Page 115 of Chaos

The look she shoots me is… well, it’s not amused either. It’s soft, her touch just as gentle as it grazes the skin above my knee. “I’m sorry we won’t be here to celebrate on Sunday.”

I scoff. “You’re sorry you’ll be honeymooning on a white-sand beach instead of listening to some lady wax poetic about the magic of sobriety in a draughty community center?Okay.”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

Behind us, the front door squeaks open. “What’re you doing?”

Luna glances back to grin at my older sister. “Staring at your hot ranch hands.”

“Speak for yourself.” I was just sitting here. Occasionally, unintentionally looking in the general direction of the men constructing a gazebo that doesn’t quite look big enough to accomodate the big, fancy wedding I imagine Luna wanting. Yeah, my gaze glazed over them once or twice, but it didn’t linger. Certainly not on Finn and the strong thighs fighting a losing battle against a worn pair of Levis or the muscled torso that might as well be bare, considering how tightly a gray compression shirt clings to it.

It didn’t lingerthatmuch.

“Yeah, right.” Lux snorts as she joins us, taking up residence on the other side of Luna. Our missing sisters file out behind her, and Luna’s sister, Pen, too, and the subsequent appearance of the two best friends she basically considers sisters makes me wonder if my brother built this damn porch so wide in preparation for moments like these.

“Line.” Lux hollers over her shoulder. “Get your ass out here. Our favorite show is on.”

Palpable reluctance taints the air. And then, the front door opens again. With tentative footsteps, my brother’s ex-girlfriend slowly fills the gap between me and the porch railing of a house that in some alternate universe might’ve been hers. “Hey, Lottie.”

I mentally pat myself on the back when I manage to muster up a smile. “Hi, Caroline.”

Before an awkward silence can brew, Lux breaks it. “God, he is so in love with you.”

Following her line of sight, I’m completely unsurprised to find a very large man carrying a very large table, but focusing avery large portion of his attention on the blushing woman beside me.

Jesus. Even I blush a little. I don’t know how the hell Caroline doesn’t disintegrate under the weight of all that.

Although, glancing aside, she does look one strong breeze away from toppling.

“Twenty bucks says you’re pregnant before the wedding even starts.”

Freckled cheeks flush even redder. “Not happening.”

“Hm.” Lux muses. “I wouldn’t wanna push that baby out either.”

“Anyway.” Caroline shifts and Lux yelps, and I surmise that the former reached behind me to pinch the latter. “One of them yours?”

It takes me a second to realize she’s talking to me—and I only do because the question is so damn hesitant. I, on the other hand, don’t waste a second before barking an emphatic, “No.”

Unfortunately, at the exact same time, more than one other person claims, “Finn.”

An impressed whistle echoes through the air—one of the bridesmaids, Amelia, dares to tear her gaze from the bronzed, tattooed figure responsible for the soft swell of her stomach just long enough to cast me an approving look. “Good choice. I like him.”

“I didn’tchoosehim.”

In a soppy, pathetic voice, Grace croons, “Her heart did.”

Luna shifts to face me, wide-eyed. “You have one of those?”

My eldest sister snickers. “She’s borrowing Finn’s.”

Unlike everyone else, I don’t find that quite so funny. I curl in on myself, hit by something awfully similar to shame. “Enough.”

“He’s hot,” Eliza practically yells, and Jesus Christ, I don’t think her sudden raging interest in men will evernotmake me shiver.

“Heishot.”

I side-eye Luna. “You’re marrying my brother.”

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