“In bed,” Jonas says. Emotion washes over his face and he hugs me. “I’m so happy for you, Josh. You’ve been my rock my whole life, and I don’t know what I would have done—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say, pushing him away. “Bro, we just did this exact thing meremonthsago at your wedding. Do we really need to talk about our fucking feelingsagainso fucking soon?”
Jonas laughs. “But, Josh—talking lets the feelings out.”
We both laugh.
“Honestly,” I say, “I love you, bro, I really do, but I don’t have a pressing need to articulate every warm and gooey feeling I have about you more than, say, once a year?”
“Fine by me,” Jonas says, shrugging. “Once a year sounds good. And, by the way, I love you, too.”
“Gah. Stop. What’d I just say? Once a year, bro. How ’bout we do it on our birthday?”
“Great. I’ll mark it on my calendar: ‘Remember to tell Josh I love him today and that he’s the best brother a guy could ever hope for.’”
“I think you just did an end-run around that one-year thing,” I say.
Jonas winks. “I’m smart like that. Remember? I’m the smart one, and you’re the good-looking one.”
“No, I don’t think that’s how things got divvied up. You’re the smart oneandgood-looking one, Jonas. I’m thecharmingone.”
“And we’re both thehappyones,” Jonas says.
We share a huge smile.
“Did you ever think life would turn out like this for us?” Jonas asks, shaking his head.
I join him in shaking my head. “Never. Like, literally,never.Things weren’t looking too good for the Faraday brothers for a while, but we’ve pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat, haven’t we?”
“Definitely.”
The wedding planner pokes her head into the bungalow. “We’re ready for you gentlemen now. Time to take your positions on the beach.” She looks at her watch. “We have to time this with the sunset, so you’ve got to be in position in five.”
“Thanks,” I say to her.
Jonas and I hug.
“Congratulations, Josh,” he says.
“Couldn’t have done it without you, bro—you showed me how to do it.”
Jonas flashes a huge smile.
“Thank you, Jonas.”
Jonas nods. “My pleasure.”
I take a deep breath and turn toward the rest of the guys. “Ready, men?”
Everyone says they’re ready and raring to go.
“Reed, hand me that tequila one more time.”
Reed hands me the bottle of Patron and I take another huge swig—and everyone does the same thing right after me.
I put my hand on Jonas’ shoulder. “Hey, bro, you got a Plato quote for me to think about when I’m up there, just in case I suddenly feel like I’m gonna spontaneously shart?”
“Of course. ‘Courage is knowing whatnotto fear.’ And the one thingneverto fear is spontaneous sharting.”
