Page 37 of Brother to Brother

“Exactly,” he gave me a pointed look, inclining his head and raising his eyebrows.

“You ain’t sayin’ I should get on that are you?”

“Not your style, Arch. I’m sayin’ you should do you, but I’m also sayin’ she’s a person too. I’m sayin’ that if you want this marriage thing to work there’s work involved. You get me?”

“Yes and no, speak your fuckin’ mind man. We’re both adults.”

“That’s exactly my point. You ain’t a mind reader and neither is she. You need to speak your fuckin’ mind to her and y’all need tocommunicate. Only way any of this shit works.”

Fuckin’ Dragon. Always had a way of illustrating his point while he made it. I nodded and harrumphed.

“Message received, loud and clear, Boss.”

“Good. I’ma let you stew on that.”

“Thanks,” I uttered and Disney slid a drink across the bar to me.

I eyed him, and he shrugged, “All of us have your back,” he said cryptically and I gave him a nod as he wandered down to the other end to commiserate with Ghost who was still bitchin’ about his woman and her mouth. Something about it gettin’ ten times worse since he knocked her up. I sipped the whiskey in the glass and figured I probably had looked as nervous as I felt right now.

I tried to be rational about it. I’d been lookin’ after Mel and Noah since they’d hit my doorstep, so why was this any different. Short answer? I was getting’ fuckin’ married and Dragon was exactly right; I was a forever kind of guy. I figured if it ever happened I was only ever gonna do it once and here it was… happening. Fuck it all, it still seemed like the right thing to do, but now all of a sudden the nerves were setting in. Why?

Because now this shit is outside your control, that’s why.That voice in my head that sounded an awful lot like Grind’s was back again.

Ain’t nothin’ outside my control,I thought back at it.

Keep tellin’ yourself that,it shot back. I tossed back the rest of the whiskey in the glass.I will, godammit, I will.

Chapter 19

Melody

I feared that if Archer were anything like Phil, I would be hearing all about Shelly’s well intentioned melt down on my behalf. The thing was, I hadn’t complained, I hadn’t even saidanythingabout the whole getting married thing at all; I wasn’t going to, I mean I hadn’t planned to. I knew at least one thing about Archer in the time we’d lived with one another and that one thing was that he was anintenselyprivate man.

“You okay, Melody?” Ashton asked softly and I nodded mutely.

Shelly sighed, grumbling under her breath, “Men are sostupid.”

Soft laughter tittered among the rest of the women present but Ashton just smiled and it looked as brittle as mine felt. She mouthed at me, ‘we’ll talk later’ and I nodded. I could see it plainly that somehow, Ashtonknewand I drew a certain strength and comfort both in that shared solidarity.

“Okay, first things first, we need the basics from you to make two weeks work,” Hayden was saying. Mandy handed her a spiral bound notebook and a pen and pencil both. Hayden thanked Mandy and rolled up the sleeves on her blouse. Everyone was looking at me expectantly, Noah wriggling in my lap to make me let go where I sat on the floor in front of the big couch and equally big television.

“I don’t even know where to start,” I murmured.

“Well, where did you picture yourself getting married?” Everett asked, you must have thought about it.

I felt myself blush a deep red with embarrassment. I mean, I had thought about it, but the man I’d always pictured waiting for me at the end of the aisle was Grinder, certainly not his brother Archer. I felt the earlier threatening tears rise in a hot rush and my face crumble under their weight.

“Oh, Honey!” Ashton’s voice was sympathetic and her hug warm and supportive. It only made me crumble harder.

The women around me were wonderful, and genuinely supportive. I cried it out rather quickly and when I looked a little stronger, Hayden gently suggested, “Maybe not location first, how about we start with colors, how does that sound?”

I nodded, a bit stupidly and said, “I like purple, like amethyst, does that help?”

“That’s a great start,” Everett said and smiled, Shelly was nodding and Mandy was too.

“Okay, what’s a good color to go with dark purple? Wedding colors are typically two sometimes three.”

“Purple and white?” I asked.

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