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Alison had been the one to pop the prosecco. “Have you two talked about your wedding yet?”
“Her divorce was just finalized. We’re okay with a long engagement.”
“I like Ali, but promise me you won’t make the same mistakes old William King did with wife number two.”
Colton rubbed the back of his neck and let out a deep sigh. “Ali’s not like that.”
“I know she’s not. But you never know what a woman scorned will do.”
Colton hacked out a laugh. “You assume the worst of me.”
My brother had spent his entire life living the stereotypical superstar hockey player life – models, money, and partying – until Alison had come into his life.
“I see the way Alison looks at you. She’s the real deal. But—”
“I know, I know.” Colton stared into his coffee mug. “It’s just not the easiest thing to bring up.”
My mother’s engagement ring sat on Colton’s fiancée’s finger. I loved Ali like a sister, and while she was a member of the King family, I’d fight to the death for her – literally. But my loyalties lay in blood. “I can talk to her about a prenup.”
“Really?” Colton seemed surprised.
“It’s probably better coming from me. She knows how protective I am of you.”
“You mean of our fortune.”
“That too.”
Colton finished his coffee and dipped the mug in the lake to rinse it out. “Do you have a date for Dad’s big day?”
For a jock, perhaps I needed to give him some credit. He was intuitive. “Not yet.”
“What about that CEO guy, the one from Switzerland?”
I shrugged. He was referring to Johanes, a billionaire who came from a watchmaking family. He was handsome, smart, and rich – and boring as hell. He also had some bedroom kinks that I didn’t think my brother would like to hear about. As soon as he’d brought up a shower – the golden kind, I was out of there. “He breathed too loud.” That was also true, and one of my pet peeves.
Colton laughed. “Ah, Everleigh’s loud breathing phobia. And what was wrong with the guy before him?”
Padraig. “He stirred his coffee too loud. And before you mention Bryan, he liked country music.” I shuddered as the memory of Blake Shelton’s voice blasting out of his Maybach’s speakers came back to me.
“Can I offer you a piece of advice?” Colton stood and took my empty mug from my hand.
I looked up at my younger brother, shielding the sun that peeked over his shoulder with my hand. “No.”
“I’m going to give it to you anyway.”
I tried not to smile. I had bossed Colton around his whole life, and since getting involved with Alison, he’d gotten a backbone when it came to me. It was entertaining. “What sage advice does Number Seventy-Seven have for me?”
“When you meet the right guy, you won’t care – even if he breathes louder than a player who has just nailed his suicide drills.”
“You’ve turned into quite the romantic.” I eased out of the chair, but a wave of nausea hit me and I slid back into it. “But I don’t think there’s a man in this world who would make me want to give up this glamorous single girl life anytime soon.”
There was maybe one, but I couldn’t have him. And at the thought of Gunnar waking up with whatever bunny he’d taken home, I launched out of the chair and dry heaved over the end of the dock.
“Whoa.” Colton dropped to my side and swiped my hair away from my face. “Please don’t puke, Everleigh. I’ll hold your hair for you, but I can’t promise that I won’t barf right alongside you.”
I swatted at Colton’s hand. “I don’t need anyone to hold my hair.”
Rolling onto my back, my chest heaved as my heart pounded. “I’ll be okay. Could you tell Jason that I’m ready to go?” The helicopter pilot had been on standby while I waited for my nausea to pass.
