Riley Mackenzie - Beautifully Done

“Not in this lifetime.” Chase was dead serious.

Lili looked up at him with her killer baby blues as if he parted the Red Sea. I couldn’t promise anyone until death do us part, but hell, I wouldn’t have minded someone looking at me like that.

“You guys psyched for your trip? Sucks every romantic destination in a twelve-hour radius was booked.” Who honeymooned in Japan? Lili laughed at my joke. Chase rubbed his face and cracked a smile. He did that a lot more since Lil.

“Just try not to get yourself into trouble the next three weeks. All right, asshole?”

“C, you trying to say you’re gonna miss me? Cause if so, that’s pretty lame.” The new Mrs. Colton laughed her sweet ass off. Her boobs jiggled too. Yup, I was an asshole.

We briefly shot the shit about work while Lili pointed out every single female at the wedding she deemed worthy of my attention. The woman was relentless, always spewing about me deserving a hay or HEA. I decided to feed into her good mood and indulge her a little.

“Hey, if you really think I deserve a happy ending tonight, who am I to question the bride?”

Chase buried his face in her hair but not before he half choked on his beer. He was too easy to rile, how could I not? Lili, on the other hand, fake rolled her eyes and winked right back at me. She was the bomb.

I tried to keep the joke going to circumvent the conversation returning to the why Asher should settle down topic, but Lil cut me off when she saw a bunch of people making their way off the dance floor. The band had just slowed things down a notch.

“There’s my baby girl,” she sweetly said, reaching for the doll-sized princess her stepmom was holding. Her little dress was a mini version of the bride’s with a big pink bow matching the obnoxious sparkly clip dangling from her still half-bald head. Rubbing her tired eyes, Lili showered her porcelain face with kisses and cushioned her snug against her chest. “Aww, Chase, look, she’s exhausted. Poor baby. I’m going to take Layla back to the house so she can get tucked in. Be right back.” She handed him her empty glass and gave him a peck on the lips before she carried the now sleeping child away.

Chase’s eyes were crazy glued to her every step until she disappeared through sliding glass doors. Then he ripped at his tie, unbuttoned his top three buttons, and took a deep breath. Shit.

“I’ll go find Sierra and let her know where they went, okay, sweetie?” Lil’s stepmother Sharon sympathetically patted Chase’s cheek.

“Thanks, Shar.”

I let the silence stew long enough to order us two fresh cold ones. “Sorry, C—sucks, man.” There was nothing else to say.

Chase stared at his beer with the intensity he stared at his patients’ brain scans. “Yes. It. Does.” Then he drained half the bottle.

Lili’s face lit up the room every time she was around that baby. It sucked for Chase, seeing how natural she was with Sierra’s daughter, and knowing it was all his woman wanted for herself. They had been trying to have one of their own since Lil miscarried a few weeks after getting out of the hospital. No luck so far. Life was fucking unfair.

The poor guy deserved to enjoy his wedding, not beat himself up over what couldn’t be changed, so I switched topic. “Could be worse, we could still be barefoot.” I followed suit, draining my bottle.

His steel armor cracked and he shook his head. “That was a fucking stupid idea, wasn’t it?”

Five hours later, my jacket and tie were nowhere to be found. Hell with it, I hated the damn tux anyway. It didn’t matter who designed it or how much you paid, those straight jackets never fit a guy my size. The party was winding down, and somehow I was left with the whole thanks for coming, hope you had a great time best man bullshit. Kissing every aunt, cousin and grandma on both cheeks, I needed a tetanus shot. People stuffed envelopes in my hand and I was tempted to ask, “Just out of curiosity, what part of the five thousand square foot oceanfront cottage with the Cirque du Soleil tent pitched in front made you think an envelope was an appropriate gift?” But I held back. No need to piss off the bride, and besides, it was all going to a great cause. As their wedding present, I set up a foundation for abused women and children in their name and I promised to match every donation they made. What else did you get for the couple that needed squat?

“What a beautiful party, honey. Where’s Chasey and Lili Blue?” This particular beauty got two kisses and a hug.

“Not sure, Ma.” But it was a good question. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell them you said goodnight. Where are Dad and the girls?” Saying the girls was easier than listing my three sisters, their husbands and my five nieces.

“Oh, the babies were getting cranky.” My youngest niece was three but that was beside the point. “It was getting late, so your sisters left a while ago. And I told them to take your father. He was starting to get a little confused, and I didn’t want him to be embarrassed about it in the morning,” she ended on a whisper.

We all lived in a bit of denial, especially my mom. Watching my grandfather and uncle suffer with Alzheimer’s for decades was devastating. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to believe he would remember in the morning.

“Okay, Ma, but how are you getting back to the hotel? I’ve got to stick around for a while, but I’ll get you a car.” The resort was less than a half-mile down the road, but no way in hell was my mother walking. I fished my phone out of my pocket to call a service.

“That won’t be necessary, darling. She can drive with me.”

She might have been trying to make amends for her life of poor choices and shortcomings since her husband’s death, but Chase’s mother was still an ice queen that made my skin crawl. I knew for a fact that Chase didn’t invite her, so the only logical explanation was that Lili hit her head a little harder than we all thought. Unfortunately, that didn’t explain my parents’ thirty-year friendship with the Coltons. Talk about day and night. Principled and indecent.

My mother’s soft wrinkled hand rubbed mine. “That would be perfect, Constance, thank you. Honey, don’t worry about me. Just make sure you give the newlyweds a kiss for me and tell them I expect a postcard from Asia. Now go enjoy yourself, there are some lovely young women chatting with Sierra by the band. Maybe you should introduce yourself.”

I kissed the meddler’s hand and said, “Goodnight, Ma.” Then, because I was my mother’s son, always a gentleman, I politely kissed the ice queen.

“Asher, good seeing you. Please do apologize to my son for me. It must have slipped my mind, but I have an early charity event back in the city tomorrow or else I would have loved to have attended brunch and seen them off.”

Right, because he wanted to spend any more time with your nasty ass. She half looked like she believed the bullshit oozing from her own mouth, as if she forgot Chase despised her. He would rot in hell before he ever forgave her for what she did. Maybe she needed to pay a visit to my dad’s neurologist or maybe the mortification of finding out your dearly deceased jerk-off husband had been far from faithful made her delusional. Either way, the woman never ceased to amaze me.

“Sure, I’ll pass on the message.” Ahem, bullshit.

After seeing them safely out, I inadvertently scoped out the crew my mother was talking about. She was correct about one thing—they were lovely. I recognized most of them as Lili and Chase’s hospital friends from Philadelphia, two of which gabbed about nothing but medical shit and were most definitely single. Completely irrelevant because they weren’t who caught my eye. The band behind them was busy packing up their equipment for the night. I smirked, remembering four teenage friends rocking out just for the sake of rocking out, back when life was fair. My temporary alcohol-induced nostalgia got interrupted when the lead singer, whose sultry voice grabbed my attention multiple times throughout the evening, leaned over to close a guitar case. Her tight black leather pants rode just low enough to see her inked stamp, while her long blonde hair kept slipping from its loose clip. Mmm. Now, she was someone who needed an introduction. After all, I was a son who followed his mother’s advice.

“You should have told me you had a wedding last night, I would’ve gone with you.” Randi swiveled on her bar stool and looked me dead in the eyes. Oh shit, that was a sign of attachment. Guess I should enjoy her tonight because by tomorrow morning she was sayonara.

“Yeah, I don’t do wedding dates, sorry.” Just being honest. I could have said, ‘then I wouldn’t have been able to bag the gorgeous singer all night and this morning’ but I didn’t. She turned back to face the bar, but not before she pouted her extremely plump, over-injected lips. But, man, did they feel good around my cock. More like an honest asshole. “You need another drink, sweetheart?”

“I’m gonna hit the ladies’ room and then I’ll take another one of those yummy rum and Cokes.” She ran her obscenely long nail down my cheek before pressing her lips to mine. “Don’t miss me.” She flipped her streaky blonde hair, straightened her very short skirt, and left me to chug my beer while I admired her fantastic ass wiggle away. The one I would be watching my body slap against in a couple of hours. Ok, total asshole.

I tipped my head back¸ letting the remaining liquid slide down my throat and stuck up my finger to signal the bartender. He raised his brow from across the bar and nodded. He knew what I wanted; I had been coming here for years. It was conveniently located just a block from my apartment, so stumbling home with the chick of the night was easy.