“I’d bet my own life on it. Crosby is it for me, Asa. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but there’s never been anyone else for me.”
“Then I’m okay with it.” He doesn’t look at me. Instead, he kicks up gravel and looks at his feet, his shoulders slightly hunched in a protective stance.
“Are we still friends?”
Asa looks up at me in surprise, as if he’s shocked at my question, even though it’s been the elephant in the room since he returned from deployment.
He walks over to me and yanks me into a gruff hug, one arm around my back while he pounds my shoulder with the other.
“West, man, you’re my brother. What you did for my dad—”
I don’t want to cry, and I don’t want Asa to cry either.
“You’d have done the same. Brother.”
We clasp hands, and he punches me in the arm.
“Dude, you’re screwed. She might make and wear dresses, but we all know who wears the pants.” His face cracks into a much-needed smile that breaks all of the tension between us. “You ready for a lifetime of that brassiness?”
“It’s Crosby, dude. Ready and willing.”
“That right there is true love.” Asa hugs me again, and this time, it feels real. I want to tell him that I’m sorry he got hurt, that I’m sorry I wasn’t there to have his back. I need to tell him how happy I am to see his progress. But I realize I’ve got a whole lifetime for that. And Asa Dashen is finally going to become what he’s always been to me my whole life—the brother I never had.
Epilogue
Crosby
The train of the dress is so long that the tailor had to roll it like a pin curl and set it on a clothes hanger behind me while the stylist fixes my hair and makeup. Mom and Mrs. Abernathy, along with Callie and her mother, are in the dressing room with me. West and I had planned our wedding for the spring, but we moved it up to September because my dad wasn’t doing so well. It was Weston’s idea. My dad means a lot to him, and he didn’t want to deprive my father of walking his daughter down the aisle and giving her away, albeit in a wheelchair.
“You look like a princess, Crosby,” Callie says. She hugs me from behind. “Do you believe you get to marry your lifelong crush?” she squeals. “I helped Asa get ready. He looks so handsome, I cried. Seriously.”
Callie is in love with my brother. She’s also his rehab nurse and my best friend—so let’s just call it complicated. Love in our family apparently can’t help but be messy. But her delight in my brother is genuine, and it makes me happy.
My dress is a cream-colored silk sheath that falls off my shoulders and exposes my neck and clavicle. I designed it myself and had it made in Milan by, of course, the House of Renetti, who gave me the dress as a wedding gift. I’ve got a small silver tiara that my own grandmother wore and a long train that spreads ten feet behind me when I walk.
As insane as it sounds, tonight will be the first night I’ll spend in my husband’s house. Weston has been cautious—because of the university, our parents, and especially because of Asa, who is his best man. West has been careful to do it all by the book and not step on anyone’s toes. I look down at my ring and smile at how traditional and formal my husband-to-be has been with everything from the proposal to today. He asked my father and my mother before proposing to me.
“Ten minutes!” the planner says as she raps her knuckles on the door. My heart is in my throat, while emotion after emotion is ripped from my chest and exposed. Mom takes my arm in hers as she leads me to where my father’s waiting, at the start of the long, red-carpeted aisle.
He smiles up at me with so much pride and warmth, it’s almost impossible to keep the tears in.
“Look at my BeBe. You’re stunning, kid.” I place my hand on Dad’s back, and he begins to roll forward as the music starts. Ahead at the altar await Callie in pink, Asa in full Marine regalia, and my love in a tux. His hair is slicked back, and his smile is the sexiest I’ve ever seen in my life.
“You picked a good one, BeBe. I love West like a son,” my dad says. His voice is cracking with emotion, and I can’t imagine celebrating this day without him. He’s my rock, and he’s always been there for all of us. Weston and Asa have officially taken over the family business, and I know they will honor his legacy as we’ll eventually have to move forward without him.