Series: The Laws of Opposite Attract Series by Vi Keeland
Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
“Even though I’m the official best man today, I’m just one of a five-man team of brothers. Owen, Holden, Colby, and I have been friends since we were kids. Our fifth brother, Ryan, passed away almost a decade ago. Recently, I went to visit him, and I found these sitting on his grave—fortune cookies.” I held up the bag a second time. “Ryan didn’t ask much of us in the twenty years we were all friends, but he left us very specific instructions when it came to visiting him after he was gone: ‘Don’t come to my grave empty handed. Bring me something to eat.’ The guy liked to chow down. Anyway, last time I was there, I found a bag just like this that his sister, Lala, had left behind. At the time, I’d been struggling to figure out how to proceed with something important to me, so I talked to Ryan about it. I asked him for a sign on what to do. No lightning struck and no rainbow appeared out of the blue, but before I left, I opened one of the fortune cookies, and the message inside inspired me to take a chance in my life. And I’m happy to report, things worked out pretty great. Not to be too hokey, but it felt like Ryan helped manifest my destiny. I thought it was pretty cool, so I asked my buddies to each write out their wish for Owen and Devyn to see if we can’t manifest good things for them, too.”
I walked over to the table where my crew were all seated and set a hand on Colby’s shoulder. “Now, I haven’t read the wishes they wrote yet, and I’m not stupid enough to blindly say what these bozos wrote out loud—especially not Holden’s. So I’m going to have them read their own wishes.”
I held the bag out for Colby first. He grabbed a cookie and snapped it open, pulling out the little slip of paper.
“What are you manifesting for the bride and groom?” I tilted the microphone toward his mouth.
“May you never go to bed angry and wake up with a smile when you look at your wife every morning.”
The room broke out in a round of awws.
I moved the mic back to my mouth. “Their baby is with the sitter tonight. He just wants to get laid.”
Everyone laughed, and I walked around the table to Holden.
“Alright, Mr. Catalano, what does yours say?”
Holden grabbed a cookie, snapped it in half, and hung his head. “I forgot what I wrote until just now. And I also thought these were supposed to be funny, not sappy.”
“Uh-oh. What does your fortune for the happy couple say, Catalano?”
Holden grinned. “Every exit is an entrance to a new experience.”
The ballroom exploded in a roar of laughter. Devyn cracked up so hard, she had to wipe tears from her face. I gave it a minute for the room to settle down before slipping the last fortune cookie from the bag. My nerves from earlier were suddenly back with a vengeance. I took a deep breath and stole a glance over at Owen. He and his bride were the only ones in on what I had up my sleeve. Owen winked and nodded.
I stepped over to Alex and extended the last fortune cookie to her. “I don’t have my glasses,” I said. “Would you do me a favor and read this one for me?”
“Umm…you don’t wear glasses, but sure.”
I held my breath while she cracked the fortune cookie open and slipped out the tiny piece of paper. “I wish the bride and groom a lifetime of the happiness I’ll have today.” Alex looked up, her adorable nose wrinkled.
“Turn it over…” I circled my finger around. “There’s more on the back.”
“Oh.”
“If you say yes…” Alex looked up, still a little confused.
“Read it again,” I said. “The whole thing as one.”
She turned the slip of paper back over and read without stopping this time. “I wish the bride and groom a lifetime of the happiness I’ll have today, if you say yes…”
She still didn’t seem to get it—until she looked up and found me down on one knee.
My hands shook as I opened the red velvet box. “Alex, will you marry me?”
EPILOGUE
Brayden
A Year and a Half Later
Holden buttered a bagel. “Seriously? This caviar probably cost more than my Tama drum set. Who the hell knew dentists made so much money?”
“Who knew caviar was on the menu for breakfast?” Colby spread some of the black stuff on a piece of toast.
“Well, apparently, not only does Justin come from a family of dentists and orthodontists, but his father owns this chain of dental practices,” I said.
Owen nodded. “So, yeah, they can afford the caviar.”
Colby, Holden, Owen, and I sat poolside, enjoying the brunch laid out before us. My crew and I had invaded the Hamptons’s home of James Cartwright, father of Justin Cartwright, Caitlin’s now-husband. Caitlin and Justin had gotten married about six months after they met and were now expecting their first baby, a girl due in three months.