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The one who wasn’t getting married today.
“What’s your deal with that girl?” she whispered so that only I could hear.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
Katy’s eyebrows lifted. “You don’t know what’s making you stare at her the entire wedding?”
I was already shaking my head as I fell into step behind Dax and his newly wedded wife. My sister.
“I can’t believe she’s married,” I muttered.
“I can’t believe he’s married,” Harleigh said from my side. “I remember when he used to show me his poop in the toilet. And now he’s all married and having a kid. I feel old.”
I looked over at her and rolled my eyes. “You’re not old.”
“Me, too,” Katy agreed, ignoring my comment. “And this one has to go and get a crush on the wedding photographer.”
I ignored the way Harleigh’s eyes flashed around the room, looking for Avery.
“The one standing in front of us?” Harleigh looped her arm around mine before leaning forward to stare at Katy.
Katy’s eyes danced as she nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, her!”
Harleigh leaned back into place and made an excited sound. “She’s beautiful. I like her. You’re allowed to go for it.”
I rolled my eyes as I saw Avery snapping away taking pictures.
Rowen and Dax finally made it through the doorway at the back of the hall, and then Avery’s lens was focused on us.
“She looks gorgeous in the dress,” Katy commented.
“And I love how her legs look in those shoes,” Harleigh added. “Her hair is perfection. How do you think she gets it to lay so straight with our humidity?”
“You know, I was wondering that, too,” Katy admitted. “It looks like it’s straight out of one of those hair commercials. I’ll bet it’s super soft, too.”
They chattered back and forth about the woman that I was trying to keep out of my mind, and by the time we reached the end of the aisle, I prayed that they would get it out of their system.
Luckily, they did.
When we finally arrived at Avery’s side, neither one of them were talking anymore.
Thank God.
“Wedding photos in five minutes,” Avery said. “Out by the pool. It’s the perfect sunset.”
The girls on my arms immediately said, “Okay!”
Avery frowned at their enthusiastic agreement, her eyebrows raising at me in question.
I gave one small shrug. “They’re excited.”
She shook her head, then moved around us to start taking photos of our parents who had followed us down the aisle.
By the time we met outside, Dax and my sister were sucking face.
“All right,” I announced our arrival. “I’ve been pretty cool about this. Seeing y’all kiss and all. But I’m gonna need a break. It’s making me nauseous.”
Just then, Katy’s husband, Logan, came out of the shadows and pulled his wife into his arms.
“Ack!” I covered my eyes with both hands. “My eyes!”
Rowen pulled away from Dax, laughing.
Harleigh pinched my side. “They’re in love, bro.”
I looked down at the tiny woman at my side. “Don’t you have a man to hang on to?”
A silent shadow moved from the darkness, revealing her husband, Slate.
Slate caught his wife around the hip and pulled her to him.
“Why must you always cause the men headaches?” he teased his girl.
“Exactly,” I agreed. “That’s all you women are. Headaches.”
“The right woman is worth the headache,” Logan teased as he removed his mouth from my sister.
I briefly glanced at him, thankful to see that his tongue was put away.
“All right, everybody!” I heard said from behind me. “I want groom’s family on his left, and bride’s on the right. Husbands, you can stay for a bit, but in a minute, I’ll want you to move.”
Everybody lined up, pairing up with their respective mate.
Everybody but me.
Not that I was upset by that or anything.
Not with something so beautiful standing in front of me, wearing a dress so tight that she could barely bend down in it.
“Okay, I’ll need y’all to squeeze together,” Avery ordered, moving the hand that was holding her camera and her free hand together in a scrunching motion.
I took a step closer to my dad and felt Katy squeeze in tight to my other side.
Something small bumped into my hand, and I grinned down at her.
“Your baby just kicked me,” I said.
Katy scrunched up her nose. “The baby is starving and already throwing a fit because he or she can’t have her way.”
“I’m fairly sure that the baby isn’t starving, Katy.” I poked her in the side. “You have more than enough…”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Katy warned.
“…Padding,” I finished the sentence.
The next thing I knew, I was taking a dip in the water.
When I surfaced, laughing my ass off, the first face I found in the crowd was Avery’s.
Her eyes were huge as she stared worriedly at me.
I shook the water out of my face, then hefted myself back into position.
“Don’t you…” Katy ordered.
I wrapped my wet arm around her and hauled her in close.
