Chapter 61

Months later

Van

“So who is my sister marrying today?”

Finn looked decidedly seedy. We’d had the most half-hearted bachelor’s party known to man, no strippers, little entertainment. Bruce, our dads and some of the guys from work had been relieved to be going to watch a footy game at the stadium and then come back to our place for a couple drinks.

In Finn’s case, more than a couple.

He’d barely touched a drop, being on his best behaviour now that Cheryl and the kids had moved back home, but his sister’s wedding? That was a legitimate excuse for getting drunk and passing out in our lounge room apparently.

“We don’t know,” I answered finally. “Makes it a bit tricky, but Connor organised a marriage license for each one of us. Whichever one Kendall chooses today is the groom, and the others will be best men.”

That’d be me, I was sure of it. Some people had main-character syndrome, thinking they were the centre of everything, but not me. Connor, however… He marched into the room at the church, wearing the same snappy black suit Gage and I were wearing. My dad said we looked like mafia henchmen, but my mum got all misty eyed and said we were super handsome. Then she started crying, and so did Maggie, and then our dads started to get flustered.

All except Connor’s parents.

After Bruce paid off Mark’s loan, any attempt by the Woods to contact us was rejected vehemently by Connor. It’s like they didn’t know their own son. You only got once chance with Connor. Speaking of which…

“You’re telling me now there’s no crab,” he said. “On the day of my bloody…” He glanced at us. “The wedding. Yes, I heard what you said and I want you to get your staff into scuba gear, book a charter, and go into the damn ocean yourself to find some crab… Oh, you will? Then what’re you bothering me for?” He stabbed a finger at his phone screen, ending the call. “Those pricks—”

“Are out of crab?” Gage stepped in and plucked the phone from Connor’s grip. “Yeah, I got that.”

“Gimme my phone back!” Connor snapped. “What if something happens while the ceremony takes place? What if Kendall gets sick.”

“She’s not sick,” I replied. I’d checked in with her already via text, told her I loved her and not so subtly tried to find out who she was gonna actually marry. She didn’t tell me.

“Well, what if something happens to her on the way to church? A car accident?”

“You don’t need your phone,” Gage said. “You need to take a damn breath.”

“What?”

Connor stared at him like he had two heads.

“Take a breath,” Gage prompted. “I’m not giving you your phone back—”

“Fine.” Connor sucked a breath in and then gasped it back again. “Happy, now—”

“It’s gonna be you.”

“What?” Connor just blinked at Gage.

“It’s gonna be you,” my best mate reiterated. “Van and I had already decided.”

We had? The big guy shot me a warning look, making it plain that I needed to play along.

“You need this more than we do. I think it’s why Van proposed with absolutely no thought whatsoever.”

“OK, fuck you very much,” I told Gage.

“And why I didn’t have a ring. We need Kendall. We love her with our entire hearts, but you need…” Gage pulled out the wedding ring box and plopped it in Connor’s hand. “You need for our girl to walk around each day, wearing your ring, so she’s gonna choose you.”

Connor Woods, soon to be Kennedy, just stared at Gage and then me. Before he could say anything, the doors were thrust open.

“Ring!” Benny said, stomping over in the cutest little monkey suit because Finn’s son was to be our ring bearer.

“Benny!” Cheryl staggered in with Katie coming in behind, carrying a basket of flowers. Her daughter was the flower girl and she was the matron of honour. I slapped a hand over my eyes and then looked blindly in their direction.

“I didn’t see anything. It’s not bad luck if I didn’t see anything!”

“It’s bad luck if you see the bride before the wedding, not the matron of honour,” Gage drawled.

I looked at the lot of them through the gap between my fingers, and then Benny started to laugh. There’s something about little kid giggles that just lights you up inside and I found myself grinning despite myself. So did everyone else. Smiles turned to grins, grins turned to chuckles and Benny, seeing he had a captive audience, just giggled all the more. The whole room filled with the sound of cackles, right until the celebrant appeared.

Connor wanted to be married in a church, so we compromised and were getting married here. The place was a beautiful old chapel that had been deconsecrated, the local parish no longer big enough to support it. Rather than a priest, Kendall had chosen a celebrant who was used to unconventional relationships. Admittedly he’d been a little blown away by the complexity of ours, but—

“Ready to find out who’s the lucky man?” he said, rubbing his hands together.

“Ready.”

We all stepped forward as one, but as we followed the celebrant down the hall, I hung back slightly with Gage.

“Did you let Kendall know about ‘her’ decision?” I hissed.

“She knows.”

I wasn’t sure if that was because he’d had an actual conversation with her or some kind of Vulcan mind meld this dude seemed capable of, and I wasn’t going to get a chance to clarify. We stepped out into the church and saw all of everyone’s hard work.

Damn.

Beautiful, pastel flowers that I was pretty sure were called ranunculus covered the ends of each pew and instead of a big cross with JC on it, there was another massive display of flowers. The place smelled so pretty, like Kendall’s floral perfume and green grass just after it was cut. And there were big, satin bows and other decorations, the pews on both sides chock-a-block full of our family, even Connor’s. His granddad, a spry old bastard, picked his hands up from the cane he was holding and waved.

“Alight everyone.” The celebrant had this posh voice, a bit like an English schoolmaster in a period film. “It’s go time.”

Alice went first, then both sets of Kendall’s grandparents and they took their seats in the front row.

“Now you, gentlemen,” the celebrant prompted.

I felt like a complete twit, every eye in the place on us as we passed by, even my second or third cousin, who seemed to be whispering fiercely about something. We went and stood by what used to be the altar, the celebrant standing beside us. Barbie appeared in the doorway clasping a big bunch of flowers, and she shot us an impish grin before taking the slow measured steps required by the chamber music pumping through the speakers, but it wasn’t until she stood on the other side that she whispered a quick aside.

“Just go with it when it happens.”

“What?” Connor wasn’t the only one freaking out right now, but if we wanted clarification, we weren’t going to get it. She just shrugged and then looked serenely down the aisle.

Fuck…

Was it worse than we thought? Had she decided not to choose any of us? Was she having second thoughts? Kendall seemed so chill about everything, but maybe that was the problem. She wasn’t excited about getting married. I searched the doorway, my heart lightening when I saw a female figure, then feeling like it crashed through the floor when Cheryl walked through. She was looking gorgeous, but she wasn’t the girl I needed to see. Benny ran down the aisle at full tilt and then flung the ring at us, but when everyone started to chuckle, I wondered.

Our relationship was insane. Most women would’ve baulked at this scenario. Would everyone else be laughing when Kendall inevitably didn’t show? I searched the crowd for familiar faces, looking for clues. Alice nodded and smiled, Mum just grabbed a hankie and dabbed at her eyes, but then Katie flung the rest of her flower petals and took a seat in the pews next to her Dad. Connor rotated the ring between his fingers, over and over until I just wanted to—

Fuck, Kendall was here.

I knew she’d look beautiful, but the sight of her in that dress damn near took my breath away. Sun shone through her hair, turning it into pure fire as she walked into the church on Bruce’s arms. The bridal march was playing far too slowly. She needed to quick step, run towards us. Choose us, baby, I prayed fervently. Choose…

Me.

I glanced down at that ring, wanting to be the one to push it on her finger now. Me. Me. It was savagely selfish, and where the hell did that come from? One look at Gage, his eyes wide, made it clear he was feeling the same way. Some men get cold feet, but I had hot ones. They sweated in these uncomfortable shoes, making me want to toe them off and run towards her.

And as if she had heard that thought, Kendall stopped.

“I’m sorry.”

No. No, no, no, no.

“Start things as you mean to go on, that’s what they say.” She popped a hip. “Well, I’m about to do just that. If you’ll follow me.”

Follow… me?

I’d said that aloud without meaning to, and the others stared at me. No, just make that Gage and Van, because every one of our guests got up in that moment and followed Kendall. Down the steps and out into the courtyard to—

“Come along, gentlemen,” the celebrant said. “Your lovely partner is waiting.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Connor asked him in a harsh undertone, but the man just sailed past, his grey suit jacket flapping in the wind. We rushed down the aisle, out of the church, and right into…

The last prank Kendall was going to pull.

“Surprise!” everyone shouted.

“The bastards…” I looked around and saw cheesy grins on the faces of everyone I knew, my family included. “You… You…”

“Pranked us on our wedding day?”

Kendall looked slightly abashed at Connor’s aggrieved tone, but just like before, that impish smile returned.

“Not our wedding day.”

Jesus, love, I thought furiously. Tread fucking carefully. Real carefully.

“Barbie and I talked about it, and we came to a conclusion. There’s the legalities of being in a relationship.” Alan stepped forward, handing our girl a thick manila envelope. “And then there’s the party, and the frock, and the fun. Let’s face it, half the people are here to get pissed on our dime.”

“Yeah!” Finn shouted, instantly met by a round of chuckles.

“And some want the opportunity to do some daggy dancing to 80s hits with their family.”

Mum did this breakdance move that was both amazing and cringey as fuck.

“And still others are just here for the gossip, wondering what the hell is going on between the four of us. Well, let me tell you.”

Kendall’s smile faded, but somehow she looked even more beautiful-because behind every one of her pranks was something far more fragile. Hope and anger, despair and need, and love, always love. My girl wasn’t running from anything, she was…

Running towards us.

“I can’t choose.” When tears filled her eyes, mine did the same, and by the sounds of the sniffles beside me, the guys were a mess too. “I can’t, and I won’t. I love each and every one of you, and I want everyone to know that. So we’re not having a wedding today.”

“We’re not?” Connor said.

“Nope, we’re having a commitment ceremony because that’s all the law will allow us to have right now. Maybe one day if things change, but right now…” She held out a hand and Barbie strode forward, handing Kendall a creased piece of paper. I caught the moment when Kendall’s hand shook as she went to open it and that had me moving. Across the courtyard, closer to her, always to her, the others doing the same. The entire crowd felt like it was screened out as she read this to us.

“Van.” Me fucking first. God, how I needed that, but it was her gaze locking with mine that helped settle me. “You’re like the sun on a winter’s day. You warm me up from the inside, chasing all the grey away. Sometimes you achieve this by pulling a blanket over my head and farting.”

“Van farted!” Benny shouted before he was shushed.

“And while I will never willingly make you baked beans again, I love you.” When her hands touched mine, nothing else mattered but this. I squeezed her fingers far too hard but couldn’t seem to stop. “I love your smile.” That was good, because I was grinning from ear to ear right now. “I love the way you make everything fun, even boring stuff. But I love that underneath it all, there’s a big, gooey centre that will cuddle me and listen as I whinge about my day. Never change.”

I had peaked. There was no getting better than this moment, ever. I stood taller than I ever had before, buoyed by her words in a way that I’d never come down from.

“Gage.” She was forced to let go of my hand then, but that was OK now. Everything was OK. “I love your stillness, your quiet. In a house full of three men, its something I need more often than not, but it’s not just that you know how to keep your mouth shut.”

“Well, he’s a keeper!” some old lady called out.

“When I’m with you, I feel like I can decompress. That nothing that was bothering me before mattered. I feel seen, heard, and at peace. I love your snarky asides. I love the running dick jokes. I love that you think you can cook pasta sauce and you really can’t. I love that you’re big enough, strong enough, to make me feel like you can protect me from the whole world. I love that I feel safe with you.”

She had more to say, but he surged forward, going to kiss her, but then stopping when he saw all of that perfect makeup, instead settling for pressing his forehead against hers.

“I always will, baby. Always.”

“That’s my boy,” Maggie crowed, then looked flushed when everyone else laughed.

“And Connor. Last but never least. Your dad was right in some ways. You’re too damn smart and would’ve made an amazing engineer, but I’m glad you didn’t. Some hot uni grad would’ve seen what I do.”

He gripped her hands like a lifeline, the paper fluttering to the ground.

“You are loyal to a fault and will burn the world to the ground if that’s what it takes to keep us safe. I see the sacrifices you’ve made for us. Not just in going no contact with your parents. In time, and energy, and focus, often to the detriment of your own mental health because you will never give up. On us, on our future.” A single tear rolled down her cheek. “On us. Sometimes I wonder what the hell I did to deserve it, but—”

“You,” he told her, in his voice and ours. “You don’t have to do anything but just be the girl I grew up with. Skinned knees and pigtails, or those very distracting yoga pants and your hair all loose, I don’t care. I’ll love you forever, Kendall. Enough to forgive you for pulling a fu—” He looked around, noticing our families and most notably the kids. “A bloody prank on our we—” He nodded slowly. “Commitment day. But I think I’ve learned my lesson. We pulled pranks because we had no other way to communicate how we felt. You used them years later for the same reason and now? Now you’ve used the best one of all to make clear what we should’ve realised all along. There is no choosing one of us. All or nothing.”

“All or nothing,” Gage said, stepping closer and hooking his arm around her waist.

“All or nothing,” I agreed before turning to face the crowd. “Now, let’s go get pissed!”