Fall Apart Read Online Free

he’d decided to leave his schedule open. He was thinking of using the time to sleep and relax; his life leading up to this weekend had been mad. For a few days it’d be nice to pretend he didn’t have any obligations.
    The bride and groom couldn’t stay with him long as they had to bow and scrape for the other guests, and when Alarik took his seat he found he was the focus of a blue-eyed stare. The wicked grin that rose to his lips was well practiced, but in this instance wholly unplanned. He couldn’t help it.
    Damon didn’t quite frown in return, but Alarik had irritated enough people in his lifetime to identify the signs. Here, with this man, he wasn’t necessarily welcome. How intriguing.
    Well, that clinches it , Alarik decided. He had to decipher this clue.
    Lifting his teacup in acknowledgment of that unimpressed gaze, he chuckled to himself and turned his attention back to his table. He was now committed to becoming a nuisance.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    “Don’t lock your knees,” Damon murmured under his breath as Luke swayed slightly. His best friend was turning an ugly color of yellow-green and was swallowing a lot; the pressure was getting to him.
    Luke had always been a tender soul when it came to being the center of attention. Since their days at Ventura High School when he’d passed out cold giving a speech about the Plantagenets, Luke had made little progress in this area. A group of five or more people looking at him at one time was enough to get the shakes going and this was much worse than that.
    The Thacks had reserved the outer courtyard of The Beacon Hotel for the ceremony and around three hundred pairs of blinking eyes were currently focused on Luke and his nine groomsmen. It was late September and mild, but Luke was sweating like it was high noon on execution day. The string quartet needed to get cracking so that the attention could shift to the bridesmaids who were waiting to glide down the aisle, but apparently no one had given them the high sign.
    Damon took a step closer to his friend and whispered, “I bet you fifty bucks that the flower girl cries, the ring bearer bolts, and a bridesmaid trips on the aisle runner.”
    Luke looked up at him distractedly until a slow smile grew on his face and some of his color returned. “Fifty?”
    Damon nodded and Luke considered it.
    “You’re on.” They shook hands and the music finally began. Those three hundred pairs of eyes shifted to the flower girl about to bop down the aisle and Luke took a deep breath. “Thanks, man.”
    Damon clapped his friend on the shoulder and settled in for the show. The flower girl was dry-eyed, the ring bearer noble. The bridesmaids in their ruby dresses were fleet of foot and poised, and Damon was out fifty bucks.
    The music changed and Mandy appeared at the end of the aisle, arm-in-arm with her father. She was as pretty as any bride could hope to be. The dress was eye-popping, but her smile stole the show. Luke, of course, was mesmerized.
    Good for you buddy, Damon thought. Nobody deserved it more.
    Mandy was weepy during the vows and Luke’s voice was only slightly choked as he promised himself forever. The mothers in the front rows were creating rivers and streams of tears. Old Thack surprised the hell out of Damon with his own wet eyes. Luke’s father, on the other hand, was the rock no one could squeeze blood from—totally stoic.
    Everyone cheered during the kiss and as the newlyweds retreated down the aisle. Damon offered his arm to Valerie and she took it, but her focus was over his shoulder where Todd was standing.
    She pasted on a neutral expression as they made their own escape. She waved brightly at old family friends and guests while Damon’s goal was simply to get down the aisle and out of view as quickly as possible. The photographer had stopped Mandy and Luke, so Damon was forced to slow down so there wouldn’t be a pile up.
    Andrew was in the fifth row; Damon had spotted him before the ceremony