Page 138 of You're so Bad

“I tell him he’s a free man, and his first act is to commit a crime,” Shane comments blandly.

“Oh, come on. If it’s a crime at all, it’s a misdemeanor. I’ll bet it’s not even an arrestable offense.”

“Don’t punch anyone.” He takes a bite of bagel and washes it down with coffee, obviously not that worried for Champ and Bianca.

“I feel like we should tell you not to ruin the wedding, but do we really care?” Burke asks. “They sound like assholes.”

“My objective isn’t to ruin the wedding, but I also don’t care,” I confirm. “They’re the ones who decided to get married on Shauna’s birthday. I have to go.”

His works his jaw. “I can’t come,” he tells me, actually looking sorry about it. “Delia and I have plans in—” He checks his watch. “Shit. Now, actually.” He takes another bite of his bagel, then glances at me before moving his gaze to Shane. “How do I look?”

“I see how it is,” I say. “You trust the clean-cut lawyer more than the ex-criminal.”

“Ex-alleged criminal,” Shane puts in. Giving Burke an assessing look, he lifts his eyebrows. “Go look in a mirror, and you’ll have your answer.”

“That bad, huh?” Before he gets up, he glances at me. “Do you have a suit? If you’re crashing a wedding, you should wear a suit. You can borrow one of mine.”

“I can’t bring you, Leonard,” Shane says, lifting both of his hands. “I’m a partner at a—”

“Very important firm, we know,” Danny says with a sigh as he sets down his half-finished bagel. “Fine, I’ll go. But doIhave to wear a suit?”

“You can both borrow suits,” Burke says.

“Christ, how many do you have?” I ask.

“More than you want to know,” Danny answers for him. “The dry cleaner closest to us closed after he quit the family business.”

No shit.

“Let’s roll,” I tell him, feeling the adrenaline pumping hot again.

Do I have a plan?

Hell, no. But I know the best time to crash a wedding is after the food has been served. People can tell whether there are enough plates, but they give less of a shit if there’s another body on the dance floor.

Most importantly: I need to see her now. Because when you realize you have a chance to be with the woman you love after you’d gone and convinced yourself you’d spend the rest of your life in a jail cell, you don’t want to wait.

ChapterThirty-Six

Shauna

“Well, that’s done and dusted,” Grandpa Frank says with a grunt after I join him at the back of the ceremony. I stood up front with Grayson, both of us treated to an up-close-and-personal view of Bianca and Colter saying their vows, exchanging rings, and walking down the aisle with a goat on a leash. Yes, a goat on a leash.

Said goat also walked Bianca up the aisle.

The goat is another sign that the Bianca I loved wasn’t totally a lie, because somewhere deep inside, under multiple levels of self-involvement, she thought it was funny to send up a big FU to her parents by having a rented goat walk her up the aisle instead of her mother or father.

“We’ll all be able to sleep tonight, knowing Colt folds her socks,” Grandpa Frank continued. “Good, that.”

He’s right, the vows were long enough that I’m guessing they had some kind of competition going to figure out who could say more.

“Don’t forget that he’s ‘wonderfully predictable,’” I say.

He grunts, “Anyone who’s met the man could tell you that. You feeling okay about this?”

“Yeah.” I mean it, exceptLeonard should be here. He should be laughing with me about all of this. Grandpa Frank is curmudgeon enough for ten men, but it’s not the same. “They deserve each other. I hope it’s everything they wanted it to be.”

Bianca looks gorgeous. It’s a fine, sunny day at the Arboretum, the first hint of fall colors are showing but there are still flowers blooming, and the décor is classy. I’m….

---