Best Man

Best Man…?

(The Marina #1)

Heather Mar-Gerrison

Smashwords Edition

Heather Mar-Gerrison Copyright 2019

Revised Edition 2022

Fabulous front cover courtesy of:

Shutterstock Designs

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work.

Prologue

Houston

Kem burst into the Marina coffee shop and looked around, a slightly wild look in his eyes. As his eyes met with mine, a huge grin broke out over his face, sending my stupid heart into overdrive before he made his way over to where I was stood behind the counter.

Fashionably late, as usual. I said with a smile, tapping my watch playfully while trying to calm my beating heart at the sight of him. He’d had this effect on me since I was about thirteen, when my hormones kicked in and I realised with a bit of a shock that I was in love with my best friend. Of course, he knew nothing about my wayward feelings and there was no way I could voice them. That would be mortifying – as well as asking to be kicked out of the house...

I allowed my gaze to roam over him as he discarded his jacket. It was the only chance I had before he noticed that I was ogling him. My God, he looked extraordinarily handsome today with his hair looking all sexily windswept from the rain and wind outside. It had been hot and humid all week long and finally the weather had broken, bringing refreshingly cooler air with it – but it had rained all damned day and the thunder had rumbled around constantly. It made me wonder what my hair looked like. I’d been out on the boats all afternoon, giving tours to the die-hard holidaymakers who’d come on holiday and weren’t going to let a bit of rain and wind bother them, before I was hoodwinked into taking the last shift at the coffee shop by my younger brother, by only a year, Austin, who was desperate to go and see his girlfriend. Hell. I hadn’t even looked in a mirror today. I ran my hand through my hair self-consciously.

He nodded, Yeah I know. I’m really sorry about that, Houston, he said a little breathlessly, I got held up unexpectedly – but you don’t look exactly ready for me, either?

I smiled apologetically. Fuck; he had noticed my hair, then… Well, no – but you know how it is around here. I rolled my eyes, "Austin just had to see Amy." I shrugged, But is everything okay with you?" I asked, frowning slightly as I took in his perplexed expression.

He shook his head and then looked me in the eye, taking my breath away, as he so often did. His eyes were just unbelievable and they’d always had the same effect on me. Total mesmerisation… They were so dark brown, they often appeared to be black and they were the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen in my life, with really long black eyelashes, just to make him even more adorable.

He sighed and shook his head, Not wrong – just a little surprising. It’s Ando – my mate from uni? I nodded. Of course, I knew who he was talking about. Ando was kind of cool even if he was a total cockslut. "He’s getting married. Can you believe that?"

I was just taking a mouthful of coffee since there was no one else in the café for those few precious moments, and I almost choked. Ando was probably the last person I would have ever expected to get married – and while he was still at uni was practically unheard of.

He’d been a bit of a man-eater when we first met him – well, it was actually Kem who met him – at uni in his Physics class and started bringing him home every time he visited, making me feel slightly nervous in the process until I realised that he was actually no threat to me whatsoever and that he was actually ‘Team Houston’ when it came to looking for a prospective partner for his best friend.

Swallowing as quickly as I could and burning my throat in the process, I ended up choking anyway. Kem thumped me on the back heartily. He chuckled. Hey – are you alright? I didn’t mean to make you half-choke to death with the news!

I smiled weakly, Fine. I rasped, nodding my head vigorously.

Since Kem had gotten home for the summer, he and I had taken to meeting up every week, usually on a Thursday, since it worked better for the both of us, for a coffee and a catch-up and I would usually be waiting for him in our favourite spot of my family’s cosy coffee house but not today…

Kem, however, being the most wonderful human being on the planet, took it all in his stride, joining me behind the counter and charming all of the customers in a far more effective way than I ever could.

During our college days, and school before that, we’d generally spent every waking moment together at the marina. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time at his parents place and I totally got the feeling his mother was one of those people that looked down her nose at us for making it out of the slums to being really kind of loaded. My parents never bragged about their money and they totally kept themselves to themselves but a couple of the people on the council, who hadn’t wanted Dad to buy the additional land that came up for sale next to the marina (probably so they could build themselves a new golf and country club or something equally as snobbish) liked to make unkind comments about new money and us not having the class to go with it.

Kem’s mother rubbed shoulders with those people and I swear she would have liked to check my pockets before I left their house when we were first friends. She’d grown used to me over the years, because, hell, I wasn’t going anywhere and she’d realised that we really weren’t the scumbags we were made out to be…

Kem’s dad on the other hand, loved me. I guess that was down to the fact that I was really handy with building and fixing stuff and he and I re-covered his shed roof one afternoon when I’d gone around on the pretence that we were going to do homework. Funny thing was, I’d gone to Kem’s to get out of fixing up one of the boats…

Once Kem went to university, we obviously had to spend less time together and other things got in the way of us spending time together when he was home, too – that main ‘thing’ was called Daniel, who he met at uni. Daniel was everything that I wasn’t and it sickened me to think that Kem’s parents would accept Kem dating him because he was from the ‘right’ sort of family. I didn’t know this, of course, but it was totally what I imagined.

Seemingly oblivious (to begin with, at least) to the fact that his best friend and boyfriend hated each other’s guts, Kem dated Daniel almost all the way through his second year and I was convinced he was going to marry Daniel and I would never see him again. Thankfully, that never happened but we’ll come to that later…

Conversation was temporarily halted as we worked through the queue of pensioners, all of whom were desperate to get their last coffee before they headed home and we were rushed off our feet for the last hour of the day.

Finally, the last of the evening’s latecomers had left and I shot the bolt on the door and turned the ‘CLOSED’ sign around.

Phew. I said with a grin, "Time for me to make us a drink, I think."

Kem smiled back at me, Yeah, that was busy! he agreed as I made two cappuccinos and then headed across the room to our favourite spot.

So, Ando? I wondered aloud as I followed him over, The serial man-shagger finally met his match, huh?

Kem grinned and shrugged as he sat himself down. I guess he did. He murmured, "Who knew that Saul would be the one to tame the beast in him – and that it would only take them a few months to realise each other was the one?"

Wow, I murmured, even though I totally understood how easy it was to work out who was the one for me. Obviously, it was and had always been, Kem…

To be fair, it was a bit surprising. Until he met Saul, Ando really had liked to sow his wild oats and my younger brother, San Antonio had even been treated to a little Ando-action at one of my other brother’s, Austin’s engagement party. Something San Antonio said he would never forget… Whatever that meant. I never asked but he said it with a dreamy look on his face, so I’m guessing it was in a good way.

I’m guessing your wondering why we’ve all got such weird names. Let’s just get that out of the way right now – and we need never talk about it again. Dad’s from Texas and even though he never planned on going back, he was incredibly attached to the place and he thought it would be a good idea to name his boys after Texan cities… No, really. Mum put her foot down over the girls but he still managed to talk her into American states. Whatever…

I’m Houston, I’m the second eldest in the family. My older brother by six years is the eldest. His name’s Dallas and he left home a long time ago. He was always a bit of a wild-child and came out to the folks one evening after meeting the man of his dreams that he’d apparently been sleeping with for the last year and a half.

I have no idea what happened to the guy who he fell in love with because as soon as he came out, he was forced right back into the closet by my very angry and rather horrified parents.

I’m sure there was a whole load of drama that wasn’t spoken about, but Dallas toed the line for a while, dating girls and for all intents and purposes, living a ‘straight’ life.

That came to a sticky end when he got his very trashy girlfriend, of about five minutes, pregnant and they left hand-in-hand with all of their worldly goods stuffed into his gym bag and disappeared from our lives never to be seen again – well, not for a while, anyway...

As it turned out, they’d gone to live in Newquay, in a caravan on a holiday park until they could afford a small, one-bedroomed flat to rent and the last we heard, Dallas and Fallon had broken up. She’d left him with the baby – a boy called Starr, whilst she’d gone to live in the south of France with her new lover – a non-binary person called Wren.

Dallas had never returned home but he called every now and then to catch up with the olds.

Georgia came three years after Dallas and then I arrived another two years after that. Georgia is now married with three children, Indiana, Dakota and Texas. Yeah. She’s a total creep, keeping to the family tradition that Dad set. He was totally stoked and he and Mum totally dote on her kids, since they can’t dote on Dallas’s being at the other end of the country.

After me there’s Austin. There’s only a year between us and I guess we’re the closest siblings after San Antonio and Virginia – the twins.

El Paso was born a year after the twins, and then finally, Fort Worth made an appearance five years later. We all knew he was a mistake but he’s the best mistake they ever made. Fort Worth was the most adorable little kid you’d ever have the pleasure to meet. Anyway, I digress – let’s get back to Ando…

Ando would basically sleep with any guy that gave him the time of day – assuming the guy was up for it too, that was – and I can only assume that San Antonio had been desperate to lose his virginity when they met – and clearly found Ando irresistible...

I could never see the attraction in sleeping with everything that moved, myself but to be fair, I guess that was largely to do with the fact that I’d only ever had eyes for Kem and being apart while he was at uni and I was working my ass off building my boat and running the marina with my brothers, our time away from each other hadn’t changed that.

Kem nodded, Uh-huh. He agreed, He really is a nice guy but getting married while they’re still at uni is madness! He gave me a desperate look, And even worse than that – Ando’s only gone and asked me to be his best man. He pulled a face and let out a heartfelt groan as he toed off his shoes and made himself comfortable next to me.

My heartbeat took off again at his nearness. Well, there was nothing new there – it always did. I glanced across at him as he settled down into the seat. The long-sleeved tee shirt he was wearing today clung to him like a second skin and I had the mad urge to slide my fingers underneath it and over those fabulous pecs of his, teasing his nipples into hard little buds. I looked away and tried to get my breathing under control. This always happened when we were in close proximity to each other. I couldn’t stop myself from fantasising about having sex with him. Still, at least I’d learned over the years to wear long shirts or over-sized hoodies that hid my perpetual boner in his presence.

We usually always sat in the same place for our coffees if we could – and now that the shop was closed, our favourite seats were, of course, free.

I really loved the almost-worn-out leather sofa by the window. I liked sitting and watching the world go by – but what I liked even more was that the seats were so well-worn and battered that we kind of got pushed together and I loved it when his leg leaned against mine…

Kem shot me a desperate look, making me chuckle at his lack of enthusiasm for being his best mate’s best man. Ando had totally adored Kem (well, didn’t we all?) from the moment they met and had always said if he ever settled down with the one, that Kem would defo be his best man... Guess he’d finally found the one.

I smiled, But it’s really nice that he wants you as his best man. It shows how much you mean to him. I started, nudging his shoulder with mine.

He nodded, still looking crestfallen, Yeah, I know that… he trailed off.

But? I prompted.

He smiled sheepishly, but honestly, their relationship is so new that I’ve not really had a chance to get to know Saul and I haven’t got the first idea of what to say about them as a couple.

I nodded to acknowledge that I got it. It was always a bit awkward when you didn’t know the person and they always gave you funny looks for mentioning something they weren’t a part of.

"Not that he’s the real issue... He let out a massive sigh and ran his hand through his hair, it’s so much worse than that. Saul’s cousin, and best man for him, is only Daniel-the-fucking-Spaniel."

My heart faltered, hell it almost stopped. Kem’s ex from hell? Daniel? Oh, holy crap, no! "How did you find that