Page 122 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“We don’t know,” I answered finally. “Makes it a bit tricky, but Connor organised a marriage license for each one of us. Whichever one Kendall chooses today is the groom, and the others will be best men.”

That’d be me, I was sure of it. Some people had main-character syndrome, thinking they were the centre of everything, but not me. Connor, however… He marched into the room at the church, wearing the same snappy black suit Gage and I were wearing. My dad said we looked like mafia henchmen, but my mum got all misty eyed and said we were super handsome. Then she started crying, and so did Maggie, and then our dads started to get flustered.

All except Connor’s parents.

After Bruce paid off Mark’s loan, any attempt by the Woods to contact us was rejected vehemently by Connor. It’s like they didn’t know their own son. You only got once chance with Connor. Speaking of which…

“You’re telling me now there’s no crab,” he said. “On the day of my bloody…” He glanced at us. “The wedding. Yes, I heard what you said and I want you to get your staff into scuba gear, book a charter, and go into the damn ocean yourself to find some crab… Oh, you will? Then what’re you bothering me for?” He stabbed a finger at his phone screen, ending the call. “Those pricks—”

“Are out of crab?” Gage stepped in and plucked the phone from Connor’s grip. “Yeah, I got that.”

“Gimme my phone back!” Connor snapped. “What if something happens while the ceremony takes place? What if Kendall gets sick.”

“She’s not sick,” I replied. I’d checked in with her already via text, told her I loved her and not so subtly tried to find out who she was gonna actually marry. She didn’t tell me.

“Well, what if something happens to her on the way to church? A car accident?”

“You don’t need your phone,” Gage said. “You need to take a damn breath.”

“What?”

Connor stared at him like he had two heads.

“Take a breath,” Gage prompted. “I’m not giving you your phone back—”

“Fine.” Connor sucked a breath in and then gasped it back again. “Happy, now—”

“It’s gonna be you.”

“What?” Connor just blinked at Gage.

“It’s gonna be you,” my best mate reiterated. “Van and I had already decided.”

We had? The big guy shot me a warning look, making it plain that I needed to play along.

“You need this more than we do. I think it’s why Van proposed with absolutely no thought whatsoever.”

“OK, fuck you very much,” I told Gage.

“And why I didn’t have a ring. We need Kendall. We love her with our entire hearts, but you need…” Gage pulled out the wedding ring box and plopped it in Connor’s hand. “You need for our girl to walk around each day, wearing your ring, so she’s gonna choose you.”

Connor Woods, soon to be Kennedy, just stared at Gage and then me. Before he could say anything, the doors were thrust open.

“Ring!” Benny said, stomping over in the cutest little monkey suit because Finn’s son was to be our ring bearer.

“Benny!” Cheryl staggered in with Katie coming in behind, carrying a basket of flowers. Her daughter was the flower girl and she was the matron of honour. I slapped a hand over my eyes and then looked blindly in their direction.

“I didn’t see anything. It’s not bad luck if I didn’t see anything!”

“It’s bad luck if you see the bride before the wedding, not the matron of honour,” Gage drawled.

I looked at the lot of them through the gap between my fingers, and then Benny started to laugh. There’s something about little kid giggles that just lights you up inside and I found myself grinning despite myself. So did everyone else. Smiles turned to grins, grins turned to chuckles and Benny, seeing he had a captive audience, just giggled all the more. The whole room filled with the sound of cackles, right until the celebrant appeared.

Connor wanted to be married in a church, so we compromised and were getting married here. The place was a beautiful old chapel that had been deconsecrated, the local parish no longer big enough to support it. Rather than a priest, Kendall had chosen a celebrant who was used to unconventional relationships. Admittedly he’d been a little blown away by the complexity of ours, but—

“Ready to find out who’s the lucky man?” he said, rubbing his hands together.

“Ready.”

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