“Hopefully,” I say before bringing my gin tonic to my lips.
It would be amazing if that happened.
“But first, you have to get punched,” Ethan adds. “You have to tell him.”
“Can’t have the good without going through the bad,” Asher pipes in.
“Exactly,” Ethan agrees. “Look at me and Stella. We had to go through a lot to get to where we are now.”
I remember. I remember the pain on Stella’s face when I made her realize that she couldn’t be with Ethan, something I still regret to this day because I turned out to be wrong. I remember when Stella left Ethan and he looked like a complete wreck. I remember him punching Asher, too.
“Same here,” Asher says. “Violet and I used to fight all the time.”
I nod. “True.”
Violet hated him. I was afraid she would stab him in his office one day and disappear to Switzerland. Instead, she’s now engaged to him. They couldn’t stand each other and now they’re engaged.
Asher gives me a mischievous grin. “Do you want to guess what we do all the time now?”
“No,” I answer quickly.
“Neither do I,” Ethan says.
“Because it’s more exciting than what you and Stella do?” Asher teases him.
Ethan narrows his eyes in reply. “And where in the world did you get that idea?”
“Stella’s pregnant,” Asher points out.
“Exactly, which means her hormones are raging and she wants to have sex all the time. All. The. Time.”
I put my hands up. “Okay. That’s enough.”
Frankly, this ‘my fiancée is better than yours’ thing that’s been going on for the past few weeks is getting old. And ridiculous.
Stella and Violet are both incredible women. Pregnant or not, they’re both attractive and smart. And strong. They’re amazing women. In fact, I sometimes wonder what they saw in my brothers.
Of course, Claire is an amazing woman, too. She’s beautiful. She’s adventurous, fearless. She has a big heart. She’s an attractive, smart, strong woman.
“How about you tell us about this girl you’re willing to lose your best friend over?” Asher says as he leans towards me. “I bet she’s great in bed.”
“Asher,” Ethan warns him again.
This time, I don’t mind.
“She is,” I say.
Asher grins. “Then think of that when you talk to Joel.”
I give him a look of dismay. Think of having sex with Claire while I talk to her brother? No way.
“Just talk to Joel,” Ethan tells me.
I know. I’ve already known it all this time. I just needed to hear it from my brothers to get the resolve, the strength to do it. And now, I think I have it.
I know what I have to do. And I’m going to do it.Chapter ElevenClaire
“I’m going to tell Joel,” I tell Natalie as we sit in the car after a second trip to the bridal shop. “I’m going to tell him that this wedding is for both of you and so he has to share in the responsibilities, in the hard work, in the stress. You don’t have to shoulder it all on your own just because he has a job and you don’t.”
“But I quit my job so I could focus on the wedding,” Natalie says.
She turns her head away from the window to look at me.
“I mean, I told my boss I was quitting my job because I was going to move to California, but I also did it because I wanted to focus on the wedding. My wedding.”
“You mean you and Joel’s wedding,” I correct her.
Natalie says nothing. She just leans against the passenger seat and fixes her gaze on some distant point beyond the windshield, somewhere past the falling snow.
I place my hand over hers. “If you can’t work together on your wedding, how can you expect to work together on your marriage? It isn’t going to work unless the two of you work together.”
Natalie nods. “I know.”
I pull my hand away. “But you won’t talk to Joel?”
She sighs and meets my gaze. “I don’t want to fight with him, Claire. I’m too tired to fight.”
“But some things are worth fighting over, worth fighting for.”
She shakes her head. “A fight will only make things worse.”
“So you’re just going to shoulder all the stress and tire yourself out until you get a nervous breakdown and land in a hospital bed?” I ask her.
Natalie forces a smile as she squeezes my hand. “I appreciate your concern, Claire, but I’ll be fine. Really, I can do this.”
I’m not sure she can.
“I just… need a bit of a break,” she says. “I need to think about something other than the wedding.”
“Okay. What do you want to do?”
She touches her chin as she pauses to think. I offer her suggestions.
“Do you want to play paintball? Do you want to get a mani-pedi? Do you want to get out of Chicago for a few days?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “Nothing that major. I just want to relax.”