Page 86 of Of Pranks and Passion

“Try not to worry so much. It’s not that– Gary!”

CHAPTER FIFTY

EASTON

“Try and keep up,”I taunted. Jayden was pouring sweat, and his stance was weak after over an hour of training with me. Coach was busy, and I had a fight tomorrow night, so when Jayden heard me complaining, he volunteered to help. I wasn’t sure he really knew what he was getting into.

“You’re a monster,” he panted. “How the hell are you still so bouncy? Are you on speed?”

I snorted, dropping my hands. He looked ready to collapse. He wasn’t going to be able to take another hit. “Maybe if you worked out more than once a year, you’d be able to keep up.”

“Next time I’m making Gary help you,” he complained, following me through the ropes and off the ring. An actual ring, since I couldn’t exactly train on the streets. Especially not with my brother. Gyms were safer. He collapsed onto the bench beside the ring, guzzling half his water in one go. “Where is he, by the way?”

“With the wedding planner.”

“Ah. And how’s that going? Still planning on humiliating his family in an ultimate revenge plot?”

I gave him a flat look. “Yes. The only reason they’ve left him alone recently is because they’re too distracted with the wedding. He’s actually happy now. I’m not letting them get a hold on him again.”

“You love him,” he said with a smirk.

A grunt was the only reply he’d get. Gary was important to me. I looked forward to seeing him every day, and his smile settled me when I was pissed off. Was that love? Because my friends settled me, too. It wasn’t the same, I didn’t want to fuck them senseless every night, but still.

I didn't dwell on it. Gary liked the way things were. He told me he did. I didn’t need to change things. As long as he was happy, we were still good.

“You ever thought about actually sending in the papers?”

Frowning, I looked over at him. “What?”

He shrugged, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You two seem really happy. And you’ve been together long enough now to know each other pretty well. You’re planning a whole wedding together. The only thing we were going to leave out was the paperwork part of it. But if you can see yourself spending forever with Gary, then it might be worth considering.” He thought about it for a minute before adding, “Then you wouldn’t have to do this twice if you decide to get married in the future. You’ll already be married.”

He let me think about it, disappearing into the locker room to rinse off while I sat on that bench, staring into space. Actually marry Gary? I never considered it before. I was happy with the way things were now. But… would filling out some paperwork really change anything? Other than make him legally mine? I doubted it. It wasn’t like we’d sign the paperwork, and he’d suddenly start demanding romantic shit. Even when he planned dates for us, they were never romantic. They were always funand hilarious and playful. That was us. A piece of paper wouldn’t change that. But it might make Gary happy.

I thought about it while I rinsed off and got dressed, and all the way to the car, but I couldn’t decide. Would he even want that? To be tied to me permanently?

My phone rang while we were putting our bags in the back of the car. The weather was nice enough for me to use my baby, but there wasn’t enough room for both of us and our bags, so we took Jayden’s car instead. I put my phone to my ear, heading for the passenger side.

“What?”

“Um… Okay. Please don’t kill me. I didn’t know,” the wedding planner pleaded.

I stiffened. “What happened?”

“Okay, so, I was going over the seating chart with Gary, and we got to talking about the ceremony. I noticed he was a little nervous about the number of people, but I figured that was normal. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it, but I reminded him about his vows since I hadn’t gotten a copy of them yet. He went super pale, and the next thing I knew, he fainted.”

My stomach dropped, and I shot Jayden a horrified look over the top of the car.

He frowned. “What is it?”

“Keys. Gimme your damn keys.”

I raced around the front of the car, snatching the keys mid-air after Jayden tossed them to me. I’d give my brother one thing, he knew when not to pester me asking stupid questions. He dodged into the passenger seat right as I started up the car, handing him the phone so he could put it on speaker.

“Where is he?”

“On the way to the hospital. I think he would've been okay, but I didn’t see him in time to catch him and he smacked his head. The paramedics said he’d probably be fine, and he wasawake when they took him away, but they wanted to bring him to the hospital as a precaution.”

“Which hospital?” Jayden demanded, holding tight to the oh-shit handle as I took a corner too sharply. “Dammit, Easton, slow down, or we’ll end up joining him on a stretcher.”

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