“I want to be a shirtless hunk,” Zane cries out. “Ty too. Jace, are you in? You have the best abs out of all of us out-of-shape blobs.”
Ty pats his abs. “Speak for yourself.”
Jace just grins.
“Don’t be trying to steal my thunder, now.” Connor snakes his arm around me.
The rest of the night is a flurry of tasty food. Friendly conversation. Mostly, an overall feeling of rightness. I’m so incredibly grateful be part of the LTZ family,
Knowing that Connor and I made it to shore after such a stormy year, I’m excited for what next year brings.
For all of us.
Another day.Another wedding.
Alex and Jace got married earlier this evening. Me, Ty, and Zane stood up for him, along with his college friends. I was touched when he asked me to be his best man. Zoey was Alex’s maid of honor. Ronni, Fiona, my ex, Jen, and Jace’s two sisters were Alex’s bridesmaids.
It’s the biggest LTZ wedding yet, which makes sense considering Jace’s dad, Jason invited some of the who’s who of the tech community to witness his only son get married. Over a hundred people have filled the Deveraux family home on Lake Washington, in the Medina neighborhood just down the road from our house.
The dances are complete. People are filtering out. The kids are all asleep. The night should be wrapping up, but we still have one final part of the evening to get through.
I’m so feckin’ nervous, I swear I can hear my knees knocking.
“You look like you just sucked on a pickle. Did old Connor return to the building?” Jennifer Deveraux hip checks me. Her wife, Becca smirks.
I can’t help but laugh. Jen likes to tease me about how gruff and serious I used to be. Before Ronni, that is. “Aye, maybe just for a second. I’m beginning to think this was a terrible idea.”
Jace and Alex return to the ballroom—yes this house has a feckin’ ballroom. “Pops says everything is set up. It’s just the inner circle left. Let’s go, I want the honeymoon to start uh, yesterday. No offense.”
“We don’t have to do this tonight—”
Fiona interrupts me, “Oh, yes we do. You’re not getting out of it.”
“Fine. Fine.” I lift my hands in surrender. “Where’s Ronni?”
Alex points to the staircase leading down to the theater room. “We’re set up down there. She’s waiting for us.”
I trot down the steps to my impending doom. Ronni greets me at the door. “You’ll be fine.”
“You owe me at least an hour of sexual favors,” I growl, baring my teeth. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t let me see it before everyone else. I’ll never live this down.”
Zane slaps me on the back as he passes with Fee close behind him. “Oh, I can promise you won’t.”
The eight of us plus Jen and Becca settle into the theater seats. Ronni presses play. Everyone cheers when the title of the show appears on the screen and whoops and hollers when Ronni’s name shows up as producer.
“Yay, Ronni,” Zoey and Alex squeal.
I cannot believe how witty and fast-paced the show is. Everyone’s engrossed in it. They laugh at the appropriate spots. Ronni, however, is in her own world. Immersed for special reasons. Likely cataloging things she likes and dislikes in her mind for future reference. I’m surprised at how fast time passes until suddenly, without warning.
There. I. Am.
A slow-mo close-up of my abs. The camera pans up at a sickeningly snail-like pace. My entire band snickers. The girls ooh and ahh. Make kissy faces. I try to bury my face in my hand, but Ronni turns and pulls my arm down. “Watch yourself, you gorgeous hunk of a man.”
Thankfully, this isn’t an episode where I have any lines. It’s one gratuitous study of my naked abs and chest. The show ends with Clover waggling her brows at the camera.
The room explodes with applause.
“Way to go, Connor.” Ty smiles at me. “We have another actor in the LTZ family now.”