“How can you say that?” I said behind a forced smile as I took measured step after measured step. “This is the perfect day with the most amazing couple.”
“You’re just as delusional as everyone else.”
My jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
“This marriage is bound to be chock-full of problems. Probably won’t last. Most of them don’t. And we’ll have to pick up the pieces when it falls apart.”
“Marriages last when they’re meant to be together and those two are soulmates.”
A chuckle—dark and bleak—rolled out of him.
As we neared the altar, I tried one last time to change his mind. “This is going to be a moment in your life you’ll never forget. This is your brother and your future sister’s happily ever after.”
He made eye contact with me for the first time. I gasped at how strikingly blue his eyes were. The blue was direct, cutting. It sliced away at my happiness, so vivid and so stark that it seemed to mock anyone who dared to dream of anything. “Vick, everyone should know by now, there’s no such thing as happily ever afters.”
With that, his arm dropped mine like I was a very hot, very diseased potato. He turned to make his way over to the groom’s side.
I twirled toward the bride’s side and made sure I strutted with extra pep in my step.
I’d get him to change his mind by the end of the night.
I could make anyone believe in happily ever afters.
2
Jett
Everyone criedas Aubrey and Jax said their vows.
Everyone except me.
Maybe I wasn't meant to be a groomsman. My eyes were as dry as the Sahara in a drought. Shit, even my father shed a tear.
Senior Stonewood, the man who’d molded me into who I was, stood next to my mom looking prouder than ever before.
It was quite possible that everyone had amnesia. My father leaned down to say something my mom smiled at. People would have said they looked in love. Yet, I remembered the year my mom kicked my dad out. They'd screamed at each other about his long hours, about the business coming first.
My mom broke down, crying so many nights, her depression nearly overtook her. She begged him to let her be his first love. My dad swore she was. Still, he couldn't commit to anything but his enterprise. The investments pulled him away time and time again.
On those nights, I remember soothing her as she cried on my shoulder while shielding my brothers from her pain and despair at the same time.
Then I grew up. My mother had been so determined to keep us away from my dad’s business that I gravitated towards it. Wave after wave of arguments ensued over my staying with my father. My mother had overcome the sadness and morphed into a ferocious woman who could match my father’s ruthlessness one-for-one when it came to the job of raising her children. She didn't want me to turn out like him but also didn't want to suppress my dreams because she feared history repeating itself.
Today they held hands like they missed one another, like they had forgotten the past.
Love hadn't conquered all with them, and somehow everyone thought it would conquer all for Jax and Aubrey.
The bar presented the only solution to my problem. I needed to catch amnesia with a drink or two. The outdoor hut with long stalks of hay and twigs for a roof held every type of alcohol, and I could smell the fruit mixed with rum as I approached. The bartender welcomed me with a wide smile across his tanned face.
The groom and my baby brother, Jaydon, walked up next to me.
Jaydon questioned Jax as they both leaned onto the bar. “When do you think the reception music will start?”
Jax chuckled and nodded out at the guests mingling on the sandy coast we’d reserved for a happy hour. “Are you planning something?”
“I might have one or two people crash the party.” He smiled like we had nothing to worry about, like just anyone could show up.
“You can’t have some girl off the street come to the reception, Jaydon. It’s asking for trouble. They could be the media or …” I started in on him.