Noah ran his hands down his suit jacket, and then tugged at the too tight collar.
“Stop fidgeting,” Lindsey hissed. “It took me five attempts to do that tie.”
Noah rolled his eyes, but obediently let his arms drop to his sides. “I just don’t see why I have to stand here and wait for him. He’s not a bride; we’re both grooms.”
Lindsey squinted at him. “Is that what the fight was about last night?”
Noah nodded miserably. Another one. Michael had accused Noah of not loving him enough to take him on a proper honeymoon—translated as five-star luxury in whatever was the biggest, fanciest hotel on the planet—and Noah had accused Michael of being more in love with the thought of getting married than getting married to him. Michael had given him a funny look then, but at least it had shut him up, and Noah—thankful the arguing had stopped—had given up on the idea of them walking down the aisle together.
Noah glanced at his watch for what seemed the tenth time. Lindsey, his sister and Best Girl as she had quipped, had been standing at the front of the church with him for more than twenty minutes. He didn’t dare even look behind him at the two hundred guests Michael had insisted on inviting—most of which were business acquaintances of Michael’s father and people he simply didn’t know.
“Maybe we can sit down?” Lindsey hissed.
Noah shrugged. As far as he had been told, he was supposed to stand when the music started. He just hadn’t been expecting the five-piece mini-orchestra to play for so long before Michael showed up.
“At least you got the choice of the honeymoon though,” Lindsey chuckled.
Noah smiled. He had. When he’d read the article on Rainbow Key after Christmas and seen the pictures of the beautiful beach wedding the hotel had hosted on Thanksgiving, Noah had desperately wanted to have their wedding there. Michael and his father wouldn’t hear of it because they simply couldn’t accommodate over two hundred guests and the further one hundred and fifty invited to the evening reception, so Noah had dug in and agreed to the whole huge wedding rigmarole, provided they had the honeymoon at Rainbow Key.
Having undergone a large remodel, the resort wasn’t even opening officially until June, but Noah had unashamedly begged a really nice guy called Joshua to let them come for a week. Joshua had chuckled and warned him they weren’t fully staffed because they were all taking time off before the official season started, and they might have to do with sandwiches for a few meals. Noah had assured him it sounded perfect.
To be honest, Noah had barely survived tax season at the large financial firm he worked at, and the thought of peace and quiet for a week sounded heavenly. It had also been partly why he agreed to everything Michael wanted because working seventy hours a week for the last six and planning a wedding didn’t go together well.
Noah looked at his watch for a final time. “If he doesn’t turn up in the next two minutes, I’m going to find him.”
Lindsey giggled and looked around unobtrusively then she stepped out of the high heels she was wearing, pink to match her dress and Noah’s waistcoat and buttonhole, and groaned in relief. Noah sympathized. Lindsey usually wore flip-flops or biker boots. He hadn’t seen her in high heels since she was around seven and used to steal their mom’s and play dress-up. “I’ll put them back on when Michael shows,” she promised.
Noah shook his head. She didn’t have to wear them at all as far as he was concerned, but his insistence that she stand up with him, instead of the traditional best man, had been the source of another row that hurt him more than any disagreements about honeymoon destinations. Michael should have known Noah was hurting because Jacob, his brother, his best man—his best friend—would never be able to stand up next to him ever again.
Lindsey tugged at Noah’s sleeve. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think this shindig is gonna start anytime soon.”
Noah frowned and risked a glance behind him. “Why?”
“Because Michael’s mom hasn’t even sat down yet.”
Noah scanned the front row at the left side of the church. Lindsey was right, and he hadn’t even noticed. Michael’s sister-in-law and her children were sitting, all surreptitiously texting on cell phones which he thought was funny, as Samantha, Michael’s sister-in-law, had been the one who had been most vocal in disapproving of their wedding—a gay wedding—in a church. She was probably trying to text God and arrange a lightning bolt to smite him on the altar.
He smiled at his mom and dad who sat quietly on the front row on his own side. The row behind them held two college buddies, three work colleagues and their partners, and some friends of Lindsey. Seventy hour weeks weren’t conducive to making friends either. “Maybe—”
Lindsey hushed him as the doors opened at the back of the church. Thank fuck, Noah groused. Something was happening. It wasn’t Michael’s mom as he was expecting, it was Steven, Michael’s older brother. Of all of Michael’s family, he liked Steven the best. The guy was a doctor and ran two free clinics, much to his father’s consternation and his wife Samantha’s disgust.
Noah grinned as Steven came striding towards him until he saw the expression on his face.
He had the tie undone from his neck as soon as Steven got close enough for Noah to recognize the apology and embarrassment in his eyes. Michael wasn’t coming. He made Noah stand there for over thirty fucking minutes then sent his brother, because he was too much of a coward to do it himself. He didn’t even stop to listen to the apologetic excuses that Steven was giving. He didn’t care. He turned to Lindsey, who took one look at his face and said, “Go, I’ll take care of mom and dad. I love you.”
He was pretty sure he nodded at her as he struggled not to cry. He choked out to Steven to tell Michael he would be gone for a week, and in that time, he expected Michael to remove all his things from Noah’s apartment. He walked out of the church alone, got an Uber to collect his case from his apartment, and drove straight to the airport hotel.

Rainbow Key Series

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