Page 15 of Play Dirty (Brooklyn Dawn 1)

They didn’t really need me. Sure, it made the numbers even, but the tightly knit group was all about celebrating Lauren and West. The bride and groom only had eyes for each other. West in his khaki pants and white linen shirt with a garland of traditional maile leaves draped around his neck. His long sun streaked hair was tied back in a queue, but the shorter pieces had escaped to float on the sweet, briny breeze.

His groomsmen matched him in clothing and that was about it. Warning Sign was as diverse in music as they were in temperament. The entire band was lined up, some with a few more scowls than others, but they had all showed up. I even caught Mal grinning when Lauren giggled through the lei tying part of the ceremony.

My gaze drifted over Lauren with her white dress and flower belt that matched her flower crown. She was smiling so big her cheeks had to hurt. I didn’t know the happy couple well, but they seemed like the real deal.

More importantly, they felt like forever. I’d been around enough couples who

were in the fake it til you make it camp to know these two were different. No hesitation in their approach to the minister, no missteps as they entered in the traditional wedding circle on this beautiful beach.

For God’s sake, they didn’t even look around throughout the ceremony to take it all in. She only had eyes for him, and West was of a like mind.

To be loved like that was unsettling. To give yourself completely to someone? Scary as hell. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to do that, even if a tiny part of me longed for it sometimes.

A few sniffles from the women around me echoed the emotions that foamed up inside me with as much lacy froth as the tide crawling up the beach.

Love.

Fidelity.

Forever.

West leaned down to touch his forehead to Lauren’s as he repeated his vows and they made their promises. His husky, rumbling voice rose clear and strong as he said, “I do”. As the officiant unwound the leis from their wrists to loop over first the groom then the bride, he said something in their lyrical native language. The two exchanged rings.

Before he could tell West to kiss the bride, the impatient groom dragged her into his arms. In true Lauren fashion, she hopped up and wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him back.

“Thank God they have their own room,” Mal muttered. His wife, Elle, was the first to cross the wedding party lines to drag him down to her by the ears and growl something to him before kissing him senseless.

After that, the wedding party melted into a puppy pile of hugging and laughing friends.

I backed away to give them their privacy.

“Nice if you like that sort of thing.”

I turned toward Jamie’s voice. “Hey, hooker.”

One of her raven black eyebrows spiked. “You haven’t called me that in a long time.”

I lifted my skirt to show the flask strapped to my thigh. “Might have a little something to do with it.”

Jamie made a gimme gesture. “You’re holding out on me.”

I laughed and handed it over.

Jamie took a slug, then winced and handed it back. “Too sweet.” She nodded to the people crowded around West and Lauren. “Much like that. Did you catch those vows? Forever? Who pledges that?”

“Most people who do the getting hitched thing.”

Jamie shook back her hair. “They can keep it. I’d jump off a cliff first.”

Considering my bestie’s penchant for all things adrenaline-inducing, that wasn’t much of a statement, but I was too buzzy to argue with her at the moment.

Jamie had taken the casual dress instructions on the wedding invite to heart and wore a ripped Kiss shirt over a bold red bikini top and cutoff white shorts.

“Nice outfit.”

“Cute, right?” She turned to show me the threadbare back of the white denim. More than half her ass was hanging out. “Pretty sure I caught the professor checking out my ass.”

I laughed. “Molly would rip his eyelids off and feed them to him.”

---