Page 3 of Accidentally Forever
I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering exactly how Lexington had not only become my best friend, but had also started to bring every single one of his family members into my circle. That was how Dash had joined in on our dinner for the evening.
“First, don’t call that song weird. We both know that most animals are better than people.”
Lex tilted his beer at me in acknowledgment.
“Second, he technically won the Tonyafterboth movies were out.”
“I’m not worried but pleased that you know so much about Jonathan Groff. Is there anything else I should know?” Dash asked, a smile playing on his face before he took a sip of his beer.
“I had a crush on him and his costar from that serial killer show. She was hot. So of course I know things. I’m a fountain of useless knowledge. Get me onJeopardy, and I could kick ass.” I winked before stealing one of Lex’s onion rings.
Lex narrowed his gaze at me. “You didn’t want onion rings. You wanted sweet potato fries. Why are you stealing mine?”
“Because they don’t taste good cold, and you’re letting them go to waste. I am just allowing the onion ring to fulfill its life’s purpose.” I crunched down on the greasy yet crispy perfection and took another sip of my beer.
“Now that I have learned far too much about you…” Dash continued, smiling, “let’s circle back to the original point of this conversation. Are you searching for your one and only? Because if you haven’t noticed, our family is starting to fall like flies. One after another. Quite frankly, I’m getting tired of weddings. I know everybody tries to have their ceremony slightly different, but in the end, it’s cake and flowers. Flowers and cake.”
Lexington gave me a look before rolling his eyes at his cousin. “Please do not tell any of our other family members—who happen to be in love—how you feel about weddings. Or you’ll have to deal with the wrath of the mothers.”
Dash didn’t back down. “You know I’m not wrong here.”
Lex shrugged, absently playing with the lettuce on his burger. “I don’t really care. Everybody does whatthey want and with all the crap our family has gone through over the past few years, they deserve cake and flowers.”
“I’d rather just have the cake.”
I held back a grin at the two of them as they continued to discuss the various family members that were either getting married, already married, or having babies. It was only because I knew the Montgomerys so well that I could keep up with the conversation.
Lex and Dash were first cousins, as their fathers were brothers. However, the rest of the Montgomerys called themselves cousins regardless of the connections. With so many children in their generation, it was just easier for everybody to go by the same moniker, that way they didn’t have to guess as to who the aunt, second aunt twice removed, or neighbor was.
As I had come from a single child household, with no cousins to speak of, my best friend’s family seemed a little ridiculous. They were loud, sometimes rowdy, but always there for you.
I knew they would lay down everything, including their own lives, to protect their family. I had seen it in action multiple times when danger came at them without warning.
And while part of me could be jealous over theircloseness, in the end I knew they would do the same for me.
Because it had been Lex’s house that I had slept at when I was a kid and needed to get out from under my parents’ thumb.
When my mother’s fists had been sharper than her barbs. And when my father had stood back and allowed her to do so, before sending his own vitriol down the line. Sometimes the math of families didn’t add up to me. I was one. With two parents, and I’d been the statistic.
The one kid who’d been forced to hide his bruises, to pretend that I had just forgotten my lunch. Instead it had been a way for my father to lash out at me by throwing away the lunch I had made for myself. And neither one of my parents would’ve ever given me money in order to eat. Their little way to punish me even though they had more money than most knew what to do with.
It had been Lex and his cousins who had taken me in.
And yet with the multitudes of siblings and cousins that my best friend had, all of them had loving and caring parents. There might be secrets and fights, but that came with any family. No matter what, they knew they were loved and always had a place to run home to.
And in the end, I’d had a place to do the same. Even if my parents had done all they could to make sure it wasn’t a possibility.
“Earth to Crew, are you okay?”
I pulled myself out of my far too reflective thoughts and stole another onion ring. The fact that Lex didn’t say anything told me he was worried about me. He didn’t need to be. Nobody did. I was the sane one, the calm one out of all our friends. And if I kept telling myself that, I would one day believe it.
“I’m fine. And no, I’m not on the hunt for my one and only.”
Because I already found her.
Pain lashed against my soul one more time, and I ignored the sting. It was getting easier to do as time moved on. There was probably some semblance of peace or horror at that.
Maybe I didn’t love her. Maybe it was just need or an infatuation. But she didn’t love me back, and I wasn’t a man to beg.
