"You know you want to do this, man, you've got too much invested to bail out now."

Funny, I thought I'd be the one giving the pep talks today. Instead, I've been listening to Brent all morning telling me I need to clear things up with Kim.

Brent checks his tie in the mirror, giving me a cheesy wink in the glass and then straightens his cuffs, making sure the cuff links are properly secured.

"What do you think?" He stands at an angle to the mirror and does some sort of James Bond pose as he waits for my approval.

"I think I don't know what Kay sees in a nerd like you," I tell him.

My buddy is looking good on his wedding day. Brent's all jokes and easy attitude today. Nothing like he was after the rehearsal yesterday.

"She is a lucky girl, isn't she?" He asks his reflection as he messes with his tie again. "So you gonna go get your girl back or you gonna just sit around and bitch about how bad you fucked up letting her walk out on you?"

I groan. He's been on my case since he found out we broke up, giving me crap about what a moron I am.

"How come you're in such a good mood today?" I ask, "Last night I thought we'd be in Mexico by this time today."

I get up and shove him away from the mirror, checking my tux and doing my best to give the groom a little competition.

"I'm marrying the woman I love, man," he tells me.

Brent's hand comes down hard on my shoulder and we both stare into the mirror.

"Dude, this wedding shit? This is over after today. So things got crazy there for awhile, big deal. Now I know exactly how Kay's gonna act when she's stressed out. I know how we're gonna work shit out when things are rough."

Great, he's getting sentimental.

It's his wedding day-- I guess I'll cut him some slack.

"I don't give a shit about this party we're throwin' man," Brent steps away from the mirror for a minute to slip his tux jacket on and then goes through the whole process of primping and straightening things again.

"You know what I'm saying? At the end of it all, the prize is Kay," he tells me. "That's what it's about, man. About being married to a woman that I can't get enough of, knowing that's the way I'm always gonna feel about her."

"Yeah but you knew Kay was the one the first time you met her," I point out. "You guys got lucky."

Brent laughs, "Dude, you weren't there for the very beginning, we had a few hiccups at the start."

This is news to me, my impression was that they'd hit it off right away.

"Oh well yeah, I mean, look at her! Kay looks like a fucking lingerie model for fucks sake," he tells me as we make our last search of the room for anything we may have missed. "That was one of the problems, actually. I mean, getting matched up with someone that out of your league will really dredge up the insecurities.

"But that's what it was, my own damn insecurities. Thinking I wasn't good enough for her and thinking she was going to figure that out."

Brent watches me pat my pocket. I give him a thumbs up when I feel the rings and he keeps on talking as we leave the room and start toward the elevator.

"You did the match maker thing like we did," he says. "That's a crazy way to meet the person you're going to marry, ain't it?"

I nod as the carriage starts it's journey down to the ground floor.

"Long story short, Bro," Brent turns to face me in the lobby before we turn to head toward the ballroom where there wedding is being held, "I almost fucked up the best thing that ever happened to me, and if Kay had let me get away with it, you wouldn't be here right now."

A flash of bright red catches us both out of the corner of our eyes and we both turn just as Kim hurries down the hall toward the bathrooms, the heels of her satin shoes clicking on the tile.

"And neither would she," Brent says in a hushed and serious tone, "that shit is fate right there, man, so go get your woman back before you spend my whole damn reception crying in your beer. Cuz I guarantee you none of Kay's other bridesmaids are gonna take pity on you."

Brent pushes me in the direction Kim went while he turns on his heel and heads off somewhere else.

"Hey! Speak of the devil!" My brother's voice booms across the hall, catching me off guard and bringing me to a dead stop as I see him pulling a girl by her hand toward me.

"This is my baby brother, Ryan," he introduces me to the familiar-looking woman. She smiles and holds out her hand as Jake mentions her name is Isabella.

"The guy who kept me from killing you." Isabella is all bright smile and dark brown eyes as I shake her hand.

For a second I'm confused and then it dawns on me, she's the girl from the bar. That night that the guys were filling my head up with a thousand reasons not to get married. The girl that I thought for sure Jake was going to end up brawling with.

"Err--" I'm confused at hell as I look from Isabella to my brother as Isabella snakes her arm around Jake's waist.

Jake's arm immediately wraps around the slim brunette's shoulders and pulls her close to his side. They look natural together, like they've been standing next to each other for years.

"Oh good!" Mom's voice comes to rest at my side and in a minute Dad joins us, holding a glass of water in one hand and dropping his other arm over Mom's shoulders in a pose that mirrors Jake and Isabella and triggers something inside me that twists hard.

"You met Izzy! Isn't she pretty?" Mom gushes over the girl under my brother's arm.

I give him a look that asks all the questions I can't seem to find the words for at the moment.

Jake laughs, "You don't remember me disappearing for an hour after you dragged me away from her?"

Shaking my head, I think back to that night at the bar. Brent wasn't anywhere near as excited about getting hitched then as he is today. I had my hands full with both of them that night. Now that I think about it, I do remember Jake wandering off for quite some time.

"I went back to the bar to grab another beer and Izzy started in on me again. We ended up taking it outside."

I watch Isabelle's olive skin blush a deep rose as her eyes dart toward my parents.

Mom's too busy chattering about the wedding. How excited she is that "our little Brent" finally found his princess and then she's back to fawning all over Isabella and I start to realize that Izzy might be more than just a girl that Jake ended up getting along with well enough to bring her to our buddy's wedding.

Jake gives Izzy's shoulders a squeeze and she looks up to meet him half way with a quick kiss before she returns her attention to our mom and Jake steps away and guides me a few paces down the hall.

"She's great, ain't she?" My brother asks when we're out of earshot.

The door to the women's bathroom opens and I see a blur of red as Kim rushes back to the room with the girls are getting ready.

I need to get to her, I need to talk to her before I have to stand up there staring at her while our best friends vow to love each other through thick and thin for the rest of their lives. If we don't get this worked out first, I think that'll kill me.

"Yeah man," I'm torn between running after Kim and hearing how Jake ended up dating a woman who was ready to hit him over the head with a beer bottle the first time they met. "I just don't get how you guys ended up together?"

"I told you man, it's all about how you work shit out. That's the trick to figuring out whether or not you can make things work long term."

"I take it Isabella's good at working shit out then?" I jab him in the ribs.

"Yeah," he chuckles. "That too, but no man. Iz is cool. Like, once we got to talking, it just fell into place. Like, we get each other. I think we've got a chance at making things work."

My eyebrows shoot up and I temporarily forget the time crunch I'm on, "You met this girl what? 3 weeks ago? You're talking like you're serious already."

Jake nods with a shy smile on his face, "You don't need a fancy marriage broker to know when you've found the right one."

Holy shit, my brother is talking about "the one?" I fight the urge to check the news app on my phone for any news about hell freezing over.

"What about you?" Jake's grin goes serious. "You and Kim back on yet?"

I jerk my head down the hall in the direction I saw her go with an impatient expression on my face.

Jake's hands fly up in surrender and he takes a step back, "Go!"

"You too," I look back at poor Izzy alone with our folks as they grill her on probably every detail of her personal history, "Rescue your girl before Mom scares her off."

Jake nods and heads back as I take off on a dead run.