Page 38 of An Inevitable Marriage

Something hard registered against my chest. It took me a second to realize Rafe had smacked the back of his hand into me.

“What the fuck, man?” I glared at him.

Undeterred by my annoyance, he shook his head and laughed. So did Tristan, who had somehow moved closer without me even realizing.

“At least he can’t keep his eyes off his wife.”

I didn’t care for the hint of amusement in Tristan’s tone.

“A good thing since he’ll be stuck with her for…how long was it again?”

“Five years,” I gritted out.

“Ah yes, five years.” Tristan shuddered as he dragged his hand through his hair. “Sounds more like a death sentence to me.”

I snorted. Tristan rarely slept with the same woman twice. One time, when he’d had too much to drink, he’d blamed his parents for his commitment issues. We didn’t press for any more than that.

All three of us were poster children for fucked-up childhoods. And none of us wanted to talk about it.

“Speaking of,” Rafe piped up again. “Celebration time?” Holding his fists close to his chest, he shimmied from side to side.

“What are you doing?” I thought it, but Tristan asked it.

Rafe stared at us like we were stupid. “Dancing.”

“Stop. Just stop. My eyes will never be able to unsee that.” To prove my point, I squeezed my lids together and pinched the bridge of my nose.

I wasn’t even surprised to find the idiot shimmying even more when my attention was back on him.

“I’m serious,” he said. “Let’s go out. Have some fun.”

My gaze instantly found Tristan’s. He was just as worried as I was. There was only one person who could push Rafe’s buttons, and whenever he and his father had words, Rafe usually drowned out the argument with a whole lot of drinking and partying.

I was about to ask what happened when Rafe took a few steps in Snow’s direction.

“We have much to celebrate, yes?” His voice was so loud I was sure the people inside the courthouse could hear him.

“Could you be any louder, man?” I gritted out behind him.

He waved me off with a flick of his wrist and spoke again. “You two should come, too. We’ll eat, drink, and dance.”

“Thank you, but we’ll have to sit this one out,” Zach answered, wrapping his arm around his wife and pulling her close.

Natalie smiled at her husband as she smoothed her hand over her stomach. “Sorry.”

A pang of I didn’t exactly know what slammed into me. What would it feel like to be part of such a unit, to have someone look at you like you were their entire world?

What would it feel like to have Snow look at me like that?

Why the fuck do I even care?

Pushing the thoughts away, I forced myself back to the moment just in time to see Rafe turn his attention to Snow.

The bastard had some nerve flashing his charming grin—the one that got him into way too many women’s pants—at her.

My fingers curled into tight fists at my sides.

“How about you,donna pericolosa? You wanna come party with us? I promise you’ll have a good time.”