presses the sweetest kiss to my lips.
I keep it gentle even though every instinct in me wants to deepen it, push her dress up around her waist and show her how happy she makes me.
But there’s a wedding to officiate and I’d hate to mess up her pretty hair, so I pull back, my fingers skimming down her arms.
“To be continued,” I tell her.
Her eyes shift from golden to a dark topaz that brings out the striations of green. “Promise?”
“Oh, angel. That’s a guarantee.”
An hour later, I’m standing in front of at least a hundred and fifty pairs of eyes, ready to watch one of my closest friends commit her life to the man she loves in front of God and everybody.
I let my gaze sweep the crowd. So many faces I’ve known my whole life.
People who watched me grow up, and held me together when I couldn’t do it for myself.
Tyler stands in front of me, thumb drumming against his thigh, the only tell that the quietest man I’ve ever met is barely holding it together. Penny and Austin make their way down the aisle, followed by Abby, and then Tyler’s dad, right as the first few notes of a love song start up.
My eyes flick between the tent entrance and Tyler to watch his reaction when he sees her.
He’s still tapping his thumb but when Josie steps through the opening, escorted by Jay, he goes stock still and takes an audible breath.
Seeing Tyler’s reaction right now…man, that’s the goal, right? That’s what all this is for.
I find Cassie in the first row of chairs and she gives me a watery smile, displaying her dimple and winks. I know we’re thinking the same thing.
Josie reaches the front, hands her flowers to Penny and takes both of Tyler’s hands.
“Hey,” she whispers to him.
Tyler’s voice shakes when he leans in to tell Josie how beautiful she is.
I’m sure if it was up to Josie, she’d stand here and flirt with her soon-to-be husband for an hour, but I gotta get this ball rolling.
I meet my friend’s eyes, glossed over with tears and give her a smile that I hope says just how proud I am of her. How honored I am to be standing here.
“Josie has always been one of my favorite people. Pretty sure everyone here would agree, she’s the strongest one among us.
Watching her life unfold over the years has only confirmed what I’ve always known: she’s the kind of friend everyone hopes for.
And those of us here today? We got lucky.
” I pause to take in everyone here. The people I’ve grown up with who’ve seen me at my worst and loved me through it.
“She’s an amazing mom.” I take a quick glance at Abby and Jay.
“And Tyler, I have no doubt she’ll be the perfect wife for you.
I’ve only known you for a short time, but in that short time I’ve seen there is no better man to love and cherish our Josie than you. ”
A lump of emotion swells in my throat and I take a steadying breath. Just to make sure I get the poem right, I find the paper in my pocket to read from.
Josie and Tyler exchange vows, and in a matter of minutes, I’m instructing Tyler to kiss his new bride as everyone under the tent erupts in applause.
As soon as Josie and Tyler make their exit, I find Cassie in the crowd. She’s standing with Jackson, dabbing under her eyes with her fingertips, and doesn’t see me coming as I slip up behind her and wrap both arms around her waist, pulling her back against my chest.
“How’d I do, girlfriend?”
She laughs, a tinkling happy sound and tilts her head back so we’re almost cheek to cheek.
“You were perfect, boyfriend.”
We’re interrupted by Jackson who is watching us, eyes wide. “What am I, chopped liver? First Penny gets Austin, then Josie, and now you two? If I’m not next, Imma be pissed.”
Cassie pats him on the arm affectionately. “I’m manifesting big things for you, my friend. Your day is coming.”
The reception begins and after the first dance I thread my fingers with Cassie’s and tug her off to the side for a moment of privacy.
“Come home with me tonight?”
My question lands between us, and I see the moment it registers with Cassie what I’m asking. Her lips part and her eyes search mine for a full five or ten seconds, like she’s making sure I mean what she thinks I mean.
I raise my brows in a silent answer.
Cassie’s lips tilt into a grin. “Okay,” she says softly.