Epilogue
Reid
I adjust the bow tie on my tuxedo again, but it’s still not sitting right. Why do they make these so difficult?
“Urgh, do I have to wear this thing?” I call out, and Benji and David both yell back.
“Yes.”
“I look like a waiter,” I call, and Benji appears in the doorway.
“Do you want help?” he asks and I nod.
“Am I making a mistake going to this thing?”
“You love Luka, right?” he asks, swatting my hand away and taking over tying the bow tie for the millionth time.
“Yes, but he’s in the wedding party. I’ll be at a table with people I don’t know. Maybe I should just tell him I feel sick.”
“You are sick. Sick in the head if you think that will fly. They normally put the partners all together, right? Oh shit, you’re going to be sitting with the partners of Cosmo’s brothers. His brothers play Banana Ball. You can totally put in a good word for me.”
“And the truth comes out about why you’re so keen for me to go,” I laugh.
“Okay, your bow tie is perfect now, so don’t touch it. I also think it’s important for you to dance with your boyfriend, so make sure you do that too.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Please tell me you’re joking?”
“What? It’s not like I’ve ever actually needed to know. Do you know how to dance?”
He scoffs.
“Of course I do. Here, take my hand,” he says, holding out his right hand.
“You’re serious?” I ask, and he taps on his phone with his left then tosses it to the bed as the mellow tones of some romantic song start to play.
“Come on, we don’t have long enough to learn anything fancy, but you can at least get the basics of a waltz down.”
“Luka might not even want to dance.”
“Take my hand already,” he says, and I sigh and step forward and grip his hand tightly.
“Ouch, fuck, lighten up,” he complains, wriggling his hand to try to pull away.
“Sorry, how’s this?”
“Better. Oh shit, do you think Luka will expect you to lead? Who leads in . . .” His gaze drifts momentarily to the bed, and I pull my hand away and step back.
“Seriously, now you’re just being a dick.”
He shrugs with a smirk on his lips.
“Okay, okay, I’ll show you how to follow, and then you can try to lead. That way you’re covered either way. Come on, we’ve got about twenty minutes until the car arrives.”
I take his hand again and listen to the music as my little brother takes me through the steps of a waltz.
It’s not as hard as I thought it would be to pick up the moves, and by the end of the second song, I’m anticipating his movements and no longer stepping on his toes.
Learning to lead takes longer. Trying to think about what my feet are doing while trying to also send him signals with my hand at his lower back is far harder.
“Why did I leave my phone downstairs?” David whines from the doorway.
“He needed to learn how to dance. Were you going to teach him?” Benji asks.
“I’m more a heavy metal head-banging kind of dancer,” he replies, and Benji and I trade glances. Then we both reach for David, pulling him into our circle and stepping to the music to force him into a three-way waltz.
These are the moments that will live in my heart forever—laughing with these two boneheads, treading on each other’s toes, dancing together until the song ends and they fall back on my bed in hysterics. Now to go make some memories with the man I love.
***
I’m sitting in the fourth row behind a group of young guys.
I recognize a couple as teammates of Cosmo’s and Luka’s from college.
We’re in an enormous function room where wooden seats laid out in perfect rows sit thirty or more deep, and the aisle that’s roped off up the end has a dark blue carpet running the length.
Large white bows are tied to each aisle chair, with yellow roses tucked into the knots.
The celebrant taps a mic up the front of the room.
“Please remain seated and put your devices away. The wedding party will be making their entrance. The couple promises that you’ll have plenty of opportunities later to get photos.”
The row of guys in front of me shifts in their seats all at once to look up toward the entry doors, then the music starts.
I twist in my seat too, and spot Luka right away.
His hair is styled perfectly, bright blue eyes gleaming under the warm glow of the thousands of sparkling lights strung overhead.
He’s walking down with Cosmo’s sister, and she couldn’t look prouder to be on his arm.
I guess Cosmo managed to talk her out of walking him down the aisle after all.
A few of the guests gaze up at them adoringly, and I’m sure I see one mouth “Lovely couple.” A pang of jealousy hits, and my gut churns as I try to swallow down the feeling, but then Luka’s eyes find mine and his face lights up in the way it only ever does for me, and like a switch is flicked, I’m full of warmth and excitement again.
I don’t need to be jealous. Luka is all mine, and nothing has ever felt this good.
All through the ceremony, his gaze drifts to me, and I know I should be watching Cosmo and Eli, but I can’t stop staring at my gorgeous man. And then before I know it, everyone’s clapping, and the newlyweds jog down the aisle.
“Come on, Raines, time for a drink,” I hear someone say, and I turn to find an extremely tall man wearing a gold damask corset under his deep blue suit looking down at me.
“Sorry, have we met?”
“I’m Ash, Cosmo’s brother-in-law, sort of.”
I cock an eyebrow.
“We’re not married yet, but we will be in like a year.”
“Why a year?”
“I have to propose first.”
“Yeah, that part’s kind of important,” I laugh. “So where are these drinks?”
***
Turns out Benji was right. I’m sitting with Ash, as well as Eli’s brother John’s girlfriend, Sasha, and the partners of the rest of the wedding party.
I’m even having a pretty good time, but I’m also desperately waiting to see Luka again.
They went off for photos over an hour ago and I’m chomping at the bit to see him looking all handsome in his cream linen suit with a matching vest and spotted bow tie.
All the guys are dressed the same, and all the girls are wearing similar pants, but with corset tops instead of suit vests, and jackets with the same spotted satin fabric looped through their belt loops and tied in large bows at their backs. The whole wedding is stunning.
“Are you ready to raise your glasses for the wedding party?” the MC calls over the speakers, and I shove my seat back and clap with the rest of the room.
Two towers of fireworks go off at the doorway, and then the wedding party dance their way inside.
All of them are wearing the same sunglasses Cosmo gave Luka in his best man box and are jumping and celebrating their way to form a semicircle on the dance floor.
Then the towers of fireworks go off again, and in run Cosmo and Eli.
They dance down the aisle, and when they reach the middle of the dance floor, the wedding party closes the circle around them, and they move immediately into their first dance together.
The wedding party stays in a circle around them, stepping side to side in time with the music. The crowd stays standing too, and when the song ends and the MC invites the rest of us out onto the floor, I see Luka head to the side, so I make a beeline for him.
“Hey, where are you going?” I ask, and he stops and takes a second to look me up and down with a hungry stare.
“Anywhere you like, handsome,” he replies, stepping closer.
“How about the dance floor?”
“You want to dance?”
“If you want to. I mean, I did go to all the trouble of learning how.”
“You learned how to dance for me?” he asks, sliding his warm hands along my sides to my back as he peers up at me.
“It was a quick lesson in my bedroom with Benji, so not exactly professional ballroom,” I conceded.
“You asked your brother to show you how to dance?”
“I didn’t ask him so much as he sort of just made me,” I admit as a nervous ball of energy swirls inside my gut. “Is that weird?”
“It’s sweet,” he says, and I cup his face and run my thumb over his adorable dimple, then I lean down and kiss him.
My heart is hammering against my ribcage, but it doesn’t feel weird.
We let the coaches know about our relationship a few months back, and then the rest of the team after we lost the playoffs.
But we haven’t really been out in public like this before.
He breaks our kiss but holds his breath an inch from my lips.
“I love you,” he says, and my heart skips a beat, but then he fully pulls back. “Shit, sorry, is it too soon? I should have waited . . . I knew I sh—“
“Stop,” I interrupt, pulling him close and kissing him again. “I love you too. Now get that sexy ass out onto the dance floor so I can show you exactly how much.”
“Really? In front of all these people?” he asks as he unbuttons the top button of his linen shirt.
“You’re trouble, you know that?” I ask, grabbing his hand and leading him to the dance floor.
“You love trouble.”
“Yeah, I do.”
Thank you for reading Mr. Trick Play. Luka and Reid will cameo in Mr. Breakaway.