Page 13 of Best Man
“There she is!”
“Here comes the bride!”
“Hey there, sexy mama!”
Piper hurried out of the house to greet everyone. The bride-to-be was already looking the part in a white floral print wrap dress, which fluttered in the wind as she ran. The girls ran to meet her, too, and she greeted everyone with hugs and cheek kisses. The men followed behind and waited their turn to say hi.
“Hello, Piper,” Niko said, giving her a hug. “You look beautiful.”
“Hey there, Mr. Best Man! I heard you flew everyone here in style, huh?”
“Nice, right?”
“Sonice,” she said.
He winked. “Wait until you see the inside.”
She laughed. “Yeah, right! Maybe someday. Probably not anytime soon. You know we’re not as jet-set as you are.”
Niko grinned slyly, knowing his wedding gift secret was safe with Jax. “By the way, I love your place here. It isamazing.”
“Thank you!” She pulled back and looked around. “Hey, wait a minute. Where’s Belen?”
“Oh. Er.” Niko shyly rubbed the back of his neck, knowing full well this wasn’t going to help his reputation. “She is not coming. We broke up a little while ago.”
“Niko!” she squealed with disappointment, and everyone laughed. “Really? Are you serious? So you don’t have a date for the wedding?”
“No, I don’t.” He added with a wink, “So if you have any hot friends—”
She cut him off. “—I’ll be warning them to stay away from you!”
Another wave of laughter swept over the group.
Piper continued down the line, greeting the other men. She saved the best for last, greeting her future husband with a kiss on the lips. It was plain as day for all to see—they were madly in love. It was a beautiful sight, but also a bittersweet one, as Niko could only wonder what a love like that could feel like.
“Well, the wedding coordinator should be here in about twenty minutes,” Piper said, her hand clasped in Jax’s. She glanced up at him. “What should we do while we wait?”
“You guys want a tour of the house?” he asked.
Everyone cheered and the group moved towards the house.
***
Natural light flooded through the tall windows and skylights of the spacious house. Jax and Piper’s gorgeous house was teeming with life, with houseplants and potted indoor trees by every window and hanging vines suspended from the tall ceilings.
“Can you tell a plant person lives here?” Piper joked as the tour moved through the five-bedroom house.
“This is such a lovely home, you guys,” Emma Hathaway, hockey wife and one of the bridesmaids, said. “You two must be so excited to live here full-time.”
“Yeah, but at the same time, we’re not inthatbig of a rush,” Piper said. She patted Jax’s stomach. “We need the Big Rig to have a long and healthy career, after all.”
Jax explained to the group that the house would serve as their summer vacation home until he retired, when they’d make the move permanent. In the meantime, Piper explained, her parents and sister would live in the house so it wasn’t sitting around unused.
Piper has a sister?Niko thought, eyebrow arching.Huh. I didn’t know that.But the tour kept moving and the inconsequential thought fled his mind a second later.
Austen, another bridesmaid, joked, “This is alotof house, girl. You’re going to have to start crankingout the babies if you want to fill this bad boy up.” Everyone laughed.
“That’s the plan.” Piper knocked on the nearest slab of wood she could find. “We’re going to start trying immediately.”
