Page 59 of See My Words

“I can’t stop staring at it. It’s mesmerizing.”

Pedro laughed again. “And a woman the other day said she thought it was hideous, amateurish, and it shouldn’t be displayed in the same case with such gorgeous pieces.” He didn’t look upset, merely amused. “Which proved the point of the piece exactly. Couldn’t have explained it better myself.”

“Wow.”

Pedro clapped Scott on the shoulder. “Always glad to meet someone who gets it. Take care, son.” He went back inside the gallery, and Scott turned around when he heard his name being called.

Rylan walked over to him, smiling. “What were you talking with that guy so intently about?”

Scott told him, and Rylan pursed his lips. “Wow, that’s such a cool way of looking at things. What if I hadn’t chosen Phoenix for my project? We wouldn’t be here together right now.” His voice was light and teasing, and he bumped Scott’s shoulder with his.

“Or what if I hadn’t chosen to leave with Tanner that night?” That was the last thing Scott meant to say, and the words hung in the air between them. He sucked in a breath. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I usually don’t let myself go there, the what-ifs.”

Rylan was silent for a moment. “Let’s say you didn’t leave with Tanner, that you’d stayed in Pace. Who’s to say that would have been an automatic guarantee of happiness? Maybe you would have hated the Navy. Maybe I wouldn’t have wanted to leave you and go to college, and I wouldn’t be a photographer now. Or let’s say I did go and then things fizzled out between us or ended badly because we met other people while we were apart.” He shuddered. “Maybe we would have ended up hating each other in the end.”

“Or maybe,” Scott said tersely, “me staying around meant I could have kept an eye on Heather, and she and your dad never broke up. Maybe you and I just kept getting stronger, and if I hadn’t left, we’d be living on a beach somewhere right now, blissfully happy.”

Rylan rubbed his cheek against Scott’s shoulder. “That, too. All that could have happened. The point is, we don’t know, because it didn’t happen that way. Our choices led us to where we are right now, and we’re strong, interesting men because of them. Yeah, the road to here was long and painful, but now it’s behind us.”

“It is what it is,” Scott mumbled, and Rylan chuckled.

“Right,” he said, “and we’re starting as we mean to go on.” He snorted. “Damn, we have some awesome mantras, don’t we?”

Scott slid his arm around Rylan’s shoulders and gave him a squeeze, leaving it draped there as they meandered on through the little village, looking for Minh and Chris.

“There they are.” Rylan pointed toward the chapel where Minh appeared to be talking quite animatedly with a young couple standing there. As they drew closer, Scott noted with alarm that the woman was crying.

“Honey, that’s awful!” Minh was saying. “You don’t have any way to reach them? Gimme their number, I’ll call their asses.”

“I have a number, but it says it’s disconnected, no longer in service,” the girl wailed. “I’ve tried everything!”

“What’s going on?” Scott asked, and Minh turned to look at him, one hand on his hip, the other gesturing toward the couple.

“These nice young people were cheated! Out of a wedding package!”

Everyone started talking at once, a bewildering cacophony of sound, but at last, Scott was able to suss out the story of an unsolicited email offering a deeply discounted wedding package at the Tlaquepaque Chapel, which turned out to be a scam.

“Usually if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Rylan said reasonably. “I’m sorry. That really sucks. Six hundred dollars is a lot of money to lose.”

“Well, good luck—” Chris began, and Minh elbowed him.

Chris shot him a wounded look. “What?”

“There has to be something we can do to help,” Minh said, and Chris’s eyes widened.

“What can we possibly do?”

“Well, for starters, we have an officiant and two photographers standing right here!”

Chris looked utterly bewildered. “Where’s an officiant?”

“Me!” Minh pointed to himself. “Honey, Teena Teeze has performed at least twenty weddings at Spectrum, both gay and straight, and they’re all legal, right and tight.” He turned to the girl. “Oh, Julia, tell me you do have a marriage license,” he asked flatly, “and that that wasn’t part of the ‘package’ too.”

“No, no, we have that,” Julia replied hastily, holding up her folder.

“Thank gawd. Well, then, let’s go over here under this pretty flowering tree thing, and I’ll just marry you right now!” Minh pointed to a tree a few steps away. “My man will take some nice pictures of us all, and there you go. Then you can have a huge-ass reception tomorrow with all your friends and family somewhere.”

“But—but—” Julia’s lips trembled anew. “My parents aren’t flying in until tonight! I wanted my daddy to walk me down the aisle. I’m their only daughter. I can’t get married today without them!”