Page 59 of A Case of You
Stuart hoped maybe this day would go smoothly after all. The ceremony went off without a hitch, as far as he could tell. Now to get through pictures and survive the reception.
Eileen looked gorgeous, and he never would have known the dress was a deeply discounted second-hand find if she hadn’t told them where she’d bought it and how much she’d paid. John’s mother had done an expert job with the alterations. Between that and John’s uniform, they looked like a million-dollar couple.
Stuart noticed Eileen didn’t even acknowledge Jake’s presence in the back of the room while waving their parents, him and Brandon, and Robert and Kim in for photos. Stuart simply did what he was told, smiled, and was happy that at least up to this point, Eileen had good memories.
Of course it couldn’t last.
Jake, apparently realizing he was being left out of the family pictures, ambled up to the front.
“What about me?” he roughly groused.
Eileen’s smile didn’t falter. “What about you?”
“I’m your big brother. Don’t I get to be in the pictures?”
“I don’t know. Did you change your attitude?”
This had apparently been prepared for, Stuart could tell. John’s wide, knowing smile beamed. “I don’t mind if we take a quick picture with him, sweetheart.”
Shelly made no move to approach the front, and Stuart didn’t miss that Jake didn’t wave her or their kids forward, either.
So it was another round of pictures with Jake added to the back row, on the outside. Stuart got a whiff of him and smelled alcohol and cigarette smoke.
Drinking already. This’ll be interesting.
Stuart wondered if those pictures would even be visible in the wedding album, or if Eileen would tuck them behind another one.
Not that it mattered to him.
Once that was done, Jake made his way back toward the tables. Shelly and her sons had each grabbed their chairs and she’d directed them to a table far from the front, almost in a corner.
Away from the spotlight.
That left Jake to grab his chair and follow them with a scowl.
Several tables in the front had been reserved, and bore place markers. Brandon, Stuart, Stuart’s parents, Robert, Kim, and their kids perfectly filled their table with no extra room, and sat right next to a table for John’s family.
The implication was crystal clear.
As the DJ started them off for the first dance between the couple, Brandon leaned in.
“If she signals for you to dance, do it.”
His face heated, but he nodded. He hadn’t even talked with her about this part.
But yes, that’s exactly what happened, Eileen cycling through dancing with John, her father, her new father-in-law, Robert and Stuart, then Brandon, while John danced with his mom, mother-in-law, his sisters, and Kim.
Then the buffet opened, and Jake and his brood were once again left to wait with everyone else while the first tables were directed up after the happy couple got their food.
Eventually, as the evening progressed, Stuart noticed Jake starting to make the rounds of the room, speaking with people, shaking hands, acting like this night was about him and not Eileen.
Pretending to be a loving, doting big brother he had never once in his life been to any of them.
Brandon and Stuart had a dance of their own, gently tricked into it when Miranda and Lara had gotten them up on the floor to dance with them, then playfully switched off so the men had to dance together while the sisters danced.
Brandon smirked. “I think we have been given orders.”
“I think so, Sir.”
