“I banged the bride.  I feel a little funny about standing up for her husband at their wedding.”

Ryder Jefferson almost shot beer out of his nose at his friend Ty’s words.  Swallowing hard, choking on the liquid and his laughter, he said, “Well, it’s not like you slept with her after they started dating, so who cares?  In fact, as I recall, she was still dating you when she started sleeping with him.  So yeah, actually I guess you’re right.  That is awkward, McCordle, since you got tossed over.”

Not that he would ever rib his friend about that if his heart had been involved, but Ryder knew Ty had been half-heartedly dating Nikki Borden at best.  It had been a relief to all parties involved when Nikki had trysted with Jonas Strickland and gotten engaged.

Which made the whole thing damned funny now that she had asked Ty to be a groomsmen in her upcoming nuptials.

“Screw you,” Ty told him, lifting his bottle to his lips, his head propped up on the worn bar with his hand.

“None of us want to be in this wedding,” Elec Monroe said, on Ryder’s right side, tossing peanut after peanut in his mouth.  “But at least we can all hang out with each at the reception.”

“This is your fault,” Ty told him, pointing a finger at him.  “You’re the one who was friends with Jonas first.  You’re the one who invited him to your party, where he met Nikki.”

“And that’s when you first starting dating your fiancé,” Ryder reminded him.  “So I can’t see how you’re figuring it’s a bad thing, because if Nikki hadn’t met Jonas, you’d still be with her instead of Imogen. Do you want to be dating Nikki “Where’s my Brain” Borden?”

Ty’s face contorted in horror and he gave a mock shudder.  “Point taken.  But it’s still weird as hell.”

“Nobody’s arguing with that.”  None of them were close to Strickland, yet all of them had been invited to participate in his circus of a wedding.

“I don’t mean to be a dick or anything,” Evan Monroe, Elec’s brother, piped up from down on the end.  “But doesn’t Strickland have real friends?  It’s not like any of us are really all that tight with him.”

“I’m sure he does,” Elec said.  “But the truth is, Nikki’s pulling the strings here and she wants a splashy media wedding.  She has half the top ten drivers in stock car racing in her wedding party.  Talk about a photo op.”

Ryder had already figured out that was her motivation.  He didn’t really care all that much, but he did have better things to do than waste a whole weekend wearing a monkey suit.  Like watching TV and tossing a load of laundry in.  And other stuff, none of which he could think of at the moment.  But the truth was, he would do it, and not for Nikki or Jonas.

“Well, I for one feel cheapened and used,” he said, amused by the whole situation.  He also had a nice beer buzz going, which made him feel much more prosaic about the whole thing.

“You know what?  I’m not doing it,” Evan declared.  “I hate wearing a tux and I always get stuck with the married bridesmaid, so there’s no chance of even scoring post-reception sex.”

“I’m not doing it either,” Ty said, slapping his fist down on the bar.  “I mean, what the hell?  It’s like incestuous or something for me to be standing there, in church, with Nikki and Jonas, and my fiancé sitting on the bench behind us… I’m not doing it.  Screw it.  No one can make me.”

“Well, if you all aren’t going to be there, I’m out, too.”  Elec rattled the peanuts around in his hand and wrinkled his nose.  “I hate having my picture taken.”

“That’s because you’re ugly,” Evan told him, with all the love and affection only a brother can have.

“So it’s settled, then.”  Ty sat up and adjusted his ball cap.  “We all bail.”

Ryder hated to break up this anti-wedding sit in, but he was going to have to own it.  “Not me, guys.  I can’t bail.”

“What?  Why the hell not?” Ty asked.

“Because of Suzanne.  She’s the wedding planner for this crazy-ass mockery of marriage, and I have to do it.  I’ve gotta support her.”  He did.  He had to support Suzanne whatever way he could since his ex-wife had refused further alimony from him.

He had been busted up about that for weeks, worrying about Suz.  She was stubborn to the point she made the mule look like a pansy-boy.

If she wouldn’t take any money directly from him, he was going to do whatever he could to ensure her fledging wedding planning business got off to a solid start.  Even if that meant he had to suffer through a whole day of watching Nikki and Jonas delude themselves into thinking their marriage would last forever.

“Sorry, boys, I have to be there.”

His friends and fellow stock car drivers gave him various expressions of understanding, overlaid with obvious irritation that he wasn’t falling in line with their plan.

“Damn it,” Ty said.  “Truth is, I have to go too.  Imogen says if I back out, it’s going to look like I still have feelings for Nikki or something.  She’s probably right, isn’t she?”

Ty’s fiancé Imogen was a brainiac and Ryder didn’t doubt for a minute that when it came to matters of logic, Imogen reigned supreme over four guys in a bar at four in the afternoon.  “She’s probably got a point.  If you’re in the wedding no one’s going to think for a minute you’re busted up about Nikki.  If you bail, it might look like hurt feelings.”

“Well, I sure in the hell don’t want anyone thinking that.  Guess I’m going to have to do it, too.”

Elec gave a monumental sigh.  “If you two are in, I’ve got no excuse for not being there.  Jonas is a buddy of mine, and I can’t hold it against the guy that he’s marrying a woman whose voice is like a cheese grater on my nuts.  He’s got to be in love, he must be happy, and I should be there to help him celebrate that.”

“He’s not happy!” Evan said, gesturing to the bartender for another beer.  “Have you lost your mind?  The man is drowning in a haze of endorphins, that’s all.  He’s going to wake up in six months from his sex cloud and wonder what the hell he was thinking.”

“You’re such a romantic,” Elec told him.  “I can see why your love life is such a success.”

“Screw you.”  Evan threw a balled up napkin at his brother.

“There’s nothing wrong with marriage,” Ryder said, the words slipping out before he could stop them.

Suddenly all eyes were on him.

“Yeah?”  Ty asked, looking at him funny.

“Yeah.”