Chapter Twenty-Two

Brad

"Who told me it was a good idea to let Logan plan the buck's party?" I ask Chad from the table we are sitting at in Grumpy's. Looking around, I cringe. Luckily Grumpy's is closed for the buck's party because I don't know how the usual patrons would feel about the decorations around the room.

"Be thankful I agreed to do it here. He originally wanted to have it at the strippers. But I think he is scared of Dylan, so he quickly came up with a Plan B," Chad responds while stirring his straw around the weird concoction of a drink Logan gave us. It's called The Dylmeister. I have no idea what's in it, but it's strong as fuck.

The room has boobs everywhere. He's plastered tits all over the walls, and there are even little confetti boob cut outs all over the tables. Over near the dart board there is a "pin the boobs on Pamela Anderson" and a whole bunch of drag queens circling the room with trays of shots and food.

"Why the drag queens?" I ask, and this time it's Caleb who answers.

"Chad's right, Logan's scared of Dylan and thought if he hired topless waitresses, she'd chop his dick off in his sleep, so he went a different route."

I chuckle at the image. He's not wrong though. She probably would do something like that.

I look around the table, and even though this isn't really my thing, I'm thankful we are doing all the traditional activities that are involved in getting married. Dylan is the only one for me, so this will be the only wedding I ever have.

If it doesn't work out with us, I'll be alone forever. Because she's all I want.

I'm surrounded by friends I didn't even know I had. To be fair, it's my fault. I shut myself away from the world and opted for the hermit lifestyle, as Dylan calls it. But now that I've opened myself up to her, I've let others in as well.

Ralph and Chad are here, along with Chad's brother husbands Caleb, Isaac, and Lochlan. Arden, Chase, and Rhys are also here, and so are Dom, Roman, Grayson, and Taylor.

I told Logan I wanted it to be low key, so outside of those guys, the only other people here are Henry and some of the other guys from work.

As far as bucks' parties go, this one is probably tame.

"Can we have your attention please!" Logan's voice comes over the PA system and all eyes scan the room, looking for him.

The spotlight hits the stage, and the room erupts in laughter. Logan and Lochlan are standing on the stage wearing coconut bikinis and grass skirts, both holding ukuleles.

I groan and down the contents of my Dylmeister in two gulps. A fresh one is placed on the table before I even put the empty glass down.

What the hell are these two up to?

"As you know, Brad is getting hitched soon, and we're here to celebrate his last night out as a free man," Lochlan says into the microphone.

"We've arranged a little surprise for him, so please welcome to the stage Terra Hymen!" Logan yells as a drag queen with bleached-blonde hair and 6-inch stilettos makes her way onto the stage. Logan passes the microphone and takes a seat on the bar stool on the stage.

The room erupts in cheers again as Terra starts singing and dancing to "I Will Survive." I take a short video and send it to Dylan.

Brad

I'm not sure I will survive this.

Her response is instant.

Dylan

Look at you making jokes. She is awesome. But why are there drag queens at your buck's party?

Brad

Logan is scared of you.

She doesn't reply, so I put my phone back on the table and take another sip of the drink. It's not bad once you get used to the taste. I'm pretty sure there is Red Bull and maybe pineapple juice in it.

Arms wrap around my shoulders from behind, and I don't need to look up to know who they belong to. "As he should be," is whispered in my ear. Dylan is replying to my message in person.

I grab her arm and pull her around and down onto my lap. "What are you doing here?" I ask, not even mad that she's decided to show up.

"Roman already clued us in to what was going on, so we figured we'd gate crash to make the party interesting. Plus, Mady really wanted to play pin the boobs on Pamela," she admits with a laugh.

I look over her head, and sure enough, all the girls are scattered around the bar and Mady is blindfolded and being spun around to play the game.

No one seems to care that our boys' night is no longer a boys' night.

"Can we go home?" I growl in her ear as my hand inches up her thigh. She's wearing a black denim skirt tonight with her usual faded band tee and unicorn Converse. I skate my fingers across the bottom of her skirt and her breathing hitches.

"Soon," she whispers back, while wiggling on top of my crotch. She doesn't move my hand, so I keep pushing the limits to see how far she'll let me go.

It's not until Ralph speaks that our little bubble bursts and I remember where we are. "Have you decided on where you are going to go for your honeymoon?"

I glare at Ralph; he knows it's been a topic of debate between us. I want to go away somewhere and have Dylan all to myself, but she wants to stay home.

"Yep," Dylan says, readjusting herself on my lap so she can face Ralph.

"First I'm hearing about it," I say, and she laughs.

"I was going to tell you tonight when you got home. We're going to stay at the beach house in Briar Bay that Arden's dad owns," she says, and Ralph merely nods.

"We are?" I say, surprised. I haven't been to the house before, but Ralph and Chad have told me about it. It's like some mansion with its own private beach.

"Yep, we are going to head down the day after the wedding and then everyone is going to come and join us the following weekend to spend some time together before I have to go back to uni and the real world." She takes a sip of my drink and spits it out. "That's fucking horrible."

I should be upset that she's invited our friends and family to join us on our honeymoon, but I'm not. Dylan deserves to be happy, and I'm okay if that means we will always have someone popping in and out of our time together.

"Is that okay?" she leans back to ask me after a few minutes.

"Of course. I'm happy I'll get some alone time with you and that we'll get to spend some time with our friends and family. Ella offered up the beach house, didn't she?" I owe Ella a lot after this. She may actually pull this wedding together.

"She did. But she said it was Ralph's idea," Dylan admits.

I look over at my older brother with a raised brow. The guilty look on his face is the only confirmation I need.

"I knew you wanted a honeymoon, and I figured the wedding hasn't been cheap, so it was the least I could do. Martha is going to head down there to fully stock the kitchen for you. She didn't think you'd want a cook there during the week, so she'll prepare some meals and snacks for you." Ralph's eyes soften as he talks about his girlfriend, who also happens to be Arden's housekeeper.

"Sounds good, thank you."

Ralph nods and I pull Dylan into my chest again, relishing the feel of her body against mine. I take in the room once more, and all my worries disappear. Our friends and family are all having fun and laughing. I'm grateful Dylan barged into my life and wouldn't leave, because without her, I don't know that I would have ever experienced true happiness like this.