Page 94 of Between Never and Forever

For my dream and my nightmare. I’ll be watching.

“This is fucking obsessive,” Dimitri grumbled as he shoved one of the vases out of the way to place his flowers down and give me a hug. “My brother is fucking obsessed with you.”

Just then his phone beeped, and he looked down at it before his head whipped up and I saw him glare at the small red light in the corner of the room.

“What?” I asked and then my best friend turned his phone to me.

Dex: Get the fuck out of my fiancée’s dressing room and stop talking shit.

I couldn’t hide the small smile.

“That’s deranged, Keelani.” Dimitri tried to look super pissed, but then he saw me smiling. “You’re just as bad as him. You two have problems, you know that?”

“I’m starting to realize that.” I shrugged, and he pulled me in for a hug.

“I only love you. My brother can get fucked.” He said it to the camera, and I heard his phone ping again, but this time he didn’t answer it. “Olive and Pink coming by soon?”

“Yeah. On their way now.”

Dimitri nodded and then he sat back down. “I’ll wait until they’re here so fucking Frankie doesn’t come bother you.”

I chuckled as I brushed through my hair. “He hasn’t bothered me since…”

“What?”

“Your brother may or may not have said something to him.”

“Finally doing his job, I see.” Dimitri leaned back in his seat and stared at me with eyes a lot like his brother’s.

“What job is that?”

“Taking care of my future sister-in-law.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I scoffed at him, but I couldn’t meet his eyes.

And like the best friend he was, he caught it. “Just so we’re clear, I’myourman of honor, not that fucker’s best man. And I get to make a long-ass speech if I want to. You guys have put me through hell.”

“Okay, are you seriously calling dibs on your place in a wedding that’s not actually happening?”

Olive and Pink walked in right then, and he stood. “It’s happening. So, yeah. I’m calling it. I’m the baby brother. I know how it works. If I don’t call dibs, my ass gets left out.”

“You’re the baby, which means by definition you were spoiled and got included in everything,” Olive said.

Dimitri narrowed his eyes at her like he wanted to argue, but then he was hurrying out of the room as another call came in on his phone. He kissed my cheek and said, “Call if you need me.”

Olive and Pink said it with me—“Never if, always when”—like they were a part of our little goodbye phrase to one another now.

Maybe they were. We’d all been getting together so much lately, it had started to feel like something close to a routine, or comfort, or a team. A family I could count on.

And then Jimmy tapped on my door as Olive and Pink started to get me ready for the night. “Ms. Keelani, let me know when you’d like to be escorted to the stage.”

“I will. Oh, and Jimmy”—I needed him to know I appreciated him handling what Dex and I had left in that room—“thank you, and also sorry, for last night. Ezekiel is—”

“Not allowed on the premises. Had I known—”

“You couldn’t have. I was adamant that you let him through. So thank you for listening to me and then cleaning up the aftermath.”

He nodded and backed out of the room quietly.