Cody frowned. “Which people?”
“People who are getting married. Brides, yes, but not just the brides, the mother of the bride. The mother of the groom. The groom himself. It’s a lot. I had to have a lot of information on hand when all of this is theoretical.”
“Well, if you made promises, they better be promises that we can keep.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I just can’t believe this is my lot in life.”
“It’s what you’re good at,” Cody said. “And anyway, if things go wrong, you’re the one I want in that role. I don’t need it to go perfectly, I just need you to be able to smooth things over, and we both know you’re great at that. It’s actually the real reason that you aren’t in prison.”
Walker grinned, and for a second, all Cody could see was ten-year-old Walker looking up at him like that. Glittering blue eyes, mischievous.
Walker was the only one of the Graysons with blonde hair.
After doing Punnett squares in high school, Cody had come to the conclusion that Walker probably didn’t have the same dad as Cody and Lila. Though their mother had always claimed that David Reynolds was the father of all her children.
Given their dad hadn’t been involved in their lives, it hadn’t mattered much. They were their mom’s kids, they were siblings. None of them had a present father.
It didn’t make a difference whether they were half-siblings or not. Didn’t change what they had been through.
Hell, it was just like with Nolan. Nolan wasn’t related to them by blood, but he had spent most days in their little apartment, eating the same sorts of food as the rest of them. He’d had a distant grandmother who didn’t really want to deal with him, and nobody else.
No wonder they had all been practically feral.
They came by it honestly.
Whether Walker and he shared a father or not, their bond couldn’t be any stronger.
“Remember, you used to shoplift and then talk your way out of having the cops called on you. A couple of times, I remember they just ended up giving you whatever it was you took.”
“I’m persuasive,” he said. “I know. If we’d had a different life, maybe I would’ve been a lawyer.”
Looking at his brother in his dusty jeans and shirt, it was almost funny, except it was true.
If they had access to their dad’s money before he had died, when they were younger, maybe they all would’ve made different decisions. As it was, they had done what they needed to do to survive. They had gotten into ranching. Both he and Walker had taken jobs at one of the local cattle ranches early on. It had given them both a passion for it, then Cody had gone into the rodeo, and five years later, just like clockwork, Walker had followed behind.
Lila had gotten into horses because of a friend and would never admit that it had anything to do with her brothers, or what they liked, or what they did, because she would never admit that she was influenced by them at all.
“Lila and Nolan are working together today.”
“God help us,” Walker said. “I didn’t hear any ambulances, so I assume Nolan is still in one piece.”
“Never make assumptions. Not where Lila is concerned.”
As if on cue, Lila and Nolan burst through the front door, doing their best impression of…well, themselves.
“And when I say fuck you,” she was saying, “I mean fuck you.”
“Charming. Classy. A real lady, you demonic hell spawn.”
“Can you be a lady and be demonic hell spawn?”
“I don’t know. I’m still trying to decide.”
“What seems to be the issue?” Cody butted in to their banter.
“There’s no issue,” Nolan said, his hard glare at Lila suggesting otherwise.
“Pull it together,” Cody said.
