“I get to spend the rest of my life with the girl I fell in love with when I was only thirteen years old, the kind of woman who sends me sexy selfies in herLord of the Ringsthemed lingerie, who isn’t afraid to call me out on my bullshit but still loves me for who I am, and who makes me so hot that I can’t even stop fantasizing about her while I’m riding in a car with her brother and dad,” he explains, closing his eyes and tilting his head back as a smile creeps across his face.
I cringe. This is worse than usual. “You’re drunk.”
“I am,” he confirms with a sigh. “And I miss my fiancée … and my babies. I wanna go home.” He lifts his head to yell into the front seat. “You’d better be taking me home, bruh. My babies can’t go to sleep without me, remember? They need their daddy.” He pokes himself in the chest, and it’s almost endearing.
“Don’t worry, dude. I’m having withdrawals of my own. I’ll get us back soon enough,” JD returns, sounding amused.
“Good, ‘cause I miss my lady so much,” Blake replies, sighing dreamily again. “Especially her smell. Have I ever told y’all how amazing Loren smells? Gah …” He shakes his head and inhales. “Like roses … andreallygood sex …”
“Oh-kay, bro,” JD cuts him off, but Ethan and Emmett are already snickering. “We all appreciate how much you love her, but can ya take the poetry down a notch?”
Blake squints and groans. “I don’t know how you did it, man. These past weeks have felt like a lifetime, and the next few days aren’t going to be any easier, are they?”
I glare at him, and JD chokes on his laughter before he answers. “No, but it’ll be worth the wait, kid. You’re almost there.”
“But it’s getting harder and harder every day …” Blake seems to lose his train of thought when he pauses to snort at himself, and Ethan joins in again.
“You can’t be serious,” I mumble, but Blake’s head lolls to the side and his eyes pop open.
“We’re down to the last week,” he continues. “It’s been ten long months, Lando. Ten. Freaking. Months. Almost a year since the best night of my life, and only six days until she’s mine forever and ever.” Then he reaches up to swipe at his cheeks.
“Are you actually crying about not getting laid?” I ask incredulously. “To me? In front of my dad?”
“No. I’m mostly crying because I love her so much,” he says, his head drifting over to my shoulder as he brings his pointer finger and thumb up for reference. “And maybe a little bit about not getting laid.”
JD grins and reaches over to pat my dad on the arm. “He’s a good man though, right?”
My dad grunts, but his mouth curls up into a half-smile. “He’ll make a better husband than I ever was, that’s for sure.”
“I’m gonna try like hell, Coach,” Blake vows before I have time to dwell on my dad’s comment. “I didn’t believe him before, but my brother was right. It’s all so different once you realize she’sthe one, you know? But it’s always been Lo. I’d wait a lifetime for her, because she’s it for me.” He sniffles and shakes his head. “She’s my person. I just keep praying she won’t change her mind, because I don’t know what I’d do without her. And the girls, they’re everything to me, all I’ve ever needed.”
I curl my lip in distaste when he turns to rub his snot on my shirt. “You’re pathetic,” I say to him. But when I glance around the car, all I find are watery eyes and looks of admiration. I groan. “You guys aren’t really buying this, are you?”
“Have some respect,” my dad speaks up, his voice thick. “He’s talking about your sister.”
“I know, that’s the freaking point!” I yell, throwing my hands up in exasperation.
Blake sighs and rolls his head back from my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Landry. I know you never wanted to see her with a selfish bastard like me, but I can’t help myself. I think I was made just to love her,” he drawls until his heartfelt apology ends in a yawn and a snore.
CHAPTER 18
landry
Blake’s phonebuzzes again in his lap, and it slides onto the floor when we take the next turn sharply. I instinctively lean over to pick it up, forgetting what he’d said earlier about Loren’s last few messages. But once her name flashes across the screen alongside a tiny, thankfully incomprehensible image, I look away and gingerly slip it into the front pocket of Blake’s button-down shirt. He hums and shifts his position to lean against the door.
At least he’s not texting other women, right? I mean, I can’t be the only one surprised to hear him admit they’re waiting until their wedding night this time around, but his drunken declarations do seem pretty sincere. It’s not like he’s done anything but dote on Loren and the babies for the past few months, so I suppose he could mean everything he’s saying.
I sigh, teetering on the edge of the line between loving and hating my future brother-in-law. But there’s one bit that’s keeping me from throwing in the towel and admitting that I approve of Blake the Snake marrying my sister.
You have no idea what it’s like for us, do you?
I can’t shake the way he looked at me as if I was the one to be pitied when he said it. Like he and Loren share something so undeniable that I’ll never understand the secret to life unless I follow his lead and allow myself to fall hopelessly in love.
Yeah, okay.
That’s why he’s the one spending his bachelor party bawling like a baby in a car full of grown men, not to mention the celibacy part. I cast another poignant look over at him before I make myself comfortable and close my eyes.
You don’t understand the power that woman has over me. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
