The Luckiest by Mila McWarren Read Free Book Online Page A

plates.
    Stephanie comes back as the rest of them are draining the last of a bottle of wine, a maniacally gleeful expression on her face and a remote control in her hand. “You guys are not going to believe the video Daddy helped me put together. High school highlights in five minutes!” she chirps as she waves the remote. Despite groans and mutterings, everybody pushes their chairs away, eager to get on with the mockery.
    Aaron is laughing at Jasmine’s muttered, “That girl—we’re going to need to slip Valium into her drinks in a day or two, too,” when Nik slides back into his space and stops Aaron with a hand on his arm and a low whisper. “Stay behind—I need to talk to you.”
    Aaron’s belly flips. He winks at Jasmine and tells her he’ll be along in a minute, shaking his head at her cocked eyebrow. Once everyone has filed out of the room, Nik goes to the corner where his bag sits against his guitar case.
    “Listen, this has to be quick, but—David had me put together an arrange­ment of some­thing he wants a bunch of us to do at the wedding as a surprise for Alex.” Nik pulls out a folder filled with sheet music, flips through it and finally hands a sheet to Aaron. “There’s a solo part in it for you, if you’re interested. Do you still sing? I mean, for real?”
    Across the top of the page in Nik’s scrawl is his name, which brings back memories—so many notes, old love letters—and Aaron skims the rest. Nik’s right—there are a lot of parts here that he’s well suited for, but the song… “Oh my God, I’m going to have to make sure both her mascara and her eyeliner are Oscar-grade waterproof.”
    Nik just grins. “Yeah, should be a showstopper.”
    Aaron glances up with a smile to see the look on Nik’s face—a bit awkward, thanks—and finishes skimming his copy of the full arrangement. “It’s a big arrangement. Who all’s doing this?”
    “A mix of people—a bunch of my high school friends, although Tu is sitting it out because he never did any of the music stuff, and he really wants to get good pictures—he’s going out tomorrow to get another tripod because he wants to get several angles of film on it. But, yeah, everybody David invited from that group has already been looped in, plus a few people from their a cappella thing in College Station that he thinks can really do it justice—he says some of their guys will join you on the tenor, but some of the parts can be only you, if you want.”
    Aaron frowns at him. “I don’t sing, Nik. Not really. I haven’t been in a chorus since middle school—I’m not you guys. You know that.”
    “No, I know, but you know you have a good voice. And Alex would love to see you up there with us—that’s why David thought you should have some solo parts.”
    “I thought you did the arrangement.”
    Nik smiles at his feet. “Well, you know I’ve always liked your voice.” Aaron remembers: silly, giddy nights singing along with George Jones and his mom while they washed the dishes, Nik grinning and kissing him when Aaron sang about how lucky he always got with Nik. “You always will—so, so lucky,” Nik had whispered, hot against his ear, while his mother had pretended not to notice. It’s a good memory, and it leaves Aaron unable to fight the little bubble of joy that pops up; he knows that joy is written across his face.
    “Come on, man, say you’ll do it. It’ll be awesome.”
    It will be spectacular, as long as… “You think we can have it all ready in time?”
    Nik’s grin doubles in size, and Aaron’s grows to match. “I do—everybody’s freaking out to make it happen, and we’ve already had Skype practices to get started. They’re all coming in for the party on Thursday, and then on Friday we’ll sneak away to do a last-minute rehearsal on the mainland. Just tell Alex you have to help us with clothes or something. Jasmine knows—she’s been helping a ton with some of the chorus guys so David doesn’t