Page 3 of Badd Love
I couldn't help myself. "Get a room, you two!"
"That's the plan," Duncan said, lifting his wife to her feet. "But first, we party! Let's get it, Badd boys and girls!"
Cheers erupted, and white roses were thrown at the couple as they walked down the aisle together toward the Passage, Aunt Eva snapping roughly a hundred photos every few seconds. As choreographed, Lindsey and I were next, meeting at the front of the aisle and pausing so Aunt Eva could get a portrait of us together. At the very last second, as my aunt was crouching to get the right angle, I snagged Lindsey's hand and stepped closer to her, angling my body toward hers as if we were not just standing up in the wedding together, but actually were together.
"Aww," Aunt Eva crooned as she snap-snap-snapped. “You two are adorable together! Lindsey, sweetheart, turn toward Dane a touch. There you go. Perfect!"
Aunt Eva stepped out of the way and snapped again as we walked hand-in-hand toward where Duncan and Rune were waiting.
Lindsey, the second Eva turned to focus on Raquel and Jax, yanked her hand out of mine. "What thehellwas that?" she hissed, sounding absolutely furious.
"I don't know what you mean," I said, trying to sound innocent. "Just posing for the photos."
"You made it seem like we're together," she said, still hissing her words with serpentine venom. "We arenottogether, and you know it."
"We aren't?" I said, faking shock—gasping and clapping a hand to my chest. "My god, if only I'd known….oh wait, that'sright." I snapped my fingers. "We fucked exactly once, after which you freaked the fuck out, bolted without a word, and haven't so much as acknowledged my existence since, let alone offering me some kind of an explanation."
She stomped with blatant fury radiating from every pore. "Maybe it just wasn’t that good," she snapped, “and I'm just not interested in a repeat."
"And maybe you're full of shit." I leaned toward her. "It was goddamned fantastic, and you know it, Lindsey. You owe me an explanation."
"I don't owe you shit," she answered, now speaking through gritted teeth as we reached Duncan and Rune. She left my side and hurried to Rune. "Congratulations, bitch. I can't believe you're marriedandpregnant!”
The girls embraced, and I sidled over to Duncan, wrapped an arm around him, and shook him. "Congrats, I guess." I bumped my head against his. "For real, bro, I am happy for you. You snagged a winner."
He turned to me and pulled me into a hug. "Thanks, Dane. I know I did." He put his mouth near my ear. "When are you gonna tell me what the actual fuck is going on with you and Lindsey?"
I blew out a frustrated breath, squeezing him closer and embracing him hard. "Soon as I fuckin' know, man. She won't talk to me."
He laughed, the bastard. "Ah. So…what'd you do?"
I frowned at him. "Why do you assume I did something, asshole?"
"Because you're my little bro and I know you. You'll shoot yourself in the foot before you even know you're holding a gun and then put that foot in your mouth."
I shoved him away, laughing even as I bitterly recognized the nugget of truth at the center of his teasing statement. "Shut up, jackass."
"For real, though, man, what happened? I know something happened."
I shook my head. "Not the time or the place, Dunc." I clapped his shoulders. "Today's about you and Rune. We'll talk later."
He nodded. “Heard, bro." He playfully shoved me. "So, you gonna be lonely all by yourself up there. Last kid in the house."
I snorted. “Yeah, I think I'll be okay."
Jax and Raquel joined us then, and the opportunity for private talk was gone as we were ordered by Aunt Eva into roughly forty-seven billion different poses and configurations with the wedding party—which consisted of me and Lindsey, Raquel and Jax, Mom and Dad, and Tom and Kelly Rigby. Why Duncan and I had to pose with Tom and Kelly, I wasn't sure, and neither did they, I didn't think, but you didn't argue with Aunt Eva. She was the sweetest, most soft-spoken woman you'll ever meet, but my god, she had a core of pure titanium. I mean, she'd been married to Uncle Baxter for something like twenty years, and god knows that man is more than a bit of a handful. Takes a hell of a strong woman to tame a man like Baxter Badd as much as she has.
While photos were happening, several party buses were transporting the rest of the wedding guests to Badd's Bar and Grille for the reception, and then a stretched limo took the rest of us once photography was over.
The irony of the reception was that Duncan, in solidarity with his pregnant wife—that's gonna take a while to get used to, my big bro beingmarried—didn't drink any alcohol.
Nine months without drinking? Yikes.
I, obviously, didn't have that hindrance, so I went after it. A DJ had been hired so Canaan, Corin, Aerie, and Tate could enjoythe reception rather than provide the music, and I spent a lot of time dancing with my various cousins, doing shots, and avoiding Lindsey.
Avoiding didn't mean I didn't think about her, though. Or, more specifically, her claim that the sex hadn't been that good.
My response had been automatic—I'm pathologically incapable of filtering myself. But after the fact, it was haunting me.
