It was then I confirmed what I already knew deep down: I wanted it to be me up here one day, waiting for Sophia to walk down the aisle to meet me at the end of it.
Chapter Thirty
S O P H I A
Everything about the day had been surreal so far, but nothing seemed stranger than standing next to Aamee while the woman to the other side of me was about to publicly pledge the rest of her life to my brother.
Our parents’ backyard was filled with family and friends. They’d brought gifts and cards, shaken Brody’s hand when they’d seen him earlier, and told us how proud they were of him that he’d found someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
The whole thing should’ve been enough to win me an Oscar.
There was no going back now, and Drew and Brody both needed this to play out according to plan if they had any shot at getting my dad to agree to fund a venture of their own. If the wedding collapsed, so did Brody and Drew’s dream, not to mention any hope of my parents trusting either of us again.
So when Uncle Marc stood in front of Veronica and Brody and addressed them and the guests before beginning the ceremony, I did my best to seem genuine. I smiled. I took some deep breaths like I was overcome with emotion. I even wiped at a pretend tear. Maybe I had a chance at an Academy Award after all.
Marc recited a poem that my mom had chosen because it was one she apparently used to read to Brody as a kid when she tucked him in.
Brody looked so confused when Marc read it that I wondered if my brother had hired someone to impersonate him as a child too.
“And now,” Marc said, “we’ll hear the vows that the bride and groom have prepared.”
“I’m sorry?” Brody’s eyes were wide with shock, but he must’ve realized his mistake quickly. “Oh. Right. The vows.”
I assumed he should’ve known that he needed to write his own vows, but the look on his face said differently. And since there was literally no way that he would’ve been expected to write his own vows without explicitly agreeing to it, it was more likely he’d simply forgotten about it. Maybe because up until last night he wasn’t sure he’d even go through with the wedding. Or maybe just because Brody was Brody, and he forgot about important things all the time.
Reaching out to take Vee’s hands, he hesitated for a moment—maybe because Aamee was in full view of him. But he seemed to realize that somehow it was more awkward not to take Veronica’s hands in his.
Then he turned to Marc and said, “I memorized mine.”
I caught Drew’s eyes shift to mine, and they seemed to be filled with the same anxiety I was currently experiencing. I wanted so badly to catch a glimpse of my parents. They had to be wondering if Brody had forgotten about the vows. But I couldn’t bring myself to look in their direction.
Better just to drive past the car crash than look to see if there are any casualties.
Though it quickly occurred to me that this was the car crash. And I’d been riding shotgun, hoping I’d be able to escape without any significant injuries.
Brody, on the other hand…
“I’m just messing around,” he said, reaching into his pocket and removing a small folded piece of paper. “You guys didn’t really think I’d wing something as important as my vows, did you?”
There were murmurs from the audience along with a few laughs that indicated they absolutely thought Brody would do something like that.
I wonder if it’s worse to wing your vows at a real wedding or a fake one.
Brody cleared his throat and began to read, though he clearly hadn’t practiced.
“Vee,” he said, pausing to look up at her. “Veronica. We come from two different worlds, but somehow our worlds collided with each other in a way neither of us could’ve anticipated. In the short time I’ve known you, you’ve become such an integral part of my life.”
He said the words carefully and with his eyes fixed on the page like he’d been asked to read a paragraph of a book to his second-grade class.
So far, what Brody had said managed to be relatively true. Maybe it made him feel a little better about the situation if he kept the lies to a minimum, though even I knew how stupid that sounded.
Brody managed to look up long enough to make eye contact with Vee before he went back to his paper.
“You’re spontaneous and thoughtful and a million other things that I can’t find the words to describe. But lucky for me, I have a lifetime to discover them.”
Here come the lies, I sang in my head to the tune of the classic wedding song.
“I’ve made a lot of promises in my life, and I’ve broken more than I’d care to admit. But the promises I make to you are ones I have no intention of breaking. I promise to love you and take care of you. I promise to always be honest with you, and when we cannot be together, I promise to hold you in my heart.”
I caught a glimpse of my parents long enough to tell they were probably thinking the same thing I was.
No way in hell Brody wrote that.
“That’s beautiful, Brody,” Marc said when it was clear my brother was finished. “Veronica, please share with us the vows you wrote for Brody.”
“Of course,” Vee said. “Brody. When I was a little girl, I used to dream about my wedding day like it was a fairy tale I’d read about in a book. What would my dress look like? Where would I say my vows? Who would my bridesmaids be? And most importantly, who would be my Prince Charming? Because what would a fairy tale be without one of those? And though most of the answers to these questions conjured clear images in my mind—none of which looked like me getting married in my in-laws’ backyard surrounded almost entirely by people I don’t know—one of those questions remained a mystery.”
She took a deep breath as she let the guests’ laughter from her joke die off. “That is, until I met you. You’re kind, funny, generous, and loyal to a fault. Which means you’re stuck with me,” she said with a small shrug.
“That was beautiful as well,” Marc told her.
“But not as good as mine, right?” Brody joked. “It was just a little less amazing than mine,” he said to Vee, holding his thumb and index finger close together to emphasize his point.
The guests laughed again, and then Marc said, “And now for the fun part. Drew, can I have the rings, please?”
Drew reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and grabbed the rings Brody had told him to purchase. He’d found them online, and though they looked cheesy as hell, we all hoped no one would stare long enough to notice. He handed the rings to Marc and took his place beside Brody again.
This was it. We were moments away from seeing the end of this debacle, and it was hard to believe he’d pulled it off. He’d gotten the tux, stood at the altar, and recited his vows. Or someone’s vows he’d found on the internet somewhere, but that wasn’t the point. He’d proved to my parents that he could follow through with something important, even if that something was going to fall apart as soon as it had the opportunity to do so.
Marc began the standard vows before asking Brody to repeat the few lines back to him.
But Brody barely got out the first few words before my mom spoke up.
“Really, Brody? You can’t be serious.”
“Brody,” my dad chimed in. “How far do you actually plan to go with this?”
“What?” Brody asked slowly, looking around at the other guests. He seemed just as confused as I was. Because my parents couldn’t possibly…
“I think they know,” Vee whispered, obviously forgetting she had a mic nearby.
“Oh, we know,” my mom said. “We’ve known for a while.”
“Known what?” Brody asked, trying and failing to sound innocent.
My dad stood up and buttoned his jacket. “Brody, can we just stop this before you make a bigger fool of yourself than you already have? We know you’re not married to Veronica.”
I felt like some of my organs might slip right out of my body as I stood here.
How th
e hell?
“Well,” Brody said, managing to look around at the guests, including our poor ninety-two-year-old Nana—our dad’s mother—who’d traveled by plane to be here. I could see the confusion in her face, the sadness. “Yeah, that’s because I haven’t said I do yet, Dad. That’s how weddings work. You’re not married until the end.”
“But you told us you were already married,” my mom replied.
“Already married?” Nana cried out. “Lord, why are we here when this boy has already gone and done it?”
“He didn’t do anything, Nana,” my dad told her. “Well, unless you count pretending to have a wife and then letting your parents plan a wedding so your family can celebrate a marriage that doesn’t exist. He did do those things.”
“This is so great,” one of Brody’s friends said to another one of his buddies.
I expected the guests to look like they’d been dragged to a show they hadn’t bought tickets for. But that wasn’t the case. They almost looked…smug.
“The wedding wasn’t my idea,” Brody said. “It was Mom’s.”
“Was pretending you were married Mom’s idea too?” my dad asked him. But before he could respond, my dad continued. “We know you’re not married, Brody. What we don’t know is why you said you were.”
“Technically Veronica said we were.” Brody walked closer to the guests and put a hand in his pocket. “So…” He waved his other hand in the air toward them. “Do all of you know this? Can someone explain to me what’s happening here?”
“I’m not sure anyone owes you any explanations, Brody,” my dad warned. “But yes, we told everyone the wedding was a sham.”
“And you all still came?” Brody asked, sounding impressed. “That’s an incredible commitment to making me look like an asshole.”
“Language, Brody,” my mom admonished. “And we said we’d turn the weekend into a bit of a family reunion. It’s been too long since we’ve all seen each other.”
“But…why?” Brody said, his voice low.
“Why what?” Mom said.
“Why go along with this instead of calling me out in the beginning? Why go to all this effort and expense for something that wasn’t real?”
My parents looked at each other before my mom turned to Brody and spoke. “At first, we were having fun watching you squirm. We couldn’t figure out why you’d felt the need to tell the lie in the first place, but we didn’t want to give you an easy way out of it.”
“You wanted me to suffer.”
“Basically…yes.”
Brody took a deep breath, and Drew, Aamee, Vee, and I all instinctively stepped closer to him, forming a shield at his back.
“But the longer it went on, the more we started to wonder why you were doing this. And why all of you”—she gestured to us—“would go to such lengths to help him. I mean, your girlfriend watched you pretend to marry another woman. If that doesn’t scream loyalty, I’m not sure what does.”
“You know Aamee and I are together?”
My dad sighed heavily. “Brody, one day you’ll stop thinking we’re stupid.”
Brody’s gaze shot to his. “I don’t think that.”
My mom reached out and cupped Brody’s jaw. “You kind of do.” Then she gave him a sharp tap on the cheek before pulling back.
My dad cleared his throat. “We tried to figure out what your motivation was. What you were all in it for. And then we came to the grand opening of the bar.”
Brody looked over his shoulder at us, and I offered him a small smile.
“Here we were, trying to figure out why you couldn’t ever commit to anything and how it had gotten so bad, you were now lying about commitment. And then, as we watched you circulate the deck like you were floating, smiling, joking with customers, working so well with everyone, it all made sense. You may not have been committed to Vee, but you had found something to commit to. Drew…”
I saw and felt Brody tense in front of me. “Uh, I’m not sure…” Brody shot a quick glance at Drew before looking back at our parents. “I mean, he’s great and all, but I don’t… I’m not—”
“Jesus, Brody,” my dad snapped. “We didn’t mean it like that.”
“Oh. Good. That’s a relief, because I’m not sure I could’ve rolled with that one.” Looking at Drew again, he added. “Not that you’re not awesome, bro.”
Drew reached up and squeezed Brody’s shoulder. “I get it, man.”
“We mean,” my dad interrupted, “that you finally found something you’d stand by. Or someone. You did all of this”—he gestured around at the fake wedding—“so you wouldn’t ruin the chance of my supporting you in a business with Drew, right? I know the bar is Drew’s dream, but you worked on it like it was yours too. And I think, as time went on, it became yours as well. Which is great because it suits you.”
“You think?” my brother asked shyly, probably trying not to overtly bask in one of the few compliments my father had ever paid him.
My dad stepped toward him and put an arm around his shoulders. “I do.”
And then my father did something I so rarely saw him do. He hugged my brother.
“Does this mean you’re not mad?” Brody asked, his voice muffled by my dad’s shoulder.
My dad laughed and pulled back, moving to my mom’s side again. “Oh, we’re mad. But it’s not as…all-consuming as it was.”
“So I haven’t ruined everything? For Drew and me?”
My dad smiled fondly at both Brody and Drew. “No. It’s not ruined.” Then he gestured to the rest of our family, who were staring with rapt attention. “But maybe that’s a conversation better left for another time.”
My mother took that as her cue, announcing to everyone that refreshments would be served under the tent she’d set up farther out in the yard.
We all practically collapsed against Brody as everyone started to get up and move toward the food. The rest of the Scooby Gang converged on us, as did Ransom.
“Dude, your parents are fucking gangster,” Xander enthused. “They spent thousands of dollars just to make you look like a fucking moron. So epic.”
“I’m just glad it went the way it did,” Brody said, relief evident in his tone.
“Me too,” Vee agreed as she gave Brody’s arm a squeeze.
My brother drew her into a hug. “Thank you for everything.”
“Surprisingly, it was my pleasure,” she replied, giggling a bit.
Carter clapped his hands together. “All right. Who’s hungry?”
“Are you ever not hungry?” Toby asked him.
“No.”
We all laughed as we started walking. I felt the lack of a presence beside me and turned to see that Drew hadn’t moved from where he’d been.
I walked back to him. “Hey. You okay?”
He shook his head slightly as if he’d been daydreaming. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Great,” I replied, lacing my fingers through his. “Ready to go see what craziness the moment will bring?”
He smiled and gave my hand a squeeze. “I think I am.”
D R E W
Everyone was milling around, catching up and dancing to the band the Masons had hired. Sophia was bopping around from table to table talking to family. She’d dragged me along for a while, but I’d excused myself to the bar and then found a quiet corner to hide in.
I felt…full. Full of feelings that were all banging into one another, and making small talk wasn’t conducive to parsing them out.
“Doing all right?” a voice asked from behind me.
I turned to see Sophia’s dad standing there, looking at me with a flash of concern in his eyes. Never, in my wildest dreams, would I have ever thought I’d be getting that kind of look from him, and it made the riot of emotions even more chaotic.
“Yes, sir. Just needed a breather.”
“Can’t blame you for that.” He gestured to a chair beside me. “Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all.”
We sat there in silence for a minute, both of us surveying the party.
He huffed out a laugh, and I looked over at him so I could follow his gaze to what made him laugh.
It was Brody twirling Aamee around the dance floor while “I Will Survive” filled the room.
“He’s a handful,” Mr. Mason said.
I laughed. “He is that.”
“He’s a good kid, though. He just needs direction. He’s never had a lot of his own, and he never met anyone he was interested in following. Until he met you.” Mr. Mason hesitated before continuing. “I’m damned grateful to you for it.”
I whipped my head toward him, unable to believe he’d actually said those words to me.
“You look surprised,” he said with a smile.
“A little bit, sir.”
“I was wrong, initially, about you. I let my own frustration at the situation color my view of you, and that was unfair. What you’ve done for Brody and Sophia has been… I don’t even know the right words to describe it. All I can say is I’m thankful to you for it.”
I let my eyes rove over the gathering, not stopping until I saw Sophia. When I found her, my breath caught. She was as captivating as she always was, laughing with someone as she spoke animatedly with her hands.
“They’ve given me just as much.”
“I know. That’s one of the things I’m most thankful for.”
At my confused look, he continued. “My kids have a lot of things going for them, but neither of them have ever truly been givers. They’re not takers either, though Brody hasn’t ever hesitated to take from us,” he said with a wry laugh. “But they’ve always been…self-motivated. Sophia works hard for her future, Brody works hard to enjoy every moment of his life, but they never thought much about what they could do for anyone else. But they both think that way about you.”
I laughed, but it was uncomfortable. “You make me feel a little like a charity case.”
He looked startled. “That’s not at all what I meant. You make them better people. And that’s not a comment I make lightly.”
Two Truths & a Lime (The Love Game Book 3) Page 25
