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He walks over to the center of the room, taking a deep breath as all eyes swivel toward him.
The murmur of noise in the room fades to silence. Dean looks around, making sure he has everyone’s attention. Then, he smiles at Nina and me.
“Now, as I’m sure most of you know, Brock and I go way back. He’s, well, sort of like a brother to me I guess you could say.”
Dean’s words are met with a chorus of voices murmuring sweetly.
He continues, “A brother who’s marrying my sister, that is. Kind of messed up, if you ask me.”
Raucous laughter rings out.
Dean waits for things to calm down, putting a hand in his pocket. “Honestly, I was a little worried when I suggested that my little baby sister work for Brock. The eternal bachelor . . . well, I should say, the ex-eternal bachelor.
“Anyway, I knew deep down she had feelings for him. And well, she wasn’t the skinny kid she had been when she used to have this huge teenage crush on him.”
I look down at Nina to see her blush, squeezing her hand tighter while laughing along with our wedding guests.
“And I must have been psychic or something,” Dean says, “because I dropped by their office one day and there they were, making out. My sweet little sister and my best friend.
“To put it bluntly before all of you here, I felt like I had failed to protect my little sister, the one person I care more about than anything else in the word.”
I glance around to see a few hands raised to wipe a tear from the eye, or to stifle a sudden cough.
“But then, after a little . . . falling out let’s say, I realized that Brock wasn’t playing my sister. He wasn’t preying on her. I realized that he loves her deeply. And she loves him, too.”
Silence hangs in the air, everyone hanging on Dean’s every word.
“And I see now that they need each other,” he says. “They belong together. Nina, and Brock. I wish I could have seen it at the start. But I see it clearly now. I’ve never seen you two happier, my two best friends. And it’s wonderful.”
A somber applause rolls out across the hall, and Dean turns away from the crowd to wipe at his face for a quick second.
He turns back to face us, raising his glass into the air. “Now, before I do something stupid like start crying, I want to raise a toast to these two. Mr. And Mrs. Evans, together in marriage as they should be. To the bride and groom!”
The whole room erupts, people to our left and right jumping into the air. Hands clap me on the shoulder.
I’m overcome with emotion. I try my best to fight back the tears of joy threatening to spill out. I feel a gentle brush from a delicate finger and peer down to see Nina looking up at me, love in her teary eyes.
I lean down to pick her up into an embrace, and the room cheers again as we kiss deeply.
I can picture our whole life ahead, playing out in front of us. And I’m the happiest man in the world.
