Page 10 of Burn Bag (Owens Protective Services #31)

KAVANAUGH

I stood in the church in front of all my friends, waiting for that moment when the new love of my life would walk down the aisle.

My mother sat in the front, pursing her lips in disappointment.

I knew this was not what she wanted for me, but since my father died, she hadn’t been too critical.

I was pretty sure she was too depressed to really focus on anything other than her grief.

“Are you sure about this?” Dash leaned over. “Last chance to back out.”

“Go away. You’re not my best man.”

He snorted in derision. “Yeah, go figure. I was the only one who helped you find this so-called love of your life, and I don’t even get to stand up with you at the altar.”

“So?”

“So, I’m saying no one else helped you with this. That should at least earn me some brownie points or something.”

“Brownie points? This is my wedding, not a competition.”

“You could have fooled me.” He glanced at his watch nervously. “When is this wedding starting, anyway?”

“Soon. She’s the bride. This is her big day. She’s allowed to take her time. ”

“If she shows up,” he muttered.

“I saw her pull in. She’s probably just fussing over her dress.”

Another minute passed in silence until Dash leaned over again. “I’m just saying, you could have at least let me participate in some way.”

“Then be the fucking ring bearer,” I snarled.

“You want me to walk up the aisle with a fucking pillow in my hand?” he asked, jerking back in surprise. “That’s just?—”

“Would you just go sit down?” I hissed. “You’re ruining this magical day for me.”

“Fine,” he backed off. “I’ll go sit down. Over there,” he pointed to the pews. “Where all the rest of the men who didn’t help you are sitting.”

“Good.”

“Fine.”

“Fantastic,” I gritted out.

“Fucking amazing!”

“Language!” my mother hissed, leaning forward just slightly. She sent me a chastising look that reminded me of when I was a kid. Frankly, I didn’t care if she was scolding me on my wedding day. I was just glad she wasn’t crying into her pillow still.

I jabbed Dash in the side and sent him moping back to the pews. Red took up the spot beside me and Eli stood beside him. Both of them were my best men. I couldn’t decide between them, and there was really no point.

“I can’t believe you’re going through with this,” Red muttered.

“It’s my wedding day. Can you try to be supportive?”

“I could, but that would be a lie. I think you’re fucking stupid.”

“That’s because you didn’t see the algorithm. I’m telling you, she’s the perfect woman for me.”

“Right,” he snorted. “A graph told you all that.”

“It wasn’t a graph,” I bit out. “It was—” I stopped myself from delving into it again. There was no point, and frankly, he wouldn’t listen anyway.

“Can we not do this right now?” Eli muttered. “Not that I agree with this either, but if you insist on going through with this, we should at least try to make this day memorable.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled, grateful that at least he was on my side.

Eli sighed heavily. “I’m gonna need to get drunk when this is over.”

“What happened to making the day memorable?” I snapped.

“For you. I want to scrub this day from my brain. I can’t fucking believe you agreed to marry a woman you met one time for a whole ten minutes.”

“It’s meant to be.”

“It’s meant to be a disaster,” Red shot back.

“Hey,” I snapped, turning to face them both. “You’ve met the loves of your lives. You have kids and happiness and all the shit I want. Is it really too hard for you to just be happy for me and pretend to be on my side?”

“No,” they both grumbled.

I took a deep breath as the wedding march began, giving my full attention to the back of the church.

This was it. I was about to marry the woman of my dreams. She was everything I wanted, and soon, she would be mine.

I couldn’t imagine ever being happier than I was right now.

And in a few years, I’d look back on this day as the start of my new life.

She stepped out of the hall and through the double doors at the end of the church.

My breath caught in my throat as my eyes roamed over the dress she was wearing.

The dress was stunning, but only because she was in it.

I had no fucking clue about the style or any of that other shit.

All I knew was that it molded to her like a second skin, and I couldn’t wait to peel it off her body.

The veil covered her face, but I knew what waited underneath would be absolutely breathtaking. She had been gorgeous in that coffee house, so I knew today would be even more amazing. Women always did themselves up for their weddings.

“I can’t believe this is really happening,” I choked out. “I’m finally getting married.”

“Congratulations,” Red muttered, though he didn’t sound too thrilled .

Everyone in the church was in awe of the woman walking toward me. She was absolutely beautiful. God, my heart was clenching at what was about to happen.

Finally, after what felt like five minutes, she stood beside me. Grinning like a fool, I took the veil and lifted it, brushing it back over her head.

And paused in confusion.

Blond hair. Check.

Blue eyes. Nope.

Long, slender nose. Nope.

Short? Not really.

“Um…” I stared at the woman who was not the woman I chose to marry, and failed to say anything else.

“Emily decided she couldn’t make it,” the woman smiled. “I’m Daphne. I’m filling in for her.”

Filling in. As if she was taking her place in a race instead of a marriage.

My heart thundered in my chest as I heard Red chuckling behind me.

What the hell was I supposed to do now? All these people were here, waiting for me to get married.

I’d told everyone she was the woman of my dreams, and then she failed to show.

And she even got a stand-in.

“I’m sorry, what?”

The woman looked a tad nervous as she leaned in closer. “Daphne Gray. It’s nice to meet you.”

I had two choices. I could go walk out and lick my wounds—admit that this whole thing had been a stupid decision—or I could go through with this insanity and save face. At least for the next day.

“Bradford Kavanaugh,” I said after just a moment of hesitation. “Let’s get married.”