Page 22

22

Arsen

“Everyone up!” I hollered, flipping on the hall light as I strode to my dad’s bedroom door.

Bang! Bang! Bang! A muffled curse from the other side of the door made me knock more. Bang! Bang!

“Dad,” I called, impatient.

The door swung open, my father looking confused and half asleep. “Son? What’s the matter? Did something happen?”

“Arsen?” Mom said from the shadows in the room, appearing a second later by nearly falling out of bed and stumbling over to where my father stood.

They both squinted against the light in the hall when I pushed the door a little wider. “I need you to marry us.”

“I already agreed to marry your friends. That’s why we’re here.”

“Not them,” I said, my excitement making my voice impatient and quick. “Me and Matthew.”

“What?” Mom exclaimed.

“I asked Matthew to marry me. He said yes,” I explained. “So come on. Grab the papers you brought and meet us in our room.”

“ Now ?”

Why did everyone keep looking at me like that?

“Yes, now,” I said. Why the hell would I wait?

“It’s the middle of the night,” Dad refuted.

“What the hell is going on out here?” Coach grumbled, stepping into the hall from one of the bedrooms. He saw me standing there and squinted. “You just bang on my door, Arsen?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Wake everyone up.”

Coach’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“I’m getting married. Right now. Everyone’s invited.”

Coach blinked. “Come again?”

How many times did a bro have to say it? Annoyed and impatient, I marched down the hall to where Coach was standing there stupefied and snatched the whistle lying against his chest. I just about had it to my mouth when it was snatched out of my fingers.

“Hey—”

“You put your mouth on Em’s whistle, and the only place you’ll be going is the ER,” Bodhi intoned.

I didn’t have time for that. I was getting married.

“You mind then?” I asked, gesturing to it.

“Sure, bro,” Bodhi said and blasted a long serenade.

I’d call it my wedding announcement.

Phweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

When he was done, he glanced at me, and I nodded. “You better go again.”

Bodhi blasted it again.

Phweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

“For shit’s sake, it’s the middle of the night.” Coach snatched it from Bodhi’s hand.

“Like that ever stops you,” Bodhi sassed.

“Brat,” Coach muttered, wrapping his hand around the whistle.

Doors started opening along the hall, and Ryan’s dark head appeared first. “What’s going on?” he asked.

Madison appeared next. “Is there an emergency?”

Rush flung open his door and stepped out in nothing but boxers. “This better be good.”

“Do you ever wear clothes?” Coach bitched.

“Matthew and I are getting married,” I announced. “Meet us in our bedroom.” I glanced back at Rush. “Wear pajamas.”

Everyone disappeared back into their rooms. Did that mean they were coming?

“It’s not a joke!” I yelled.

“Arsen,” Dad called, and I went back to their door. Mom switched on a small lamp, illuminating the mussed blankets on the bed and the shell-shocked looks on their faces.

“Look, I know this is a surprise.” I began. “Not that it should be. You should know by now that I’m going to marry Matthew.”

“Of course you are, honey.” Mom agreed readily. “We never expected less.”

“But why now?” Dad pressed. “In the middle of the night?”

“Why not?” I countered.

He gave me that look. The don’t bullshit a bullshitter look.

Are you even a politician if you don’t bullshit people?

No, I’ll never stop with the politician jokes. But that’s the only one for now. Me getting married was no joking matter.

“Besides the fact that I love him and want to marry him?” I replied. “Because everything is changing, and Matthew feels untethered. His sense of family is shifting, and this is something solid I can give him. Because telling him I love him isn’t as good as showing him.”

“Maybe you should take some time and think about it,” Dad cautioned.

“I don’t need time,” I said, succinct. “I’ve known I’m going to marry him since we met. There’s no one else. I love him, and he makes me happy. I want to spend my life making him happy.”

“And you need to marry him to do that?” Mom questioned.

It was a fair question, so I answered. “No. We don’t have to be married to be happy. We’re already happy. But I want to give him security. A place where he belongs without any doubt at all. I want to give him my name. Our name,” I emphasized.

“I’ll get the papers,” Dad said.

“Really?” I asked, expecting more of an argument.

“Unless you would like to wait until your mother and I can plan something a little more… organized?”

“I don’t want a wedding. I want Matthew to be my husband.”

Dad nodded once. “Precisely why I brought more than one marriage license.”

Pretty sure the look everyone kept giving me was the one I was now giving my father.

He chuckled. “You’re my son, Arsen. Do you think we don’t know you? Even my assistant thought it was you before I said anything.”

I scowled. “So why’d you just make me go through all that?”

“We’re your parents. We had to make sure,” Mom said as if it were obvious.

“I’ve never been so sure about anything in my entire life,” I confirmed.

Mom sighed. “It’s like a romance novel.”

“We’ll be there in a minute,” Dad promised.

“I need to change,” Mom said, rushing to the closet.

“No. Wear pajamas.”

“I can’t wear pajamas to my son’s wedding,” Mom protested.

“It’s not a wedding.” I reminded her. “It’s a marriage.”

I didn’t need pretty outfits, flowers, cake, or anything else that weddings were made of. Hell, that was just stuff for other people. None of that was about the couple getting married. All I wanted was to make a promise to Matthew that it was him and only him, forever.

Besides, pajamas went with the fairy lights. Right, bro?

Don’t think I didn’t notice the bewildered look on his face when I put those lights in my suitcase. I saw. But he liked those lights, even if he didn’t want to admit it. They made him happy and comfortable. Probably be hauling around those lights for the rest of my life.

I couldn’t wait.

Stomach fluttering, I rushed back out into the hall, anxious to get to forever, and nearly collided with Kruger.

“Heard you were trying to out-wife me,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring.

“The only one with a wife is you,” I countered.

He scowled. “Out-marry, then.”

“Finally, someone who realizes it’s a marriage and not a wedding,” I muttered.

“Well, I’m not a moron.”

We looked at each other and laughed.

“Good times and all, bro, but you mind telling me why I was blasted awake by a midnight serenade from Coach’s whistle?”

“That was my wedding announcement,” I said. “I think Coach sleeps with that thing.”

Kruger shook his head. “Poor Malibu Barbie.”

We both grinned.

The smile was short-lived, though, and Kruger went back to glaring. “Stop trying to charm me, Arsen. Your charm is about as useless as a knitted condom. What makes you think you can just up and marry my brother?”

“What makes you think I can’t?”

A thunderous look crossed his features, and then I was bulldozed backward, the painting hanging overhead banging into the drywall with a thud.

The door right beside us opened, and Lars popped his head out. His eyes widened, seeing me pinned by Kruger. “Uh, bros. Everything okay?”

“Bro, sure. Just getting a few things straight,” Kruger told him.

Lars glanced at me. “Are you really getting married right now?”

“Yep,” I said at the same time Kruger yelled, “No.”

“Angel, what are you doing?” Win asked, his head popping out around Lars. He made a face. “Ah, yeah, we’ll just give you two a minute,” he said, pulling Lars back into the room and shutting the door.

Kruger turned back to me, and we continued like there’d been no interruption.

“You can’t marry P,” he said, pressing me harder against the wall.

“Why the hell not?”

“You didn’t ask me first!” he barked.

Both of us drew back, surprised.

“ Fuck ,” Kruger spat, pushing away from me.

I straightened off the wall, went to adjust my shirt, and realized I wasn’t wearing one. “That’s what this is about?” I asked, voice level.

“I know we have this love-hate, shared-custody thing with P, but I thought you respected me more than this,” Kruger said, not one ounce of sarcasm in his tone.

“I do respect you,” I said.

“That why you’re trying to marry him in the middle of the night behind my back?”

“If you call waking up the entire house behind your back…”

He let out a rumble. “I am not the entire house. I’m his brother.”

Well, fuck.

“And the fact that you thought you could just lump me in with everyone else and usher me into a room five minutes before you marry him without a word to me? Brooo , I forbid it.”

Down the hall, a door cracked. “He’s got a point,” someone called through the slim opening. It was Jamie.

“I thought you weren’t a morning person,” I yelled.

“It’s the middle of the night.”

Asshole.

Kruger nodded. “Thanks for the backup, bro.”

I realized then that everyone was listening at their doors. Nosy fuckers.

It didn’t matter who was listening, though. They could all hear. It’d keep me from having to say it twice. “I’m not trying to marry him behind your back, Ben,” I implored.

He made a face. “That’s Kruger to you, traitor.”

“I literally just asked him.”

Kruger was not pacified. “Prior proper planning.”

I didn’t plan for this. I followed my heart.

Raking a hand through my hair, I sighed. “I love him.” I just dropped it right into the room like he sometimes did. “I love Matthew, your brother, with every cell in my body. Even the cells that haven’t divided yet.” And then when they divide, it’s just more of me to love him.

“That’s deep, bro.” Kruger nodded. “But it ain’t good enough.”

I pushed him back and straightened. “I don’t need to be good enough for you. It’s Matthew I’m concerned about, Matthew I’m committed to. I want to make sure he knows that won’t ever change and it will always be me and him.”

“Trying to push me out?”

“If you don’t want people to call you a moron, then stop fucking acting like one,” I snapped.

Kruger’s eyes narrowed.

“We both know I’m not trying to push you out. I wouldn’t even be able to if I tried. The fact is you’re getting married. Talking about kids and life and family. You can’t honestly stand there and tell me that once you have kids and a wife, Matthew will be your number one.”

Kruger was silent.

“But he is mine. He always will be. No one will ever come before him in my eyes. So why shouldn’t I put a ring on his finger, a visual reminder of that promise for him to look at every day?” I shifted.

“He’s always going to be my brother.”

Pretty sure Kruger was saying that for his own reassurance and not mine.

I realized then that maybe Matthew wasn’t the only one trying to process the changes to his and Kruger’s relationship. Maybe Kruger was adjusting too.

“Yes.” I agreed. “You and he will always be family. That’s why I’m asking you for your blessing. So how about it, Kruger? It would mean a lot to Matthew if you stood up there with us while we made it official. And, ah, it would mean a lot to me too.”

“You’re giving him your name, aren’t you?”

“Oh, as fast as humanly possible,” I confirmed.

Another door cracked. “I brought that paperwork too. We can file it with the marriage certificate.”

Guess I had some backup too. “Thanks, Dad.”

Kruger sniffed. “No such thing as a private conversation around here.”

I stuck out my hand. “What do you say, Kruger?”

He looked between me and my hand and then shook his head, knocking it away. Before I could do anything, he plowed into me, hugging me hard. “You can call me Ben.”

Smiling, I slapped him on the back.

Beside my ear, he said, “Take care of my brother.”

“I promise I will,” I replied.

Pulling away, he nodded. “You got my blessing.”

“Thank you.”

“But I’m going to make sure he wants this. If he even looks the slightest bit wobbly, I’m putting a stop to it,” he warned.

I gestured for him to go ahead.

He made a face. “And I’m still kinda salty you’re trying to be the first one married around here.”

Everyone clearly sensing the moment was over, the bedroom doors began flinging open.

Jess was the first one out, her long brown hair fluttering around her as she ran right over and hugged me. “Congratulations, Arsen! I’m so happy for you two.”

“Thanks, Jess,” I said, hugging her back.

“Stealing my thunder and hugging my wife? It’s too much, bro,” Kruger said, tugging her away from me.

“Matty!” She gasped, darting past me.

I turned, seeing Matthew standing at the end of the hall outside of our bedroom, Gram right beside him.

Our eyes locked and held even as Elite poured into the hallway. Their ears were probably tired from all that spying they did.

Jess wrapped her arms around Matthew, and he hugged her back, but our eyes still held. If I’d been nervous he’d manage to talk himself out of marrying me in the time it took to wake the house, well, that worry ceased to exist.

The look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

He was still all in. And so was I.