Wedding

Saturday came in a roar of gorgeous weather, making Mallory one very happy bride. Byron never told her that he waited until the last minute to learn the song she'd wanted him to sing, Annie's Song, but he listened to it, checked out the sheet music and had it memorized with a few hours of practicing on Friday. And played it perfectly at the rehearsal.

So on Saturday, he felt confident about that at least. What he didn't feel so confident about was the fact that he'd pretty much ignored all of Jeff's texts and phone calls all weekend. Finally on Friday night, Byron texted back, "sorry. Busy with wedding stuff. will call on Sunday. Love you."

To their credit, Nicky, Adam and Jordan didn't bring up Byron's little problem in front of anyone. In fact, they didn't even bring it up when they were alone. Which seemed to be often. Weddings did something to families. The women were all off doing about a million different things and the men were home watching TV until the women told them to be somewhere.

And finally, it was time to leave. Byron, Adam and Nicky all got dressed in their nicest suits - Adam's was brand new, bought while he waits for potential job interviews.

It seemed like forever, but finally the wedding started. Byron had to do a double-take as his sister, the bride, walked down the aisle. He'd been wrong, she was wearing cream, not white and Byron had never seen her look so radiant. Her normally curly hair was straight and sleek and piled on top of her head. She wasn't wearing her normal dark-framed glasses and her face seemed to be glowing. Byron's raised his eyebrows in surprise. He looked at Ben's face, smiling, nervous and clearly so in love with Mallory. Byron's heart leapt to see that love so obvious on his face.

When it was time for Byron to play, he walked to the side of the altar, where his guitar was hidden behind a pew and picked it up and went to the mic. He started playing, softly at first, unsure of how loud the mic would be, but quickly found the right volume. He started singing, "You fill up my senses. Like a night in the forest. Like the mountains in springtime. Like a walk in the rain..." The whole time Byron had been practicing the song, he'd never really stopped to think of the lyrics. What the lyrics meant. But here, now at this wedding, joining two people in love, Byron thought about it. Particularly when he got to "Come let me love you. Let me give my life to you. Let me drown in your laughter. Let me die in your arms.

He thought about those lyrics hard. And by the time he was finished the song, he knew what he had to do. He knew his choice and it was so obvious, he couldn't believe he didn't realize it right away.

Nicky had said that those who make up happy are those who have the potential to hurt us the most. And Byron hadn't really understood that. He didn't realize that Nicky was saying that potential for hurt is worth it if someone makes you truly happy. Byron had a deep connection with Jeff. He always had, since their Junior year in high school, hell maybe even before that when Jeff was ten and he decided he was better friends with Byron than he was with Adam and Jordan. The whole time they were tucking tags into the backs of each others shirts, finding excuses to touch hands, even if it was just for a microsecond, those were all ways that they were connecting and falling in love.

And these last ten years? Well, that was just a detour. A long painful detour, but probably a necessary one so that both Byron and Jeff could learn and could figure out on their own what they wanted. What they needed in a relationship and to learn to make their relationship work. Certainly Jeff had a long way to go still in his personal life. And while what Byron had said was true, that he can't unfuck Jeff up and that's something that Jeff will have to do on his own, Byron realized he could be there with Jeff while he works on it. And if you truly love someone, you should want to be there for him. You should want to drown in their laughter, to die in their arms, as the song said.

And Byron did. He wanted to be there with Jeff.

Byron heard Mallory and Ben repeating their vows as he came to another realization. "In good times and in bad times. In sickness and in health." What those words meant, was suddenly super clear to him. He needed to be with Jeff through his bad times. He wanted Jeff with him through his own. If Jeff was sick, he wanted to be nurse-maid. If he, Byron, fell sick, there's no one he'd rather have as his nurse-maid than Jeff.

Of course, Byron realized also that he would have been happy with Rex. He could live a very satisfying life being with someone who is a friend and lover. But the truth is that he never had the amazing connection with Rex that he'd had with Jeff. And even though it was a riskier venture, Jeff needed him and he needed Jeff.

On the way to the reception, Adam, Byron and Nicky squeezed on the third row seat of Corrie's minivan, with Maggie in one of the second row seats, one year old Aidan in the other flinging Cheerios on the floor.

Byron had his phone out, writing a careful text to Jeff. Obviously he couldn't say what he needed to say in a text. Hell, he didn't even think he could do it over the phone. So thinking hard, he wrote "Wedding was nice. I had an epiphany today. Important. Too much to explain over the phone or by text. I'll email you when I get in Sunday. Love you." He read and re-read it about ten times before hitting send.

"Who're you texting?" Adam asked.

"Jeff," Byron murmured, hoping no one else would hear.

Corrie evidently had some kind of magical hearing because she turned around. "Oh! Are you choosing Jeff?"

Byron looked at Jordan, who was driving. Jordan glanced at Byron in the rear-view mirror and smirked. "I thought anything we said didn't leave the room." Byron said.

"Sorry," Jordan shrugged not sounding sorry at all. "She's my wife. I tell her everything."

Byron was going to argue, but then he realized one of the first things he was going to do after his big talk with Jeff (assuming Jeff forgives him) is tell Jeff that Adam kissed a guy once. So yeah, Byron kind of understood telling others' secrets to your significant other.

Before anyone could say anything else, Byron's phone beeped. He smiled as he read Jeff's text. "Glad all is well. Epiphany? And your making me wait until an email Sunday? Love you, miss you!"

"What'd he say?" Adam asked.

"Nothing." Byron said haughtily.

"Are we back to secretive Byron?" Nicky asked warily.

"Jesus. When did you all get so interested in my personal life?"

Nicky turned to him. "We've always been interested in your personal life. You just never shared anything before. This weekend was big for you, By. You shared a lot."

"Don't call me By." Byron was smiling. He looked out the window and thought about his identical brothers. He really felt closer to them than he has in years, maybe even ever. All those times in high school when Jordan would talk openly in their bedroom about Hannah Lee Evans. Or in college when he'd brag about various conquests only to admit quietly that he wanted to settle down. Or when Adam lost his virginity to Haley Braddock and came home to their bedroom, told his brothers about it, then admitted he didn't really feel ready to have had sex. All of those times, Byron would listen, would counsel, but would never ever contribute anything about his own life. And when Jeff broke up with him in college, Byron staunchly shut Adam and Jordan out preferring to grieve on his own, thinking they couldn't possibly understand, even though they were begging to be let in, to be a part of his life.

Byron was just now realizing what a blessing it was to have three brothers like Jordan, Adam and Nicky. That he could tell them really personal things and even if they couldn't understand, they were beyond the point of judging him. Byron knew that Jordan thinks he cheated on Jeff this weekend. But the brotherly bond went beyond all that.

The reception was fun. A lot of dancing, a lot of drinking, really good food. Byron kept his drink total to only two glasses of white wine.

But he felt like he'd been ignoring his sisters all weekend, and so he took a turn dancing with each of them in turn. When he danced with Mallory, she smiled widely at him.

"Thanks for playing at the wedding," she said hugging him close.

"Happy to do it. You chose a good song."

"I thought you'd like it," she said.

"Why's that?"

Mallory laughed. "Don't you realize it's by John Denver?" Byron looked at her blankly, yeah, he knew it but so what? Mallory rolled her eyes and continued. "It was a John Denver song, Rocky Mountain High, that forced you to come out to Jordan. Remember?"

Byron widened his eyes. God she was right. "Is that why you chose it?"

Mal shrugged. "One of the reasons," she had a little twinkle in her eye.

Despite the band playing, Byron dipped Mallory and sang softly, "He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year." Mallory howled with laughter.

Ben cut in on him, "What are you doing to my wife?" he asked happily.

"Wife!" Mallory exclaimed. "I'm a wife."

Byron handed her off to Ben. "She was my sister first," he reminded Ben. He smiled as he watched them dance away.

Byron went back to the table and sat next to Jordan, who was holding Aidan in his lap and Corrie was looking ill. She stood up, "I think I'm going to be sick."

Maggie stood up, "I think I'll go with her." Maggie was clearly feeling for Corrie.

"Where's Adam?" Byron asked looking around.

"Off with a bridesmaid," Jordan smiled knowingly. Aidan was standing in Jordan's lap grabbing Jordan's hair and blowing raspberries right in his face. Byron had no idea how Jordan could ignore that and concentrate on anything else.

"Really?" Byron looked around. He saw Trina with her husband. He saw Betsy talking with his mother. "But there are Trina and Betsy."

Nicky laughed. "He's off with Jessi Ramsey."

"No kidding?"

Jordan shook his head. "We're in our late twenties guys. Time to settle down."

"Not me," Nicky said. "I'm still technically in my mid-twenties. And I'm living with someone."

"I'm going to settle down." Byron announced.

Jordan and Nicky looked at him with mild interest. "With?"

"Jeff," Byron said nodding. "If he'll have me after I finish telling him about this weekend."

"He will," Nicky assured him. He stood up and gave Byron a noogie. "For what it's worth, I think you made the right choice."

Byron grabbed his hand. "Thanks," he said softly. He hoped Nicky knew what he meant. Not just thanks for thinking he made the right choice, but thanks for living with him and putting up with him and being a really good brother despite the way he, Adam and Jordan may have treated him as kids.

"Who knows?" Nicky said to Jordan. "Maybe Jessi'll turn out to be the one for Adam. And we can repeat this whole wedding thing in a couple years." Nicky's face turned serious and he looked at Byron. "You can't have this."

"What?" Byron asked.

"A wedding."

"I know." Byron said quietly.

"That really sucks." Nicky turned vehement.

Byron looked up at him. "Maybe I'll move to a state where I can. Don't worry, Nick. I'm not even thinking about it right now. Maybe I'll turn militant about it when I get older."

Nicky patted Byron's shoulder. It appeared that he was going to walk away, but he sat down suddenly and lowered his voice. "Guys. Can you believe Adam kissed a guy once?"