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“Where’s mine?” Mila asked, cocking her dark eyebrow at her older brother.
Maxim scoffed and took a long pull of his beer. “You’re not old enough to drink.”
“I’m twenty-three years old!” She snapped.
“And?” He smirked. “I didn’t say you weren’t old enough legally, just not old enough by my standard. There are plenty of assholes out there just hoping to get you trashed so they can get in your pants.” He waved his bottle in the general direction of the dance floor. “I’m really not in the mood to commit murder tonight.”
“Well, I could say the same for you,” she countered, grabbing her purse from the center of the table. “There are a million women just hoping you’ll get drunk enough to forget a condom so they get their claws into you for the next eighteen years. Should I take your beer?”
“She has a point.” I laughed at the utterly indignant look on Maxim’s stoic features.
“Fuck that,” Brogan muttered, sliding his beer out of reach and leaning back in his chair, the blood draining from his face.
That earned a laugh, too. The guy had an irrational fear of tiny humans. Given the fact that he looked like the meanest son of a bitch in the NHL, he’d probably scare the shit out of the tiny humans, anyway, so it was probably for the best.
“Just take it easy. Please. For the love of my sanity,” Maxim said to Mila as he draped the jacket of his tuxedo over the back of his chair.
Mine had been gone for the last hour. The barnyard reception was gorgeous and quaint, just like London had wanted, but all the twinkle lights in the world couldn’t make up for the lack of air conditioning in an Iowa summer. Thankfully it had been a mellow day for weather—it was only seventy-five now that the sun had set, but the jacket had been off the second we’d finished the attendant’s dance.
“Right.” Mila rolled her eyes. “Let’s grab a drink, Evie.” She nudged her friend.
“Oh—” the blonde started, her eyes flaring wide behind her glasses.
“Evelyn doesn’t drink, remember?” Maxim interjected.
“Is that so?” Evie’s eyes narrowed slightly in Maxim’s direction. “Maybe Evelyn does now.” She pushed away from the table and stood, wrapping a gauze shawl around her shoulders despite the heat. “I’m not fifteen anymore, Maxim.”
The girls linked arms and headed off across the crowded dance floor to the bar.
“I never said you were!” Maxim called out, a confuddled look on his face. He raked his hands over his hair and sagged back into his chair. “What the hell was that about?”
Brogan snorted, ditching his jacket and yanking off his tie to reveal a sleeveless dress shirt. I blinked at his wardrobe choice before nodding with an appreciative chuckle. He’d beat the heat.
“What?” Maxim asked.
“My man.” I slapped him between the shoulder blades. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, there’s nothing either of us can tell you at this point. You are a lost cause.” The guy had a serious blind spot when it came to Evie, and one day it was going to bite him in the ass.
“Here’s the man of the hour,” Brogan said as Sterling fell into the chair on the other side of Maxim.
“Shouldn’t you be at the table-for-two?” Maxim asked.
Looking at the two of them side by side always made me do a double-take. They were so obviously brothers that it was hard to believe they’d kept the secret as long as they had.
“London just got sucked in by some octogenarians called the Cherry Creek Quilting Club over there in the corner. I barely made it out alive,” he marveled, tugging his own tie loose. “Everyone seriously knows everyone here.”
“Small town,” I said with a shrug. “It’s pretty much the extended family from hell, but kind of cool when everyone isn’t up in your business.” Like tonight. London had invited just about everyone we’d grown up with. In fact, she might have invited the whole damned town by the look of the place. “You guys all set for your honeymoon?”
Sterling nodded, taking the beer Axel offered as he consumed another seat, Briggs and Cannon following. “All packed and ready.”
“This is where I remind you that she might be a Sterling now, but she was my sister first, and if you ever hurt her, I’ll still slaughter you and laugh over your body,” I said with a smile, but there was deadly intent in my eyes. Just because she wasn’t a Foster anymore didn’t mean I’d stop watching out for her.
Sterling nodded once. “Noted.”
Good thing I knew he’d never hurt her. It would have sucked to kill someone I actually liked.
“Just don’t eat too much of that four-star food on that little trip of yours,” Maxim teased, breaking the heartbeat of tension. “We still need you in shape come August.”
