“I saw the cabin you fixed up like I said you should. The desk and the typewriter and everything.”
“You like it?”
“Love it,” she said. “I tested the typewriter. See?” She dug in her pocket for a piece of paper and passed it to him.
“Joey, this is an invoice from Northwest Vintage Furniture. I’m touched.”
“Flip it over.”
Chris stared at the words, the beautiful words in black on white.
“Joey...” He looked up at her, his heart in his throat, his throat in his feet.
“I kept thinking about what I should do instead of about what I wanted to do and what I should feel instead of what I did feel. Obviously you shouldn’t start dating again two weeks after a bad breakup. And obviously you shouldn’t fall in love with the guy you were seeing on the rebound. But obviously I did.”
“I’m...” Chris shook his head. “I’m speechless.”
“Then find a better use for your mouth than talking.”
He took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. Joey, his Joey, the same Joey he’d loved when he was eighteen and loved now at twenty-eight and would love when he was eighty-eight, ninety-eight, a hundred and eight. He pressed his lips to hers and held her close, her body falling against his, soft and warm and all his. All his now, and if he were the luckiest man on earth, all his forever.
Joey pulled away, laughing and grinning.
“What?” Chris asked.
“My cousin Lionel Ritchie just gave us a dirty look. We are kind of making out in the middle of someone else’s wedding.”
Chris waved at him and mouthed, “Hello.” A man walked passed them, a very familiar-looking man.
“Is that guy dressed as Ron Jeremy?” Joey whispered in his ear.
“No,” Chris replied. “That’s actually Ron Jeremy.”
“Portland,” Joey said.
Joey grabbed Chris’s hand and he let her drag him over to Oscar and Dillon. She threw herself into Dillon’s arms and hugged him hard.
“That was the best wedding ever,” she said.
“Yes, I know. Why are you wearing my sweater vest?” Dillon asked, looking her up and down.
“I stole it to seduce Chris. It worked.”
“Damn,” Dillon said. “Sweater vest kink? You are a deviant, aren’t you?” he said to Chris. Chris shrugged but didn’t deny it.
“Consider it a birthday present to me that I stole from you since you stole my birthday from me,” Joey said, poking him in the chest.
“Oh, shit, it is your birthday,” Dillon said. “Totally forgot. You know, because of my wedding. I’m married, by the way. Have you met my husband?”
“She has,” Oscar said. “Also, your brother is a liar. We didn’t forget your birthday at all. We simply borrowed it. Now you can have it back. Present?”
“Present,” Dillon said. “Chris? Are we doing this present thing?”
“We’re doing it.” Chris reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a key ring with ten keys on it.
Joey looked at him and at Dillon and at Oscar and back at him.
“What’s going on?” she asked.