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He wasn’t prone to stage fright, not like Madigan. But he did have an infamously hard time keeping his emotions in check. After making his way to the head table and accepting the microphone and a hug from Conor, Cole looked at Madigan and Ashley, looked away when his throat went tight, and finally found some strength in Mira’s encouraging double thumbs-up across the room.
“Good evening, everyone,” he told the crowd.
The crowd, in return, stared expectantly back at him.
“If you’d be so kind, please grab a glass of non-alcoholic champagne or sparkling water, because in a few short, hopefully successful, minutes, I’ll ask you to join me in a toast.”
While empty-handed guests made their way to the bar, Cole used the moment to gather himself. His attention drawn to the loud, heavy panting at his side, he looked down to find Murphy staring up at him in his little doggy bow tie. Scratching the emotional support dog behind his ears, Cole said, “Do me a favor and stay right there for the next five minutes, okay?”
Murphy, strangely enough, seemed to nod.
After everyone returned to their tables, Cole opened the notes app on his phone, pulled his readers from his coat pocket, and prayed he wouldn’t fuck this up.
CHAPTERTEN
MIRA
Mira’s griptightened around the stem of her glass. If she’d thought tuxedo Cole had been sexy, he was nothing compared to tuxedo Cole in black-rimmed reading glasses. It was like a professional hit on her hibernating hormones.
“We always want our friends to be happy,” he said, his voice steady and resonating through the microphone, pebbling her skin. “But more than that, we want our friends to thrive. I don’t know what the secret recipe is for thriving, but I know it’s not an easy thing to do. Life is hard, bad things happen, we’re lonely a lot of the time. We all want someone in our lives who makes the hard things easier, the bad things less painful, the loneliness less pronounced. We want that person who becomes a light for us when the world goes dark. I know this because, at one point in my life, Matthew Madigan was that person for me.”
“Jesus, Cole,” Madigan blurted out, already wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
When Cole looked at his friend, smiling apologetically, Mira’s heart squeezed itself into a quivering lump of feels. She’d expected his speech to be eloquent, funny, charming as always, but nothing could have prepared her for his heart-wrenching honesty. Men, in her experience, didn’t do that. They didn’t broadcast their emotions over a microphone to a room filled with mostly strangers.
“Madigan,” Cole went on broadcasting, “was the first person in my life to make me feel like I had something to offer the world. Neither of us had any idea how much we’d go through together before I was able to convince him that he did too. But when you go through hell with someone and emerge whole on the other side, it bonds you. Watching you fight and heal and help other people heal…” He paused, blinking hard, and Mira had never wanted to hug a grown adult so hard in her life. “You’re the best man I know. You’re so good, I honestly didn’t think anyone would ever be good enough for you. Until I met Ashley.”
Ashley’s hand rose, but not fast enough to cover her gasp.
Glancing down at his phone, Cole slid his thumb along the screen like he was searching for his next line. But Mira wondered if he was only buying himself time, struggling to keep it together.
After a moment, he raised his eyes again and said, “I want to thank you, Ashley. Thank you for soothing the loneliness. Thank you for making the hard things easier. Thank you for making the bad things less painful. Thank you for being the light for Madigan when the world goes dark.” Raising his glass to her, he said, “Thank you for helping my friend thrive.”
Mira didn’t cry very often. She definitely didn’t cry at weddings. Except, she thought as her vision blurred and a lump formed in her throat, for this one.
“Please join me,” Cole said thickly, “in raising a glass to Ashley and Madigan.” Not only did glasses rise, but guests did too, everyone standing from their chairs and turning toward the bride and groom. “We wish you love, happiness, and long lives together so you can make the rest of us unbearably jealous for the rest of ours.”
Cheers erupted, echoing through the dining hall as Ashley and Madigan stood, raised their glasses back toward Cole, and took sips of their drinks. It was Madigan’s father who started thetingof his fork on his glass, but soon it was all Mira could hear as she joined in, clanging her spoon on her glass so hard she was worried it might shatter.
More than happy to appease the crowd, Madigan looped his arm around Ashley’s waist and lifted her off her feet, kissing her deeply while her fingers burrowed into his hair. As if pulled by some irresistible force, Mira’s attention moved from the happy couple, not to Chrissy, not to Paul, not even to Davis as she took the microphone and told everyone to “Make some noise!” for Madigan and Ashley’s first dance. The only person she saw in a room full of people was Cole, walking toward her while he tucked his glasses back into his pocket.
The kiss on the cheek she’d given him might have been for show, but the way she wrapped her arms tightly around him now as he leaned into her, that was just for them.
“That was a beautiful speech,” she told him.
“It wasn’t too much?” he asked into her neck. “It felt like too much.”
She shook her head, her cheek brushing over the stubble softly dusting his. “It was the perfect ‘much.’”
She thought he might pull away, but instead, he kissed her neck again, and a deep shiver rushed through her.
“Mira,” he whispered, his lips still hovering over her skin. “You’re so sensitive here.”
Her chest heaved, her breasts pushing into her dress, straining seams, testing the integrity of her zipper as she dug her fingertips into his shoulders. The moment between them was intimate, private in a way it probably shouldn’t have been, and she felt too exposed, too hot, like they stood under a spotlight. She needed some air, some space.Immediately.
“I’m…going to step outside for a minute,” she said, backing out of his arms.
“Want company?” He ducked his chin. “Or was that ‘much’ definitely too much?”
