Money For Something

13 - All Apologies

**Ace**

"Oi! Tosser! Get your grimy paws off my wife," I snarled at Josh. An unexpected rush of jealousy washed over me at the sight of my best friend wrapping his arms around Willow.

Willow's eyes were so wide that I could see the white completely surrounding her irises. Not waiting for him to take the time to unhand my missus, I slid my arm back around her waist and tugged her back toward me. Josh, the giant wanker grinned at me, grabbed me in a headlock, and twisted me under his arm until I was forced to release my hold on Willow.

"Just welcoming her to the family mate." His beaming smile held an edge.

"Well maybe make that welcome a bit more hands off mate." I squirmed around trying to get free. I wasn't quite ready yet to elbow him in the nads to make him let go, but I was getting close.

"Well, mate, maybe you should have invited me to your wedding and then I wouldn't have needed to grab her to make sure that she's real." There was a real bite in his tone. He'd had some time to think since his initial apology to me for not coming to Vegas. The guilt he'd felt, for not catching my non-existent hints to come and act as my best man, was well and truly gone.

I hooked him behind one knee, tumbling us both to the ground. The elbow that caught me in the ribs as we fell might have been an accident, although it was no accident when my elbow jabbed him in the stomach. We lay side by side, winded and gasping, staring silently up at the ceiling with its elaborate round pendant lights hanging over each sofa grouping.

The lights made me think of my bass drums, something I felt like pounding, if only to stop me pummelling my best mate. My guilt wouldn't let me hit him, even if he was a thick-headed gullible idiot. Although I had planned to deceive my friends, I hadn't honestly thought that Josh, my best friend, would truly believe that I had been secretly seeing Willow and that we'd sloped off to get married.

Did he really believe that I cared so little for our friendship?

I turned my head to look at him. When our eyes met, I saw that I really had hurt him. He did believe I didn't care enough about our friendship to tell him I was getting married.

Willow was right, I hadn't considered how our lie would make my friends feel. If I'd actually sat down and planned a wedding, there was no way it would have happened without Josh at my side. The implication that I didn't care about our friendship the same way he did upset him. I'd have a lot of grovelling to do. The idea I'd hurt my best mate's feelings stung. If it wasn't for Willow's wedding dress in those bloody photos, I might have looked thoughtless but not cruel.

"I'm sorry mate. I should have told you, but we didn't even tell Willow's family."

"Thanks. You do realise that Eileen is going to give you a belting when she sees you next," Josh said with the ghost of a smile.

I snorted because the idea was ludicrous. "My mother would never hurt her baby boy, I'm the apple of her eye."

His shoulders hitched in a shrug. "I'm just repeating what the twins told me when I spoke to them."

A toe nudged me in the ribs, and I looked up to see Gray staring down at me. "He's right, Sarah-Jane told me that Dani's steaming and your mother wants to know where she went wrong, how she could have alienated her only son so much he doesn't even invite her to his wedding."

That was the problem with childhood friends, they knew your family too well.

They also knew exactly where to twist the knife for maximum damage. The thing was, I didn't need them to remind me just how much my hasty wedding to Willow would have upset my family, and more particularly my mother. It hadn't been lost on me that the last conversation I'd had with Mum, prior to this mess, was the one where I'd told her I was at a loose end. Suddenly my plan to appear less reckless didn't seem so well thought out. Hopefully, impulsive in love trumped recklessly drunk in her eyes.