by Mari Carr
Art scowled, his lips firmly pressed closed.
“Now,” Mr. Mills said through gritted teeth.
Art barely looked at Harley as he muttered the least sincere “sorry” in history.
“You have ten seconds to get your sorry ass out of here or I’ll remove you myself.” John’s voice was deep and deadly.
Art glanced up and visibly paled. “You stole my wife.”
“No, Art. You lost her. It’s time you accept that and move on.”
Art’s gaze traveled the circle and for the first time since he’d approached their table, he seemed to realize he was outnumbered. The last person he looked at was Polly, who’d come to stand next to Harley, her hand on her daughter’s shoulder protectively.
“I’m done with you. I’ll sign the papers on Monday.” It was the last thing Art said before he turned and walked away from them all. No one spoke until he was completely out of the room.
Polly sank down into the chair next to Harley. “Are you okay?”
Harley nodded, looking somewhat amazed. “Yeah.”
John walked around the table to claim the seat on Harley’s other side and he reached for her hand. “If it hadn’t been a wedding, I would have beat that asshole into the ground for calling you that.”
“It’s okay,” Harley said, her smile growing. “Honest.”
“No. It’s not.” Granddad pulled up another seat at the table as Macie rose.
“I’ll leave y’all alone,” she said. As she walked away, Macie gave Tyson and Caleb a pleased wink.
Tyson looked at Caleb, then Harley. “We’ll give you all some privacy to talk.”
John smiled at them gratefully and nodded, then turned his concerned attention back to his daughter.
As he and Caleb stepped away from the table, Tyson looked at his friend. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting—”
“Neither was Harley. Look at her face. It’s like she just won the lottery.”
“Yeah.” Tyson smiled, and then glanced around the room until he found Sydney and Chas, standing near the front table. “Give me a minute.” He made a beeline for the bride and groom.
“Syd—” Tyson started.
Sydney took his hand before he could say more and placed a quick kiss on his cheek. “If I’d had to place a bet on which cousin would make a scene at my wedding, you would have been the bottom of the list.”
“I’m so fucking sorry, Syd.”
She gave him a funny look. “What? Why? That was nothing. Honey, this is Texas. A wedding without drama is a failed event. You made sure my wedding will be talked about for weeks, maybe months. Because, damn, Ty, that’s some juicy stuff right there.”
“You realize this isn’t making me feel better.”
Sydney laughed. “Sorry. Not sorry. I’m so happy for you. Caleb and Harley are the best.”
“We didn’t mean to spring it on you like this. Weddings are…”
“…the perfect place for romance,” Sydney finished.
Chas shook Tyson’s hand. “Stop worrying, Ty. It’ll all work out in the end. Congrats, man.”
Tyson watched the newlyweds return to the dance floor without a care in the world.
Caleb stepped next to him. “You’ve got an awesome family.”
“I know,” Ty said with a smile. “So what now?”
“I’m not leaving. I’m not hiding my face or acting ashamed of this.”
Tyson raised his hand. “That’s not what I was suggesting. I think we should regroup. Give Harley time to talk to her family and then—”
“Tyson.”
He took a deep breath before turning to face the speaker. So much for regrouping. He caught a quick glimpse of Caleb’s sympathetic look before Tyson spun to face his father.
“Dad.”
His dad looked at Caleb. “You mind giving us a second, Caleb?”
Caleb shook his head. “Not at all. I’m going to go hang with Logan. Judge,” Caleb said, bowing his head in respect.
His father acknowledged Caleb briefly, and then gestured toward a quiet spot near the exit.
Tyson followed. He was running out of steam. Fast.
Once they were out of earshot of others, Tyson began. “Dad, listen—”
“No, Tyson. I don’t want to have this conversation here. It’s your cousin’s wedding. This isn’t the time or place.”
Tyson agreed completely. “You’re right. It’s not.”
“Your mother has a headache, so we’re going to head home now. I’d like you to stop by for breakfast tomorrow morning. We can talk there.”
While Tyson understood this wasn’t the place to say all they needed to say, he also wasn’t looking forward to a long, sleepless night worrying about his father’s feelings on what he’d just witnessed. “Fine,” he said at last.
Dad glanced around the room briefly and Tyson followed the look. His father watched Harley with her parents for a moment before looking toward Caleb. When his eyes returned to Tyson’s face, his emotions were locked down tight. Tyson didn’t have a clue what his dad was thinking.
“Eight a.m.”
It was all his father said before walking back toward Mom. He helped her pull her shawl over her shoulders. Mom caught his eye and gave him a worried smile and a quick wink that told him exactly what he needed to know in regards to her feelings. His mother would always love him. No matter what.
Deep down, Tyson knew—or maybe he hoped—the same was true for his dad. He raised his hand to wave and his mother returned the gesture. Then his parents left.
Tyson remained rooted to the spot, trying to summon the energy to rejoin the party once more. There were too many eyes still pointed his direction, too many whispers and disapproving looks.
“Damn. Usually weddings are so boring.”
Tyson looked over as Evan stepped next to him. He was grateful for his cousin’s humor. And his company. “What can I say? I like to do my part to stir up the gossips in town.”
Evan gave him a funny look. “Actually, you don’t. You’ve walked a pretty straight line for most of your life. Valedictorian of your class in high school. College scholarship, medical school. Apart from occasionally sneaking a few beers at parties when you were a teenager, you’ve been the ideal that pretty much every parent in Maris has held up as the comparison. You’ve set the bar high for their kids.”
Tyson winced. “Guess there won’t be too many mom and dads looking at their kids tomorrow saying, ‘Why can’t you be more like Dr. Tyson Sparks?’”
Evan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I’ll say that to Eryn someday. You’re a successful, hard-working, decent person, Ty.”
Tyson was touched. Evan thought the world of his young daughter. “Thanks, man.”
“You realize this isn’t that big a deal?”
“Yeah,” Tyson said sarcastically. “I can tell that from the general shocked-to-within-an-inch-of-their-lives responses we’ve been getting tonight.”
Evan chuckled. “I blame social media. Everybody thinks everybody else gives a shit about their opinions these days because they’re so easy to share. It started with Facebook, but as more time passes, people are starting to say out loud the things they would have politely kept to themselves in the past.”
“Which means, either way, they would have thought it. That doesn’t change their feelings about it.”
“You don’t care what the Phyllis Bartons or Art Johnsons of the world think. So let’s have it. What did the Judge say to you?”
Everyone in the family—as well as in Maris—referred to Tyson’s dad as the Judge. Tyson always imagined the name being set apart in quotation marks.
“He said we’d talk about it tomorrow morning. He didn’t want to ruin Sydney’s wedding. Although…”
Tyson looked around for his cousin, still feeling terrible about the drama he’d unleashed on her special day.
Evan pointed to the dance floor. Sydney was swaying in her new husband’s arms. The couple only had eyes for
each other, the love they felt in that moment so beautiful to witness. “I’d say Syd’s doing just fine.”
As Tyson glanced around the room, he realized that—for the most part—everything had gone back to normal, now that the threat/promise of drama had passed. Apart from Phyllis and her cronies with their heads together, chatting a mile a minute and casting him dirty looks from time to time, everyone else had gone back to the celebration.
With Art gone and their conversation concluded, Harley’s parents had taken to the dance floor, while her granddad snagged Harley for a spin. Harley’s family appeared to have embraced the news just fine—as she had predicted. In all fairness, Tyson suspected her parents were just so happy to have found their way back to each other, and to have their daughter in their lives again, there was very little Harley could have said that would make them push her away.
The dance floor was actually crowded with couples. Most of his aunts and uncles were there, along with Coop, who’d claimed Macie as his partner. Luc, Diego and Jeannette were wrapped up in a cute three-person dance, laughing quietly. Tyson felt a twinge of jealousy, longing for the day when he, Caleb and Harley could feel comfortable enough to be so openly together and in love without provoking a scene.
Watching the other trio, he realized they were definitely closer to that day now than they’d been at the beginning of the night. While they hadn’t meant to unleash the news the way they had, he was actually starting to feel glad it was out there. Now they could deal with the aftermath. In some ways, that seemed like an easier road after weeks of worrying about the fallout. The cat was out of the bag and, just as Macie had predicted, most of the local folks had expressed their shock or said, “I knew it,” and then moved on.
Evan caught him looking at Luc and Diego. “So…you and Cal…”
“It’s not like that.” Tyson didn’t add the word “yet,” though he definitely thought it.
Evan shrugged. “Wouldn’t matter to me if it was. Just wondered. Thought maybe I’d really been blind to something all these years.”
“No.” He’d suffered from that same blindness himself.
“No one’s been blind to your feelings for Harley. Or Caleb’s for her. Or hers for you two. That, cuz, has been written on the wall in flashing neon since high school.”
“So I keep hearing. Macie said the same,” Tyson muttered.
“I suspect the next few weeks are going to be rocky for you. People will most likely start choosing camps and giving you their two cents worth. If you need an ear…”
Tyson smiled at Evan. They were the only two male cousins in a sea of girls. As such, they’d grown up closer than brothers, mainly because they were seriously outnumbered. “I appreciate that.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m rooting for the three of you.”
“Now I just have to hope my talk with Dad tomorrow goes as well.”
Evan winced. “Yeah. Jeannette laid the foundation there for you, but I’m not sure the cement has dried yet. Hell, I’m not sure it ever would have dried for you. While Jeannette is his niece and he loves her dearly, you’re his only son, and you’re entering into a relationship with not just a woman, but another man as well. Don’t envy you that conversation. The Judge is a tough guy to talk to on a good day.”
“Tell me about it.”
“You’re going to have to give your parents time to come to grips with this. Let it soak in.”
Tyson knew his cousin was right. “That makes sense. I mean, the truth of it is, the three of us struggled with it as well at the beginning. Lots of wrestling with should we, shouldn’t we.”
“We come from good stock,” Evan said proudly. “I don’t doubt for a second that once your parents, and the aunts and uncles have had time to consider it, to see how happy you are, and to remember how much they already love Harley and Caleb, they’ll come around.”
“You know, between you and the talk I had with Macie a couple weeks ago, I’m feeling a lot better. Something I didn’t think could happen.”
Evan shook his head, smiling. “Not going to complain about being lumped in with Macie. She’s excellent company to be in, as far as I’m concerned. Pretty sure that girl saved my marriage.”
“Really?”
“When Annie and I were struggling to conceive, Macie gave me some good advice. So good, in fact, we were pregnant with Eryn the next week.”
“Please tell me you didn’t take medical advice from Macie,” Tyson said, wondering what on earth Macie could have said that would help a couple produce a baby.
Evan gestured toward the bar with a tilt of his head. “Let’s go get a couple of beers and I’ll tell you all about it.”
* * *
Logan placed a comforting hand on Caleb’s shoulder when he joined him at the table. Lacy was sitting a couple tables away with her cousins Adele and Gia, no doubt discussing the bomb he, Tyson and Harley had just dropped in the middle of the reception.
“Hey, man. I just want to say I’m happy for the three of you.”
Caleb grinned, something he hadn’t anticipated doing for the rest of the evening. Logan was one of his closest friends. And with one comment, he’d lifted the tiniest piece of anxiety off his shoulders. “Thanks, Logan. That means a lot. Sorry to spring it on you like this. We should have told you.”
Logan gave him a funny look. “What are you talking about? Believe me, Cal, this turn of events is no surprise to anyone who knows the three of you.”
“I find that damn hard to believe, even though Tyson said Macie made the same comment. Threesomes are hardly commonplace occurrences.”
“Fine. I’ll reword it. If anyone was made for a long-term happily ever after created with three people instead of two, it was you guys.”
“Guess it took us a while to figure that out for ourselves.”
Logan shrugged. “Timing is everything. Look at me and Lacy. I never really saw myself falling for Evan’s kid sister, never imagined that the little girl in pigtails who constantly followed us around, begging to be included in our games, would be the woman of my dreams. Life takes us on some strange, winding roads, but at some point we all eventually get where we were meant to be.”
“Strange, huh? That’s a pretty good description.”
“The three of you have been focused on other things for so long. Tyson spent years working his way through medical school, then building his practice. Harley dedicated half her life to caring for Johnnie. And you, as the only son to Maris’ version of the Rockefellers, were damn busy too. I’m just glad y’all finally looked around and caught sight of each other.”
“Me too.”
Logan paused, as if trying to decide something. Then he went for it. “You and Ty…that’s happening too, right?”
If anyone would have seen anything in all the years they’d been friends, it would have been Logan. Caleb didn’t reply at first, but he needed someone to talk to. And he trusted Logan. Loved him like a brother. “It hasn’t. Not yet.”
“Yet,” Logan repeated, latching onto the pivotal word.
“Is that something else you’ve always suspected?” Caleb found that impossible to believe. Mainly because he’d never suspected it himself. Still wasn’t sure where these feelings for Tyson were coming from. They felt new. Brand spanking new. And not like something he’d repressed for twenty years.
Logan shook his head. “No. Not at all. But, well, it just seems right, you know?”
Caleb blew out a long breath. “It does?”
“Yeah. And don’t ask me how I know that, I just do. You want deep introspection and analysis, you’re going to have to look somewhere else. I’m a lot better at expressing myself through the furniture I make. Ask me to put something in words, and you’re asking for disaster.”
“Not sure how to explain all this to my parents. Hard enough admitting to the threesome. These feelings for Tyson…”
“You’re a good guy, Cal. Always have been. Always will be. You fell in love with your best friends.
And they’re in love with you. If you really think about that, you’ll realize that doesn’t make you a bad person. Makes you a lucky son of a bitch.”
“Shit. You’re right. It does.”
Logan chuckled and slapped him on the back. Lacy joined them at the table and gave Caleb a quick kiss on the cheek. “Damn, that was a hell of a show,” she teased.
“Lacy,” Logan warned, though there was no heat in his voice. “Poor guy’s feeling guilty enough as it is.”
Lacy laughed. “Oh yeah, like you weren’t just giving him shit.”
Logan shook his head. “Actually, you came back before I could get a few digs in. Sort of stole my thunder.”
Caleb let them have their fun. After all, he’d just spent the past few months making fun of his friend for being so ridiculously smitten. Now, as he glanced out at the dance floor at Harley, twirling around in her granddad’s arms, he felt a bit lovestruck as well. And since the night had already gone to hell in a handbasket, he might as well go for broke.
“Excuse me, please.” Caleb rose and walked toward Harley, who had her back to him. Granddad saw him coming and grinned.
“Mind if I cut in?” Caleb asked.
Her granddad released her as Harley moved into Caleb’s arms. Neither of them started moving. Instead, Caleb looked at the older man, who simply said, “It’s about time.”
Caleb laughed as her grandfather left the floor.
Harley’s face told him everything he needed to know about her feelings. He suspected he was the only thing keeping her rooted to the ground. She was flying high, elated.
“Guess the talk with your family went well.”
“Did you see how they came over to me? How they stood up for me?”
Caleb nodded and marveled at the irony of the evening. He and Tyson had never doubted their parents. Never questioned their love or their support. The same hadn’t held true for Harley. Not in a very long time.
“I saw. It was great.”
“It was freaking awesome. I wish…” Her words faded as her eyes dimmed just a bit. Caleb was becoming used to that look. Knew it meant she was thinking of her brother.
