Page 52 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 2

“Jules, you should totally come to Mexico with us,” I said a little drunkenly.

My arm rested along the back of Julian’s chair, and I could see a spot he missed when shaving.

My best friend was absentminded at the best of times, but I could understand why he was especially distracted tonight.

As my best man, he’d been put in charge of several important tasks, one of which was watching my sorry ass to make sure I got where I was supposed to go this weekend.

“Parker, Jesus,” Erin snorted from my other side. Even though I wasn’t looking at her, I knew she was rolling her eyes. I was very familiar with my girlfriend’s—I mean fiancée’s — eye-rolling voice.

“What? He should. That would kick ass. We’d have so much fun, the three of us, wouldn’t we?” The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Julian and I had been close for over twenty years. There was no one I wanted more on an all-inclusive vacation in the Caribbean.

Except Erin. Obviously.

Julian tried to shrug my arm off his shoulders and move away from me. The joke was on him. If I stopped leaning in his direction, I’d fall face-first on the floor. “Pretty sure Erin wants the honeymoon to be just the two of you, big guy.”

“That’s not true,” I corrected stubbornly, clinging tighter. “I overheard her inviting your boyfriend just a little while ago.”

Julian attempted to move away again. “I keep telling you, he’s not my boyfriend. Nolan doesn’t believe in restrictive social constructs like monogamy,” he muttered under his breath. But he frowned at the man on his other side anyway. “Wait. Nolan, why did Erin invite you on her honeymoon?”

“Huh?” Nolan shook back his sun-streaked blond hair like a golden retriever who’d heard his name called and grinned affably.

“Oh, nah, dude. E didn’t invite me. We were talking before dinner about how you two planned some adventure shit while you were in Mexico, like zip-lining and snorkeling, and I was telling her if she wanted real adventure, I could show her where to go outside the resort, like this kick-ass twenty-mile hike with a rope ladder you can take down into this underground cave complex?—”

I wrinkled my nose. “But it’s an all-inclusive resort,” I repeated, wondering if maybe I was drunker than I thought. “Why would anyone want different adventures than the adventures that are… included ?”

Before Erin said a word, I could still tell there was another good-natured eye roll pointed in my direction. “Because it’s sometimes fun to step outside of our comfort zones, Parker. That’s what life’s about.”

Julian stopped trying to squirm away and instead patted my leg reassuringly. “Or not. It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, I mean, you gotta do what life’s calling you to do,” Nolan said with a kind of earnest passion. “You gotta live your truth. You’ve gotta find the life path that’s meant for you . That’s what I was telling E.”

“Julian,” I whispered loudly. “Is your not-boyfriend calling Erin ‘E’? Is she letting him?”

Our friend Tiller snickered from across the table. “Ah, Parks. It’s been years since you’ve overindulged. I forgot how much fun drunk Parker can be.”

“Hey! I’m not drunk,” I informed him.

“You’re not sober,” Julian’s sister, Hazel, countered.

This was also true. But it had been way too long since our gang of childhood friends—Tiller, Erin, Hazel, Julian, and me—had been together, so I figured I had an excuse for getting a little bit tipsy.

Hazel was working for her dad in Denver and married to her job.

Erin was working out of Denver, too, but on the road all the time as a buyer for Rokas Sports, her dad’s flourishing local sporting goods chain.

Tiller was busy being a famous football player in Houston while his friend Sam was busy managing construction on Tiller and Mikey’s new ski resort in Aster Valley, which was where Julian was spending an annoying amount of his time, too, since he was doing lawyer stuff for Tiller.

And meanwhile, I was a manager and ski instructor for Rokas Sports here in Vail.

Since nothing made me happier than having all of us together, I was determined to enjoy it, even if being together meant sometimes tolerating other, more annoying people, like?—

“Alcohol’s a crutch for when a man hasn’t examined his life, my dude,” Nolan the philosopher pronounced, and I gritted my teeth.

“Excuse you. I have a great life,” I informed him. “Awesome friends. Amazing best man.” I pulled Julian more tightly against me. “Stable job. Sweet girlfriend.”

“You mean fiancée,” Hazel corrected. “Almost wife.”

Oh. Right . My palms started to sweat a little bit. Or a lot.

“Whoa.” Nolan’s eyes widened, and he gave a full-body shudder. “Did anyone else just feel the atmosphere get, like, really heavy in here? Or was that just me?”

“Just you,” Julian said firmly. “We’re all very excited about tomorrow.”

“It’s supposed to be a beautiful day,” Tiller’s fiancé, Mikey, commented.

“And this hotel is killer,” Sam’s boyfriend, Truman, added.

“Erin’s going to be a beautiful bride,” Hazel chimed in.

“Wait,” I demanded, rubbing my damp palms on my trouser leg, “what’s tomorrow?” Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my side. “Ow! Erin, god. That hurt.”

Now Julian was the one rolling his eyes at me.

“I was joking,” I said, turning around to face my annoyed fiancée. “You know I would never forget my ski time with your dad and the guys. I’m looking forward to— oof ! Stop elbowing me.”

“Then stop trying to be funny when you’re so bad at it,” she teased.

“Anyway, the girls want to meet at the bar to do a bachelorette nightcap thing we read about in a magazine, and then I’m going to head upstairs.

” She pushed her chair back. “See you at the altar, funny guy. I’ll be the one in white. ”

She was beautiful even when she was annoyed with me. “Hey, stop,” I said, pushing my own chair back and taking her hand in mine. “I’m just kidding. You know that, right? Nothing could excite me more than walking down the aisle toward you tomorrow on your father’s arm.”

Julian groaned behind me. “Can you ever be serious?”

The answer to that was no. Definitely not.

Because I was completely full of shit. I was nervous, and the only way I knew to get through that was to make it all seem less important than it was.

It was what I did. Julian’s skin turned blotchy red when he was embarrassed or upset; I cracked stupid jokes.

I clenched my back teeth together. “Okay. I’m being serious. I love you.”

That part was true. Erin had been one of my favorite people almost as long as Julian had been.

We’d dated on and off for a decade starting in high school, and our relationship had always felt free and easy.

We were never possessive and never demanded too much of each other, which was probably why we kept ending up together, no matter how many short, tumultuous relationships Erin had had in between over the years.

No lie, I’d been a little shocked when she’d popped the question almost out of the blue a few months ago, but it had also been a strange kind of relief.

Marrying her meant finally feeling secure and settled in the knowledge I’d never lose the people who’d come to mean the most to me in the world.

That was what I kept reminding myself whenever I felt a rush of anxiety about the upcoming wedding…

which was fairly often as the big day drew closer.

“Sweet dreams tonight. We’re going to have an amazing time tomorrow. First, we get married, then we dance to our favorite band with all of our closest friends, and then we’re off for a week in the sun. I can’t wait.”

I leaned in and kissed her, tasting the white wine she’d been sipping all night.

An anxious part of me wanted to verify that she wasn’t planning to drive herself anywhere after she’d been drinking, but I refrained.

Erin hated when I “got on her case,” and she was well aware that the memory of Julian being injured by a drunk driver still woke me up at night sometimes, which was why she’d agreed to have the wedding at a large resort hotel where no driving would be required.

It was the one concession I’d asked for in her dream wedding.

“Sounds good. I love you, too,” Erin said. “Don’t outshine my dad too badly on the moguls tomorrow, or he’ll be in a bad mood the rest of the day.”

“Pfft,” I scoffed. “As if I can hold back the power of my talent. That’s like asking Tiger Woods to throw a golf game to his accountant uncle. Besides, I tried deliberately losing to him once, and he didn’t talk to me for a month.”

“I heard that,” Erin’s father’s voice boomed from somewhere behind me as Erin and Hazel walked out. “I’m nobody’s accountant uncle.”

I turned back to the man who’d been my first ski coach and mentor and was now my boss.

I flashed him my signature smile. “Fine. It’s like Tiger Woods throwing a golf game to his future father-in-law, who just so happens to also be great at the game.

Only he’s not engaged, so the metaphor doesn’t work. ”

Rod clapped a hand on my shoulder and grinned at me. “Have I told you how happy I am to have you officially joining our family tomorrow?”

My stomach lurched with an odd combination of nerves, guilt, and affection. His opinion and approval had always mattered to me. I’d do anything to avoid disappointing him. “Yes, sir. Only about a thousand times. But it doesn’t get old, so keep at it.”