Page 43 of Forever King

The four of us shake our heads since neither of our parents ever talked about what nationalities we were. I’ve always suspected we were just of some vague northern European descent. Nobody ever talked about it, so it never meant anything.

“Well, Eden is one hundred percent Sicilian. It means something to her family.”

“You mean Italian, right?” Ronan says, thinking he’s correcting me.

He’s wrong, though. She explained it all to me after that day she talked to her mother. “No, it’s Sicilian. There’s a difference.”

Matthias sits down on the bed and adjusts his bow tie. “So her father didn’t care but her mother did? That seems weird. I’d think her father would have had a problem with it.”

I laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. “No, in fact, Nico loves me. He has from the moment we met. It was Janine whohad the problem. So that’s the story behind how my wedding reception got a whiskey sour fountain.”

All of this talk about my mother-in-law and her issues at least has the effect of calming me, so I turn to Ronan and ask him to give me one last look to make sure I’m ready. He scans my tux before moving his attention to my head.

“I think you’re good to go. Kellen and I better get down there. Matthias, you stay here and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” he says, throwing his head back in laughter.

“Like what?” my older brother asks, clearly not getting the joke.

I pat Matthias on the shoulder. “He means just in case I get cold feet.” I turn to Ronan and say, “I’m already married, you idiot. This is mostly just for show and to make her parents happy. I was fine just going on with life once all of you found out.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot. Well, we need to get downstairs anyway. Your guests are waiting.”

Ronan and Kellen walk out, leaving Matthias and me alone. I look around the room as I think about how many times this was the start of our teenage antics, although we usually had one other partner in crime.

“Remember how many nights the three of us snuck out? We’d meet up in my room here because it was farther than yours and Theo’s from Mom and Dad’s room and quietly tiptoe down the stairs. Then Eleanor would see us but pretend she didn’t, which was the final hurdle before we headed out to cause trouble.”

Matthias smiles. “I wish he was here to see you get married. He’d get a laugh out of how nervous you were before.”

“You mean he’d bust my balls about being in love. Theo never failed to find my romantic life amusing.”

The memory of the day I found out he slept with that girlfriend I just broke up with flashes through my mind. “I guess I should be happy he isn’t here. He might try to sleep with Eden.”

That makes Matthias laugh. “She’d never go for it. She hated him.”

Shocked to hear that, I try to remember her ever saying anything about Theo. Nothing comes to mind.

“Really? I don’t think she ever said anything to me that made me think she hated him. Why?”

“Ava told me a long time ago. Maybe it was because she felt like she was in competition with him for her friendship. Or maybe she just read him right and knew he was a dog. I don’t know. All I know is Ava told me Eden couldn’t stand Theo, so even if he did make a move on her, she’d shoot him down.”

I like that idea, and knowing my wife, she’d make it painful when she rejected him. Good. That would make us even for all the shit he pulled otherwise.

Matthias may feel like having Theo here would be nice, but I’m not that sentimental. Too many things happened to make me not care at all that he’s not here today.

I stand in front of my older brother and spread my arms out. “One last check before I go down and stand before God and far too many people I don’t know well enough to feed a nice meal. How do I look?”

He scans the front and back of my tux like Ronan did and nods. “Looks good. Let me see you smile.”

I do as he asks and wait as he looks at my teeth. “Nothing stuck in them. I think you’re ready.”

“Thanks, man. That’s what the best man’s real job is. Checking for stray pieces of lettuce in the groom’s teeth.”

A knock at my bedroom door surprises the two of us, and I open it to find none other than my mother-in-law Janine standing there in a dark purple dress I’m sure is meant to signifyshe’s in mourning over today’s nuptials. Not exactly the person I thought I’d see right before my wedding.

“I want to talk to you,” she says as she pushes past me to walk into my room. She looks at Matthias and points toward the doorway she just strolled through without an invitation. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to Marius alone.”

My older brother has always been a generally polite guy, but he doesn’t leave because of her request. He looks over at me and waits for me to say something, and as much as I’d love to tell him to stay, I have a feeling I need to let Janine say whatever’s on her mind. It’s not like it’ll change anything.

“I’ll be downstairs waiting for you, Marius,” my brother says, giving Janine the side-eye before walking out into the hallway.