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“Good on ya. It’s a helluva place,” Noah said with his voice lowered. “We don’t talk much about it in public, you know. I’m sure these noisy old bastards figure it out eventually, but later is better.”
“I’m sure,” Ryan commented. “Not exactly something to spread around to the neighbors.”
“Are you coming?” Eli asked Theo. “Doing…your new thing?”
I laughed. “Theo’s told you, huh?”
“Of course. The whole nine yards. Nice.”
“You want that?” Noah asked him gruffly.
“I like what we have,” He purred, then told the rest of us, “We’ve set the date!”
Theo clapped lightly and asked, “I’m not your best man, I know, but let me help coordinate! I have so many ideas!”
“None of that fancy stuff,” Noah grumbled. “Good, simple weddin’ at home.”
“Home? Where, in your barn?”
“Theo,” I warned, as he was close to being a brat.
“Sorry, but please, Noah, let me help. I promise it won’t be over the top. I’ll even pay for it.”
Everyone’s head turned to him. “Excuse me?” Noah whispered. “Theo, you don’t have to do that.”
“I’d love to. Eli and Joel befriended me when I was…let’s face it, awful. I owe him.”
Eli reached for his hand and held it on the checkered cloth, tears welling in his eyes. “Theo, we like you. You don’t have to pay for things.”
“No, no, this isn’t that. I’m not buying what I already have, I swear. It’s just…what better wedding gift than the wedding?”
“We’ll think about it,” Eli promised. “But, of course, whether or not we let you help with the financial part, you will be expected to help me. I’ve never had a wedding. I’ve only been to two, and they were…well, Noah would hate them. White calla lilies and white tuxes with gold leaf flakes in the champagne for one, and that was the cheap wedding.”
“Tacky,” Theo scoffed. “Spring. Tell me it’s in the spring. This weather! Everyone’s skin will be red and dry, and the pictures suffer terribly.”
“Why don’t you volunteer to be the photographer, Theo. You’d be great at that,” I said, and Brett agreed.
“Theo, you would. You could do both. You’d be in all the places a coordinator and a photographer need to be.”
Eli nodded, and Theo relented, “Fine, but…I’m not that great.”
“Yes, you are, Theo.”
“Burke is my best man; Damon will be Noah’s, as they’ve gotten close with all the ranching and animals,” Eli said, excited enough to glow. “Joel is going to be my groomsman, and Noah said that’s enough, or it’ll be too fancy, so I’m glad you’re going to be part of it, Theo.”
“You could ride in on horses,” Theo said, barely hearing Eli, as he was already planning. “At sunset. Not lilies, as they’ve been overdone. Gerbera daisies and baby’s breath, possibly tulips! All white, with dark greenery.”
His mind was occupied with planning for hours, andwhen we arrived home,[t5]he had his tablet in his hand while we all drank the wine and scotch we’d picked up from town. Ryan told him, “That was sweet, Theo, to offer to pay for it.”
“I’ve been to a hundred weddings, at least, but never got to be part of one,” he said casually enough, but I heard the bitterness under it.
“You’ll be the most important one there,” Eli told him. “Except, well, Noah and me, of course.”
Theo’s lashes fluttered over his cheeks, and I saw how much that touched him. I nodded once, and Eli, hoping to convey my thanks, nodded back to me, getting it.
Back at home, we changed our clothes, and while in the bedroom, I asked, “Why do you care you’ve never been to a wedding? Many people have attended them and never been to the wedding party.”
“Supposed best friends, never including me? Having friends that didn’t know them as long as part of the party?” He sat on the bed, clad only in his briefs, and confessed, “All my life, Hud, no one wanted me except for my money. I know you think I went over the top, paying people, but after a while, it was that or loneliness. Even sex, no one wanted me much.”
