Fighting for my Best Friend (Fated Series Book 4) Read online

  “Just as long as you don’t interrupt the priest before he’s done his bit.”

  “Right,” she said. “Please tell me you’re used to women talking your ear off while you do their hair.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first to overshare,” I said, reaching for my brush.

  “You know what the scariest thing is?” she asked. “It’s times like these when I realize I’m my mother and that I’m actually not chill at all.”

  I laughed.

  “Like I seriously need to quiet my mind, but all I can think about is whether or not Aiden and Dave and my Dad are standing around drinking right now trying to decide if they can squeeze in a few holes on the golf course before the ceremony.”

  “I promise they won’t do that.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because Aiden sucks at golf, and he would never agree to anything that would make him look like an ass in front of Dave and your Dad, especially today.”

  “Good point.”

  “Plus, even if they did do it, they won’t get very far in a golf cart.”

  “True.”

  “Why don’t you tell me how you met Dave?” I asked.

  Claire smiled as if she was grateful to have her thoughts directed. “Well, he was a TA in one of my econ classes in college.”

  “What year?”

  “Sophomore year. He was a Junior though.”

  “So you guys have known each other forever.”

  “A few years,” she said with a smile.

  “What was the first thing you noticed about him?” I asked.

  “Well, the first thing was that his fly was down.”

  My eyes went wide.

  “But the second thing was that he had this really geeky man bag.”

  “Oh god.”

  “And I remember staring at it the whole class just thinking, how could someone so adorable have such a hideous bag?”

  I shook my head.

  “So then what?” I asked, walking over to the dresser and facing her while I slid a bunch of bobby pins along the top of my dress so I wouldn’t have to hold them in my mouth.

  “I can hold those for you if you want.”

  “I’ll tell you if I need any more,” I said, stepping behind her again. “Please continue.”

  “Right. So basically, I decided I had to talk to him.”

  “What did you say? Your fly is down?”

  She laughed. “No, he figured it out half way through class and corrected the situation.”

  “Oh good.”

  “But I was desperate for an excuse to talk to him.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And I wanted to say something really clever, but all that came out was that is a really hideous bag.”

  “What?!”

  “I know. I was kicking myself, but he totally saved the day.”

  “How?”

  “He said, I’m so glad you pointed that out, and I couldn’t agree more.” Her eyes sparkled as she spoke. “Of course, then I didn’t know what to say but he continued, asking me if I could keep a secret.”

  “And you said yes?”

  “Of course. That’s when he told me that the bag was just a prop for a study he was doing about whether women were attracted to all bags, even hideous ones.”

  I laughed.

  “And I didn’t know what to think then cause he really caught me off guard and, well, you’ve met Dave, right?”

  “Briefly,” I said. “A few times.”

  “So you know he has this painfully dry sense of humor and sometimes it’s really hard to tell if he’s joking?”

  “Yeah. So what did you say?”

  “I can’t remember. Something forgettable. But then he asked if I would be willing to let him interview me about the topic over coffee?”

  “No he didn’t.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “So you said yes, obviously.”

  “I sure did,” she said, letting out a heavy sigh. “And you know what?”

  “What?”

  “There was no study at all. It was just a line.”

  “You’re joking!” I said, feigning shock.

  “I know.” She shook her head. “And the worst part of all is that I was so charmed by him, I didn’t even care about his hideous murse anymore.”

  I laughed. “Wow. Who knew Dave was so smooth?”

  “He’s not. He’s not at all. I just- I don’t know- he makes me laugh, ya know?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And I feel like as long as he makes me laugh, I can forgive him for anything.”

  “Even hideous bags?”

  “Even hideous bags,” she said. “Don’t tell him I said that, of course. I want him to think my love is far more conditional and complicated than that.”

  “Your secret’s safe with me.”

  Her eyes sprang into little crescents. “I know.”

  “Can I ask how you knew he was the guy you wanted to marry?”

  “Besides the fact that he was the first to ask?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think I knew the first time we danced,” she said. “We just fit, ya know? Don’t get me wrong. Dave is not a good dancer, but dancing with him… it just felt right, like everyone else who’d ever been in my personal space was intruding somehow. But when I danced with him, it felt comfortable, like he was the only one who could be that close to me without totally cramping my style. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I’m not sure how else to explain it.”

  “That’s good enough,” I said. That would be good enough for anybody.

  Chapter 6: Aiden

  It didn’t seem real until I saw her walking down the aisle with my Dad.

  And she looked beautiful, more beautiful than she ever had before. She was actually glowing. And the whole time she was walking down the aisle, she never took her eyes off Dave.

  And he was glowing, too.

  I couldn’t believe it. The guy was usually so serious, so sarcastic, but he actually looked so happy you would’ve thought my sister was a goddamn Christmas tree.

  And I’d never seen her look so girly. Sure, when she was little she and her friends would dress up like princesses and have tea parties and all that crap. But as she walked towards Dave in her strapless, floor length wedding dress, she actually looked like a real princess.

  That’s when I realized that her main function in this world wasn’t just to be my awesome sister anymore. She was someone’s bride. Dave’s. And he was going to build his whole life around her. He was going to make her his purpose and his partner in everything.

  And I have to admit, I respected the guy for pulling the trigger. I admired the fact that he was so confident in his love that he didn’t even want to see what else was out there, that he was prepared to piss all around her in front of his family and friends. Or have a wedding. Whatever, same thing.

  I envied his clarity of thought, his confidence in the one arena I felt like I wasn’t equipped to navigate.

  When Claire finally took her place across from Dave, the whole church disappeared for a second. Seeing my sister that happy made my chest swell so big I thought I might burst. Not that I understood it. I thought Dave was a pretty normal guy. More intelligent than most maybe, but clueless about cars and grilling.

  Of course, none of that mattered once I saw my sister beaming like that. I knew she loved him. She’d said as much to me in a dozen different ways over the years so I knew this day was coming. But the way she looked then said it in all the ways her words couldn’t.

  And she seemed just as calm, just as excited, and just as resolute as he did, and her love for him was radiating from every pore. It was weird to see her like that.

  After all, she was my sister. We didn’t have any secrets. I could remember every pimple she tore the house up over, every guy that ever hurt her feelings, everything she ever achieved that meant something to her.

  But suddenly she was in a realm I couldn’t relate to. For
the first time I realized that everything was about to change. She was leaving the family and starting her own. From now on it was Dave who was going to live through the drama of her every dramatic triumph.

  And don’t get me wrong, I was more than happy to let him take that load off the family’s hands, but I would miss that intimacy Claire and I had. I knew things would never be the same. Even if she never admitted that I wasn’t the number one guy in her life anymore, that didn’t change the fact that I would know Dave came first. Which was as it should be.

  And when she started having kids I could fucking forget it. I’d be knocked down peg by peg until I wasn’t even in her top three priorities anymore.

  But when I looked at her looking at him, I wasn’t afraid of that future. I was just happy for her, happier than I ever thought I could be for somebody.

  And then something made me turn around and look at Lucy.

  She was looking at Claire, too, just like everyone else in the church.

  But she averted her gaze towards me a moment later, smiling at me through eyes that were welling with tears.

  I smiled back at her before turning around, comforted by the fact that whatever I saw in Claire’s eyes, Lucy must’ve been able to see, too.

  Not that I was surprised. Lucy had known Claire almost as long as she’d known me. When we were younger, Claire had almost been a role model for her. Or at least, she was one of the only cool, older girls that acknowledged her in school.

  I can remember how excited Lucy used to get when she’d be over on a night that Claire had a high school dance. She would peek through the front windows at our house and watch all the couples taking pictures, pointing out the dresses she liked and talking smack about the rest of them.

  It was the only time I ever found her painfully dull. I used to count down the minutes to when my sister and her friends would finally leave for the dance so I could have my regular Lucy back, so we could return to the serious work of fort building or video gaming or hot lava leaping or whatever was grabbing us that day.

  Remembering that made me realize how much it probably meant to Lucy that she got to do Claire’s hair for her wedding. And I have to say she did a good job as far as I could tell.

  Claire’s hair looked pretty without being distracting. I figured that was probably the point.

  While the priest reminded us why we were gathered here today in case someone had a really short term memory or was supposed to be at someone else’s wedding, I let my eyes drift towards my parents.

  I smiled when I saw that my Dad had his hand on my Mom’s knee, and I was happy for them. They liked Dave. He presented himself well, didn’t lose his temper, never drank too much (at least in front of them), and had a good job and a strong work ethic. As far as they were concerned, they could’ve done a lot worse.

  When Claire was eighteen she was an absolute terror. One night she told my Mom she was going to elope with her boyfriend on his motorcycle. He broke up with her the next day, but she got a big fake tattoo of his name on her lower back just to give my Mom a heart attack. That’s when I realized she never even cared about the guy and was mostly dating him to fuck with my parent’s blood pressure.

  Whether or not I was the only one that thought it was funny that she’d ultimately married someone who both our parents approved of was anybody’s guess, but I suppose she got that rebelliousness out of her system. Plus, she’d always been a seat belt freak so a biker boy was never going to do it for her in the long run.

  When it came time to do the vows, it turned out they’d written their own. Dave made a few bad jokes that only Claire laughed at which, fortunately, caused other people to laugh at how well suited they were. Then he got really serious and made some farfetched geology reference that I think was supposed to be another way of saying he would love her forever.

  Claire couldn’t even speak when it came to her turn, and I made a note to myself to ask her what the hell she was warbling at the time. Not that it mattered.

  What mattered was that when the priest said “you may now kiss the bride,” neither of them had changed their minds. So Dave laid one on her. I assume it was a tasteful, crowd pleaser without tongue, but I’ll never know cause I looked away. I didn’t need to see that shit-wedding day or no wedding day.

  And when the bells started chiming and they skipped down the aisle hand in hand, I was kind of jealous.

  Not cause I wished I was getting married or anything. I was a long way off that.

  But suddenly it was clear that they were a team, and that from then on, they were going to do whatever the fuck they wanted.

  Chapter 7: Lucy

  If it hadn’t been for how gorgeous Claire looked, I never would’ve taken my eyes off him. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him so dressed up, and his broad shoulders looked even better in a suit than his chest did in his scrubs or his legs did in his rugby uniform.

  Damn. What had I done?

  While the rest of the guests milled towards the room where the reception was going to be held, the wedding party headed outside for a quick photo shoot. First the bride and groom took some pictures. Then it was the bridal parties turn, followed by the groomsmen.

  Of course, when it was time for the whole group to cram in together, I couldn’t help but notice that I was the only one left on the other side of the camera, besides the camera man and his beret wearing assistant.

  “Wait!” Claire said, before the group dispersed. “I want one with Lucy. Lucy, come get in the picture.”

  “Oh no, that’s okay,” I said. “It looks great the way it is.”

  Claire raised her eyebrows in a way that made it clear my joining in wasn’t optional.

  “She’s a family friend,” she explained as I hurried to the end of the line. “She’s the one that did my hair today.”

  Her girlfriends murmured their approval as I approached. Meanwhile, I could almost hear the watering mouths of the groomsmen thinking “who is this idiot keeping us away from the open bar?”

  “No,” Claire said. “Squeeze in here with us girls.”

  At that point, I was ready to die of humiliation.

  “Perfect,” Claire said once I’d found a spot beside the friendliest- and perhaps not coincidentally the fattest- bridesmaid.

  I tried to smile as big as I could, reminding myself that I belonged in the photo just as much as the others. After all, besides the fact that it was Claire’s idea (hopefully not just because I was standing awkwardly by myself), I had in fact known her longer than everybody except for her parents, Aiden, and one of her bridesmaids who I recognized as her bestie from high school.

  I was relieved when it was over, and I can only imagine everyone else was, too. Even my face was sore from all the good cheer, and I’d only joined the tail end of the shoot.

  “You have a card or something?” Aiden asked, appearing next to me as everyone made their way back inside the hotel.

  “Sorry?”

  “Claire wants to give your card to some of her friends in case they want to use you at their own weddings.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s so nice of her.”

  “She’s a nice person,” he said. “Plus, she has no reason to be annoyed with you.”

  I put my hand on his arm. “Aiden.”

  He shrugged it off. “Do you have a card or not?”

  “No,” I said. “But what I really care about is whether I still have a best friend or not?”

  He stopped in the gravel path and turned towards me, waiting while the rest of the wedding party gained some ground.

  I swallowed.

  “I don’t want to be this mad,” he said. “But I can’t help it.”

  “What can I do?” I asked. “I miss you. I miss-”

  He looked down at the ground and dragged a toe through the small rocks before looking back up at me. “I just need time.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll wait.”

  H
is face looked so hurt with his eyes and mouth turned down at their corners.

  My chest tightened at the thought that I was responsible, that I’d made him unsure of the only thing he never had to doubt before. “There’s nothing I won’t do to-”

  “You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I know you didn’t hurt me on purpose, okay? I just need some space.”

  I pursed my lips. Space was the last thing I wanted to give him. Time was one thing, but space, well, I felt like the more space I gave him the worse the growing silence between us was going to get. After all, I knew he was stubborn, too stubborn for his own good, and I’d never been on his black list before. Nor had I seen anyone manage to get off of it.

  “I need to get a drink before I make my speech,” he said. “You want something?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Focus on your toast. Let me know if you need anything.”

  He turned on his heels and started down the path, staying close enough ahead of me that it wouldn’t look weird to anyone else but far enough ahead to make me feel left behind.

  Fortunately for me, Aiden had so many responsibilities and people he had to mingle with that it didn’t seem strange for him to avoid me. If anything, it made me appear wonderfully supportive and easy going considering how willing I was to share his attention. Or at least, that’s what I told myself.

  It wasn’t long before I’d casually skulled three glasses of champagne, drinking them in such quick succession that even the gloriously photogenic canapes that kept appearing on silver trays in front of me could do nothing to take the edge off my buzz.

  And when it was time for Aiden to make his speech, I was feeling pretty good… despite the fact that the man of the hour was secretly punishing me in front of hundreds of his family’s closest friends.

  Ugh.

  I saw him tap his fork against his glass before the high pitched clink bounced around the room. Without missing a beat, I angled my body towards him, relieved that I would be able to admire him for a few minutes without looking sad or clingy.

  The hired MC handed him the microphone and he took it confidently. Even the way his large hand looked wrapped around it was enough to make my body ache.