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12
ZAC
Idropped onto the couch with the remote in hand, mindlessly scrolling through my watch list on Netflix. I didn’t have much time for TV with my long hours and rotating schedule, so I’d started and stopped a ton of shows lately. But none of them looked good at the moment.
“Dad, can I have another slice of pizza?” Grayson asked, already reaching into the box for his fifth slice.Fifth. I hoped that didn’t mean he was having another growth spurt. If so, I just wasted a ton of money on clothes.
I shifted on the couch, wondering if one could overdose on pizza. After seeing Layla at the venue today, I hadn’t had the energy to make anything extravagant for dinner, so Grayson was thrilled when I told him we’d order pizza. At least he’d had an apple first.
“Yeah, go ahead, Gray. Pace yourself though, you don’t want to overdo it.”
He smirked. “Overdo it? I bet you I could eat this whole pizza by myself.”
“Well, since Jo and I already ate half of it, that’s not possible,” I teased, sticking my tongue out at him. “Not unless you wanna reach in my belly and take some back.”
He pretended to throw up when I opened my mouth wide, then we both laughed, the sound of his giggles making my chest swell. Man, I loved that kid. Despite all he’d been through, Layla was right. He really was a sweetheart, and he could make anything feel lighter just by being there. By being himself.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. With a frown, I watched, confused, as Jo skipped into my room. A minute later, she came out with my dress shoes in one hand and a navy-blue suit in the other. She’d also grabbed a white button-down shirt and a pink tie, dropping them on the couch next to me. The tie had been a gag gift from her one Christmas, and I’d never worn the thing.
I wrinkled my nose. “What are you doing?”
“Get dressed,” she commanded.
Raising my gaze from the pile of clothes on the couch, I stared at her. “Get dressed?”
“Yep.”
“Where am I going?”
She checked her watch. “You’re going to Will and Aria’s wedding. The reception should be starting by now, so if you hurry, you won’t miss your chance to ask Layla for a dance.”
My mouth dropped open, and I gaped at her, replaying what she’d said as if I could somehow make sense of it if I thought about it hard enough. “Are you out of your mind? I’m not going to Aria and Will’s wedding. First of all, I haven’t seen either of them since Layla and I were dating, and they thought I’d been about to propose. We all know how that ended. And second of all, I wasn’t invited.”
“Don’t worry about the invitation. That’s the fun part. You’ll be awedding crasher.”
I grunted in agitation. Did my sister really think sneaking into a wedding uninvited was fun? As an MP, I’d literally been called to an on-base wedding once to handle that exact offense. The bride and groom werenotpleased, to put it mildly.
Jo took a seat on the coffee table in front of me and plucked the remote out of my hand. “Look, Zac, you were right.”
“About what?”
“About how running into Layla thanks to someone else’s plotting isn’t going to fix things between you. But do you know whatwillfix things?”
“What?”
“You. You can’t be a passive participant in this situation, waiting for her forgiveness to fall in your lap without actually making a move. So, while I’m not going to scheme anymore, Iamgoing to give you the tools you need to make your move. It’s up to you to decide whether or not to do it.”
“Tools, huh? And what tools are those?”
She pointed at the couch. “The suit, Zac. I have hand-delivered your suit, complete with that silly tie I know you hate. But it happens to be Aria’s wedding color, so it’s perfect. Almost likefate.”
I snickered at the way her eyes bulged on that last word. “Fate?”
“Didn’t you say it was fate that you got orders to South Carolina again even though it was unlikely? Maybe this is another sign that you and Layla were meant to be.”
I wasn’t quite sure her gag gift qualified in the same category as military orders, but whatever. “Suit or no suit, I still don’t think it would be appropriate for me to show up at the wedding. Knowing Aria, she’ll have me bounced out before I even make it through the door.”
“Don’t worry about that, either. I have it handled.”
