“Yeah,” Winston says, shrugging. “We don’t know. We think maybe there’s a dead rat in the wall. Or maybe a couple of dead rats.”
“What?” I look at him sharply.
“Or!” Kenji says brightly. “Or, it’s just mold!”
“A delightful alternative.”
“Okay.” Winston claps his hands together, beaming. “We can talk about the rats tomorrow. You ready to see your suit?”
“What suit?”
“Your wedding suit,” Winston says, staring at me now with a strange expression on his face. “You didn’t really think you were getting married today in the clothes you’re wearing, did you?”
“Not they aren’t nice clothes,” Kenji adds.
“To be fair.” I meet Winston’s eyes. “I haven’t been able to predict a single thing that was going to happen to me today. How was I supposed to know that you’d managed to salvage my wedding suit from the wreckage? No one told me.”
“We didn’t salvage it from the wreckage,” Winston says, laughing. “I made you a new one.”
This leaves me briefly speechless. I stare at Winston, then Kenji. “You made me a new suit? How? Why? When?”
“What do you mean?” Winston is still smiling. “We couldn’t let you get married without a proper suit.”
“But how did you find the time? You must’ve—”
“Been up all night?” Brendan ducks his head into the room, then steps fully inside. “Finishing most of the work by hand? Yes, Winston was up all night on your behalf. Hardly slept at all. Which is why it wasn’t very nice of you to be so rude to him this morning.”
I glance from Brendan to Winston to Kenji.
I have no idea what to say, and I’m just thinking of how to respond when Adam and James show up at the door, two sets of knuckles knocking a rapid staccato on the frame.
“Hi!” James says, abandoning the door and his brother to invade my personal space. “Did they tell you I’m the only kid allowed at the wedding?”
“No.”
“Well, I am. I’m the only kid allowed at the wedding. My friends are super jealous right now because they’re all stuck in class.”
“And was there any particular reason,” I ask carefully, “why they made an exception for you?”
James rolls his eyes and lunges at me, hugging me right around the middle in a show of unprecedented self-assurance that shocks me, briefly, into paralysis.
“Congratulations,” he says against my sweater. “I’m really happy for you guys.”
I have to remind myself that James is not only— biologically—my brother, but also a child, and undeserving of rejection. I pat him on the head in a single, wooden movement that startles a laugh out of Kenji, a gasp from Winston, stunned silence from Brendan, and slack-jawed astonishment from Adam.
I clear my throat, disengaging from James as gently as I can.
“Thank you,” I say to him.
“You’re welcome,” he says, beaming. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“I didn’t invi—”
“So!” Adam cuts me off, trying and failing now to fight a smile. “We, um, we just came by to check in with you on a couple of details.” He glances at James. “Right, buddy?”
James nods. “Right.”
“First of all: Did anyone talk to you about your vows? Do you want to go traditional, or do you plan on saying something—”
“He’s going traditional,” Kenji says, answering for me before I’ve had a chance to respond. “I already told Castle.” He turns to face me. “Castle is doing the ceremony, by the way—you know that, right?”
“No,” I say, staring at him. “I did not know that. But what makes you think I don’t want to write my own vows?”
He shrugs. “You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who likes to get up in front of a crowd and shoot from the heart. But I’m happy to be wrong,” he says. “If you want to write your own vows, stand in front of a ton of people—most of whom you hardly know—and tell Juliette her face reminds you of a sunrise, no problem. Castle is flexible.”
“I would rather impale myself on a pike.”
“Yeah.” Kenji grins. “That’s what I thought.”
Kenji turns away to ask Adam a question, something about ceremony logistics, and I study the back of his head, confused.