Seth wasn’t so much happy asglowing. He was still laughing, recounting the story of this morning’s goat adventures to maybe the fifth or sixth crowd he’d addressed.
This whole wedding thing suited him. Even muddy and exhausted, he got to be the belle of the ball.
“He loves the photos,” Harvey said. “Of us all covered in mud. He’s grinning like it’s the best thing that ever happened to him in all of them.”
“Kind of expected Seth to be upset that just about everything went wrong,” I said.
Harvey shook his head. “All he wanted out of this wedding was for his friends to get together and have a good time, and a couple of good pictures to look back on. He’s got the world’s most unique wedding photos now. How could he not be happy?”
“Good point.”
It was easy to forget that Seth, for all that he sometimespretendedto be a drama queen, was secretly one of the most down-to-earth people in Otter Bay.
Besides, being covered in mud didn’t make him any less pretty.
We watched in silence as Mark led Seth out to the dancefloor for their first dance. Or Harvey watched Seth, and I watched Harvey’s face soften with delight as the twinkling strings of lights flickered on for the first time, transforming the little open-air space into something magical.
I loved the way the corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled now. In a few years, those lines would be etched into his skin, and everyone would see the Harvey I saw. Warm and funny and much softer than he looked.
Seth’s cape was still mud-stained and a little frayed at the edges, but when it swirled around with him when Mark picked him up, it still looked like something out of a fairytale.
That was their story. A fairytale. Handsome prince meets handsome prince.
“They’re perfect,” Harvey said, so much warmth and love in his voice for his cousin. “Seth deserves this.”
“He does,” I agreed. I remembered a younger Seth, too. Quiet and shy like his cousin, but he never had an Iggy of his own to drag him out of his shell. He’d had to do his own dragging.
Now he had Mark, and he looked so happy I couldn’t help feeling it myself.
Harvey drained the last of his champagne and set the glass down on a nearby table laden with fall flowers and fruits, the scent of them rising up and filling the cool night air.
“He meant to do this just before sunset for the best photos,” Harvey said. “But I guess it’s better late than never. Think we should join them?”
Was Harvey asking me to dance?
“Seriously?” I asked, blinking at him.
“Seriously,” he said, offering his hand. “You’re meant to be here as my date, of course I wanna dance with you.”
“I… yeah, obviously,” I said, draining my own glass in a hurry and setting it beside Harvey’s.
Harvey grinned at me, curling his fingers around mine, and tugged me toward the dancefloor as the rest of the wedding party joined in.
“Who’s that dancing with Andre?” I asked, watching him step out with a man I’d never seen before.
“I have to assume that’s Isaac. Andre wasn’t sure he’d show up, but Wes was positive. Apparently they’ve been dating casually a while, but Isaac doesn’t actually live around here. He was only working at the gay club for the summer.”
“But he came back for the wedding,” I said. “For Andre.”
The two of them were looking at each other like there was no one else in the world, like they were dancing alone on the moon.
Harvey hummed, pulling me closer, resting a hand on my waist. I did the same, stroking the fabric of the sweater Seth had provided for him. It reallywasimpossibly soft, and the red wine color brought out the green in his eyes.
“Are we witnessing two people falling in love?” I asked, turning my gaze back to Harvey.
“You know,” he said, resting his forehead against mine, barely swaying to the slow dance playing just loud enough to hear over the murmur of voices and the clinking of glasses. “I think maybe we are.”
He squeezed my waist, and I couldn’t quite think of anything to say in response to that.
