Love Hurts Read Free Page A

her.
    Hazel shook her head and glared back.
    Cortland was the only one not bothering to defend his size. It didn’t seem like he cared about the conversation.
    Monnique glanced at him and spoke. “When a guy has the whole package, he doesn’t need to advertise it. It’s just known…”
    Cortland glanced at her but didn’t say anything.
    Monnique just put us all in our place.
    “Anyway,” Cassandra said. “Anything else?”
    “That’s about it,” Scarlet said. “We’ll need to get chairs and tables. Janice has all of that information in her wedding binder, and if we put the cake order in soon, we should be able to get it in time.”
    Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad I have you guys to help me out. This is already stressful enough.”
    “We got you,” Scarlet said.
    “Now we have to plan Mike’s bachelor party,” Sean said. He gave me a dark look. “What should we do…?”
    He better not say strip club.
    “Cigars and drinks at the Rainbow Room?” Sean said.
    That didn’t sound so bad.
    “And we’ll play poker at a hotel room,” Ryan added.
    “And we’ll hire private strippers,” Sean said.
    I glared at him. “No strippers.”
    “You just said no strip clubs,” Sean argued.
    Cassandra looked at him. “It’s okay, baby. I really don’t mind. It’s your only bachelor party and I want you to have a good time.”
    “No,” I said firmly. “Forget it. If you do it anyway, I’ll walk out. I’m not going to start my engagement by cheating on my fiancé.”
    “Looking doesn’t constitute as cheating,” Sean said.
    “It does to me,” I said. “I’m not going. I’m almost a dad. No.”
    “That’s fine,” Sean said. “I just wanted to make sure.”
    “I’m sure,” I said firmly.
    “I wouldn’t want to see strippers either,” Cortland said. “Not my thing.”
    “We know,” Ryan said sarcastically. “You’re Mr. Perfect.”
    “He is,” Monnique whispered.
    They were weird. They weren’t together, but they acted like they kind a were.
    “But I’m going to pass on the strippers too,” Ryan said. “I can barely handle Janice as it is.”
    “Well, that solves that problem,” Sean said. “I already live with the hottest woman in the world.”
    Scarlet smirked. “You think I’m hot?”
    “You want me to prove it right here on this table?” Sean threatened.
    “Please don’t,” I said.
    We discussed other aspects of the wedding and got the details together.  Cassandra didn’t seem so stressed out about it now that she had help. I was indifferent to the wedding. We could get married at City Hall and I’d be fine with that. As long as she was my wife, I didn’t care.
    Everyone left, but I asked Sean and Scarlet to stay behind. We said our goodbyes then sat back down at the table.
    “What’s up?” Sean asked. “We want to head home and hit the sack.”
    Scarlet moved to her own chair. “I’m going to sleep so good tonight.”
    I held Cassandra’s hand. “We want you to be our baby’s godparents. Will you?”
    Sean’s eyes widened. “What…? Us? We don’t even have our own kids yet. How do you know we’ll be good parents?”
    I gave him a hard look. “We both know you’d do a great job. We trust you.”
    Scarlet fanned her eyes because she was getting teary-eyed. “I don’t even know what to say…”
    “Say yes,” Cassandra said. “It would give us peace of mind to know you’d be there if something horrible happened to us.”
    I hated thinking about that, but I wanted to make sure my baby had a family who would love him like their own. “Just say yes.”
    “Of course, man. I’m moved you’re trusting me with this,” my brother said.
    “I trust you more than anyone,” I said.
    We stood up and hugged.
    Sean clapped my back. “I’ll do my best.”
    “And I know that will be enough.”
    Scarlet and Cassandra hugged a few feet away. Since they were distracted, I pulled Sean aside.
    “I have another favor.”
    “First, you