AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tristan and Harry stood with Ambrose at the makeshift altar—an old door laid across a couple of wine barrels—while Liam and his groomsmen joined them. Groomsmen was a stretch—Liam’s sister Riley and his toddler nephew Balian were his attendants. Riley was mostly wrangling the kid, who seemed intent on undoing his bowtie and kicking off his shoes. Tristan knew the feeling.
Harry was beaming and kept looking back to where Jack was sitting. Tristan knew that feeling as well. Despite telling himself that he was totally unaffected by weddings and all that nonsense, the fact that he was here, taking part in one, and Leo was right there… Well, it put all sorts of ideas in his head—soft, fluffy ideas that started in his brain, then migrated down into his chest and burrowed there warmly, like a bunch of fuzzy animals. It should have been disconcerting, except it wasn’t. Leo hadn’t changed Tristan, but Tristan had changed because of him. And that felt okay. It felt better than okay.
The ceremony was only short, officiated by a local celebrant. Ambrose and Liam exchanged their vows in somewhat shaky voices, both of them grinning like absolute fools. But then again, so was everyone. When they kissed, everyone cheered and clapped. Liam’s mum Fi cried happy tears, and even his dad’s eyes were suspiciously glassy.
Afterwards they all moved out to a marquee on the lawns behind the house, and after the speeches and the toasts, they spent the afternoon celebrating. Once, Tristan would have thought getting married and being tied down to someone was a nightmare, but now he felt like, if that person were Leo, it might be a dream come true. Not now, not yet—he had to finish his rotation first—but someday soon.
“What has you all starry-eyed?” Leo asked him, handing over a glass of red.
“Nothing. This whole thing’s just romantic, that’s all,” Tristan said, stealing a kiss.
“You know what’s romantic?” Leo said, nodding over to the corner where Ambrose’s very pregnant sister Bridget was lying on an outdoor couch. Her feet were in her husband Orhan’s lap, and he was rubbing them and looking at her tenderly. “That. True love right there.”
“It is, isn’t it,” Tristan said. “Why don’t you rub my feet, babe? Don’t you love me?”
Leo elbowed him. “I rub you plenty, just not your feet. But if you’d rather I rub your feet than your dick…”
“Dick!” piped up a small voice.
Tristan looked down to find Balian staring up at him, wide eyed. The toddler had successfully ditched his shoes somewhere and had cake on his face.
Tristan took a step backward. “We’re going to pretend we never heard that, aren’t we?”
“Never heard a thing,” Leo agreed as they rapidly put distance between themselves and Balian.
Fi, Liam’s mum, swooped in and picked Balian up, dabbing at his face with a tissue and crooning grandmotherly nonsense at him as she carried him away. When he didn’t say ‘dick’ again, Tristan heaved a tiny sigh of relief.
“We don’t want children, do we?” Leo asked suddenly.
Tristan’s stomach swooped, but it was in a good way. He loved that Leo was even thinking about things like that. “Well, I think raising Harry is enough for now, don’t you?”
For now.
Leo smiled. “Yeah.”
They shared a look.
“If I was still a Bad Boyfriend,” Tristan said, “I’d get up on that table, take my pants off and dance.”
“Hmm. Pretty sure you don’t need to be a Bad Boyfriend to do that,” Leo said. “I think Liam’s grandpa is about a glass of shiraz away from doing the same.”
“Well, then,” Tristan said. “Maybe I should just steal us a couple of bottles of wine, and we can go back to our cabin and drink them in the hot tub?”
Leo slapped him on the arse. “For a Bad Boyfriend, you have the best ideas.”
Later, Tristan and Leo relaxed together in the hot tub on the back veranda of their cabin, the strains of Lou Reed’s Perfect Day drifting out of a discreet Bluetooth speaker. They’d made their way through one bottle of wine and were working on the second.
“That was so nice,” Leo said for about the hundredth time. “Not just the ceremony and the reception, but the family and everyone, you know? It was just so much fun. The last wedding I went to was my cousin’s. I think I was about eleven or twelve. It was so boring I wanted to scream.”
“Hmm.” Tristan leaned in and stole a kiss that left Leo smiling. “When we get married, it’ll be a fun wedding.”
Leo raised his eyebrows.
“What?”
“Was that a proposal? That had better not have been a proposal, Tristan Montague, because we are naked and in a hot tub.”
“I can’t believe we forgot to pack our swimmers.”
