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“Right after you said don’t?”
“Elope.”
Lawson breathes out and downs half his drink.
Silently, I rise and top it up. This should be a blowout bachelor party, but Dakota just stared down Mack when he suggested strippers, so we’re having drinks and a little later the other guys are coming over and we’re staying in. No trouble that way.
She also dictated the bachelor’s party to happen a couple of days ahead, ‘because of the hangovers’.
“You’re so into her, man. You might lose her.” He nods and takes another healthy swallow. “Because you won’t take a leap.”
“What leap? You’re the one who wants to get married. I’m fine. Sarah’s fine.”
He pins me with a look. “You know me. I wasn’t out looking for a bride, but I sure as shit wasn’t an idiot when Dakota turned up. I went for that, hard, because I knew I wouldn’t find someone like her ever again. And I fell for her.”
“Fell? Sarah isn’t Dakota. She knows what’s up and how we’re just seeing how it goes.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“I’ll take it under advisement.”
He sets down his drink and crosses to me, reaching into his pocket. “While you’re doing that, I need you to do something for me. Take this.”
He hands me two jewelry boxes. I don’t need to open them to know what they are. “Mack?”
“Mack told me he doesn’t want the responsibility, so it’s on you.”
They’re heavy. Not in weight, but I can feel the future and the promises, the good times and the bad, and the bond that they hold.
When he and Dakota slip on those rings, they’re closing their deal. And opening up forever.
Sarah deserves a man who can do that for her.
And I think when she finds him, I’m going to have to kill him, because whoever he is, I hate him.
She’s mine. But he’s right in what he’s saying here, beneath the blather, he’s telling me that Sarah deserves this. From a man who does the forever thing.
Our history, mine with Sarah, it’s too full of bullshit for that. Right now, she trusts me, but tomorrow? Next week? It could all tumble down like a stack of cards.
Not from me cheating, I wouldn’t. I can’t look at another woman without wishing it was Sarah, but she might end up hating me. She’s already got one ex. I’m not ready to be turned down or be ex-husband number two.
“I’ll bring them. And I’m honored.”
I’m also saved from further disturbing thoughts and conversation by the ring of the doorbell.
No, I decide, Sarah and I are fine just the way we are.
It’s the night before the wedding, and I’m stretched out on Sarah’s bed, waiting for her to come back to me. Wishing it didn’t have to be like this. Wishing she was here with me, always, instead of this back and forth between our places, and not sure what it is I want.
She comes into the room. “Getting comfortable?”
“Shouldn’t I?” I raise my eyes to her.
She laughs, but there’s something about it, and she sits. “I was helping sign in some guests, out-of-town family for the wedding. Some great uncle of Lawson’s and his wife. They seemed nice and happy.”
There’s something in her voice, something that shakes me to my core. A heaviness settles over me, and I slowly get up so I’m sitting next to her. “Dwight and Mary-Lou?”
Sarah nods. “That’s them.”
