Uh oh. That didn’t sound good. Ryden turned to Saint. The tension in his friend’s stance and how he ran his hand through his hair told Ryden something had happened at the tavern. That, and the fact Kazi was calling Saint in the middle of the day.
“Okay, um.” Saint lifted his gaze to Ryden. “Kazi’s on the way to the hospital with Val.”
Suddenly, everyone was on alert, but Saint held up a hand. “Val’s okay. One of the pipes in the bathroom burst, Val slipped, caught himself at a weird angle, and might possibly have fractured or broken his arm.”
“You need to go,” Ryden said.
Saint held his phone to his ear. “One sec, Kazi.” He stepped up to Ryden, tapping the mute button on his phone. “I can’t let you go alone, man.”
“I’ll be fine,” Ryden promised. “If it gets to be too much, I’ll leave after my duties are over. Your man needs you.Go.”
“Duties?” Jay asked, coming to stand beside them. He looked concerned. Probably worried about Val.
“My buddy’s gettin’ married. I’m in the Sword Arch. I’m also the one who gets to tap the bride on the butt with my sword, so I gotta be there.”
“Oh.” Jay nodded.
“Go,” Ryden told Saint. “I’ll be fine. Tell Val he owes me a burger and a beer.”
Saint chuckled. “You got it.” He patted Ryden’s arm and squeezed it. “You got this.” With that, he hurried off.
“Why doesn’t he want you to go alone?” Jay asked.
Lucky stepped up to Ryden, his voice quiet. “I got your back if you need me, bro.”
Despite the flan incident that Ryden would never live down and Lucky was sure to get retribution for, Lucky was still a brother to him, and Ryden appreciated his offer.
“Thanks, Lucky,” Ryden replied, shaking his head. “But you got a big client meeting today. I can’t let ya miss that.” Letting out a heavy sigh, Ryden turned to Jay. “It’s a Marine wedding. The groom is one of the fellas I served with. Saint was my plus one for, um, support.” His hand went instinctively to his sword. “It’s been a while. There are gonna be other Marines there.” He smiled. “It’s fine. I’m good. I better get going. ’Scuse me.” He stepped around Jay.
“I’ll go.”
Ryden stilled. Had he… No. That couldn’t be right. He turned and cocked his head to one side. “I’m sorry?”
“I said I’ll go. As your plus one. For support.”
Jay? Hissupport? Since when? “Why?”
Clearly, that had been the wrong answer.
Jay folded his arms over his chest and arched an eyebrow at him. “It was a genuine offer, but if you don’t want me to go, just say so.”
After months of rivalry, a kiss Jay refused to acknowledge, and an awkward truce, Jay wanted to go with him to a wedding as support. Support forhim. What was happening right now? Jay opened his mouth, and Ryden quickly spoke up.
“Okay. Seein’ as how we match and all.”
“What?” Jay looked down at his blue vest and pants with the thin red plaid lines. His bow tie was also red. “Well, damn.” His head shot up. “Totally unintentional.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you weren’t expectin’ me to bust out my dress blues today. Shall we go?”
“Hold on.” Jay removed his phone from his pocket and, with lightning-fast fingers, typed away at his screen. A heartbeat later, he put his phone away. “Sorry, had to send out a company email and turn on my out-of-office message.”
“You did all that in the two seconds you were typin’ on your phone?”
“Yep. Let’s go. I’m driving.” Jay hurried off toward the elevator, and Ryden quickly followed.
“I can drive. The venue is less than five minutes from here.”
“First of all, you seem to forget where we work.” Jay pressed the elevator button, and the doors slid open. “Five minutes can turn into half an hour the second a tourist takes a wrong turn. Second, you’re not dressing like that and stepping out of a pickup truck. No offense to your truck. It’s a very nice truck, but you need to show up in something a little more…snazzy.”
