March 2022
Murphy
I had to stop glaring at the man. I knew I had to stop glaring at him, but he had seen mywifenaked and I just couldn’t help the red haze that clouded my vision whenever I looked at him. He was about to become my brother-in-law. Odette was so excited and happy for Wynn that I was trying my best not to punch him in the face on his wedding day.
I saw the way he always tracked Wynn with his eyes, like he was afraid if he took his eyes off her for one second, she would change her mind and disappear. I saw how he barely gave my wife a fleeting glance and was nothing but polite to her. The most they spoke about was work, some new research or something that happened at the hospital. There were no lingering looks, no pent-up sexual chemistry.Zilch.And I knew that I should be thankful, that I should get over it...buthe’s seen her naked,and I could just not let that go.
Or at least I thought I couldn’t, but my wife was currently standing on one end of the aisle with tears streaming down her face as Wynn walked toward where they stood to a beautiful piano version of “You Raise Me Up.” And one glance at Benji showed me the error of my ways. His entire focus was on hisbride-to-be, with so many emotions filtering through his face, but the most prominent one was a look of awe.
Awe over Wynn, awe over the depth of his love for her. I saw the moment he started walking towards her, not caring that he was meeting her halfway down the aisle. The music stopped playing and Wynn looked at him in bewilderment.
“Benji…you’re supposed to meet me down there,” she said out of the corner of her mouth,
“I couldn’t wait.” He held his hand out to her as the music started up again, and they made it the rest of the way down the aisle, together.
Odette wasn’t even trying to hide her tears, and Lux was right beside her, throwing an obscene number of flowers left in her basket from earlier over the couple as they stood facing each other ready to say “I do,” which only caused everyone in attendance to laugh.
Fine, maybe I could get over it...but I would always remember it.
Always.
Chapter 4
April 2023
Odette
“I take back every mean thing I’ve ever said about you when you were pregnant, I swear.” Wynn said through clenched teeth as her little one kicked the ever-loving crap out of her insides.
“I didn’t know I could be souncomfortable,”she whined. My normally stoic sister was a total demon when pregnant. Her hormones made her, well…absolutely unhinged.I couldn’t help but love her, but I had no idea how Benji hadn’t run for the hills yet.
“Benji, how do you deal with her constant complaining?”
Of course, Benji was just looking at my sister with the most smitten look on his face, and it made me gag.He was a lost cause.
“She can be as unreasonable as she wants; she’s carrying my kid.” His no-nonsense tone let me know that he was, in fact, not kidding. He had informed us over the course of our last dinner together that he had been studying how other species treated their mate while pregnant, and he had come up with the fool-proof plan ofwhatever Wynn wants, Wynn gets.
Smart bastard.
Once Wynn announced her pregnancy, and Benji went all mother hen on us, Murphy had finally made peace with him in our lives. It didn’t hurt that Benji barely tossed a look in my direction; his focus was always almost one hundred percent on my sister. At first, I thought it was a bit weird, a little unsettling, but once I realized how much WynnsettledBenji, I understood everything.
“Mark my words, you’ll regret having that motto, Benji,” Murphy said as he handed him a beer from across the table.
He just shrugged while he took him up on his offer. “Maybe, but I’m good with it.”
“Leave him alone, Murphy. You don’t always have to be right.”
“Yet I always am...” he told Wynn but when he looked at me.
“Always,”he mouthed.
Chapter 5
May 2024
Odette
“My god, when did we get old?” Wynn asked the table as we cheered for the fact that Wynn could drink alcohol again.
