Page 86 of A Wedding in a Week

“You had any good hits on that dating app lately?” He knows I deleted it the minute Stef looked twice at me, but Lukas doesn’t ever let the truth get in the way of being a bellend. “You can tell me if you’ve found someone tall, dark, and exciting who’s dying to get your ginger engine revving. Or have you really settled for Cornwall’s most boring farmer?”

There’s nothing boring about Stef. He’s the opposite, and of course Lukas knows I think that, a secret he swore he’d keep forever. Now I’m glad he installed that app and told Stef about it, or I wouldn’t be here. That doesn’t mean Lukas isn’t a dick. It just means I’m lucky that he’s always in my corner, and that’s how I feel even when he tempts me to push him down this steep hill we’ve climbed together.

“Christ knows why you ever had the hots for Stef. I mean I know he’s huge and hairy, but he’s the worst-looking Luxton. Now you’ll never know if I could have been bi-curious for your copper-topped body.”

I gag, but Lukas only points down to the pasture by the headland where two puppies ignore John’s short, sharp training whistles to chase Jess, and I wonder if they’re the change he noticed. There isn’t anything else different below us. I only see Stef mowing a path for the rehearsal later. Noah follows him on the quad bike until Stef stops and points too, only he doesn’t stretch his healed arm up towards me and Lukas. He’s spotted something else that shoots towards us.

A helicopter streaks across the water. It crests the cliffs, seagulls spiralling as it soars across tents ready for another wedding. A real one this time.

Christ, I hope it all works out.

Not only seagulls spiral once the helicopter passes. My stomach does too with what I have left to check off my list. Only Noah cuts through that churning. He whoops again, the sound strong and life-filled, proof of good luck like having Lukas in my corner, until he resumes teasing.

“Tell me, how many dogs can you see down there with John?”

“Why?”

Lukas grins, and I hold in a deep sigh. “Just wondered if you needed a sight test. It would explain a lot about some of your huge and hairy choices.”

Those puppies now copy what Jess shows them, circling the quad bike, and I copy what I learned after years of watching Stef in action. I put Lukas in a good headlock, and I thank fuck I had the chance to learn the difference when he dissolves with laughter. He also quickly sobers. “Come on. We’re almost there.”

He takes the lead then, and I follow, picking a path like he does between gorse bushes and trees the wind has stunted.

We keep going, climbing even higher, still on Luxton land, but barely.

Rocks are the only harvest up here. Lukas crouches next to a pile. They’re all fist-sized, or maybe heart-size is a better description for what someone has stacked at the highest point of Kara-Tir. Lukas counts them while mentioning a low point.

“Thirty-six rocks.” He meets my eyes, and this isn’t the kid whose fun side first made me want to stay here, or the brother with a hole in his heart that Stef works hard not to worry about these days. It’s a doctor-to-be I see all over again. The one who shored us both up in London. He’s still so full of compassion. “You know who leaves these rocks here, right?”

I can guess. I can’t speak though, which Lukas has to notice, and it doesn’t matter that this pile of stones marks a Luxton loss, not mine, he acts as if I’m the one it stabs the sharpest. His voice softens. “Stef’s left a stone here every single month since…” His head hangs, and I know he’s seen a lot of broken hearts while following his destiny this summer, but it has to hit differently when it’s family.

He clears his throat. “I know Stef sits right here where I found Dad, then he leaves a stone behind to mark another month without him.”

Lukas picks up a rock, turning each rough edge over. Today sunlight finds a seam of reddish mica, a flame locked inside the granite.

“Or at least he used to come up here every month, Marc. There are the same number of stones here as the last time I counted. That’s the big change I noticed. He’s stopped measuring each month. He isn’t counting each day. Do you know when that happened, or why? Because I think I do.”

I can guess, but I still can’t speak, so I only nod.

Lukas sets that stone down as more of Noah’s whooping spirals all the way up here to us. It’s faint but laugh-filled because Stef’s finished his mowing. Now he takes a turn on the quad bike with Noah behind him, all three dogs chasing. He drives fast. Much faster than I would with a fragile passenger, but Noah isn’t fragile just like Stef isn’t still marking the past. He’s moved on, and I’m…

I’m trying.

I nod again, and it’s Lukas who lands a hand on my shoulder, but it could belong to any Luxton. “I like this change in Stef. Keep being his reason for it, yeah? Keep being it and don’t stop.”

Lukas doesn’t need to tell me to do that.

It’s the last box on my checklist.

* * *

STEF

Of course the coast road is clogged with camper vans when it’s time to get Noah’s test results. I’m tempted to beep the horn and rev the engine, only a quick glance to my left shows a fist around a seat belt along with a set of bleached-white knuckles.

I can’t lie—my heart clenches to see fear in this Land Rover. Marc’s heart must clench too at seeing it on his brother, but he never avoids addressing tough stuff with Noah. He throws himself at it headfirst, like I almost went over the same cliff we now crawl past.

“Stef won’t drive anywhere close to the edge. You don’t need to worry.”

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