My left eyelid twitched. “Because I’m the man of honor.”
“Uh-huh.”
I kicked him. Not hard, more of a toe nudge that he basically side stepped. “What’s your point?”
“You could delegate,” Isley said, like it was perfectly logical.
“Everyone has plenty to do,” I responded with a scoff. “The wedding is in T-minus nineteen hours. Now stop distracting me, because if I mess this up I’ll have to start over. It needs to be perfect.”
“You know,” Isley said conversationally, as he reached for the hook and handed it over. I started pulling the yarn through the braids so I could tie each one of them up. “Demi doesn’t care about perfect.”
My bark of laughter startled Jolene, who took a quick sidestep, but then settled immediately. I shook my head. “Have you met her?”
“Emery—”
“About this she does.” I talked right over him. “She wants what she wants. She’s very particular about it and I don’t blame her. She’s marrying the love of her life! And they already had to postpone once—”
“Which was their choice,” Isley interjected.
“—and they’re meant to be together and nothing,nothing, will get in the way of them having their perfect day. This is the first day of the rest of their lives and they’ve spent enough time apart.”
I got a little loud by the end so I was surprised when Isley didn’t comment on it. I pulled the last braid through, then turned to toss the hook onto the cart. When I turned back Isley was looking up at me, brows beetled together and mouth drawn tight.
“What?” I snapped.
“Nothing.” He shrugged but didn’t look away. “Just, it’s clear that this isn’t about Demi and Luke.”
I started tying the knots to keep the braids in place. I was good at it. Always had been. I joked that it was the reason I was good at sutures too, even though they were nothing alike. “You’re not making any sense.”
“Yes, I am.” And even though he was in vet school, in that moment, he wasn’t a professional by any means. He was my pain in the ass little brother, who just had to needle me. Part of me, a very small part, loved it. But the rest of me was in too big of a time crunch and too stressed to enjoy some brotherly teasing.
“Go away. I’m busy.”
With that, I focused solely on my task, going as fast as I could without messing it up. Jolene’s mane had to look perfect. After a few minutes, I was aware of him walking away. I kept the sigh of relief subtle, not wanting him to pick up on it. But instead of hearing his footsteps fade as he left the barn, they got muffled somewhat as he walked further in.
“IH to Base.”
I groaned.
“Go for Base.”
“I found him. Over.”
I let out a frustrated noise. “I wasn’t lost!”
“Good job. Dinner’s at six. Base out.”
When Isley returned I tried my best to ignore him, but as usual, my astute brother would not be so easily ignored. Hepoked me several times in the thigh until I finally huffed out a breath and looked down at him.
Isley’s smile was all fake innocence. “Dinner tonight is just the family. And the partners. Tommy is having a pizza party with Pay and Aria at Crew’s, and he’s watching the babies too. Mom says it’s this week’s brunch since Demi and Luke are going to Denver for a few days.” His smile turned real. “Except also Nick because Mom has relinquished cooking duties to him for the night so she can, and I quote, ‘just visit’.”
I blinked. “Will wonders never cease. I think she’s adopted him. Whether he wants to be or not.”
Isley chuckled at that. “It’s what she does. Pay attention to the time, all right?”
I nodded my agreement, which was enough to finally get him to leave. I put everything out of my mind and focused on Jolene. When she was done, I led her to her stall and got her dinner, even though it was a little early. Her hay net was full and she had plenty of water, so with a plea to stay clean, that she was most likely going to ignore, I mentally checked that item off my list and moved to the next.
The only thing that mattered right now was the list.
