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“You bet. I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I confessed, staring nervously, first at them then the sandwich I had little appetite for.
“You and me both, Little Brother,” James replied, with a warm smile.
“You got a good one, Saw,” Hammer admitted, slapping my back.
“I did. When you finish that food, get your ass over to the house and speak to Tricia, I don’t want Billie backing out,” I said, voicing a deep-seated fear that this was too good to be true.
“Oh. Get the fuck over yourself, that’s not gonna happen,” Hammer responded with a shake of his head. “The girl’s so into you.”
“You think?” I said, flashing a cocky grin when he instantly bolstered my confidence, and he chuckled.
“One day a gorgeous woman’s gonna look at me like that,” he mused, sticking his knife into the butter and spreading it onto his toast.
“When she stops staring at you in shock, you mean?” I teased back, and James chuckled.
“Dunno what you’re laughing at, where’s your girl?” Hammer asked in the heat of the moment then shook his head. “Fuck, sorry, dude, I didn’t mean it like that. I mean at your age…” he glanced at me looking sheepish before he burst out laughing. “I think I’m just gonna get dressed and go find Tricia while I still have my nuts.” He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of his bedroom.
“Good move,” I replied. My brother, on the other hand, looked a little more affected by Hammer’s remark. I knew Hammer wasn’t usually insensitive, but I couldn’t change how old James was any less than I could change his past.
The enormity of the occasion hit me when my cousin, Matt, arrived at the pool house door with our wedding attire draped over his arm. Silver gray, white and ruby red were the colors Billie had chosen. Grabbing my attire for the day, I retired to my bedroom and began to get ready to meet my bride.
“Oh. My. God, you shaved,” James muttered when I walked out of the bathroom having shaved my beard off. He stroked his own smooth chin as he stared at me, and I figured he was reflecting on how alike we looked.
“The first time she met me I was wearing a suit, clean-shaven, and dressed to the nines. I figured I should do this again, at least until I’d made her mine. Who knows, it may be the last time she sees this chin.”
“She’s going to get a surprise all right. Just as well, I’m standing next to you or in the wedding photos it may look like she’s married twins,” Hammer said, shifting his eyes from James to me. We all laughed.
“Right, it’s 10:45 a.m. We need to head over to the ballroom,” James stated, and as soon as his words were out of his mouth, I had an attack of nerves similar to those I’d felt right before I stepped out onto a stage in the early days of my career as a musician.
Entering by a side door, I cast my eyes around the beautiful space and noted how the wedding décor enhanced the elegance of the room. I figured my grandma would have been proud. The wedding event planners my mom had selected with Billie to decorate the ballroom had done a stunning job
Gold chairs with red velvet cushions brought a touch of opulence to the room, with large ruby red bows draped at the back of each one. Their placement set in rows on either side of a red-carpeted aisle and right at the front the florist had placed two huge arrangements of flowers, lilies and something else I didn’t know the name of.
I was thankful I hadn’t walked down the aisle as the sea of familiar faces felt much more daunting than looking out at an audience I’d never seen before. It struck me it would be one of the most, if not the most, significant performance of my life and for a second or two I felt naked as I stood there with all eyes cast in my direction.
As I’d expected, my mom sat smiling up at me, teary-eyed in the front row and placed her hand across her heart the moment she saw me enter. My father’s chair was empty, having been given a special role in the proceedings by Billie. The one next to his was also unfilled.
Next to her were my sisters, Tammy, with baby Bethany, and Caitlin, their husbands sitting immediately behind my parents, ready to control all the children, no doubt. I looked over at the bride’s side of the aisle and saw an older lady and gentlemen who I knew to be Tricia’s mom and dad, Betty and Lester, Tricia’s sister, Marnie, and her husband, Franco. I recognized them from the party the week before.
Seeing them had made my thudding heart feel calmer until the music began to play “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison. My heart stuttered as the grand, ornate double doors of our ballroom opened at the back, and my two, cute little nieces appeared dressed in white ballet-style taffeta and lace dresses.
Grinning from ear to ear at our relatives and friends, they wandered down the narrow aisle throwing ruby red petals on the floor. My throat closed when I saw Brock holding a deep ruby velvet cushion with gold piping around the edge and two heavy gold bands tied with a small ribbon placed at its center. We’d initially thought Colby this role for Colby until Billie came up with a much better one.
James quickly steered Brock over beside Hammer and as I looked up again, Billie was there, sweeping slowly toward me dressed in an ethereal, boho chic, flowing chiffon wedding dress. She looked a vision, her eyes cast downward so it had been difficult to see her expression.
In that moment, my chest tightened and I wondered what was going through her mind and hoped she felt truly happy with what she was about to do. I swallowed back the lump in my throat when she looked up at me and bit her lip. I’d never ever seen a woman look more beautiful, and I silently thanked any gods that may be listening that she was mine.
Billie wasn’t veiled and I liked that, her hair simply curled over her shoulders with a small flower tucked in at the side over her right ear. I vaguely registered Tricia and my sister, Lorna, dressed in similar dresses to Billie, but in the same color as our ties and vests, but they were incidental to the woman in front of me—my bride.
Billie’s face froze and I initially wondered what was wrong until she grinned, and I remembered I’d shaved my beard off. Colby stood looking proud by her side and my father was placed behind him, his role had been in support of them both, and I thought that this had been the perfect way for Colby to feel invested in the union of our two families.
“Hello, beautiful, look at you,” I stated, my eyes taking in her hair, her face, her subtle makeup, the dress. “You look enchanting, like a Grecian goddess,” I mumbled, my hungry eyes scanned from her face to her simple ballet pumps peeping out from the incredible perfect dress. My chest tightened, a lump threatening to grow in my throat, so touched by how perfect she looked.
“You have no idea about the thought that ran through my mind when I saw you’d shaved your beard off,” she muttered back. I leaned forward and whispered in her ear.
“Oh, but I do—that kiss,” I told her, my cock stirring in my pants when I remembered how she’d made me feel the first time my lips had touched hers. She smiled as heat stained her cheeks and my heart clenched again with my love for her.
“Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” I heard the pastor ask, and my eyes fell from Billie to her son.
“Me … I … I mean, I do,” Colby stammered. A flash of guilt and uncertainty he’d blown his moment of glory flashed through his eyes as he glanced nervously at my father, who winked. I had never seen my father wink in my whole damned life until that moment, and I had to stop myself from laughing.
Colby grinned from the reassurance, grabbed his mom’s hand, and placed it in mine. I nodded a gentle thanks and squeezed Billie’s hand as my father led Colby to sit between him and my mom.
