Trading with the Boys

“Come to my wedding.”

I looked back at David, and his face was all smiles. My heart suddenly weighed a thousand pounds.

“Really?”

“The guys too,” David added happily, nodding toward the house. “Bring one, bring all, bring whoever you want.”

Epilogue

SERENA

“I still can’t believe how different weddings are down here,” I sighed, flopping onto the bed. “But even more than that, how beautiful that whole thing was.”

Jacob sat down beside me, causing the bed to sink. He began removing his shoes.

“And let’s not forget how beautiful the bride was too,” he smirked.

I reached out and slapped him playfully on the arm. I couldn’t argue, though. As a bride, Mariana had been absolutely breathtaking. And David — handsome in his own right — was very lucky to have her.

“The food was better than the both of them,” Cole declared, rubbing his stomach. His shirt was half unbuttoned, with his perfectly-rippled abs peeking through. Exactly the way I liked it.

“I never knew you could stuff that many different things in an empanada,” he declared.

“Tucumanas,” said Tate.

“Huh?”

“They were called tucumanas,” Tate corrected him. “I think.”

“And what about those fried stuffed potato things?” added Jacob, smacking his lips. “And that one dish with all the corn…”

I closed my eyes for the first time all day, and thought about all the things we’d done. Bolivia was a hundred times more beautiful than I imagined it to be. We’d spent the morning walking the gardens beyond our bungalow, and the afternoon celebrating David’s wedding in the center of the town square. The bride and groom had eventually waved goodbye, and the four of us spent the rest of the evening walking the white-stuccoed streets of Sucre, with their clay-tiled rooftops and beautiful church spires.

And now here we were, with a bottle of wine and the rest of the night ahead of us.

Eleven months.

It had taken David a little longer than he thought to finally tie the knot. But he’d done it for the right reasons: family. Mariana’s grandparents couldn’t make the trip until now, and so they’d postponed their wedding just for them.

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year!

In the span of time between Jacob kissing me in my backyard and making the flight down here together, so many things had happened. Almost every one of them had been wonderful. The guys and I had only grown closer together, our relationship growing more tight-knit and intimate until we were all under the same roof.

And then… changes.

It began with Tate’s uncle, approaching him with staggering news. When he’d told him he’d sold the garage without even consulting him, Tate had been hurt and astonished.

“Did you really want this old place?” his grand-uncle had grunted. “Honestly?”

At first Tate couldn’t answer. The grungy old garage and sales lot had been all he’d known.

“Search your heart, son,” the old man had told him. “This place was my life, my dream. But it’s an anchor, too. It doesn’t have to be yours.”

He’d handed Tate a check — a six figure check — and then laughed gruffly. “You’re going to do your own thing,” the old man told him, “like you always have. Like you’re doing with that girl,” he’d added with a wink.

Tate had tried pushing the check back his way, but the old man had shook his head adamantly.

“I don’t need this,” he’d told him. “I’ve got everything I need with Rae. But you… you have time. Time to start fresh. Time to follow your own dream, not mine.”