We’re both worth it.

All I have to do now is hope she’s not with James.

Dad and Derrick were obviously thinking ahead because they brought their tuxes with them to the beach house. Paul showed up, and now we’re all decked out on our way to Vista House.

“Is she coming?” I ask Derrick.

I’d been afraid to ask him before, but I need to know. Regardless, I’ll be good. I’m over it.

“Nah.” He shakes his head. “It was never about that, D. I think I just needed her to know we’re good—that we turned out okay without her.”

I nod. “Yeah, I can kind of get that.”

“Are you nervous?” he asks. He’s in the passenger side of Mary. Dad and Paul are in Dad’s car.

“Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that? You’re the one about to go down the aisle.”

“And I’m seriously going to celebrate the hell out of it. I can’t wait, but that’s not what I mean. Rumor has it some stuff went down with you and Ziah.”

A laugh jumps out of my mouth. “Rumor has it? Why don’t you just say Ziah said something to Lora who then said something to you? Dumbass.”

I glance over and see my brother smirk at me. I wonder if I should feel weird talking to him about Ziah, or if he’s going to warn me away from her again, but I squash those thoughts quick. Somehow, I think we’re past that.

“I like her a lot, but she was with James. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Derrick sighs. “What’s going on is you reacting before you think, like always. She was upset, D. Talk to her. It’ll be cool.”

We don’t get a chance to continue because I’m pulling into parking lot of Vista House.

***

I’m outside when the limo pulls up. My heart rate kicks up a few notches. Ziah is the first one to step out. I expect to see her in her dress, but she’s wearing a tiny tank top and a pair of jeans and running shoes. Only her. Her hair is all done though—curls and knots on the top of her head with little strands falling down.

Her eyes catch mine and holds them. She’s got a lot of make-up on—way more than usual—but she’s still gorgeous. Stupidly, I hold my hand up and give her a small wave.

“Ziah! Hurry. Derrick’s not out there is he?” Lora pulls her attention away from me as I walk over to see if they need any help.

“Hey,” I say to Ziah. “He’s not out here.”

“Hey,” she says.

“Crap. I’m stuck,” Lora says from inside the limo, and I hear girls giggling while they do whatever it is they’re doing in there.

Ziah takes a step toward me, her face looks so uncertain. “James is just a friend. It was a project. It’s not—”

“Dylan! Come here, man. I need your help.” Derrick steps outside, and all the girls start screaming and yelling for him to go away because he can’t see Lora.

Knowing they’ll lose it, and Derrick needs me for whatever, I smile at her and touch one of those strands of hair before I turn and jog inside—already missing her.

***

I clutch my phone to my ear. “What do you mean the cakes got ruined? Don’t we have like, insurance on them or whatever?” Again, I’m freaking out a little here.

The guy on the other end of the phone starts yapping like crazy, and what he’s saying doesn’t even matter. All I know is the cake got screwed up while they were putting it in the van, and Lora is going blow a gasket. And after all the cake I gorged myself with, I’m a little pissed about it, too.

My first thought is to tell my brother, but I also don’t want to stress him out. He’s tripping out about this day because he wants it perfect for Lora, but I know he really wants it perfect for both of them. He’s just as into this as she is.

Ziah. She’ll know what to do.

I hang up the phone, which probably isn’t cool, but we’ve got a wedding disaster here. I mean, the cake is important, right? Lora and Derrick put way too much into it for cake-tastrophe to screw it up.

So now I’m scouring Vista House like crazy trying to find the maid of honor because I’m the best man, and it’s our job to handle shit like this.

I hit the room Ziah was in last, but as soon as I raise my hand to knock my brother’s voice drifts out from inside. He’s not supposed to be in there.

“I love you, Stiches.”

Stiches? What the hell kind of nickname is that? And wait, I thought it was like the end of the world for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding.

“I love you too.”

“Thanks for being cool about last night… Missing the rehearsal and the party.”

Guilt stabs into me. I screwed up last night, but I’m fixing this cake shit.

“It’s okay. It was important. You would have done the same for me and Ziah.”

“Yeah, but how am I going to know when to kiss you now?”

Damn…Derrick’s good.

Cake. Gotta figure out the cake. They’re obviously busy and will be for a while. I turn and head down the hallway. As soon as I round the corner, I run into Ziah.

Wow… do I run into Ziah. She’s in her dress this time and looks even better in it than she did when I saw her try it on. I’m man enough to admit my breath hitches a little. Girls are incredible. I wonder if this girl knows just how incredible she is.

“You look amazing.” I can’t help but tell her.

Pink colors her cheeks. “Thanks. We need to talk.”

“We do, and I’m not trying to put it off because there’s nothing I want to do more than talk to you—okay, that’s a lie. Looking like that there are a lot of things I can think of to do with you instead of talking, but unless we want our siblings to lose it, we have a cake emergency we need to figure out.”

She’s blushing until the last thing I said hits her. “What? Cake emergency? What happened?”

That’s when an idea pops into my head. The day I saw Ziah trying on the dresses, they’d eaten Voodoo Donuts. Lora brought them over one day.

“Holy shit, I’m a genius.” I laugh as I do a search on my phone for their number.

“Now’s not the time to be cocky, Dylan. My sister is going to go nuts if we don’t have a cake.”

“We do! We have a cake. Or we’ll have something. I’ll fix it.” I’m fully aware I’m not giving her much to go on, but I want to do this. To fix my screw up last night and all my other screw ups with this wedding stuff. “It’s under control. I got it.”

And then on reflex, I lean forward to kiss her. She freezes and I freeze and things are suddenly awkward.

“Sorry… I just… Sorry. We’ll talk.” If she wants. For all I know we’re over before we even really started. I’m not sure I can blame her. Or maybe we’re fine. Yeah. We really need to talk. “I better go. I have to get us some donuts.”

I start dialing as Dad’s voice echoes in the hall. “Dylan?”

“Coming!” I give Ziah another short wave as I turn to catch Dad.

I walk away trying to figure out what I just said to her. There are a million things I want to say to her—that I need to say. For starters, I get it. Everything Derrick ever said about Lora, I get it, but I settled on ‘I have to get us some donuts?’ If she’s even half as confused as I am, we’re screwed.

***

A whole lot of money later, we have a shitload of donuts on order. Paul’s picking them up between the wedding and the reception. I finish setting it all up as Derrick and Dad step into the room.

“It’s time.” Derrick has a huge smile on his face. Dad gives him a hug and then me. Paul and Sam are here with us, too.

Everyone files out of the room, but Derrick’s lingering behind with me. “I’m nervous as hell,” he says as we step into the hall.

“That’s normal,” I say as if I know.

“Yeah…yeah. I know. I can’t wait. She’s incredible. I’m going to work my ass off every day to make sure I deserve her.”

I look at my brother, proud of him. He’s not the douche or the sell-out I thought he was. One day I’ll be lucky to be like him. “You already do, man. You got this.”

Then we’re ushered through a door and head up the aisle. The whole time I’m hoping I don’t mess this up since I screwed up the rehearsal. We get to the front and stand where we’re supposed to. The music starts, and then Lora appears. Her eyes catch Derrick’s, and he smiles.