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“But don’t expect me to stand by him if he hurts you. I get that the bigger issue is that I didn’t want tolosehim or whatever, but I’m still me and you’re still you. I’m not going to be cool with him if he decides he doesn’t want this and you get crushed. No matter how much I love him like a brother or how cool it would be if it were made official.”
I gave him a small smile. “I appreciate the thought, but I can take care of myself. And seriously, Paul, that whole thing where you wanna beat up any dude who looks my way is tired. We’re too old for that crap. And when it comes to Will, it’s plain wrong. You can’t act like that towards him after what he’s been through.”
Paul shuddered, pacing away again. “I feel bad about how mad I got yesterday. But I couldn’t help it. I’d never actually hit him, though, Aria.”
“Okay,” I said in a small voice, relief flooding my veins.
“I should probably go talk to him.”
Rolling my eyes, I laughed a little. “You think?”
He mock glared at me. “Yeah, I do. I guess I could apologize. I’m gonna have to if we wanna start double-dating like Shelby got all excited about.”
I grinned at that. “Is that what she said?”
“Yes,” he bit out, looking at the ceiling and shaking his head. “She totally brushed off how mad I was and started talking about group camping trips and a cruise to the Bahamas next summer and all this ridiculous lovey-dovey stuff.”
“She knew you wouldn’t be able to stay mad at us.”
“I could have if you hadn’t come over here and explained it all to me like this. I feel like a total creep now.”
“You should.”
He came over and wrapped an arm around my head, tucking it into the crook of his arm. I punched him in the gut when he rubbed his knuckles on the top of my head, shrieking with laughter. “Get off me, you psycho!”
Paul released his hold on me only long enough to turn me into his arms and give me a warm hug. “I’m sorry, Little A. I’ll fix this. I promise.”
I returned his hug, letting the nickname go. He knew I wasn’t a kid anymore, but he was still my big brother. As long as he wasn’t screwing up my life with his overprotective nonsense, he could still act like it in other ways.
“Thank you. But you’d better do it soon. Your wedding is on Saturday, and he’s wondering if he’s still going to be your best man.”
Paul let go of me and gestured to the door. “Do you know where he is?”
“He’s at the dock.”
A small smile tugged the corners of his mouth up and he nodded. And just like that, I knew everything really was going to be okay.
