Page 74 of Binding Their Hearts

“Yeah, jeez, put a shirt on.” Ty, laughing, threw both hands in front of his eyes. “Don’t be flashing those muscles out in the hall. Henry and Alice will have to defend their territory.”

“Alice could slap anybody into next week.”

He’d tossed the words out automatically—and Ty, shuddering, raised his hands in fake surrender and begged for peace—but it was kind of the first time he’d joked about what had happened with Peggy.

He waited for guilt that never came. Alice had been defending him. The first person in his life to balls-out stand up to Peggy over him. And Henry let him make up his own mind, because what Jay wanted mattered. Even when he took a while to figure it out. “I want everybody to have what I have. And maybe take fewer detours getting there.”

“That’s a class-A wish to put out in the world, Jay.” His younger almost-double nodded, his lips pressed together, blinking maybe more than usual. “All right, I gotta get back to ushering or Claudia will tear me a new one. You did right putting her in charge. Everything’s clockwork out there.” Another solid hug, and Ty dashed out the door.

Jay got his Henry-green undershorts and his gray-and-black pants and socks on before another knock came and Charlie breezed on in. “Jay, damn, mighty fancy today. You excited or what? Of course you are, what am I even saying? You deserve this. All this happiness pouring down from the sky? That’s yours, man. You earned it.”

A softer rap sounded.

“Hey, your door’s open. You good for candids, Jay?” Avery waited for his okay before she entered and knocked the door shut with her heel. “You know the drill—pretend I’m not here.”

He shrugged his shirt on and sent a quick text to Emma that he’d be ready for his tie in T-minus six seconds. “I feel crazy lucky, and, like, grateful.” He raced through the buttons and stuffed the shirt into his pants, then turned his back to Avery for a minute, unzipped and retucked the shirt the way Henry would want him to, and refastened his pants. “I’m where I always wanted to be. My whole life, really. I just didn’t know it then.”

Charlie held the vest open for him, and Jay slipped his arms through. “Maybe it’s not my place, but I’m proud of you, Jay. Claud and Stephen are, too.” Charlie flipped up the collar on the dress shirt. “Not that we sit around and talk about you or anything. Just that it feels good to see life working out for our friends. You’ve come a long way since summer.”

Less than six months ago, he’d shied away from taking any public affection from Henry. He’d thrown up his public-Jay wall and watched hungrily—in awe—as Charlie let his whole emotional self spill out on the basketball court, teasing and flirting with Claudia and Stephen like he didn’t care who saw him or what they thought.

“I don’t know who gets the rights to say what, but you and Ty are pretty much my brothers, Charlie.” Closer brothers in six months than he and Kevin had been in thirty years, but he was working on that, too. Once a person set changes in motion, they couldn’t control the speed of the race, Danny said. Just their own journey. “And you haven’t been stingy with the advice when I needed it. Or just modeling what I could be. What I could have, if I learned how to let myself.” Telling people how important they were to him, that he could control. Letting more people than Henry and Alice see his true feelings. “So if you’re proud of me, that feels good. It feels really good.”

Avery circled them with the camera, clicking away as Charlie, behind him, clasped his shoulders and gave him a brotherly shake. They didn’t look anything like brothers in the mirror, but a mirror couldn’t see the whole truth.

Jay picked up his tie. The tie. The green-and-linen pinstripe had been with him since the beginning, before he could even explain to Henry in words what he wanted from him. With him.

“Jay?” Emma called from the door.

“Join the crowd.” He draped the tie around his neck and struck a dramatic pose, arms out. “The groom will see you now.”

“And a handsome groom he is.” She zipped toward him on her little heels and grabbed hold of his tie ends. “Sit, please.”

He sat on the one-man bench, his ass sinking into its squishy cushion. Charlie set his shoes beside him and kissed the top of his head. “See you out there, bro. You got this.”

Tipping his chin up, he let Emma fuss with his tie and Avery snap all the photos she wanted. They would have a whole wedding album, just like Henry’s mom had dozens of albums of Henry as a kid at her house. Not like the ones at the farm. Jay wouldn’t be missing from this one on account of being the youngest, after the novelty of baby photos had gotten stale. He and Henry and Alice would be in the pictures forever.

“Well?” Emma crossed the tie ends one way and then another. She might’ve been building a traffic circle at his throat. “Is a wedding day everything you expected it would be so far?” She rubbed her hand over his heart. “How are you feeling?”

“Embraced.” And wasn’t that a fifty-cent word. “Like I knew—but I didn’t know—lots of people care about me.”

Emma pulled in a soft breath and pressed her eyes shut extra tight for a few seconds. “So many people care about you, Jay. You haven’t even seen the crowd yet. I know you must think they—we—were all Henry’s friends first, and maybe that’s true, but I promise you that you are every bit as deep in our hearts.”

He believed her. He couldn’t not—she wore a super sincere face, her eyes wide and one eyebrow raised just a little bit, her lips pinched in a schoolteacher pout, as she tugged the knot tight at his neck and flipped his shirt collar down.

“There. That’s better.” She did up the vest buttons for him and waved him toward the mirror. “Take a look.”

“How did—” She’d made magic. Somehow his tie had three parts, all swooping around each other, instead of a flat nothing. “Thank you, Emma.”

She slipped his coat on him and kissed his cheek. “You’re Henry’s best boy, Jay. The three of you are going to have a splendid life together, of that I have no doubt.”

Avery lowered her camera. “And on that note, I’m off to capture your bride. I’ll pop my head back in to let you know when she’s ready for you.”

With his thanks, she trotted out the door. Emma cocked her head at him. “Would you like me to wait with you until it’s time?”

He wouldn’t mind that; Henry probably had his mom with him, if he wasn’t already at the front, and Alice would probably keep Ollie with her until practically the last second. But maybe—he spied his phone where he’d laid it on the valet stand. “Actually, I’m good. There’s a thing I want to do before the ceremony starts.” He bowed low and kissed her hand. “But thank you, Emma. For everything. Starting with putting me in front of Henry all those years ago.”

“You are one surprise that has worked out even better than I could have imagined.” She started for the door and stopped with her hand on it. “Every joy you have in your life at this moment? It’s one you’ve earned by being your wonderful self.”

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