Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Jackson glances around the room as though he’s annoyed that they’re around people—as if, left to their own devices, he would just drag Derek away and take full advantage of him.
“Don’t worry, Daddy. Once we close on that new house, you’ll be able to christen me in every single room.”
“I can’t imagine Derek outside of Metropolis,” Travis says.
“I know, right? I’m like a full-grown adult all of a sudden.”
“I don’t know that I’d go that far,” Jackson says, seizing Derek by his chin, looking like he’s about to kiss the hell out of him.
“I think you need to stop tempting Travis’s groomsmen and get back to Gary,” Frankie warns playfully. “You were the one who insisted we divide up like this. Seriously, are you that worried about the groom and groom seeing each other, Derek?”
Derek gives Frankie a cross look. “I think that everyone should be concerned about those two squirreling away and having some sort of fuck-fest in the basement and waiting for hours for them to make it to their own wedding.”
“Speaking of which, my man’s accounted for, right?” Travis asks. “I don’t need him disappearing on me like when he got trapped on that boat.”
“Gary’s fine,” I assure him. “Other than freaking out that he’s making the biggest mistake of his life.”
Travis smirks at me but shakes his head. “Now is not the time, Runt,” Travis says.
“Speaking of which,” Cody says. “Evan, has Hayden asked you about that puppy we were thinking about adopting?”
“Yes!” I exclaim. “He was showing me pictures. I think you guys will look so cute with a little shih tzu.”
“Sounds like a good way to trap a bottom,” Derek notes with a wink, and Cody laughs.
Derek, Frankie, and I hunt around for the sewing kit when Frankie discovers it in the cushions of a chair.
“Here it is!” Frankie announces.
Derek glances over from a desk he was checking on. “Oh, shit. I thought I checked there. Evidently that chair wants to get filled up as much as I do.” He makes sure that last comment is directed at Jackson.
Frankie holds it out to me, and as I’m about to snatch it, he pulls it back. “Uh-uh. I think I deserve a kiss first.”
I submit to his request. After all, submitting is what I do best.
There’s some ooh-ing and ahh-ing around the room, and as he pulls away, I feel that warmth in my face…the kind that Frankie’s so good at working up.
An arm hooks around mine, and I turn to catch Derek pulling me away. “And this is the reason why we had to separate the groom and groomsmen. Come on, you little stray.”
I wave to Frankie, who offers a wink before Derek returns me to the room where Gary and his groomsmen are prepping.
Hayden fixes Derek’s button at a nearby table. “Thank God for that Home Ec class in middle school,” Hayden says.
“Obviously, they didn’t time you, though,” Derek says, “because we have pictures with the photographer in a few minutes, and I still have to make sure everyone’s hair looks good.”
“Everyone’s hair looks fine,” Hayden says.
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you were looking at yourself right now,” Derek assures him.
While they work together, Gary checks himself out in the floor-length mirror in this room. I step up behind him and catch a stray piece of thread pulling from the cuff of his sleeve. “Wait a sec,” I tell him. I head to a desk in the room and grab a pair of scissors we discovered earlier in the top drawer. I head over and slice off the thread. “There we go.”
He offers me a warm expression in the mirror. “Thank you, Evan. I really appreciate you being here today.”
“Thank you for having me as a groomsman. You know, considering our past, I really wouldn’t have been surprised if you hadn’t. I really would have understood.”
He turns to face me. “Evan, all that stuff back then is so stupid. Obviously, there was a time when I kind of made you my own personal nemesis because I thought you were this young, cute thing that had stolen my man from me. Not that I totally thought he was cool or anything, but that was really unfair of me to do to you. I didn’t know you. And if I had, I could never have thought those things about you. Now that I’ve actually spent time with you, gotten to know you better, I know how off-base I was. You’re a really nice guy, and we were both played by an asshole who, fortunately, didn’t receive an invite to this.”
“Must’ve gotten held up at the post office,” Derek calls out.
“I know, right?” Gary says with a smile. “Anyway, Evan, that stuff’s all in the past. Looking back, I don’t even regret it, because if I hadn’t ended up with such an asshole who had hurt me so much, I never would have had a reason to pretend to be in a relationship with Travis. And if I had never pretended to be in a relationship with Travis, we never would have bothered to get to know each other, and then I’d be missing out on the greatest love of my life.”