He shook his head at the whole mess.
She smiled and said, “Just think. Nothing messes us up more than family.”
He snorted at that.
“You can hardly argue with that,” she said.
“I know,” he said. “Just how sad is that?”
“It’s pretty bad. I did want to make sure that he would show up for the wedding.”
Caleb stopped his fork midair and said, “Seriously?”
“Yeah, this odd tone to his voice made me a little leery.”
“Uh, yeah,” he said. “I really don’t want to go there if he won’t even show up.”
“I told him that too,” she said with a half smile.
He looked at her and smiled. “You think you’re pretty smart, huh?”
“Nope,” she said. “Otherwise, I would have told you a long time ago how I felt about you.”
He stopped and stared. “Do you want to tell me more?”
“After you married Sarah,” she continued calmly, “I married Paul because I figured I’d lost you forever. I didn’t figure that out beforehand though,”—she shook her head—“so it does seem like I’ve wasted most of my life pining for something I could never have.”
He put down his fork.
She laughed, giving him a self-deprecating smile. “Not the smartest decision I’ve ever made.”
He just stared. “I had no idea,” he murmured.
“Neither did I,” she said, shrugging. “That doesn’t make me feel any better either.”
He started to laugh.
“It is pretty funny,” she said, “but not in a good way.”
“Maybe not,” he said, “but it does make me feel better. Because there’s always been something between us, but we somehow kept it just in that friend zone.”
“And I figured the friend zone was because you didn’t see me that way, so, when you got married, I knew you didn’t see me that way. I just said, Anybody will do, and I really feel guilty for ruining Paul’s life too.”
“Wow, that just conjures up the wrong image for you.”
She chuckled. “Hey, it’s the stupid things we do.”
“Well, I didn’t really see what I was doing myself,” he said. “I won’t say that I was in love with you back then because I don’t think I was. I loved you, but it was a different kind of a thing.”
“Exactly,” she said. “What I didn’t realize was, my feelings had grown into something different for me by the time you married. So whatever,” she said. “Now we’re here, and we’ll go meet your brother.”
“But it does make me wish we didn’t have to go the route we did and waste all that time.”
“Well, if it brought us where we are now,” she said, “I’ll take it as time well spent.”
He laughed. “I can see that.” He stood, and they quickly cleaned up the dishes.
Laysha said, “I’ll get dressed. Be back in ten.”
Caleb nodded and forced himself to get dressed as well.
True to her word, Laysha was back in ten minutes. As they walked outside, she stopped, looked at him critically, and said, “You look good.”
He stopped in surprise. “Thank you. I don’t dress up much.”
“No, we don’t have too many reasons to. I do like to see a man in a suit, but I also like to see them in jeans and without a shirt,” she joked. “That’s pretty damn fine too.”
He burst out laughing at that, hooked an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her into a hug. She went willingly and buried her face against his neck. He held her close and whispered, “Thanks for always being there.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, “but, after this, if we split up, I won’t be doing it anymore.”
He nodded, his tone grave as he said, “Let’s hope it doesn’t ever come to that.”
She smiled, and the two of them headed out to face whatever the day would bring.
Caleb wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into when he pulled up to the church early. He hated all this damn drama stuff. But no doubt he had to deal with the fact that what was coming was coming, and he couldn’t stop it. And did he really want to? Or was it just up to his brother to live his life the way he wanted to and damn the rest of it?
As he hopped out, Caleb turned to look at Laysha, already out of the vehicle. He realized he hadn’t really even seen her until just now. He stopped and stared. “I’ve never seen you in a dress,” he said cautiously.
She looked at him, grinned, and said, “You didn’t even notice this morning.”
“For that, I’m sorry,” he admitted. “I was hung up on my problems.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “Today you have good reason to be.” She did a little twirl in front of him. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s damn sexy,” he said. She wore a bright sundress with big flowers and high heels. Her hair was up and somehow had curls on the side; he didn’t know where the flowers came from, but she had them in her hair, and she looked fresh, sweet, wholesome; everything he always wanted. He shook his head. “How is it I never saw you before?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t notice us myself until it was too late.”
“Damn.” He reached out an elbow, and she tucked her arm through his and said, “Come on, big guy. Let’s get this over with.”
“My brother first,” he said with a note of sadness.
“You were friends a long time before her,” she said quietly. “It’s your choice whether you want to stay friends after this.”
He looked down at her, but he didn’t even know what to think because part of him was not even sure what was coming. As he walked toward the parking lot’s back entrance, his brother stepped out from the church. Dressed in a black suit, he stood nervously in front of them. He tilted his head. “Caleb. Thanks for coming,” he said. “I understand it took a little persuasion, but I’m happy to see you here.”
“Well, I’m here,” he said. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I owe you an apology,” his brother said in a surprise move.
Caleb just stood and waited.
“I didn’t know about her trying to pass off my child as yours,” he said. “That I would never have condoned. You know how much I’ve always wanted a family. She didn’t tell me that we were pregnant. At the time, we had a major ripping fight because I didn’t want to settle down. I wanted to travel the world a little bit,” he said. “She didn’t tell me she was pregnant. I didn’t know until I came back, and I heard the rumors that she’d lost the baby. And that you were devastated, and so was she. But it didn’t take much to do the math, and either you were screwing around on me or she had lied to you.”
“Well, you know which one that was,” he said in a dry tone.
“I do, and again I’m sorry. She’s not the most upfront person, and she hates confrontation,” he said. “So she took the easy way out, as she was petrified to be a single mom.”