I pinch the spot between my brows and take a breath. “You know you’re way more than an employee. I’m sorry, Em. I’m just feeling so on edge.”
“I know, girl.” She wraps a comforting arm around my shoulder. “All the more reason you should tell your brother what a heartless, disgusting douchebag his bestie actually is.”
I offer her a faint smile. If only it was that easy. Because the truth is, Chase is a good guy, at least for the most part. He’s always been there for Brax. When the bank almost foreclosed on his repair shop, it was Chase who bailed him out. When my idiot older brother got stranded in Budapest with no money to get home, Chase didn’t just wire him some cash, he sent a private jet to bring Brax home. He even sent Brax a sympathy card when his dog, Huxley, died. He is a good guy, just not to me. I can’t believe that I wasted a second of my time on him. But we all make mistakes, it’s just that mine happened to be a huge one that broke my heart into a billion pieces. “I can’t do that. I can’t ruin their friendship, not to mention Brax and Eva’s wedding.”
“Looks like you’re gonna have to suck it up for the next four days then, girl. Brutal.” She shivers dramatically.
Who even has a wedding that lasts four damn days? Brax and Eva would have gotten married in the little church in town, but Eva’s mom insisted on a big white wedding at some fancy lodge hotel in Vermont for her only child. One that will be packed full of festivities that are gonna last for four freaking days! As the sister of the groom and chief, aka only, bridesmaid, I can’t even duck out of any of it. But I do have a plan.
“I made sure to get the cabin that’s farthest away from the main hotel lodge, which is where Chase will be staying. In public, we’ll be civil and polite, and then I’ll never have to see him again. It will be fine.” I’m impressed that I at least sound convincing.
Emma snorts a laugh. “Good luck with that.” Then she nudges me in the ribs, her eyes twinkling like she has an idea. “But you could hook up with one of the other groomsmen. That would really piss this Chase guy off, huh?”
I shake my head. “Not gonna work. Cole and Oliver are married, and Parker is gay. Anyway, I’m sure Chase wouldn’t notice. He’d barely bat an eye if I walked down the aisle beside him naked.”
Emma gives me a dramatic eye roll. “Even Parker would notice you naked, Adds. I’ve seen you in a bikini, remember? So maybe that’s what you focus on? You rock your bridesmaid dress, and every other outfit you wear this week, and show this Chase dude what he’s missing.”
Also not going to work. He knows exactly what he’s missing, and if he missed it at all, he’d have come back here at least once in the last eight years.
Chapter 4
Chase
# Never tell your best friend the real reason his sister hates your guts
Itip my Uber driver and grab my suitcase before heading into the hotel. I tried to call Brax and Eva after my flight landed but the cell signal here is awful. I’m hoping he’s had a rethink about the whole me staying with Addie thing, even though I know that’s as likely as snowfall in hell. He adores his kid sister, and he will absolutely not stand for her being heartbroken and alone in some cabin.
Nor will I.
Dammit!
I head into the hotel and straight for the bar. The place isn’t my usual taste, but it’s nice—rustic with its own certain kind of charm. The walls have been designed to appear like they’re made of logs and the faint scent of pine only adds to the log-cabin feel. Thick flannel tartan drapes hang in every window, and portraits of bears and wolves pepper the walls.
There are a few people here but none that I recognize, so I go order a bourbon and wait. The last text Brax sent me said he’d be here by four and it’s a little after that time now, so I’m sure I won’t be alone long.
“Well, look who’s here. My favorite little thief.” I recognize Brax’s mom’s voice immediately and when I spin on my stool, she’s standing there with a huge smile on her face. I slip off my seat and she stands on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around me and enveloping me in a cloud of her sweet-scented perfume, the one that brings me straight back to my childhood.
“How long are you gonna hold that whole apple incident against me, Maggie?” The first time I met her was when she caught me stealing apples from their backyard. She gave me a clip around the ear and then sent me home with an entire bag for my mom. I was ten and it was a day that changed my life, because it was also the day I met Brax. I hug her back tightly, basking in the familiarity of home, even if we’re far away from Juniper Ridge. But after my mom died when I was twenty-one, the Kinsella family are the only family I have left, and they will always be home to me.
“Oh, you know I like to keep you on your toes,” she chuckles.
“Hey there, son.” Jack Kinsella claps me on the back. “How’s about them Rams, huh?”
I place my hand over my heart. “Now, Jack, you know my heart will always bleed red, white and blue.”
He laughs—a die-hard Patriots fan like me. “That’s my boy.”
“Huunnteeeer!” Brax’s voice fills the bar room now. He extends the vowels of my last name the same way he always has, so it sounds like a battle cry.
Maggie rolls her eyes and not a few seconds later, I’m being wrapped up in everything that is Braxton Kinsella. I hug him back just as fiercely. Fuck, I’ve really missed him. “It’s been too long, buddy,” I mumble against his shoulder.
He squeezes me tighter, because he knows. No matter how far apart our lives have taken us, he’s always been my ride-or-die, and he always will be. I’m stoked to be here for his wedding, even if I’m decidedly un-stoked about having to endure four days in a cabin with his sister. However, given that she hasn’t blown up my phone or my social media, telling me she’d rather freeze her ass off in the snow than share a cabin with me, I’m assuming she’s taken the news of our lodging situation relatively well. And it’s not like we’ll be sharing a bed or anything. Although I’m not gonna lie, that thought did cross my mind last night, and it was not an unwelcome one. I blame it entirely on the half bottle of bourbon I drank though. Entirely.
“Chase! What took you so long?” Eva sidles up to us now and Brax steps back and allows me to hug my other best friend—his very soon-to-be wife.
As soon as I let her go, he has his hand on her ass and then they kiss each other like they’ve been apart for months rather than mere minutes. Maggie and Jack excuse themselves to go meet some distant family members and I’m left alone in the company of the lovebirds.
“You two really should get a room, you know?” I feign my disgust, but actually I love seeing the two of them together. I always told Brax that Eva was the one for him, and I’m glad he finally realized that for himself.
