Page 192 of The Archer Brothers

“We’re just friends,” she says. “He doesn’t have anyone.”

“He always has his team. The brotherhood doesn’t die.”

“It’s not the same. He confides in me. His parents have really hurt him.”

Returning from the dead, after six years, really messed our families up. I was the lucky one, so to speak. My family was where I left them. They had just moved on. McCoy had to hunt for his family, while Rask’s parents told him they didn’t believe he was their son. And River, well, he’s another story.

“Just make sure he knows the door is always open. He doesn’t need an invite. If he needs a family, he has one with us.”

“I’ll tell him,” Livvie says.

We finish our dance, and the DJ announces it’s time to cut the cake. I wait for Ryley to walk over with EJ, and then we head to the cake table. “Are we doing the smashing thing?”

“I’d rather not,” she says.

“Sounds good to me.”

The caterer hands us a knife and shows us where to cut. We have to go slow so the photographer can get a million pictures that I’m sure we’ll never do anything with. The caterer then slices the piece we cut into bite-sized pieces and tells us to pick one. Again, we move slowly for the photographer. At the same time, Ryley and I lift the cake to each other’s mouths and gently take a bite. It’s the most anticlimactic thing I have ever done.

The DJ gets on his mic and says it’s time for a toast and that the best man has something to say. Nate comes up to us and asks that we take a seat on the two chairs on the dance floor. We do and find our son standing there with a microphone in his hand.

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