“I’m not.” She took another long drag. “But I think their dad is going to make them give a speech, so I’m not sure if you wanted to hear that or not?” She finished her cigarette quickly, grinding it out.

“You know me so well.”

Heather laughed, and as we went back inside, Channing stood in the opened doorway to the ballroom. He’d been waiting for us.

“Mason just took the microphone,” he said. “James made a point of saying they had to do a speech together. He won’t allow Logan to do his own.”

Heather moved to stand next to him. “Smart.”

Mason stood on the platform behind the bridal party’s table and laughed into the mic. Logan was right next to him.

“I have to admit, I’m shocked our dad’s asked us to do a speech.” A polite smattering of laughter came from the room, but Mason ignored them. His dad had turned to see him. “You sure about this?” Mason asked.

“Logan promised to be nice.”

Mason brought the mic closer to his mouth, his voice even louder. “But I didn’t.”

The laughter doubled from the tables, but there was a tension in the air, too.

I held my breath.

Mason seemed to be considering something, then his eyes found me in the back, and a resolve settled in.

I let out that breath. I reached for the doorframe and held on.

“Okay. You asked for it, Dad.”

I didn’t look at anyone else. No one else existed at that moment.

“I know we’re all here for these two, since they’re now wedded, and hopefully wedded in bliss. But we’ll all wait and see on that, won’t we?”

There was another polite round of chuckles, but it was like the rest of them were cluing in. This might not go as most toasts do.

“I know I’m supposed to stand up here and say a bunch of nice things.” Mason’s voice grew serious; there was no forced lightness now. The room grew quiet. “But I can’t do that. I can say a bunch of things about what I hope for their future. I hope they continue to be happy. I hope they’ll remain faithful to each other. I hope Analise won’t start drinking because even though that’s not what her problem was, I know it might’ve helped. I hope she won’t do anything to tear this family apart. I hope one day Logan and I will enjoy coming to the house again, the place we grew up. I hope our father will one day apologize to our mother for the endless stream of mistresses. I hope Logan will have a relationship with his father, because he didn’t growing up. I hope Samantha won’t fear her mother one day. I hope you both will be welcomed at my wedding one day.” He looked at me then. “I hope you’ll both be doting grandparents to my future children, and I hope I’ll let you see them, and maybe even have unsupervised sleepovers. I hope for a lot of things.”

His gaze swept out over the quiet crowd. Some of the women had their hands over their mouths. Some of the men were glowering. But others weren’t reacting at all. Those were the ones who knew the real Analise and James, and a few of them looked at Mason and Logan with sympathy.

A hand grasped mine, and I looked over to see Heather giving me a reassuring smile. I realized I’d been crying. I used my other hand to wipe my tears away.

Mason’s voice gentled as he held my gaze. “I know this wasn’t the nicest speech, but I’m not one to be fake. My dad knows that, so he must’ve been expecting something like this. I can say a few good things. I can say that I used to hate my dad, and I don’t any longer.” He tore his eyes away to look at his father. “I don’t have as much anger at you as I did, so maybe you wanted to hear that?” Then he looked at my mother. “And Analise…” I heard a woman suck in her breath at the nearest table. “I can thank you for giving Sam space, but I want you to let her go.”

A ripple of murmuring rose from the room.

A couple looked at each other near me, and I heard the woman say, “How can he ask that?”

Someone else said, “Fuck this.” A chair pushed backward.

Mason ignored everyone. “The matching dress, the necklace. You’ve backed off, but she can still feel the hold from you. Let her go. Once and for all, just let her go.”

Logan cleared his throat, reaching for the microphone. Mason let it go without a fight, but he continued to hold my mother’s gaze steadily.

“Uh.” Logan laughed, moving a few feet away from his brother. He took the spotlight with him. “Thank you for that…very transparent speech, Mason.”

More people began to talk, but Logan spoke over them, raising his voice. “Yeah. So. I’m usually the one who delivers the bomb. I don’t think I can compete with my brother, and by the way…” He waited until Mason looked at him, “You should’ve dropped the mic. I don’t know if you’ll get a more perfect moment than after that speech.”

Mason shrugged.

Logan laughed again. “I guess here’s my turn. Everything Mason said was true. If you guys didn’t know, there’s not a good history between us and our dad. And the other thing he said was true, too. When Analise was walking down the aisle, Dad made me promise to be nice, so this is a little different for me. Mason’s the quiet fighter, and I’m the talker, and I don’t usually equate nice with Analise—”

“Logan.”

He lifted a hand toward his dad. “Hold on, Dad. But I’m going to do that tonight.” He gestured to me in the back. “And if you all didn’t know this either, Mason and I are protective of Sam back there, who is Analise’s daughter. So…” His eyebrows pinched together, and he turned to regard Analise. He held the mic up to his mouth so we could hear his soft breathing. “My speech is going to suck because I can only think of a couple nice things to say. One, thank you, Analise, for giving birth to my new stepsister. Not only is she my first stepsister, she’s my first sister at all.” He did a half-bow, which caused some laughter from the room.

“Thank you for that. Two, uh…” He raked a hand through his hair. “You got my dad to stop sleeping around. I give you two thumbs up for that.” And he actually did, flashing her a grin at the same time.

More laughter sounded from the tables, along with an air of relief.

“I have one more I just thought of; it goes along with my dad’s newfound fidelity.” He suddenly grew serious. “For what it’s worth, I do think my dad loves you. And through that, he’s shown me a different side of himself, one that I respect.”

He turned to his dad. “Kind of. I kind of respect you. I’m starting to respect you. Wait. No. Yeah. I do, somewhat. You’re halfway there, Dad. I almost completely respect you. Not really. You’re like an eighth of the way there. Maybe a tiny bit more than an eighth, but you know what I mean. It’s more than before.” He grinned and held his hand up, leaning down toward James. “High five to that.”

James didn’t move to slap his hand, and Logan looked at it. “You’re leaving me hanging? I kept it nice about Analise.”

One of the ushers took that opportunity to get the mic from Logan. “Okay. Thank you…both.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and he glanced over to a stage where the deejay was setting up. “I believe we’re ready for our slideshow, and then the dancing will be starting soon. Drinks are on the house, so everyone drink up!” He turned around, but Mason and Logan were still standing there. The mic was down by his side, but it still caught him saying, “Get off the platform. You two are horrible sons.”

Logan didn’t move, so Mason began to move him to the edge. Logan twisted back around. “Dad, you did ask us to do speeches. What were you thinking?”

“I thought you’d have the decency to be polite.”

“Logan, come on.” Mason kept moving.

Logan stepped back, and as Mason hopped down and moved my way, Logan spoke again. “Hey. At least I’m calling you Dad again. Mase, too. That’s a big step for us.”

Mason was almost to me, but more movement on the platform caught my eye.

Analise had stood, and she moved in front of Logan, folding her arms over her chest. Everyone quieted, and I heard her say, “You protect Samantha from me. This is my turn to protect my husband from you. Please leave, Logan.” She glanced to me. “All of you.”