Page 45 of Love Over Easy

“I wanted to ask if you’ll stand up for me. Be my best man.”

That request makes my head pop up. “What about your brothers? I know Gage is deployed, but Adan and Case are going to be there.”

“They are and I could ask one of them, but I can’t pick between them. Besides, we’ve been tight since kindergarten.”

I chuckle because he’s right; we have been through a lot together. “I’d be honored to be your best man. Who is going to be Kimberly’s maid of honor?”

“I can’t believe it, but her best friend Lili is flying in for the ceremony all the way from Tanistan. Princess Lili and Prince Milo, that is. It’s still hard to wrap my head around knowing royalty.”

“They were both really nice when I met them at the Inn’s open house. Kimberly and Lili are really close. What about her parents?”

“I flew out to California and her dad was on board immediately, but her mother took some convincing. I had to agree to a huge pretentious reception when we get back from our honeymoon and to name our first-born daughter after her.”

I chuckle. “At least Kimberly will have her father walk her down the aisle. Is everything else on schedule?”

“Man, I hope so. Brandy, Suzie, and Melissa have been incredible. The food is being catered by Winthrop’s over in Wilmington. The flowers have been ordered and will arrive on the noon ferry. Brandy has the dress Kimberly found in the attic and she’s having it cleaned and altered to match the measurements of one of Kimberly’s dresses. James is going to let us borrow some of his potted landscaping plants to decorate with. Colm is building an arbor for the beach where we’ll stand. I hope I haven’t forgotten anything.”

I’m impressed that Bode has pulled this all together. He loves Kimberly deeply and would do anything for her, even when she doesn’t know she needs it. That’s true love. I ignore the parallels and how I’ve let Shy down. Every time I close my eyes, I see her falling to the mat and not moving. “It sounds like you’ve got it all covered. I never thought you could pull it off. How about the rings?”

Bode’s eyes widen with stark panic. “Shit! I forgot the rings.”

I chuckle and put a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down. You have plenty of time. Just fly over in the morning and pick up a set of wedding bands.”

“Yeah. Okay. I can do that. I’ll call Adan and he can go with me.”

“Right. See, all is good.”

“Thanks, man. That would have been a disaster.”

“Come on, Bode. Even if you hadn’t remembered, Kimberly wouldn’t have cared.”

His smile goes all sappy. “You’re right. She wouldn’t have. We just want to be married and I don’t like seeing her stressed out and doubting herself like she’s been doing with all the wedding planning her mother has been pushing. This wedding may not be a conventional one, but it’s us. This is what we would have wanted if we’d planned it ourselves.”

“I stand in awe of your romanticism.” Because I’m too self-centered to show the woman I love that I care. I’m no better than her father… and that hurts.

Bode laughs and says, “Shut up. Just wait until it’s your turn to take a long walk down a short aisle.”

“I don’t think that’s even a saying, Bode.” My smile falls when I think of it being my turn. For a while there, I saw it happening but now, not so much. Shy is the one. The only one.

“Hey,” Bode says. “Have you heard from her?”

I shake my head. Telling him how much of an ass I’ve been isn’t going to happen. I don’t need one more person telling me how I’ve let Shy down. “We ended things before she left.”

“That doesn’t sound right. I saw how into you she was. I can’t believe she just left without making plans for when she comes back.”

I push my unfinished sandwich back and stare out over the ocean that Shy loved to watch. “I didn’t want her to fight anymore. I saw the bruises on her body from her last fight. They were bad. I can’t go through seeing her in the ring, knowing her opponent wants to knock her out. That may be completely sexist, but…”

Bode interrupts, “You want to protect the ones you love. You love her, don’t you, David?”

My stomach rolls at the thought of never holding her again. How could I have been such an ass? “I do. And I made her choose between me or her father. I told her if she left, we were through.”

The look on Bode’s face shows me how much of an ass I am. “That’s a huge fuck up, man.”

With a heavy sigh, I reply, “That wasn’t my best moment. I have all kinds of regrets. I should have handled it so much better, but it all happened so fast. I didn’t have time to process. I just knew I couldn’t stand by and see her hurt.”

“She’s good, man. Really good. Have you even looked at her stats? She’s a 6th degree black belt in Judo and has been the reigning MMA champion for the past five years. Over her professional career, she’s had sixteen total wins. Four by knockouts, and she’s only had three losses.”

Each stat he gives only makes my heart beat faster and my body shudders to think how she got those numbers. “Is that supposed to make me feel better? It doesn’t.”

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