Never Marry Your Brother's Best Friend (Never Say Never, #1)

Elena claps her hands. “Let’s hear it.”


I look deeply into Luna’s eyes as I speak to Elena. “First, we’d like to clarify the truth about us. At the minimum, you deserve that.” Luna smiles back at me, and I can feel our connection weaving and growing between us.

Luna starts, telling Elena, “I’m sorry for my anxiety-driven info dump. I reached my limit because I don’t usually do things like this.”

Elena and Bernard laugh. “We couldn’t tell,” they tease.

The smile that Luna flashes is shy but grows in intensity, and I enjoy seeing the way she comes out of her shell as she gets comfortable with people. I think I’ll enjoy seeing it happen again and again for our whole lives. “Rude,” she jokes back, poorly feigning anger before looking at Bernard. “And you weren’t even there!”

He frowns. “You think we weren’t all gossiping about your hissy fit after you left? Shoot, Stanley had the tea, Nelda made the tea, and I was hanging on every word as I drank every drop.” He makes a slurping sound.

“Oh.” Luna startles uncomfortably, not sure what to say to that, but she manages to share the facts. “Carter and I did begin as art tutoring, and you could say it didn’t go well. He had the idea of bringing me along so I could speak to the art and he could focus on the finances. And then, it went haywire.”

I continue the story, taking responsibility for my part. “I sprang the ‘wife’ thing on my family at the dinner, and my dad went ballistic afterward, ordering me to tell you the truth. I decided that rather than risk this opportunity by confessing, I would make the lie about our marriage true. Luna and I got married—for real—a few weeks ago. It was a tiny ceremony, and though it was with ulterior motives, I meant the vows I gave Luna.”

Luna swats my shoulder. “You vowed to always put the toilet seat down and buy me flowers once a month!” Her laugh is high-pitched and happy with the quite reasonable promises.

“And that I would support you in your artistic endeavors, making sure that you always have time to create,” I add. “And I do put the toilet seat down. I even got you one of those toilet nightlights so you could see if there are snakes in the bowl, despite living on the top floor of a building in the middle of the city.”

Luna’s worries might not always make sense to me, but if I can allay them with a simple solution, I’ll do my best. Hell, even if it’s a complicated solution, I’ll still pull a rabbit out of a hat for her.

“Ooh, I like that. That’s good,” Bernard tells Elena, nodding and pointing a bony finger at me.

She shushes him. “Let them finish telling it. But remind me that I might want one of those light things too.”

I smile, and when I explain further, I can feel that Elena is falling under my spell again. But this time, the spell is pure and genuine. “I love Luna. She’s spun some web, some magic spell, and I’m a hundred percent in love with her. That’s the gist of it. And she loves me.”

Saying that aloud is powerful, giving this feeling a fresh sense of realness. I can’t help myself and bend down to kiss Luna gently. Though my eyes are closed, I can feel Elena and Bernard looking at us, and then Elena lets out a loud ‘woooo’ of encouragement that makes Luna laugh into the kiss.

“Sorry,” Luna says, her hand covering her mouth.

I lay my arm over her shoulders, pulling her to my side. “I’m not.”

Luna blushes adorably but leans into me.

“You two finally figured it out, then?” It’s more of a statement than a question, and then Elena delightedly adds, “It’s about damn time you pulled your heads out of your asses, because I’ve seen it since the beginning and was starting to think you were never going to get out of your own way.”

“What?” I ask dumbly.

“You two didn’t know each other from Adam when you came out here that first time. That much would’ve been obvious to a blind man, but even then, there was a spark.” She flicks her fingers, as if she ignited us herself. “I could see it between you.”

“You knew?” Luna’s eyes are wide with shock behind her glasses. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Elena smiles slyly. “Of course I knew. You can’t fool an old lady like me. I’ve seen damn near everything at least once in my life, so I was curious to see how it was going to play out. Look, I’m old. And forgive me, but excitement like this is rare. It keeps the world interesting enough that I want to stay around for a bit longer, maybe see a few more things.”

I tilt my head. What she just said could come off as coldhearted. But I get it, and I certainly can’t be mad at Elena for letting us play out our own misguided scheme.

“It took a little longer than I thought it would. You two are a little slow on the uptake about matters of the heart, but I didn’t want to spoil the moment for you.”

“Spoil it for us?” I say flatly, as shocked as Luna.

“Of course. If I’d told you I knew, it would’ve been game over. If I told you I saw something between you, you would’ve denied it and bounced off each other like pinballs. It could ruin everything. No, I kept my mouth shut and let you do your thing, and now here we are, just like I knew we’d be.” She hops from the stool and comes forward to wrap Luna and me in a simultaneous hug. She presses a grandma kiss to Luna’s cheek and then mine before letting us go. “Now what?”

She sits back down, looking from me to Luna, and then leans over to Bernard and whispers, “I think this is gonna be the extra-good part.” To us, she twirls a hand. “Well, get on with it.”

Her reaction to everything is encouraging, and I hope she feels the same way about this next bit. “Actually, something you said inspired me,” I tell Elena. She nods, murmuring that she says brilliant things all the time. I can’t argue with that. “You told me that people end up in places they don’t intend, and it’s up to them to decide if that’s where they want to be.”

She slaps Bernard’s shoulder, pleased with herself. “I did say that.”