Caleb arches an eyebrow. “Just so long as you do. I won’t have anyone fucking this up.”
Mason holds up his hands. “I wouldn’t do that to Jessica or either of you,” he replies sincerely.
“Well, in that case, we’d be honoured if you’d be our best man,” Caleb says, tilting his head towards the small bag on the counter. “That’s for you.”
He peeps inside like something is about to jump out of the bag and pulls out a bottle of whiskey and a handmade cookie from Jessica, who insisted we give him one, too.
Mason clears his throat as he puts them back in the bag.
“I don’t know what to say,” he admits as he glances between me and Caleb.
“How about yes,” I say.
He gives us his first genuine smile since he arrived and nods. “Fuck, yes,” he replies, stepping up to me and giving me a quick hug, followed by Caleb.
Caleb clears his throat. He might not outwardly show it, but Mason saying yes to being our best man means a lot, not just because he’s Jessica’s brother, but also because he’s one of our best friends.
The buzzer on the oven breaks any of the remaining tension, and Mason smiles as he takes over laying the table.
“Do you want to let the girls know dinner is ready?” I tell Caleb.
He nods and turns, but we hear them chatting before they reappear. Avery seems completely unaffected by Mason, as though he’s not even here.
Jessica moves to Caleb’s side, and he wraps his arm around her waist, whispering into her ear. Her resulting smile tells me everything I need to know. When her eyes dart to Mason, she squeals and rushes him.
“I might not particularly like how you just treated my friend, but I’m so glad you’re going to be their best man,” she says, throwing her arms around him.
He kisses the top of her head. “I’m still giving you away, though, right?”
Avery remarks something I can’t quite make out under her breath as she rolls her eyes. But Mase ignores her in favour of Jessica.
“Of course you are,” Jessica replies, grinning ear to ear.
We won’t be having a massive ceremony, and we don’t want to wait either, so as soon as we agree on when and where we’ll make it happen. And that means having those closest to us there. To my shock, Caleb didn’t even utter a word when we made a list and included Elliot. We could hardly not invite him or the other guys with Lily being in the bridal party. I don’t know what’s changed, but he no longer holds the same grudge towards Elliot that he used to, and it’s nice. I have my friendship back with Elliot.
With so many unknowns of what the future holds, knowing we have a small circle of friends we consider family makes everything feel a little less heavy.
I don’t even want to think about treatment, but it’s inevitable. I need to fight with everything I’ve got, if not for myself then for Caleb and Jessica.
Avery and Mason spend dinner seated the furthest from each other and act as though neither of them is even in the room.
I hope that whatever is going on between them will be sorted out by the time we get married because I’m with Caleb. I won’t have anyone ruin this for Jessica or him because this means more to him than he’ll ever admit. He thinks he can hide from me, but he should know better by now. That’s the thing, I worry we’re all too intuitive for our own good when it comes to reading one another.
Mason picks up his glass and clears his throat. “A toast,” he says, waiting for us to all pick up our glasses. “I want you to know no one else deserves my baby sister more than the two of you. To family.”
“To family,” we all reply, clinking our glasses.
It’s not long after that the girls say they should make a move.
“I need to make a move, too. I can drop you both off,” Mason says to the girls.
“Are you sure?” Lily asks, just as Avery elbows her not so subtly.
“What?” she asks.
“We can get an Uber or have one of your guys come pick us up,” she says, almost pleading.
Mason sighs and scrubs his hand over his face before speaking.
