Jeremiah (Stud Ranch 5)

I prayed that Jeremiah had gotten his shit together by the time we stepped outside. I hurried in front of Charlie and her dad to push out the door first, just in case I needed to shoot him the evil eye to get him in line. But when I stepped outside, Jeremiah was standing in line beside Mike, a pleasant enough expression on his face, even if he was standing a little stiffer than usual.

Good enough.

“All right,” I said, infusing my voice with a cheer I didn’t necessarily feel anymore, “it’s time, everybody! Places, places!”

Olivia came out of the house last and scurried ahead of me to take Mike’s arm while I lined up behind her and took Jeremiah’s. Charlie and her dad were behind us. It was a small wedding party, sure, but all Reece and Charlie needed.

We’d run through this all last night, but my stomach was aflutter with butterflies. As we all walked around the corner of the house right as the music changed to Pachelbel’s Canon, I yanked Jeremiah down by his arm so I could hiss at him, “Promise you won’t make a scene.”

He jerked back and glared down at me. “I know how to behave myself.”

I breathed out in relief, but he just shook his head like he had a bad taste in his mouth. Whatever. We had a wedding to pull off. I couldn’t care about his feelings right now. Especially when his feelings were so stupid.

I tried to push down my anger at him for even reacting the way he had, but took another deep breath as we all gathered behind the group of tall bushes the florists had brought in to block the seated crowd’s view of us. Who did he think he was, anyway, Mr. High and Mighty?

Shake it off, shake it off, I told myself as Olivia and Matt started their arm-in-arm march down the aisle in front of us. And fucking smile.

I flashed my teeth and hoped it looked cheerful and not like a grimace as Jeremiah and I stepped out on cue once Olivia and Matt were halfway down the aisle.

The music chimed out all around from strategically placed speakers. The crowd was full, almost every seat taken. No one in town was gonna miss a chance at food and a spectacle like this, even if both Reece and Charlie were relative newcomers. The Harshbarger Ranch was an institution around here, and everyone had been curious to see the new build after the twister took the old house off.

I was glad. It gave a festive cheer to the event. I knew every face in the crowd and most of them I’d at least introduced Charlie to. Hopefully, even more friendships could come out of this, cementing her and Reece’s place in the community.

And looking ahead at Reece waiting beside the huge Xavier, he couldn’t have looked more different from his twin. He was grinning goofily, leaning dramatically to the side like he was trying to peek around me and Jeremiah to get even a glimpse of his bride. Reece was sweet and nonjudgmental and playful and—

Everything his brother was not.

I clutched Jeremiah’s arm tighter as we reached the front of the aisle. I was hesitant to let go of him and go stand on the opposite side of the altar. I knew he’d promised he wouldn’t make waves, but I seriously swore that I would strangle the bastard if he ruined this for my friends.

But when he finally unpeeled my arm from his, still with a glare, he at least stayed silent when he went to stand beside his brother. It took everything I could not to bite my nails as they stood side by side, features identical and yet still, never more opposite.

Jeremiah stood stiff as a soldier while Reece was grinning so big I thought his face might split in half when Charlotte finally appeared at the top of the aisle and the music changed to the wedding march. Not to mention the tears I saw cresting in his eyes. He didn’t wipe them away, either. No. He just stared in awe at his wife-to-be as her father brought her down the aisle to him.

When her dad lifted the veil and he saw her face to face, the tears fell and still he didn’t seem to care. He pulled Charlie close and dropped his forehead to hers as he whispered something to her I couldn’t hear. But I could read her corresponding smile and read the body language as she sank into him, the lines between them disappearing for a moment before she pulled back, only their hands linked.

They both grinned like fools throughout the entire ceremony, repeating after Xavier with sometimes wobbly voices. Charlie was openly crying by the end, but the makeup artist was true to her word, her makeup didn’t smudge one bit.