by Eva Luxe
“A married man, huh?” I asked.
“Yeah, for a while now, but somehow this makes it feel more real than the civil ceremony.” We watched Harper together for a while.
“You guys are really great together,” I said. The three of us had worked together at the restaurant from the start. Neither of us had believed that Harper would settle for a relationship. But miracles happened every day. I guess it was all about finding the right person.
“Thanks for doing this for us, man,” Caden said, clapping me on the shoulder. “You were a pretty good officiant.”
I snorted. “I think you mean pretty great.”
Caden laughed.
“I was happy to do it,” I said, and I meant it. Being a part of Caden and Harper’s wedding was an honor. They deserved happiness.
“You do realize that you’ll only get to be with one woman for the rest of your life now. No more games, no more one-night stands.”
Caden shook his head. “I don’t need any of that. Harper is everything I need and more. One day, you will meet the right girl and suddenly you’ll understand.”
“What?”
“One day, this will be you. Committing to the woman you love.”
I laughed. “It’s a nice thought, buddy.”
“I’m serious. I thought I would never find love and two months later I was married. Anything can happen.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t going to argue with him about love on his big day, but I wasn’t planning on getting hitched any time soon. I was happy as a single man. I was free to do my own thing, to take off whenever I wanted, or as my work allowed. I didn’t need a woman to mess that up for me.
Harper came up to us wearing a big grin on her face and I glanced at Caden. He had stars in his eyes when he looked at his bride, but I could see on her face she was going to start shit. It was the dynamic between the three of us. We were always going at each other.
“Looks like Caden had to ask you to officiate in order to get you into a suit,” Harper said. “I half expected you to still be in your leather jacket.”
I shrugged. “I thought it was a good day to ditch the jacket. It’s not every day that your best friends get married.”
Harper smiled and Caden put his arm around her.
“Seriously, though. You did a great job.” Harper looked around. “All of it is amazing.”
Caden had surprised Harper with the wedding ceremony, so he had needed the help of all his friends. I had spent a lot of time with him putting this together. I had to admit, Harper looked amazing. Caden had really pulled it off. I wasn’t sure how he had managed to surprise her like this because Harper was sharp, but he seemed to know exactly how to make it work with her. It was what made them so great together.
Harper and Caden, against all odds, had found love. And it seemed that they were better together than anyone would ever have imagined. Including me. I would never have thought that Harper could be serious about Caden, or that Caden had what it took to commit to someone the way he had chosen to commit to Harper.
“So, when is it your turn?” Harper asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just focus on your day for now.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of love,” Harper asked.
I shook my head. “I’m not scared. I just don’t need that right now. I want to be free and enjoy myself.”
Harper glanced at Caden. “Did you tell him?”
“Not yet,” Caden said, shaking his head.
“Tell me what?”
Caden and Harper glanced at each other before Caden grinned at me.
“Tell me,” I said. “Is she pregnant? Is that why you had to get married so fast? It wasn’t about the money, was it?”
Harper shook her head. “Always so full of shit,” she said. “Are you sure we want to do this?”
Caden kissed Harper on the cheek.
“You guys are getting a kick out of this, aren’t you? I don’t think you want to tell me anything.”
Caden laughed. “Don’t be such an asshole,” he said. “Harper and I are giving you money. We also decided that because you’ve been with The Spiced Cow since the beginning, and helped it grow to the success it is now, we’re giving you thirty three percent of the restaurant.”
“Isn’t it the other way around?” I asked. “Shouldn’t I be giving you a wedding gift?”
Harper shook her head. “We already did it. We put the cash in your account. It’s a lot.”
I frowned and pulled out my phone. What the hell were they talking about? I logged onto my online banking and blinked at the screen. There were a lot of zeroes that didn’t make sense.
“What the hell is this?” I asked.
“Ten million dollars,” Caden said, matter-of-factly. I shook my head. It didn’t compute. I counted the zeroes and there were indeed seven of them.
I looked at Caden and Harper with wide eyes.
“Are you guys fucking with me?” I asked.
Harper laughed. “I told you he wouldn’t believe it,” she said to Caden.
“Better believe it,” Caden said to me.
“What’s it for?” I asked. I was struggling to make sense of it. I shook my head and rubbed my forehead with my fingers.
“It’s to say thank you for everything you’ve done for us,” Caden said. “You’ve been the best of friends, you’ve worked hard and you deserve this.”
I chuckled, finally starting to figure out what was going on.
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “This is crazy. Is this how you fire people?”
“The restaurant will always be there for you. This is home, you know? But you deserve to get out there and do what you need to do. Live your life.”
I stepped forward and hugged Caden. He laughed and clapped me on the back. When I let go of him, I hugged Harper, too. It was a lot of money and usually I would say no to a big gift, but the truth was I wanted this. My mind had already started running through all the things I’d always wanted to do and had never been able to because of money or my obligation to work at the restaurant. For money.
“This is a lot to take in,” I said. “It’s a lot of cash. Are you sure you don’t want to invest it somewhere instead?”
Caden shook his head. “I did invest it. In you. Besides, that inheritance was a lot. I have so much money, we’ll be okay with our other ventures. Trust me. We thought about this long and hard. We want to do this. If there is anyone in the world that deserves this, it’s you, Greyson. You’ve been there for us through everything, dropping whatever you were doing the moment we called. That shit doesn’t go unnoticed and now that I have the means to do this, I wanted to show you how much you mean to us.”
I shook my head again. I was starting to wrap my mind around it but it was still going to take me a while to understand exactly what had just happened. Shit like this didn’t happen to people on the daily. Not even when they won the lottery, which I was convinced was a scam, anyway.
But this? This was real. It was something my friend did for me and it was the most amazing gift he could give to me. Because with this money, came freedom.
And I had needed freedom for a long time.
“I don’t know what to say,” I finally said. “Thank you.”
“That’s all we need,” Harper said with a grin. “I am going to go mingle a little more.” She kissed Caden before she walked away from us. Caden and I stood side by side, watching her walk away.
“I can’t believe you did that,” I said.
Caden chuckled. “It’s nothing. And you may not thank me when the IRS comes knocking.”
“It’s not nothing,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”
“Do you have any idea what you’re going to do with it?” Caden asked.
“I’m still trying to let it sink in. It’s a lot of money, a lot to take in. I think once I wrap my mind around it I might have more of an idea. But I’d like to go to Idaho for a while. They have amazing hiking trails.”
; “That sounds great,” Caden said.
I had always loved hiking and being outdoors. There was something about being in nature, nestled between tall mountain ranges or vast stretches of deserts that reminded me how I fit into the universe. I liked when it put my existence into perspective. Whenever I had an off weekend at the restaurant I planned a camping trip in the mountains somewhere. Now, I could do a hell of a lot more than merely an off weekend. The thought made me giddy.
“Are there a lot of women out there where you hike?” Caden asked.
I laughed. “Yeah, sometimes. But I’m not going for that.”
“You can always mix business with pleasure. That’s what I did and look where it got me.”
I shook my head, still grinning. Caden was full of shit. His ‘business’ had been trying to trick a lawyer into thinking he was engaged to Harper when they were no more than friends at the time. They had fallen in love in the process. I wasn’t up for that.
“Love isn’t exactly my thing,” I said.
Caden shrugged. “Never say never.”
“I’m not saying never. Maybe, one day. But not any time soon. I’m happy with my life.”
Caden pulled up his shoulders before he walked off to visit with his wedding guests. I stayed where I was, watching everyone. My mind still spinning with everything I could do with so much money. I pulled out my phone again and logged onto my banking app. Just to be sure the money was still in there, that it was all real. So many zeroes made me dizzy. There was so much I could with money like that. A new bike, camping trips, a bigger house. It would be good to invest some of it, too. And Caden wasn’t wrong about the IRS.
Luckily, I had time to think about what I was going to do with the money. Time was something I had more than ever now.
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