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CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

carter

“Am I a groomsman yet?”

“Nope.”

I groan, throwing my head back.

We’re sitting outside on Lowesy’s balcony, the fireplace table roaring between us. It’s a chilly night, but this place is well insulated, and with a few beers down the hatch and the fire going, the surrounding cold is barely noticeable.

Declan has not budged on the groomsman thing. I ask him five times a day and he rejects me every single time.

“Good luck. Dec is a stubborn bastard when he wants to be,” Wyatt says, a crooked smile on his mouth as he grins at our mutual friend.

He’s a fucking groomsman. Lucky shit.

Declan shrugs a shoulder, those dimples popping out, and drapes his arm along the back of the couch. I give him my best pleading look, but he doesn't spare me a second glance; he just brings his beer to his lips and takes a swig.

“Make him a ring bearer,” Boss grumbles from the chair across the table .

My head snaps in his direction, horror rushing over me.

No. Absolutely not. I’m not getting demoted to a fucking child’s job.

Declan tilts his head back and laughs .

“Oh shit.” Wyatt chuckles, shaking his head at Boston. “ That was a mistake.”

“A ring bearer!” Declan cackles, smacking his hand on his thigh. “Holding a little pillow and everything?”

“Put him with Ellie,” Wyatt adds, hiding his mischievous smirk behind his beer.

That sends Declan into hysterics. I don’t know who the fuck Ellie is, but I can tell it would be a shot to my ego to walk down the aisle with her.

Based on the connection, I’ll take a random stab at it and guess that she’s a kid.

It’ll be me and some little toddler in a poofy white gown, throwing petals on the ground and not keeping a respectable pace in the slightest. I’ll have to keep up with her as she sprints down the aisle, or go as slow as she decides to, because she’s shy. She’ll ruin my whole walk.

That sounds like a nightmare.

Ring bearer doesn’t sound hot at all. I’m supposed to be the hot groomsman.

“Come on!” I plead.

“I like you a lot less when you resort to begging,” Saltzy mutters from beside Caulfield. His eyes are shadowed beneath the rim of his cap, his hood pulled over them both. His face is as expressionless as it always is. “You sound like a damn dog.”

Boss chortles at that, digging into the charcuterie board that Penny prepared for us before she left for girls’ night, which Arden is at too, by the way.

Felt a bit like a real relationship having her drop me off here, giving her a little smile as I headed for the balcony while she waited at the door for Sweets .

We’re not back to the usual. Close, though.

There’s just this lingering distance that I can’t decipher.

It feels like hesitancy. On her end more than mine, but I’m just waiting for her to close it again.

To trust me, in some warped way. I can sense there is something more going on, and I’m not entirely sure if it’s connected to the wine-curse night or if it’s something else.

Either way, she has to come back to me, not the other way around.

“I’ll literally get on all fours right now and bark if I’m allowed back in the wedding party.”

“Woah, woah!” Boston says, holding up his pepperette. He points it at me. “Being allowed back insinuates that you were asked in the first place.”

“He would have had to show up to be asked,” Lowesy reminds the room.

I bury my face in my hands and muffle my scream. I know this is all a joke to them, that they’re torturing me for my mistake, but my god, if he doesn’t tell me I’m a groomsman soon, I’m going to go insane. He’s my best friend. Everyone here, minus Saltzy, has been asked to be in the wedding party.

Except me.

Oh god, am I the equivalent of Callum Saltzman to Declan now? The guy he tolerates, but would rather die than have to hang out with him alone?

“I’ll ask Penny about the ring bearer position,” Dec continues, knocking his knee against mine. “I don’t know if the spot has been filled, but I’m sure we can move things around.”

“I’m pretty sure she said Ellie and the girls will be the flower girls and your boy is going to be the ring bearer,” Wyatt says, that crooked smile growing.

“The girls and the boys?” I bark, glancing between the two of them. “As in the dogs?”

“Yep,” Wyatt says, popping the ‘p’ at the end of the word .

Boston is howling now. Full-on belly laughing in that deep, hearty way that he does. “You’re screwed.”

“He’s right,” Dec says with a sad, disappointed shake of the head. “There’s no way she subs the kids out for you. I’m sure she’ll let you walk them down, though. She might not even make you wear a matching collar if you ask nicely.”

I stare at him, my expression bored.

“You know, I’m hanging on by a thread right now,” I tell him, which makes his smile widen. “I can only take so much.”

“We’ll see how you do at the engagement party, buddy,” Dec says, smacking my leg with a firm pat. “Maybe, if you prepare the world’s greatest speech, I’ll ask you.”

I stare at him and manage to force a tight smile just as his slowly fades.

“You don’t remember the date, do you?”

“You never told me the date!” I defend myself.

“Pathetic,” Wyatt hisses with a shake of his head.

“December third,” Dec says, and this time, I see the warning in those golden eyes.

Don’t miss this one. I miss it, and that’s my last shot gone right out the window.

I fish my phone out of my pocket and enter it into my calendar before I forget.

“We rented out Icebox . Fully catered. You don’t have to do anything besides show up. ”

A party just for us at Icebox ? Legendary. It’s probably because Sweets has finally managed to convince Elliot and Cole to put Long Island’s on the menu, and has forced them to make them just the way she likes.

“Why are you doing it here?” Boston asks, popping a few olives in his mouth. “I’d go to buttfuck nowhere, Canada to celebrate. As long as it’s not the buttfuck nowhere where I’m from.”

“I know,” Dec says with a sigh, running his hand over his face. “Since we’re going to have the wedding at home, we figured we’d have the engagement party here. That way, those who can’t make it to both can hopefully make it to one.”

“I’m guessing we’re going to both?” Saltzy asks, reaching forward to snatch an almond. He glances beside him at Wyatt.

I blink, realizing what was just said. Said openly. In front of all of us.

Dec pauses, his lips at the rim of his beer bottle. His brow furrows just a tad, eyes flickering over to the small couch where our captain sits beside his best friend.

Cap’s looking at Wy, too. Expectantly.

I don’t know if it was a slip of the tongue or if this thing between them isn’t as much of a secret as I thought it was, but I feel like I need to push through it and act like that wasn’t a big deal—though by the look on Caulfield’s face, he’s just as stunned as the rest of us.

“We’d go to both, right, Boss?” I ask, glancing across the little fire pit.

Boston is looking back and forth between Wyatt and Saltzy, and I watch a brief wave of realization sweep over his face before he glances at me and shrugs a shoulder, digging back into the charcuterie board like Penny made it specifically for him.

“I mean, I would,” he says, “but, I’m a groomsman. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do.”

Declan starts laughing again, and when I look back at him, I catch Saltzy winding his arm around the back of the couch where Wyatt sits.

He places his hand on Wy’s neck, a soft smile touching his typically expressionless lips.

Both of them take an extra second to look at each other.

It’s that kind of look that tells me all I need to know.

This isn’t just a thing. They’re in love. Big time.

I glance at Declan, who is watching me intently, knowing exactly what I’ve caught onto. He waits for my reaction, praying that he doesn’t have to cut me out of the wedding party for a second time (I know he hasn’t asked yet, but he will. I know he will).

I know the game. I hurt one of his own, someone in his beloved crew, and there is no room for me in his life.

But he knows me well enough to know he doesn’t have to worry. I don’t give a shit who loves who. The only thing I can think about when I look at Cap and Caulfield, to be very honest with you, is how hard would it be to convince Wyatt to introduce me to Gene Saltzman?