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“Are you okay?” I whisper to Avery, who watches the entire trainwreck beside me.
“Nothing can ruin this day.” She smiles and kisses Luca’s cheek, wiping away the crease on his forehead. “I expected nothing less from my new brother.”
We all settle back at our family-only table, half of us helping ourselves to another piece of cake as Avery and Luca make their way around the room to thank their guests.
When I’m on my third bite of frosting, Nico plops down into his seat beside me, sighing loudly.
“You look like you’ve come back from war,” I jeer.
“Renée didnotwant to stay in the room. I swear she was tame on our flight.”
I gasp, sinking my fingers into his thigh in a mocking expression of shock. “Wait, you’re telling me after you fuck someone, they have a whole personality? Who would’ve known?”
“Can you please not be on my case too? I’ll get enough of it from my dad and Luca tomorrow before I leave for the airport.” Nico wrenches my grip from his leg. “And I didn’t fuck her.”
“No?”
“No.” His tone is enough to put the conversation to an end.
“Fine.” I brush off the sudden rigidness in his posture. “Your speech was decent, by the way. Did you search up ‘best man speech’ and rip off the first one you found?”
“Havesomefaith in me. I’m not terrible with words. Besides, your maid of honor speech was straight out of a classic romance novel.”
“Are you getting all soft on me, Nico?”
He swipes two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter before settling one of the flutes in front of me. “Going soft has never been a problem for me.”
“You’re so immature.” Most people at our table abandoned us to dance to the new song playing through the room. The buzz of alcohol springs a silly question to my lips. “Do you believe you’ll ever fall in love?”
Nico strips off his tuxedo jacket and throws it on a nearby chair. “I doubt I’ll ever be able to slow down for someone.”
“Love’s not a race.” I take a sip of my champagne and look over at him. “I don’t think anyone who finds it tries to run away from home.”
Nico’s tongue runs over the back of his molars, his brows raised at me with curiosity. “What do you know about love,princesa?”
Eloisa appears in front of us, steadying herself on Nico’s shoulder. “Mijo. ¿Por qué no puedes buscar una novia linda? Y que sea simpática. ¡Como ella!”
I face Nico, waiting for him to translate.
“Mom, you’re drunk.” Nico gets to his feet, handling his mother with the most patient tenderness.
“Then you know I mean what I say.”
Nico scoffs. “Lily’s anything but nice.”
“What?” My eyes bounce from Nico to Eloisa.
His mom turns to me. “I told my son he should date someone nice like you. Especially if you can keep him in check when he goes radio silent while he’s traveling.”
“Oh, no, no.” I shake my head. “We’re definitely just friends.”
I’m also definitely not one to take responsibility for a man. That’s not my job anymore.
“Oscar and I were friends too at one time,” Eloisa says. “They say—”
Avery appears behind her, wrapping her new mother-in-law in her arms. My best friend’s cheeks are flushed, and her eyes are liquored-up bliss.
“What are you all doing here?” Avery giggles, still swaying in place to the music.
