Page 29 of Yours to Keep

I took a sip of my wine and studied her over the rim of the glass, taking her in outside of work, when she wasn’t the embodiment of righteous anger wrapped in scrubs. Tonight, she wore jeans with a light blue sweater and her dark brown hair was down.

Literally and, it seemed, metaphorically.

She looked different outside the hospital. Still gorgeous to the point of distraction, but softer. Less like she was armed to the teeth and more like someone who would do something as kind as becoming my sister’s first friend in this new city.

It kind of made sense that Liana would go and pick the one person who’d been a thorn in my side since day one, but my sister didn’t have many female friends. She wasn’t even having bridesmaids because, in her words, there’s no one I like enough to deal with that much.

Yet somehow, in the span of a few weeks, she’d bonded with Bree Bennett. God, the universe really does have a sick sense of humor.

“Sullivan,” Liana said when she came back to the table. “You know Bree, right? She’ll be joining us tonight.”

I looked up into those bright blue eyes and gave her a curt nod. “Sure. Of course. How are you, Bree?”

She blinked a few times, like she was surprised I could be so civilized as to exchange pleasantries. She offered me a smile I strongly suspected was more for my sister’s benefit than mine.

“I’m well. Thank you,” she said politely as she sat down. “How are you?”

I shrugged. “Surviving.”

Wine was poured into her glass and plates were rapidly set down, the cake tasting beginning in earnest now that Liana had told them our party was complete. I tried to focus on what was being said about flavor profiles and textures, but Bree kept catching my attention.

Mentally, I caught myself cataloguing her reactions to flavors, noticing her quiet laughter when the baker said something funny, and seeing the ease with which she engaged my sister—all while avoiding looking directly at me. But she also wasn’t glaring, scowling, or trying to summon a thundercloud over her head.

Unsettled by this change of pace—akin to a personality transplant—I shifted in my chair and took another sip of my wine. Between samples, the baker disappeared into the back to fetch the next round and the girls’ conversation drifted.

“So,” Bree said casually, her fork hovering over a half-eaten slice. “How long have you two been engaged?”

Liana burst out laughing and I made a face before I could stop myself. A very clear, very visceral absolutely not face.

Bree blinked hard, confusion furrowing her brow and her eyes narrowing as they darted between us. “Oh. I’m sorry⁠—”

“Oh my God,” Liana said, wiping at her eyes. “I forgot you didn’t know.”

I felt Bree’s gaze snap to me as Liana gestured between us. “Sullivan is my brother. My older, much more serious brother.”

The silence that followed was deafening, Bree’s mouth opening and closing before she finally shook her head. “No. Really?”

“I’m afraid so,” I said, taking another drink.

Her eyes widened, color rising in her cheeks. “Wow, I’m so sorry. I just assumed since you asked if I’d come to do the tasting with you and your fiancé, and then he was here…”

Liana smiled. “My fiancé was supposed to be here too, but he had a last-minute meeting come up.”

Strangely, Bree’s expression shifted instantly from mortified to something a little harder. “He canceled? At the last minute? On your cake tasting?”

“Yeah,” Liana said lightly. “Work stuff. You know how it goes.”

“No.” Bree frowned. “I don’t. He should have canceled the meeting, not this.”

I stiffened, but Liana just shrugged it off, as always. “It’s fine. Really.”

When I looked at Bree again, something strange happened. I saw something I’d missed about her before, and usually, I was a pretty decent judge of character, but I realized then that I’d underestimated her.

Clearly, she wasn’t just a troublemaker. She was loyal. Fiercely so, it seemed, and even to my sister, who she couldn’t even know very well. So she’s one of those…

Once she cared about someone, she had their back. Fully and unconditionally. Those kinds of people were rare these days, rarer still in a city with a population the size of this one.

I liked that. More than I wanted to admit, if I was being honest.