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My own cheeks heated and I blinked a few times to clear my vision, a lump forming in my throat. “That’s… thank you.” I leaned in and kissed him, long and slow, and we held each other close while the sun set and the air cooled around us, nothing mattering except ourselves.
Chapter Nineteen
Oliver
Aweeklater,we’dfinally found a house we were both happy with, I’d secured the location for Metamorphosis with Joseph’s help, and things seemed to be falling into place. The last thing I had to do before I left to go back to Vegas was attend Cam’s friends’ wedding, the same one I’d hosted the bachelor party for at Hidden Cove. I was more than a little excited to meet Cam’s friends, but I was more than a little nervous, too.
“What if they don’t like me?” I asked as I adjusted my tie in the mirror.
Cam, who was dressed in his groomsman suit, stood behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. “Not possible.”
“I mean, what if they think we’re moving too fast? It’s only been, what, three weeks? Any rational person—”
“Any rational person probably isn’t getting drunk-married in Vegas, either. We didn’t do things the rational way. I’m okay with that. Love isn’t rational. Besides, my friends are going to love you because I—” He stopped and cleared his throat. When my gaze met his in the mirror, his cheeks were brilliant red. “Um, I… Don’t worry. They’ll like you just as much as I do.”
I turned to face him. “I trust you. Just… don’t tell them horror stories about me, okay?”
“Like the fact that you’re a blanket hog, you snore, and you plan to let Tenderloin share our bed?”
With a chuckle, I nodded. “Something like that.”
“I would never.”
I slid a hand along his jaw and held him close, my heart thudding in my chest, a rhythm that saidtoo soon, too soon, too soon. Cam’s phone rang, startling both of us, and we stepped apart like we’d been caught doing something we shouldn’t have been doing.
“Yeah?” Cam said into the receiver. He listened for a moment and I could hear one of his friends on the other end, but I couldn’t quite make out what was being said. “Okay, calm down. I’ll be there in fifteen.”
“Everything okay?”
Cam nodded. “We need to go. The wedding planner is apparently freaking out that we’re not all there yet. Are you sure you’re okay hanging out at the venue all day? I mean, you can definitely come later if you want. The wedding doesn’t start until five. You’re going to be bored as hell. There’s no reason for you to be there for four hours before anything happens.”
“I don’t mind. Besides, I can harass the caterer while I’m there. Maybe track down the wedding planner and tell her how terrible she is at her job.” Cam stared at me, open-mouthed, for a moment.
“What? I’m kidding.”
He rolled his eyes. “Good. For a minute there, I didn’t know if my sweet, thoughtful husband had reverted to the grumpy, plate-throwing jerk he used to be.”
“I’m reformed,” I promised him, holding up my hands in defense, and we headed for the car.
Two hours later I decided Cam was right. Iwasbored as hell. Instead of crashing the groom’s suite, I’d decided to meander around the grounds of the botanical garden where the wedding was being held. I’d seen almost everything there was to see and I felt like if I looked at one more placard with the Latin name for a tree on it, I might scream. I checked my phone with a sigh and wandered back to the site of the wedding to wait it out by scrolling social media and checking emails. Iwasawfully tempted to go check out the caterer’s setup, but I restrained myself, playing games on my phone instead.
Eventually, though, the wedding got started. The groomsmen all took their places and soon the couple was marching in together, hand-in-hand. The ceremony was lovely, short and to the point, how I imagined ours might have been. The thought of not remembering my own wedding sent a pang of regret through me. As the happy couple was sharing their first married kiss, I was turning over an idea in my mind.No, I thought, shoving the idea away.Give it some time.
I was grateful to Theo or Nate or whoever made the seating arrangements that I was put at the table with the friend group, which meant I got to sit next to Cam. When we settled at our table, the guys having finished their duties, I was finally introduced to all of them. I knew I’d never remember all of the names at once, though.
“So you’re on a kickball team together?” I asked.
“A gay kickball team,” clarified one of the guys. I thought his name was Jared.
“But there are only six of you here, if we’re counting Theo. Doesn’t a kickball team have nine?”
Cam pointed at the table next to us. “They’re on our team, too.”
“Yeah,” said the one I thought was named Parker. “And a few of them brought rival teammates as their dates, so they obviously can’t sit with us.”
I nodded as if I understood the politics of recreational kickball leagues before Cam jumped up and grabbed my hand. “I love this song. Let’s go dance.”
With a smile on my face, I got up and danced with Cam for several songs. It was a very different kind of dancing than the night we’d gotten married, but we still had fun. After a few songs, the music turned slow again, and the DJ made a comment about the song being for the lovers in the crowd. I started to head back to our table, but Cam pulled me back to him.
