Page 250 of The Monster and the Masochist

“Yeah, yeah. I know,” he muttered, disappearing into the crowd, still tugging at his collar.

Dakota chuckled and turned to face me.

“Hey, Theo, how’s the gym?”

I beamed, feeling the excited flutter I always got whenever someone asked me about my pride and joy. “It’s fucking awesome, man. The kids are so great. They learn so quick… just a bunch of little lethal sponges.”

Logan smiled and took a sip of his beer. “It’s pretty fucking awesome that you’re teaching those kids to defend themselves, man. It’s admirable.”

I blushed, shrugging off the compliment, even though his words meant more to me than he probably knew.

My desire to help these kids learn self-defense came from some of the darkest moments of my life… But my therapist told me what I’d done with the gym was incredible. Not only was it healing for me, but I was helping other people potentially avoid finding themselves in a similar situation.

I was taking this awful, horrible thing that had happened to me, and turning it into something that helped people, and that felt powerful within its own right.

Just then, Callum exploded into the room, and we all turned in unison to find him barrelling through crowds of people to get to us.

“I’m getting maaaarrrieddd!!!!” he bellowed, slamming into me hard enough that I let out an abrupt ‘oof.’

Laughing, I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and roughly patted him on the bicep.

“Sure are, rock star, you excited?’

“Excited!? I feel like I’m going to fucking explode.” He jittered, rocking nervously on his heels.

“I miss Ryan. Have you seen him? I know I’m not supposed to see him until the ceremony, but I’m kind of freaking out a bit.”

Cal had slept at our place the night before, saying that Ryan wanted to keep it traditional and spend the first night apart, which I knew Cal hated.

He always got a little manic if he was separated from my brother for too long, which, as co-dependent as that was, still warmed my heart a little bit.

I understood.

I didn’t like being separated from Cass for too long either.

“Ugh, I can’t deal with him when he’s like this,” Cass complained, causing me to chuckle softly. “I’m going to go find Nolan. I think he and Tom are at the same table as us.” She leaned in and brushed a quick kiss on my lips before heading out into the kitchen to find our friends.

I stared at her ass as she left, biting my knuckle and imagining all the fucked up shit I was going to do to her when we got home later. With Cal staying over the night before, we’d kept it PG-13, and I already felt like I was going through withdrawals after just one night without the taste of her on my tongue.

“Have you seen Voxy?” Cal was yammering nervously. “He’s supposed to come stand up there with me.”

“Uhh, yeah,” I said, pointing across the hall to the room Cal and Ryan usually used for viewings. “I saw him go in there with Naomi a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, thanks. I’m gonna go get him. I think we should head out there now. I don’t want to fuck everything up by being late or something.” He rubbed his hands nervously down his tuxedo jacket as he stalked out of the room to find Vox.

Logan and Dakota watched him go, both of them sporting amused smiles on their faces.

“Damn. Never thought I’d see that guy nervous about anything.”

I shrugged, unable to keep the grin off my own face.

“Something about weddings, man. Makes people anxious.”

“No doubt,” Logan agreed. I was just about to ask them what table they were at when Cal’s voice exploded through the entrance way of the funeral parlor.

My eyebrows shot up in concern. I couldn’t see him, but he sounded furious.

“Voxy! What the FUCK! That’s my fucking sister!” he snarled, and the blood drained from my face.