Page 135 of The Love Destroyers

I go off in search of my brother, and find him with Rosie and Seamus, who’s teasing her about the possibility of her water breaking mid-ceremony. I force a laugh as I circle around one of the pillars, all of which are decorated with bright flower arrangements, courtesy of Chuck.

“It’s her fourth wedding,” she says. “I think we might need a little water-breaking for excitement.”

“There you are,” Seamus says, grinning at me as he wraps an arm around my back. “I’ve been looking for you and my flask. Chuck just about talked my ear off.”

“And you enjoyed every minute of it,” I say wryly. “Meanwhile, my mother insists I’m more nervous about this wedding than she is. She’s in one of the sitting rooms with a gin and tonic.”

“You know what they say,” Rosie says as she waggles her eyebrows up and down. “Fourth time’s a charm.”

“Someone had to say it for the first time, I guess,” Seamus puts in.

“But you know what?” my brother says, wrapping his arm around Rosie’s waist. “I think the fourth time really will be a charm. I’ve never seen Mother so happy.”

“She’s almost agreeable,” I put in. “It’s uncanny. But the drink probably helped.”

Rosie laughs and places a palm on her belly. “Good on you. How’s your non-alcoholic drink game?”

“Piss poor,” Seamus says, giving her an arch look. “I wouldn’t say it’s her expertise.”

“I can do anything I set my mind to,” I tell him pointedly, thinking about him sitting my mother and Anthony down for that talk. “Anything.”

Something flashes in his eyes, but he gives me one of his many smiles. Fond, warm. “Oh, I know. You’ve proven it to me any number of times.”

His request of my mother almost slips my mind as the day passes in joyful chaos. Nicole brought a petting zoo, for “old time’s sake,” and set it up in back. One of the goats eats part of a woman’s very expensive dress, and she puts up a fuss until my mother gives her an epic set down.

My mother’s cousin Jennifer nearly chokes on a cherry, and Declan has to give her the hug of life.

Sophie tells Nicole and me the story of her ex Jonah, who was seeing three different women behind her back.

Her cousin Otis, whom I invited because I still feel bad about the whole Ellie thing, drinks too much and vomits in the punchbowl.

Mary’s son tells me more facts than I’ll ever remember about Ankylosauruses.

Rosie’s water doesn’t break, but she does have Braxton Hicks contractions that put Anthony into a worried frenzy.

Seamus and Idance, and we eat, and we make merry. The only face I put red lipstick on is mine—and his—because I can’tstop kissing him. But at a certain point in the reception, he nods toward the door.

“What?” I ask, breathless.

“Come with me.” He smooths back his hair. “We’re taking a smoke break.”

I lift my eyebrows. “Did you decide to piss me off by taking up smoking again?”

“Something like that,” he says, his voice as smooth as butter. I figured we needed something to argue about.

My heart beats faster, because this obviously isn’t about smoking, and I give him my hand.

We exit the room together, and Nicole whistles at our backs and shouts, “We all know what those two are doing!”

We’ve gotten very good at ignoring her when need be.

He leads me through the halls of Smith House and then outside, shaking his head at the warm, temperate night as he leads the way around the side of the house. “The weather could have at least cooperated so I could offer you my jacket.”

He’s referring to that night, the night we began, and my lips lift in a smile. “Look at it this way, you can go straight to kissing me against a wall and stealing the flask back.”

The flask has become an ongoing joke—we pass it back and forth at least three or four times a week, and sometimes we hide it around the apartment.

“Don’t mind if I do,” he says, backing me behind the shrubberies—no longer as tall and broad as they used to be, because Chuck is all about bringing things into the light rather than concealing them.

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