“If I’ve got the money?” Reece scoffed, his jaw clenching. “I’m a junior partner at one of the most successful law firms in the city. I’ve got the money. Caitlin’s not even here, so it’s not like I can just whisk her away for a break. Besides, I can’t leave when I’m the best man. All you have to do is walk Teddy down the aisle. There’s no reason for you to be here until then.”
“No reason?” One of Colt’s dark eyebrows arched and I practically saw the lightning streak behind his eyes. “She’s my sister and she’s getting married. Our mother can’t be with her to try on her wedding dress or to go over flower arrangements. Our father isn’t here to practice their first dance or to tell her that she’ll always be his baby girl and that he’ll always protect her. I’m all she has, Reece. You can bet your ass that there’s a reason for me to be here and that it’s a good one. I’m her fucking family.”
When I saw his hackles rise and that protective beast inside him rush forward, it was like time stood still before I got transported back in it. Back to a time when those protective instincts of his had reared up because of me. It had been before we’d gotten together but after he’d started noticing me.
A group of boys in the park had been teasing me, and Colt had been out on his afternoon run. He told me later that it had looked like I’d been about to burst into tears and he hadn’t been able to take it. Jumping over the low fence surroundings the park with one hand braced on the wooden beam and his angry gaze fixed on the bullies, he’d looked like some kind of dark avenging angel.
He’d literally leaped to my rescue, and although I’d been giving back as good as I’d been getting, my little teenage heart had swooned and nearly given in. The boy who’d been standing closest to me had gotten the brunt of it when Colt had grabbed him by his collar and pushed him up against a tree. Colt’s voice was a low growl when he asked the boy what the fuck he’d been thinking to mess with me when I was practically family.
The rest of the sniveling idiots had disappeared as if someone had cast a spell to make them vanish into thin air, but the main boy had wet his pants by the time Colt had let him go. And he hadn’t even laid a finger on him.
After that, he’d walked me home to make sure I was okay, and the next day, he’d stopped the ice-cream truck beside me and offered me a ride. His excuse was that he hadn’t wanted me to be walking alone after what had happened, but he hadn’t needed an excuse. It had felt like I’d been waiting all my life for that truck to stop and for him to offer.
Back in the present, he still kind of looked like a dark avenging angel. Colt at thirty-two was not the same man as Colt at eighteen, and yet he was still so painfully familiar in almost every way. It was obvious that the big-city life and his high-flying career had changed him. His face was harder. His eyes glinted with a steel I’d never seen before, but fundamentally, between his pride, protectiveness, and the way he’d made me feel earlier, like it had been minutes since I’d last seen him instead of years, it seemed he’d remained the same.
While he was also obviously way more mature looking and his hair was a lot shorter now than it used to be, he hadn’t changed that much in the looks department either. With hair so dark that it looked almost black unless he was standing outside in the sunlight and eyes to match, he had that broody mysterious thing going for him.
When he smiled, however, it was a sight to behold.My God, when he smiles…
Surprisingly, despite how he came across at first, smiling was something he used to do often. With me, at least. Judging by the faint beginnings of lines around his gorgeous mouth and at the corners of his eyes, it was still something he wasn’t afraid of doing.
During a football game in his senior year, he’d gotten his nose broken in a tackle, but even then, he’d gotten up and smiled. Granted, he had also scored a touchdown, but even with blood streaming down his face, he’d freaking smiled.
There was still a tiny hook in his otherwise arrow of a nose now, and I almost smiled as I looked at it. Considering the look on his face right then, though, he wouldn’t have appreciated it if I’d suddenly started smiling like a loon over all the memories.
As if he’d heard the thought, he turned to me, and instead of marveling at his smooth tanned skin or his pretty-boy features, I cocked an eyebrow at him and folded my arms over my chest. “Okay, gentlemen, this situation has devolved far enough. Let’s not ruin a perfectly good wedding shower because of our egos. Behave, would you? I shouldn’t have to treat you like the five-year-olds I teach, but you’re acting like children.”
Colt was looking at me with a strange expression, like he’d not only heard my thoughts but had suddenly been thrown down the rabbit hole of memories himself. Reece, on the other hand, wasn’t too consumed by being slapped in the face by the past, so he was the first to respond.
“What are you going to do?” he asked with the edge of a challenge in his voice. “Put us in a naughty corner?”
I shrugged and pulled myself together enough to turn my disapproval on him. “That’s not a bad idea, actually. I would ask who offered to pay for the wedding first, but it sounds like you’ve both discussed contributing to the wedding with the bride and groom, so that won’t work.”
“Technically, I’m pretty sure I offered first,” he retorted. “I talked to Scott about this months ago. Before he even proposed. I told him that no brother of mine would be having a do-it-yourself, backyard barbecue for a wedding. It would suck, and—”
“We don’t saysuck.” I interrupted so instinctively that I completely forgot who I was talking to.
Reece stared at me before he rolled his eyes. “I’m a grownup. I can say fuck. Suck. Shit. Whatever the hell I want.”
“If you’re a grownup, start acting like one,” I said. “Both of you are about one more silly comment away from a timeout.”
“You can’t use preschool conflict resolution techniques on us,” Colt objected, but I didn’t miss the beginning hints of a grin forming on his lips when he looked at me. “We’re okay out here, Emma. You don’t have to babysit us. We’ll sort this out. We’ve been friends for a long time, even though it might not sound like it right now. We’ll work something out.”
“Sure, we will,” Reece said. “Colt is going to stop being an asshole and let me pay for the wedding, and then we’ll be done here.”
“Yeah, Colt’s not doing that,” he snapped back before turning on his friend. “What’s going on with you, man? You know how much Teddy means to me and you know why I both want to and feel like it’s my responsibility to do this, so why fight it?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and put up my hands. “Enough. That’s it. I don’t want to hear anything from either of you for the next two minutes. You’re officially in a timeout. I suggest you use that time wisely and really think about what you’ve done.”
“A timeout?” Colt echoed incredulously, but then he laughed, shrugged, and went to stand against the wall with one hand on his head and the other with a finger over his mouth.
I tried to hold back my laughter, and I ended up snorting as I sealed my lips together. Reece looked from one of us to the other, scoffing as he shook his head. “Fucking unbelievable. I’m out of here. There’s no way I’m going into timeout like some toddler.”
Spinning on his heel, he stormed out in a huff—very much like a toddler despite his assertion. Once he was gone, Colt put up the hand that had been over his mouth. “Can I speak yet?”
“That depends. Can you rein in your ego yet?” I let out a low whistle as my gaze met his. “That was something, alright. Do you have any idea how hilarious it is to see two rich, professional guys going at it like that?”
“You did a good job of keeping a straight face.” He grinned, carefully taking first one step and then two away from the wall before he held up his hand. “Want a high five for a job well done?”