Page 61 of Break the Barrier

“Hey, man.” CT comes over and takes the seat next to me. Laughter erupts from the other side of the porch, and I smile slightly at the noise.

“Hey,” I reply, taking a sip of the iced tea in my hand. Normally I’d have a beer, but I wasn’t feeling it tonight.

“Isolating yourself?”

I swing my head to face him and see the sarcastic smirk on his face. “You’re one to talk.”

“I’m just hiding from the wedding talk for a while.”

“Getting cold feet?” I ask, my gut telling me there was no way. But I knew after watching the last few years that CT struggled with letting people in and letting others help him.

When he and Dani were having issues after they got back together, I was the one who witnessed his panic attacks. I was also the one who caused some of it by telling him to get his head out of his ass.

I almost feel bad about that, but not really.

Dani is like a sister to me, she is important. Cade was who made her happy, but it took him a minute to get to where he wouldn’t let her down.

“Never,” he replies seriously, looking me in the eye. “I’m ready to marry her, Cash. Nothing will stop that.”

I raise my hands in surrender. “Okay then. I’m happy for you two.”

“Yeah.” He rubs his hand over his jaw. “Think you could do me a favor?”

“Name it,” I said, and I meant it.

“Think you could stand up with me at the wedding?”

I blink in surprise and slowly nod my head. “Sure, buddy.”

He nods once and lets out a sigh. “Graham is my best man, and Warren will be there too.” He references his best friend from elementary school. Warren is a good guy. “But I wanted you and Stet to be there too. Hell.” He shrugs. “I’d ask Mitch and Jax, but they’re not answering their phones for me.”

“Really?” I haven’t tried to call my brothers in a while—my brain has been occupied with a brunette lately.

“Yeah, I left voicemails, so I’m kind of hoping they’ll show,” he said with uncertainty.

Jax didn’t come home for Christmas last year, which wasunexpected. Mitch showed up for the day, then was gone before I could even have a full conversation with him.

I have no idea where I went wrong with our relationship, where I blew it to the point where my brothers weren’t answering one of our collective best friends to be there for not only his wedding, but our cousin’s wedding.

“Well, they’ll probably show up.”

CT gives me a look like I’m full of shit, and maybe I am. But hoping for that is better than just giving up the thought of it all together.

“Well, they better hurry. Saturday will be here before we know it.”

I blink in surprise. “Saturday? This Saturday?”

“Yup.” He nods.

“Damn, when did you have time to plan a wedding?”

As far as I knew, he and Dani were focused on their business. It was growing rapidly and getting the attention of everyone around, keeping their schedules full.

Especially Dani’s therapy business.

“I didn’t. Dani didn’t really care so long as it was intimate and here on the property, so her mom and Didi have been doing the planning. I think my dad is handling the maintenance of the property, plus Quinn is helping too.”

“Wow.” I stare at my friend for a moment. Less than a week from now, he would be my cousin and a husband.