“Kevin, that’s ridiculous!” Brian retorted angrily, the heat rising in his forehead.

“Is it, Brian?”

“Yes!” he hissed. “I’m married!”

“Well, so am I, but that didn’t keep my wife from cheating on me!” Kevin ran both hands through his hair and groaned in frustration, pacing back and forth in the small bathroom.

Brian drew in a sharp breath of air and dropped his hands to his sides. “Oh, God...Kevin...I- I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” He pulled a tentative hand up to Kevin’s shoulder and placed it gingerly on the black tuxedo.

Kevin gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut. “I didn’t intend for anybody to know,” he whispered. “She said it was just sex, and that it was just one time.” He opened his eyes and flinched at the tears he saw pooling in his cousin’s blue orbs. “Yet, she’s still not sure she wants to be with me.”

“Did she...” Brian gulped. “Say who it was?”

Kevin shook his head solemnly. “I have a pretty good idea, though, and it’s ahem... a pretty big kick in the balls, if you get what I’m saying.”

Brian furrowed his brows and bit the inside of his cheek in concentration. “Famous?”

“Yes.”

“How famous?”

“A-list actor.”

“Oh.” The “kick in the balls” analogy suddenly rang loud and clear. “Older?” Again, Kevin shook his head. “So, younger?” The older man nodded. “How young?”

“Nick’s age, I think? Maybe a little younger? She acted with him in a movie a few years ago, and they still keep in touch occasionally. I could be totally wrong here, but it just....fits.” Kevin walked out of the bathroom and sank down onto Brian and Leighanne’s bed, resting his forehead in the palms of his hands. “Despite everything, I still love her. God, I love her. Even if Mason weren’t in the picture, I’d still love her. If she could do this to me, who’s to say you couldn’t do it to Leighanne?” He lifted his head up and cast a watery gaze in his cousin’s direction.

Brian sighed and sat down on the bedspread beside him. “This is me we’re talking about here, Kevin,” he said earnestly.

Kevin nodded. “And this is also Kris we’re talking about. She’s been the love of my life for the past twenty years. I don’t know who to trust anymore. It seems to me that Annie’s more to you than a friend, and that you seem to care a little too much about the fact that Nick’s interested in her.”

Brian groaned and stood up, rubbing his hands up and down his face in annoyance. He walked over to the closed bedroom door and peered out into the living area to make sure that Leighanne hadn’t snuck back in from getting ready with Annie and Leigh before he started talking. “I love my wife, Kevin. You and I both know that she’s not easy to live with sometimes, but isn’t that what marriage is supposed to be about? Loving someone unconditionally?” Kevin nodded sadly. “Sure, if I was single, Annie would definitely be on my radar romantically, but I’m not single, and I love my wife. This isn’t about me being interested in Annie. I’m not. Not like that, anyway. It’s just....it’s complicated.”
His cousin cast glanced down at his watch and back up at him. “Prom doesn’t start for another hour, and you know those other three won’t be ready by then, anyway. Start

talking.”

“Annie’s.....Annie’s special, Kevin.”

“So, I’ve noticed.”

“And Nick’s.....Nick.”

“Yeah.....”

“I just think it would really complicate matters for Annie and me.”

“Annie and you?” Kevin crossed his arms over his chest and rose from his seated position

to tower over Brian intimidatingly. “Why is there an ‘Annie and you’?” he demanded.

Brian shrank away from him slowly. “I already told you, Kevin. It’s not like that.”

“So, enlighten me.”

“Annie is more than a friend, Kevin, she’s my--my-”

“Your what?!!” the older man bellowed.

“She’s my artist, Kevin.”

“Your artist.” He said it as a statement rather than a question.

“Yes. My artist. Annie’s signed a contract with Altar Records a couple weeks ago, and she’s set to start recording at the beginning of the year. I’m going to manage her.”

“You’re going to manage her,” Kevin said flatly.

“Yes!” Brian stood on his tiptoes in an effort to stand up to his cousin, but it was just as if they were kids again. He stumbled and Kevin grabbed him by the scruff of his neck to keep him from falling face first into the colorful cruise ship carpet.

“You’re afraid that if Nick and Annie got together and it didn’t work out, then it would strain the working relationship between you and Annie. Am I right?”

“Exactly.”

Kevin nodded in understanding. “I get it. I do. But I have to wonder why it is that you think it won’t work out between the two of them.”

Brian groaned in frustration. “Kevin, you’ve met her. Annie’s not like other women.”

“So I’ve heard.”  Kevin put his hands on Brian’s shoulders and held him at arm’s length. “Like I said before, Brian, I get it.  You think Nick’s going to hurt her, right?”

“Right.”

“I think you forget how much Nick’s grown, Brian. If this were five or ten years ago, I’d be right with you on this, but he’s different now. He’s.....better.”

“I know, Kev, but you see, Annie was raised a lot like us.”

“I figured as much,” he answered with a noncommittal shrug.

“Yeah.” Brian nodded affirmatively. “The difference is that while we were getting laid in the backs of our pickup trucks on Saturday night and still showing up for Sunday school the next morning, Annie was the type of girl who was telling guys like us ‘no’.”

“Okay. So?”

“So Nick’s not used to women telling him ‘no’.”

Kevin grinned and gave Brian’s shoulders a reassuring squeeze. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe that’s exactly the type of woman Nick needs?”