Chasing Aubrey Read Free Page A

went by in a blur. Marcie looked gorgeous in her simple summer wedding dress. Her hair was full of flowers and curls and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that she’d been getting ready all day. Bryce was a nervous wreck the entire time. Throughout their vows he kept having to take a moment to gather his composure and push back his tears. I’d never seen him so overwhelmed with emotion. It was a little disorienting to me, though I knew it was all good things.
    They wrote their own vows, and Marcie was able —for the most part— to keep Bryce from totally losing it. Hope was surprisingly well-behaved in Clara’s lap and I have to admit that even I got a little misty-eyed when they finally kissed. It was strange; Bryce and I had been friends since we were kids and here he was with a wife and a baby. Part of me wondered what it would be like.
    I wasn’t the marrying type though. I was more of a one-night-stand-I-don’t-even-know-her-name kind of guy. Maybe part of that was my upbringing or lack thereof. My father didn’t even know I existed and when I was twelve, my mother decided she’d had enough of my bullshit and she ran off with some guy she was dating.
    That left me out on my own on the cold gritty streets of Boston. I quickly learned that the only kids that survived were those that could out-run or out-fight any problems they came up against. I’m not proud of some of the things I had to do to survive; stealing, lying and talking my way out of the trouble I found myself in, became a way of life. When I’d finally decided I’d had enough of Boston, I hitch-hiked my way across the country.
    I wouldn’t advise that route to anyone, especially not a lonely fourteen year-old boy that didn’t know just how terrible people can be. I blocked out most of the things that I had to do to make my way to California, but I arrived relatively unscathed a few months later.
    That’s when I first met Bryce. He was a little younger than me and way more naive than I’d ever been, but there was something about him. He was determined, focused, and fiercely loyal as a friend. We made a pact to always look out for each other, to always be there and even to this day, we’d always had one another. Without him, I would probably be dead or in jail. If it wasn’t for Bryce being a voice of reason when I got myself into one scuffle or another, my life would be in an entirely different place.
    If someone had told me when I met that scrawny lost kid on the streets that one day he would be my best friend, I probably would have laughed. If they told me that he would grow up to be a billionaire, I definitely would have laughed. Now, here I was, getting ready to give my toast at his wedding; I was the Godfather to his daughter and had my own luxury loft in the city. It’s not at all how I would have expected my life to turn out, but everything seemed perfect.
    I knew that once things settled down, Marcie, Bryce and Hope would carry on with their lives separate from me. I would still be there, but I didn’t really belong. My best friend was moving on and that was something that I would have to come to terms with. While I longed for a family, no one ever held my interest long enough for me to think of anything past one night. I planned to live vicariously through Bryce for as long as possible.
    The reception area was set up in the vineyard; curling vines and plump grapes nearly ready for harvest were lined up in neat little rows. Interspersed amongst the rows were tables for the guests and the whole area was decorated with fairy lights and tulips: Marcie’s favorite.
    It was simple, elegant and completely fitting for the couple. Despite his wealth, Bryce was anything but ostentatious. He always worried that he would have trouble finding someone that would love him and not his money. And Marcie just fell into his lap. It was one of those things that you’d never believe if it hadn’t happened to someone you knew.
    The time