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Kit brightened immediately. “You’re right!”

“Right about what?” Eve asked as the bridal party joined the brides.

“Kit wants a Switch,” Shannon shared, laughing.

“Shocker,” Bonnie deadpanned.

Alder, who had already been at the front of the room to watch June and Nash open their gifts, rolled her eyes. “Kit would want a kid’s toy.”

“First of all, have you played one? They’re fun as fuck,” Kit argued. “And, secondly, I’m not against adult toys—that just seems like a weird-ass gift for—”

“Jesus Christ,” Alder muttered as they all cracked up.

“What’s so funny?” June yelled from the back of the room, which, of course, only set them off again.

And when Alder yelled back, “Nothing! Play your game!” Kit actually leaned on the back of a chair as she doubled over with a fresh burst of laughter.

Aspen was the first to recover, and, wiping tears from her eyes, said, “Alas, Kit does not get a Switch. Or an adult toy. She can buy those for herself.”

Eyes dancing, Kit grumbled, “Wow. Rude.”

Aspen sniggered and looked at Eve. “Do you want to go first?”

“I think we’d be better off not making Kit wait,” Eve replied, winking at Kit.

“Good point.” Aspen kissed Eve’s cheek then ducked down to pull a blue and white striped tote from beneath the table. She set the bag onto the seat of her chair and pulled out a stack of five boxes wrapped in matte navy blue paper. “Although, objectively…I think these are better,” she said as she began distributing the gifts.

“Why are ours different?” Jack asked as he looked from his and Kit’s boxes to the ones Aspen was handing Alder and Zann.

Aspen huffed and rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you open them and find out.”

Zann glanced at Alder, Kit, and Jack as she peeled the wrapping paper from a cube-shaped box wrapped in black leather that had her monogram embossed in its lid. Alder’s looked to be the same, but with her own initials on the lid, while Kit and Jack were unwrapping little leather briefcases.

She hooked the edge of her thumb under the lip of the lid and pried it open, and her eyes widened when she saw the gorgeous watch nestled inside. “Dude, Asp.” She wasn’t a collector like Aspen, so she didn’t have any background to connect to the Waldhoff name on the face, but the watch’s blue and pearl face and gleaming exposed gears and workings looked really fucking cool. “Thank you,” she said as she pulled it out to try it on.

“You’re welcome.” Aspen inclined her head toward the watch. “It’s engraved.”

Zann bit her lip as she flipped it over, and her heart squeezed when she saw the message etched in a tight font across the back of the casing.

Thanks for being my light when the world was dark.

She blinked as tears stung her eyes and muttered, “Fuck you for making me cry,” as she grabbed Aspen and hauled her into an absolutely crushing embrace.

Aspen huffed a watery laugh and squeezed her back just as tightly. “I wouldn’t have made it without you, Zee. I love you.”

Throat tight, Zann sniffed and kissed her cheek. “Love you, too,” she croaked.

The emotion of the moment was mercifully lessened when Kit said loudly, “What the—? We can build our own watches? That’s fucking badass!”

Zann wiped at her cheeks as she and Aspen broke apart, and chuckled at the matching excited expressions Kit and Jack were wearing.

“As it turns out,” Aspen said, smiling, “my favorite accessory is also a traditional groomsman gift. So, when I was trying to think of an appropriate token to say ‘thank you’ to you all for being here, watches seemed the natural choice. But I thought that you guys, being the tinkerers that you are, would enjoy putting yours together yourselves.” She waved at the silver box that had DIY WATCH CLUB Tool Kit stamped on it.

“I didn’t even know this was a thing,” Jack said in an awestruck tone. He beamed at Aspen. “This is awesome. Thank you.”

“So cool,” Kit enthused as she carefully closed and latched her case and set it on the table before bounding wildly forward to jump on top of Aspen like a kangaroo and drop a wet smackeroo of a kiss on her forehead. “Thanks, Asp.”

Aspen laughed and slapped her ass. “You’re welcome.”