Page 226 of A Matter of Time

“I do love you, but that doesn’t make you any less gorgeous.”

I chuckled and squeezed her tight, and she buried her face in my shoulder.

Candace bumped the bouquet into Jude’s girlfriend’s arms when Aja deliberately threw it at her an hour later, and the look on his face when he realized she caught it was priceless. His terror was more than obvious. The surge to the door to watch Dane and Aja leave in the Rolls-Royce limousine pushed the wedding party from the front to the back. There was no way for any of us to even get close. Dane held up his hand to me, and Aja blew me a kiss.

I had my orders. In the three weeks they would be gone on their honeymoon, I had to coordinate movers. All her stuff and all his things needed to be in the new house in Oak Park by the time they got back. It was all on me. I had promised to get it done, even with my busy schedule. My brother was counting on me.

People started to trickle out, and the music changed to oldies that everyone could dance to and sing along with. I went and said goodbye to the Reids, gave Caleb a hug, and was surprised when Dane’s father made a point of saying how much he appreciated me putting a photo of their family in the montage.

“Of course.” I smiled at him.

He patted my back as I was squatting between his and his wife’s chairs.

“Jory, you’re such a good boy.” Mrs. Reid sighed, the tears welling in her eyes. “Dane certainly picked a wonderful brother.”

I leaned up and kissed her cheek, and her hand stayed pressed to the side of my neck until she could breathe without crying. I thanked them all for coming, and Caleb told me how lucky Dane was to have me. I told him I was the lucky one.

I worked my way slowly through the crowd, doing the last check, moving from table to table before I found the catering manager to thank him. Finally done, I changed back into jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and Converse sneakers and headed toward the door. I weaved through the crowd to say my last good nights to the wedding party and quickly kissed and hugged all the women. I found Rick, Lance, and Alex sitting together and stopped at their table.

“You wanna wait and catch a ride, J?” Rick asked me.

I smiled at him and shook my head.

“What’re we gonna do without him?” Jude asked as he walked up to lean on the back of one of the empty chairs. “He’s the first to fall.”

“We were always together,” Rick said softly, looking around at all of us. “It’s weird. It’s like the end of an era or something. I feel like I should mourn my friend.”

I smiled at them as I hooked myself up to my iPod.

“You think it’s funny, J?” Rick asked me.

“No.” I took a deep breath, stepping away from the table. “But you gotta grow up sometime.”

“I’m not ready to get married,” Rick insisted. “And I definitely don’t want to be anybody’s father.”

“We’ll see,” I said cheerfully, my eyes slipping over each of them in turn. “You guys take it easy. I’ll see ya ’round.”

“Gimme a call, J,” Rick insisted. “I’ll kick your ass at some racquetball or something.”

“Sure,” I lied before I pivoted and headed for the door.

It was nice that, outside, it was crisp but not cold yet. A beautiful night—or early morning now—for the first week of October. It was funny, but unlike his friends, I felt nothing but contentment for Dane and a sort of peacefulness for myself. I had seen my brother through a milestone in his life. I was very grateful.

TWO

There were a great many things I was good at. Picking out screws at the hardware store the following Sunday night was not one of them. On the phone with Chris, I told him for the millionth time why I should have stayed home with Dylan and he should have been the one looking in bins marked with fractions. They all looked the same to me.

“Don’t be such a whiny child,” he snapped at me.

I grunted into my silver and blue Nokia 1100. Dane had bought me and Aja one each at the same time.

“C’mon, boy, use that Y chromosome for something,” Chris teased me.

“I hate you,” I assured him. “What are you doing, anyway?”

“I’m watching TV and making your dinner.”

I chuckled. “Very domestic.”