Everywhere Everything

His name was Grayson. He had my heart on lockdown and I was totally caught up in everything that he was. His blonde hair, his chocolate eyes; every other single feature he had was flawless.

“Grayson, stop it,” she said, trying to pull the tiny puppy away from me.

“I don’t mind, do I Grayson?” I asked in a baby voice, still sitting on the ground, wanting to hold the tiny baby for the rest of my life. The lady just laughed and shook her head.

“He has that effect on women.” She sighed. I looked up at her and offered her a smile.

“I’m Carolina,” I offered, switching Grayson to the other arm so that I could offer her my hand. She took it and helped me off of the floor.

“I’m Annie,” she replied with a genuine smile. I wiped the dirt off of my shorts and followed her inside of her house. It wasn’t until I felt an arm wrap around me that I remembered Brayden came with me. Only a puppy would make me forget about him, I supposed.

“Where is he?” Brayden asked, grabbing an apple out of the overflowing fruit bowl and taking a bite.

“Band room,” she answered with a roll of her eyes and he was gone in a split second, leaving me with a complete stranger. I watched her maneuver her way around the kitchen, 20 things going on at once. I simply studied her, entranced by the speed of someone so tiny.

“Do you need any help?” I asked, feeling utterly useless.

“Uh, yeah sorry about this. I have an order I have to deliver in a few hours and I am not nearly as close to being done as I should be. I guess that’s what happens when you marry someone with the mentality of a 5 year old. I have to take care of him and take care everything else.”

I dropped my bag and paced my way into the kitchen, clapping my hands once as I looked around. I figured since Brayden left me, I would make myself useful.

“What can I do to help?”

“Uh…” she thought for a second, and then started cursing under her breath. “Wash your hands, and then grab that plate over there,” she motioned the direction with her head. I did what I was told and then waited for further instruction.

“Okay, I am going to need you to move these cupcakes onto that plate,” she pointed with her elbow, as her hands were currently moving at a thousand miles an hour. “And then-” but she was cut off by the beeping of a timer. “Ugh, and then can you grab those out of the oven and set them on the cooling rack over there?” she asked, pointing the general direction with her foot. I stifled a giggle and grabbed the oven mitts, gently taking the pan of cupcakes out of the oven and placing them on the cooling rack as I was told.

“Annie, how many cupcakes are you making?” I asked, looking around at what had to have been hundreds of cupcakes.

“God, I have no idea anymore,” she sighed, wiping the sweat from her brow as she dropped the frosting bag on the counter. “Graduation week is murder on this business.”

“Everyone wants cupcakes for graduation?” I asked, starting to arrange the cupcakes on the plate.

“Everybody and their mother wants these stupid things,” she shook her head.

“Do you hate it? Because you shouldn’t do something you hate. Life’s too short.” I shrugged, picking up one of the finished cupcakes and examining it. It was flawless. Even the pearl sprinkles were positioned flawlessly.

“She loves it,” said a man that looked so much younger than everyone else I had visited so far. He entered the room and wrapped his arms around Annie’s waist, pulling her closer to his chest and placing a kiss to her bare shoulder. Brayden walked in and grabbed the cupcake from my hand, unwrapping it and shoving it into his mouth before I could stop him.

“You little shit,” Annie said, tossing a frosting spatula at him, but he easily dodged it.

“What Annie? I’m a growing boy,” he scoffed, flexing his arms.

“Yeah, yeah, put those away before you h-hurt somebody,” the man said, slapping Brayden’s chest as he walked by. “Hi,” he said, smiling at me with a wave. “I’m P-pat.”

“Carolina,” I offered, with a small wave back.

“I know,” he smiled, wrapping his arm around Brayden’s neck and putting him in a headlock. “Out of all of the l-little punks around here, you had to h-hang out with this one?” he asked. Brayden started to flail around, trying to get out of Pat’s grasp. They were about the same size, so it was a pretty fair fight. Pat’s hair was what caught me off guard. It was long and healthy looking and put my hair to shame. This was the second guy I had met so far that had better hair than me.

“You idiots knock over one of my cupcakes and see what happens,” Annie chimed in, and both guys immediately separated. Somehow, I figured she could be scary if she wanted to be.

“So how do you like Arizona so far?” Pat asked, walking over to the counter and dipping his finger into the bowl of light blue frosting. Annie caught him and literally pushed him out of the kitchen. “Don’t make me call your mother.”

Pat rolled his eyes and then looked at me.

“I really love it. Everyone is so nice here. I am thinking about moving here.” I said, looking over at Brayden, who shot me a smile.

“Really?” Pat asked, his eyebrows ascending as he looked down at me with a smile. “Well, let’s see, where did I put that l-letter?”

“You didn’t put it anywhere. I wouldn’t let you touch it or you would lose it. Check in the coffee table drawer.”

“Right,” he nodded, making his way towards the living room. I easily slipped my hand into Brayden’s and followed Pat into the living room. We watched him dig around in the drawer until he finally came out with the familiar envelope. He handed it over, smiled at me and told us to come find him afterward, just like they all did. Brayden looked more excited for the next installment than I did.

“Hurry up,” he whined, pulling my arm and we both fell back onto the sofa.

“God, you’re so impatient,” I rolled my eyes and shoved him.

“You’re slow,” he shrugged, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me closer to him. It always took me by surprise when he did things like that; it always made my stomach do somersaults. I cleared my throat and opened the envelope.

---
My Sweet Carolina,

This is where things start to get complicated.

--

“Sounds like it’s going to be good,” Brayden nudged me with his arm and I looked over at him.

“Shhhhh.”

--

Months had passed. Months full of total avoidance by Rusty. Months full of lonely, miserable nights in which I stayed at home and ate ice cream out of the carton. If Rusty and I were forced to be in the same room together, there were stolen glances and hushed whispers from our friends, obviously confused at the sudden distance we put between us at all times. It didn’t go unnoticed, as I hoped it would.

Rusty proposed to Rosie a few weeks after our kiss. That kiss changed everything and I suppose my confessed love didn’t help matters either. Their wedding was tomorrow, so naturally, we were all forced into a small reception area of the church they were getting married in, waiting to walk down the aisle. I glanced behind me, wanting so badly to walk out of the door and never look back. I couldn’t do that though, because I was a bridesmaid. I felt Austin link his arm through mine as he gave me a sheepish grin. He was the only person who knew about my situation with Rusty, because he was the only one I trusted enough not to judge me. He didn’t, not once.

“Come on Lena,” he whispered in my ear. “It’ll be fine.” I chuckled at the way his mustache tickled my ear and nodded my head.

“I know Gibbs,” I sighed, watching Julia and Garrett walk down the aisle. The wedding planner was watching, her clipboard in hand, making notes.

“When we get married, Lena,” he started, and I just shook my head, unable to control the harsh laugh that left my throat. “Let’s not get a wedding planner. She fucking scares me,” he motioned toward her with a nod of his head.

“Agreed.”

I watched the other couples make their way down the aisle, dreading our turn. I wanted to turn down the request to be in the wedding. I was going to avoid it all together, but I couldn’t do that because that would make me look weak. It would show Rusty that I was dwelling on something that probably shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“You clean up real good, Gibbs,” I said, bumping my hip into his.

“I was just about to tell you the same thing. Those legs of yours,” he whistled, earning a glare from the wedding planner. “You need to show them off more often, especially in those heels. Damn, girl.”

“Why?” I shrugged. “My boyfriend is on tour all of the time now and…” I let out a long sigh, looking up at the altar where Rusty was fidgeting. I took a deep breath and lowered my voice, “The guy I’m in love with is getting married. Who do I have left to impress? Everyone is really fucking lucky I even bothered to shave them.”

“That’s lovely,” Austin chuckled. It was finally our turn to walk down the aisle. I watched the wedding planner scribble furiously in her book and it made me nervous. Austin was winking and pointing to the people waiting in the pews, and I could almost hear the wedding planner sigh.

“My feet hurt,” I whispered to Gibbs. Without a moment’s hesitation, he squatted down, motioning for me to jump on his back. I laughed and jumped on, hoping my dress stayed at an appropriate length so that everyone behind us didn’t see my goods. He grasped onto my legs and carried me the rest of the way down the aisle.

“Yes, thank you for shaving,” he said with a chuckle, which I reciprocated.

“All for you, darlin’.” When we made it to the altar, Austin practically dropped me. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head in apology. With a wink and a skip, he went to stand on the other side, next to Halvo, who punched him. I looked over at Rusty, who was looking at me with a sad look paining his face. He looked away as the next couple walked down the aisle and I let out a sigh. No matter how hard I tried, I knew I would never make it through tomorrow without being heavily medicated or drunk. I knew just who could help with that.

I glanced at Rusty as Rosie made her way down the aisle and it crushed me to see just how big his smile was. I wished I had a bottle to smash over his perfect head.

“Okay,” the wedding planner shouted, making her way to the front. She flipped through her notebook and I looked over at Gibbs who was making faces at her. “I have a few things I want to touch on.” Austin stopped making faces at her and just rolled his eyes. “Couple numbers one and two,” she said looking at Nick and Sophia and then at Peyton and Kennedy. “Good job.” Austin and I started clapping and Nick gave a bow. “OKAY,” the wedding planner yelled over our claps. “Couple number three,” she started, looking up at Halvo and Rosie’s younger sister. “You need to quicken your pace just a tad.”

“Really?” Austin mouthed to me and I stifled a giggle.

“You two!” she shouted, raising her already stern voice and pointing between me and Austin. I gave her an innocent look and Austin gave her puppy dog eyes.

“We’re going to practice until you two can take this seriously. That was atrocious behavior.” Austin laughed and I curtsied.

“No offense, ma’am,” he said, taking a few steps towards her. “But you seem uptight. Maybe we could go get some drinks afterwards, you know? Maybe a massage?” Austin waited for a reply, but all he got was a stern look.

“Austin,” Rusty said in a warning tone. Austin threw his hands in the air and backtracked his steps.

“Just trying to help.”

After we practiced walking down the aisle until Lady Hitler deemed it good enough, we all left the church and made our way to the restaurant for the better part of the wedding rehearsal. I saw Rusty making a beeline for me. I hopped in Austin’s car and begged for him to hurry up.

It wasn’t long before we were speeding down back roads and jamming to Tom Petty. Austin had, in a sense, replaced Rusty as my best friend. We told each other everything. We were always honest and gave each other advice, even if we didn’t particularly want it.

“On a scale of one to ten,” Austin started, pausing to light up a cigarette “How hard is tomorrow going to be fore you?”

“Those can kill you, you know.”

“Oh shut up. You smoke sometimes.” I just shrugged.

“Hm. On a scale of one to ten, tomorrow will probably hurt me about a twenty.“

“That much?”

“I miss him.”

“I can tell he misses you. He hates me now because we spend so much time together.”

“Well,” I sighed, grabbing the cigarette out of his mouth and taking a drag. “He’s the one who cut me out.”

“Let’s just try to get through this stupid dinner. I fucking hate weddings.”

“You don’t want to get married?”

“Never.”

I just laughed and shook my head from side to side. “You were just talking about our wedding earlier.”

“You won’t marry me,” he scoffed, stealing his cigarette back. “Besides, I would be the world’s worst husband”

“That’s a load of shit. You would be a great husband. I know you would.”

“You have to say that. You’re my best friend.”

“No. I shouldn’t tell you that because I’m your best friend. I should say you will be horrible and keep you all to myself.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he nudged me, sending a small smile my way.

“You’ll find someone that makes your world turn, buddy. I promise you. She’s out there.”

“Nah. She’s right here.”

“Oh shut up.” I laughed, stealing his cigarette again.

“Those can kill you, you know,” he mocked me and I waited until we arrived at the restaurant to punch him as hard as I could.

I stepped out of Austin’s car and straightened my dress, looking around to see who had arrived. The only person I didn’t want to see, unfortunately, was pulling into the spot right next to Austin’s car. I stepped around the tail end of the car and linked my arm through Austin’s, forcefully dragging him along next to me.

“You are such a child, Lena. Just talk to him. He obviously wants to talk to you. Didn’t you see him practically flagging you down on your way to the-”

“I’m not ready, Gibbs.” I cut him off with a shrug. “Besides, I have the hottest date around.”

“Oh shucks,” he laughed, dropping my arm and reaching for my hand, lacing our fingers together. “I could say the same thing, baby.”

“I’ve decided I am leaving Ben for you.”

“Good. He doesn’t deserve you anyway.”

“Gibbs.”

“Morris.”

“Do me a favor and don’t let go of my hand.” He squeezed my hand and ran his fingers over my knuckles. It was the gentlest of motions, but it made me feel at ease.

“I promise not to let go of your hand unless you tell me to or I have to pee.”

“Oh you’re not letting it go if you have to pee.”

“Wanna bet?”
Entering the restaurant, hand in hand, Austin and I made our way to the bar. “You can’t do this sober, Lena, trust me on this.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, Gibbs. I promise you that.”

“Can I get a jack and coke?” Austin asked the bartender.

“I’ll take a shot of jack,” I chimed in. Austin shot me a stern look and I sighed. “Fine. Jack and coke.”

“Pace yourself sweetheart. We’ll get plastered if that’s what you want. Just pace yourself.”

“Are you not participating in the bachelor party?” I asked after thanking the bartender for my drink. It was too light on the Jack.

“He told us today he didn’t want one. He was all for it and then, shit, I don’t know. What about you? Going out for the bachelorette party?”

“Why would I want to go to that? Julia isn’t going because, well she can’t drink. Peyton isn’t going because, well, kids. Who else do I have? I do NOT want to be stuck with Rosie all night. No thank you. I already can’t get the mental image of her and Rusty boning out of my head.”

“Oh thanks, that’s now in my head,” he said, shaking his head from side to side. “Wait, why can’t Julia drink.”

“God Gibbs, where have you been? She just found out she was preggers.”

--
“I’m in the fucking story!” Brayden squeezed my shoulder.

“Jesus Christ,” I rolled my eyes.

“Sorry,” he laughed. “Continue.”
--

“No shit,” Gibbs sat his drink down on the bar and let out a laugh. “Good for them.”

“You know, we’d have attractive kids, Gibbs. They would have mustaches.”

“Honey, I’m not having kids.”

“Yeah, me either.” I looked around the room and my eyes locked with Rusty’s. He excused himself from his conversation and started making his way over to us. “Can I get another?” I asked the bartender. Austin grinned and wrapped his free arm around my, pulling me close to his chest, our linked hands dangling between us.

“You’ll make it through this. I promise.” Austin mumbled into my hair. I heard someone clear their throat beside me and I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent that was pure Austin, hoping that at least that could help me through what was about to happen.

“Rusty,” Austin greeted with a nod. I downed my drink before I turned to face him.

“Lena,” Rusty said with a smile and a nod of his head.

“Hi,” was all I could manage to spit out.

“Do you mind if I steal her away for a bit?”

“I would let you, but I have strict orders from Lena, and unless she says it’s okay for me to let go of her hand, I can’t.”

Rusty looked hurt as he glanced down to see our hands linked, and I am sure he knew that he was the reason I had asked Austin to do this in the first place.

“Lena… please.” Rusty brought his eyes up to look into mine. I looked over at Austin, silently asking him what I should do. He winked at me and slowly unhooked our hands. He placed a kiss to my temple and whispered, “Go get him, tiger,” in my ear. I grasped onto his hand tighter, but he shook his head. “Go.” He let go of my hand all together and grabbed his drink, giving me a pat on the butt to get me to move. I looked at Rusty again and then reached back for Austin’s hand but he was gone.

“Asshole,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Can we step outside?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Why would I want to do that?” I asked, waving to the bartender for another drink. “I mean, we’ve gone months without talking to each other, Rusty. Why would any of it change? Tonight of all nights.”

“Please,” was all he said. I grabbed my drink and started making my way outside.

As soon as we made it outside I sat my drink down on the ground and started fumbling around in my bag for my cigarettes. Rusty shoved his hands in his pockets and awkwardly watched me.

“That asshole.”

“What?”
“Austin must have stolen my cigarettes.”

“Lena, look at me,” he pleaded.

“No.”

“God dammit, Lena. You’re fidgeting and looking for something to do with your hands. You won’t even look at me. What happened to us?”

I looked up and let out a laugh that was so harsh it made him cringe.

“What happened to us? I fell in love with you, you asshole. You told me that the love was reciprocated. That was the biggest load of shit I have ever heard. You kissed me. YOU kissed ME. Your lips made contact with mine, and then you went and proposed to Rosie. What happened to us, Rusty? We haven’t talked in months. We avoid each other like the plague, and here we are. After months of not talking, and I am screaming at you on the side of the restaurant where you are having your fucking rehearsal dinner.”

“Lena…”

“No. Don’t ‘Lena’ me. What did you even want to talk about?”

“How long have you and Austin been an item?” he asked, so low that I thought I had made it up in my mind. He couldn’t even look at me when he asked the question. He was staring at the ground.

“Are you serious right now?”

He lifted his gaze and took a step towards me; I took a step back.

“You mean to tell me that you aren’t dating? Because the way you two have been acting lately, sure does look like something.”

“Why does it even fucking matter at this point? You are getting married tomorrow, Rusty. So what if I am? It doesn’t matter. It will never make a difference to you who I date now. You’ll be married.”

“It does matter to me. I am your best friend.”

“Were.”

His face grew enraged as he took another step towards me. “Am. I AM your best fucking friend, Lena. And as your BEST FRIEND, I would like to offer some friendly advice and tell you that Austin is bad news.”
I scoffed and crossed my arms, restraining myself from punching his pretty face. “Austin is one of your best friends. He is not bad news. He has been better for me than you have ever been.”

I watched his face fall as he rested his hand on his chest, informing me that that comment hurt him more than anything else I could have said. I let out the breath I had been holding the entire time I was waiting for him to say something. Of course I hadn’t meant that comment, but I couldn’t take it back now.

The clack of his boots against the pavement and his retreating form made me choke on the air I was desperately trying to force into my lungs. I couldn’t leave it on that note. I hadn’t even meant it. I ran as fast as my 5 inch heels could carry me to try and catch up with him. As soon as my arm grabbed onto his, he spun around and let me have it.

“You don’t get to tell me that he’s better than me, Lena. I didn’t mean to fall in love with you. It wasn’t supposed to happen. You were with Ben, you went home with Ben, you woke up next to Ben, not me. Every day for the last year, you have been with Ben. Not me. When you told me that you loved me, Jesus Christ, Lena. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt the way I did in that moment. I didn’t know what it meant, because I have Rosie. I have Rosie and you have Ben. So I’m sorry if your feelings got hurt that I proposed to her. I had to. It would crush her if I just left her.”

“I’d leave Ben for you in a second.”

“Why’s that?” he asked with a shrug. “You sound so confident, Lenny, but I promise you. If you were faced with the decision, things wouldn’t be so black and white. There are shades of fucking grey thrown in there.”

“No. There aren’t. For me there is only you.” I took a deep breath and shook my head. “Fuck Rusty, you have this way of making me go against everything I originally planned. I wasn’t supposed to come out here and forgive you. I was supposed to be mad and pissed and beat the shit out of you.”

“Do it. At least one of us will feel better.”

“You should feel fucking great right now. You’re getting married tomorrow.”

He looked into my eyes and grabbed both of my hands. “Tell me not to.”

I stared at him, a dumbfounded look on my face. “What?”

“Tell me you don’t want me to get married.”

I snatched my hands away from him and shook my head. “No. Because that’s the easy way out, isn’t? It gives you a reason to get out of this mess. You’re a grown man, Rusty. Figure this out yourself. I can’t do this anymore. It’s physically and mentally exhausting. Can’t you see that?” I asked, trying to blink the tears out of my eyes. “This is killing me.”

“Lena,”

“No.” I shook my head and turned on my heel, stomping back to the wall where my drink was still occupying a small slice of the sidewalk. I stood up and turned around and all but screamed bloody murder when Rusty’s arms forced me up against the wall, his lips crashing into mine. I heard the shatter of glass that occurred after my drink had slipped from my hand. He let go of me, placing his arms on either side of my body, trapping me against the wall.

“I want to be with you. I want it all with you, Lenny. I want a big house, kids running around, two car garage, all of that. I don’t know if I could ever love anyone the way I love you.”

I couldn’t say anything. I stood there, biting my bottom lip, not knowing what to do.

“I know that my whole family is in there, waiting to give toasts, but damn it, Lena. I want them to toast us at our wedding.”

“Stop,” I said, thrusting my hands into his chest, trying to push him away. He shook his head and grabbed my hands, bringing them both up to his lips to kiss my palms.

“No. The past few months have been the worst thing that I have ever had to go through. Knowing that I couldn’t call or talk to you, knowing that you would ignore any attempt to get in touch with you. Fuck, Lena.”

“Rusty, please,” I said, blinking away the tears that were threatening to spill over my lashes. “This isn’t fair to Rosie.”

“No. What wouldn’t be fair to Rosie is if I married her and spent all of my energy and time loving someone other than my wife. Even if you were thousands of miles away Lena, I don’t think I could fall out of love with you.”

I stopped trying to fight him. My arms went limp in hands as the tears that were threatening to fall started cascading down my cheeks.

“Let’s just go,” he pleaded. We’ll drive and never look back.”

“That’s irresponsible.”

“No.” He smiled, kissing the top of my head. “ It’s an adventure.”

“We can’t just-”

Rusty cut me off with his lips lightly pressing into mine. He pulled away and sighed, running his hands lightly up and down my arms. “Do you want me to go in there right now and tell everyone that the wedding’s off?”

“No. I just- I don’t want you regretting this; regretting me.”

“I could never, ever regret you. I promise you that.”

“Rusty…”

“No matter which option I choose, everyone ends up hurt or pissed.”

“And I end up looking like the homewrecking whore.”

“My family will love you,” he chuckled, planting a kiss to my shoulder and then planting tiny kisses up my neck.

“No, Rusty. This isn’t how this is supposed to happen.”

“Dammit, stop fighting this woman.”

“You do understand that there is a 23 year old woman in there, talking to her family about how wonderful her life is going to be? She’s in there, radiating happiness, and you’re out here, making plans to fucking run away with me.”

“You’re making this harder than it has to be.”

“No. You’re taking the easy way out. I’ll see you tomorrow, Rusty. You’ll be the one at the altar, I’ll be the one walking down the aisle NOT wearing the white dress.”

“Lenny, don’t. I just spilled my fucking heart out to you.”

“You made your fucking bed, lie in it.”

--

I looked over at Brayden. He was staring at me, shaking his head. “I don’t know if I can wait until tomorrow for the next part.”

“We have to.”

“Yeah, but you know that tomorrow is going to be the wedding. Or the possibility of a wedding, or something.”

“Well, I am going to guess that there isn’t a wedding, seeing as how Rosie is now married to Andrew.”
Brayden stood up and extended his arm out to me. I grabbed it and he pulled me up, but he overshot the force he used and I ended up slamming into his chest.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, looking up at him and just how close we actually were.

“Don’t be. It was my fault.” I was about to step away but his hand grabbing my hip kept me from moving.

“I want to try something.”

“W-what?” I asked, not sure if I heard him correctly.

“Trust me.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. I counted down in my head as I saw his face inch towards mine slowly. What surprised me the most was that when his lips finally touched mine, a noise escaped from the confines of my throat. It was not an attractive noise. I pulled away and flushed, embarrassed. I had never done this before, except for a game of spin the bottle in 9th grade. Brayden smiled and placed his hand under my chin, tipping my head up and trying the kiss again. This time I welcomed it, and suppressed any noises threatening to escape from my throat. It was slow and testing, each of us adjusting to the advancement in our friendship. Brayden was the first to pull back. He chuckled and tucked a stray hair behind my ear. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while now.”

I smiled and wrapped my arms around him, burying my head in his chest. “Do you think this will change things?”

“Yes. It will. It will make things better. I promise.” He smiled and planted a kiss to my forehead. “I really like you, Carolina.”

“Woah, let’s keep it PG in here, guys. PG.” Pat said, walking through the living room to get to the kitchen. “You guys want to come with us to deliver these cupcakes?”

“Yeah, sure. Be there in a second,” Brayden said, rubbing small circles into my hip with his thumb.

“I need to ask you a favor.”

“What kind of a favor?” I asked, pulling away so that I could get a better look at him.

“Since Jordan and I, well, yeah. My mom wanted me to ask if you would fill in for her at my brothers wedding.”

“Why me?” I asked, confused.

“I mean, it’s a few days away, but we’re running out of options. We can’t just tell Will to lose a groomsman, because he would throw a fit. All of his fiancés friends are pregnant and won’t fit in the dress. We may have to take a few inches off of it because you are shorter than Jordan was, but-”

“I mean, yeah. I guess I’ll do it.” I shrugged.

“Thank you,” he squeezed my hip again and then grabbed my hand and led me out to where Pat and Annie were loading the catering van.

I was suddenly nervous and wondering why I agreed to be in a wedding for strangers. Brayden must have sensed it, because he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer, planting a kiss to the top of my head. “It will be fine. I’ll be there with you.”

“Promise?”

“As long as you want to be, I’ll be there with you, babe.”