by Elise Faber
He glared. “Don’t say anything bad about her. She’s great.”
Jaime raised his hands in surrender. “I would never do that. She is great, and she’s one of Kate’s best friends, but . . .” He trailed off, like Brad would fill in the blanks.
And he supposed he would.
Because he knew exactly what his brother was thinking.
When would he be leaving again?
Reaching across, he grabbed Jaime’s forearm, squeezing it tightly—not because he wanted to hurt his brother, but because he needed him to understand. “She’s it.”
Jaime nodded, but concern was still laced throughout his expression, and Brad knew he didn’t get it.
“She’s my Kate,” he said. “You know all that shit with Mom, with that grain of sand itching beneath the surface, the prickle of irritation that never seemed to go away?”
Jaime nodded when he paused.
“To keep with the metaphor, Heidi is that pearl.”
Brad waited . . . and then waited some more for his brother to say something, to congratulate him on finding the other half of his soul, but Jaime just quietly stared at him.
“You’re wondering if I’m just going to fucking disappear again, aren’t you?” He pulled his hand back, clenched his jaw tight. “Well, I’m not. I’ve been all over this fucking world, and I can say with absolute certainty that none of that means anything without a person to share it with.”
“So, does that mean you’re done traveling, that you’re just going to live here permanently?”
“Yes.” He sighed when he saw his brother still didn’t get it. And who could blame him?
Brad had taken a sharp right turn.
Hesitation in his brother’s gaze, and fuck that stung. “I don’t think you would hurt her intentionally,” Jaime began. “But I wonder . . . if you’re not moving kind of quickly. You’re used to being free and moving to your own beat all the time.” He lifted his hands, palms out in surrender. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, not at all. I just . . . I know that Heidi is married to her job here, and she has deep roots in this area. She grew up here. Cora, Kelsey, and Kate are here. I’m sure she’d be happy to travel—I’ve never seen that woman back down from an adventure or a challenge, but I don’t think that she’d be happy to uproot her life all the time.” He winced. “And frankly, I don’t think her job will allow for it.”
None of these were things Brad didn’t know.
But none of these things made that old prickling to run, to leave, to hide beneath the prospect of leaving, come back.
Instead, he just felt certain.
That he’d be putting down his roots where Heidi was.
“Look, Jaim, I know what you’re saying.” He sighed. “But the truth is that for the first time in my life, I don’t have another trip planned. Usually, when I’m still in the middle of one set of travels, I’m already searching for the next place to visit, chasing that high of something new, something that could mute the itch that tells me to keep moving, to keep searching, to never stop looking.” He clenched his hand into a fist, rested it on his thigh. “This is different. I feel different.”
“How?”
“When I first met Heidi, it was like everything inside me both stood up at attention and settled down. I knew that she was special, but I was fucking terrified after spending time with her. I knew that given the chance, she’d burrow herself deep inside my soul, and not because she was trying to, but because she didn’t have to.” A shake of his head. “She was just herself, and I knew that she was more than anyone I had ever met. She’s fucking incredible, and she was in me deep in an instant . . . and I was so unnerved that I ran in the other direction.”
Jaime was quiet for a moment then asked, “What changed now?”
He stopped, considered how he could possibly encapsulate how much had changed.
Because everything had changed.
“Jaime,” he began. “There’s . . .” Then stalled out.
“Hey.” His brother grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it lightly until Brad looked up from counting the bubbles in the froth of his beer. “The girls are together and watching reality TV. They’ve got a bottle of tequila for margaritas, books to discuss, and two members of their Un-Wine Club to interrogate—Heidi, because of you, and Kate, about our honeymoon.” He picked up Brad’s beer and handed it to him before snagging his own and clinking the glasses together. “What I’m trying to say is that we have plenty of time to hash out all this shit.” He took a sip. “It’ll be a good four hours before I get the call to go play designated driver.”
Brad traced a pattern in the condensation on the outside of his glass.
“I know it seems like I’m being an asshole,” Jaime said, “and it’s not that I don’t believe what you’re saying. I’m just—I don’t want either of you hurt, and I don’t want you to have gotten things straight in your head and then limit yourself and—fuck, now I sound like an extra-large asshole.” He thumped his hand on the bar. “Ignore me. I’m playing the role of the worried older brother. You’re great. Heidi is great. You both deserve to be happy, regardless of my big brother vibes.”
“Jaim,” he said and stopped, not sure what to say, not when his mind was spinning.
“Fuck,” Jaime said, probably catching a glimpse of that whirlwind. He shoved a hand into his hair. “For real. Ignore me. I don’t have any right to question you or Heidi’s decisions. You know that my relationship with Kate all began with a lie. We pretended to be engaged, for fuck’s sake, so how could I possibly think that I can give anyone any advice on relationships?”
Brad’s shoulders relaxed, the tension in his gut brought on by his brother’s questions easing with the sincerity in his tone.
“If Heidi is your Kate, then I’m so fucking happy for you.” Jaime laughed. “Because God knows these women give us a hell of a ride. But it’s absolutely worth it, and I thank fuck every single day that I answered that DM, that I somehow managed to get Kate in my life.”
“And now she’s tied to you permanently,” he said.
Jaime nodded, happiness etched into the lines of his face. “Yup. She’s mine forever.”
A fact that made Brad very jealous.
He wanted Heidi in his life always. He wanted her to wear his ring, to carry his babies, to be tied to him forever.
Jaime chuckled. “Until she realizes that I did a shit job of collecting her gossip.”
That made him smile and shake his head. “We’d do anything for them, wouldn’t we?”
Jaime clinked their glasses again. “Yes, we would.”
And with that, he took another sip, then a deep breath, and he told his brother everything—how his last trip had opened that lid and made him understand he wasn’t happy, how coming back and realizing he’d hurt Heidi had made him feel like the lowest piece of shit on the planet, how Jaime telling him what their mom had said had made everything clear, how Heidi deciding to give him a chance had made everything seem possible, and how this last month had been the absolute best of his life.
He confessed every last thing in his heart and mind.
Because his brother was that older, constantly worrying sibling.
Because he wanted to tell someone who would understand, someone who got just how important this all was.
And because . . . he didn’t want his brother to get in trouble with his wife.
Heh.
Twenty-Two
Heidi
“I’m inviting my friend, Stef, to join us on our next girl’s night,” she declared, the moment the door had shut behind the boys.
There was a strategy with these . . . playdates, she supposed was the correct word. But the point was, the person with all the gossip couldn’t just give it up right away, she had to make the others work for it—
No. That wasn’t true.
She wanted to share every detail with them.
Just first, she had the more pressing business of making sure Stef was included.<
br />
Cora sat back, snagging the bowl of popcorn from Kate’s hands and scarfing down a huge handful. “Isn’t she your assistant at work?”
“She’s my lab assistant,” Heidi told her. “Not answering my emails and taking notes during meetings. She runs the lab when I’m not there, and she just broke up with her boyfriend—who got her friends in the divorce, by the way, the fucking assholes—and she doesn’t have any family close.”
They all made sympathetic noises, lamenting about fair-weather friends, and she knew that Stef would be welcomed into the fold of the Un-Wine Club.
Kelsey grabbed Heidi’s cell from the table, held it out to her. “Why don’t you call her and invite her over?”
“Well, because her relationship isn’t the only thing broken.” Then she related the tale of Stef’s dog and the broken ankle and the surgery. “She’s been home for a bit now, but she’s not up for traveling much yet.”
“Oh my God,” Kelsey said. “Poor thing.”
Kate lifted her glass, already filled with a slushie margarita, courtesy of Cora having commandeered Heidi’s blender and getting busy with the tequila, and took a huge sip. “Next time, we bring the party to her.”
Cora nodded. “Totally agree. She won’t know what hit her.”
Kels grinned. “Exactly. We’re like the mafia. Once you’re in, there’s no getting out.”
Heidi relaxed, knowing that Stef would be right at home with her crew.
“What does she nerd out about?”
“You know,” she said slowly. “I don’t actually know.”
Kate rubbed her hands together, evil-genius style. “We’ll ply her with tequila and find out all of the deep and dirty secrets. Muahaha!”
“You’re still high from your honeymoon,” Cora said, shoving Kate’s shoulder.
“Maybe.” Kate shrugged, a smug smile on her lips. “Maybe not.”
They laughed, and then Kelsey asked about the resort, and Kate was off and running, talking about all the fun things she and Jaime had done—from parasailing to massages on the beach, they seemed to have hit all that the hotel had to offer.
“But mostly,” Kate said. “Mostly we had lots and lots of hot, monkey sex”—she reclined back on the couch—“and it was glorious.”
They all made the appropriate sounds of retching and, “Oh God, my ears!”
But they were happy for Kate, happy that their friend had found the person she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with.
And then their eyes turned to her.
“What?” she asked innocently, taking a long sip of her drink.
Which Cora promptly snatched from her, making her nearly choke on the slush she’d managed to get in her mouth.
“Details.” Kate bounced on the cushions next to her, cheeks highlighted pink from the power of tequila. “Now.”
Heidi thought about drawing it out, about torturing her friends, getting them to beg for details. But in the end, she couldn’t, and she didn’t want to, and hell, she was fighting back the urge to yell from the rooftops that she loved one Brad Huntington.
Loved?
She froze, words screeching to a halt inside her throat.
Because loved?
A blip as her heart began beating again, as surety slid through her.
Yes. Loved.
She loved Brad.
And she was so fucking excited about it.
So she told her friends about falling in the creek, and the dinners and the dates, she told them about coffee and muffins and pre-dawn hikes. She told them about books and keys and a man who cared where she was.
But the only thing she didn’t tell them was about the whole loving thing.
Because she was going to tell that to Brad first.
“Margaritas are the best,” she said, curling up on the couch and resting her head on Kate’s shoulder.
Kate tapped her glass against Heidi’s. “I totally agree.”
“Shh!” Cora hissed. “This is the best part!”
Dutifully, they both turned their gazes toward the TV, toward the knockdown, drag-out fight happening on the screen, then to their friend who was riveted by the action.
“You wouldn’t be shushing us if you hadn’t cheated and watched ahead,” Heidi muttered grumpily.
“If I hadn’t cheated and watched ahead, you would be missing this gloriousness right now,” Cora pointed out.
Rightly so.
Which was why Heidi didn’t argue, just put her glass to her lips and enjoyed the rest of her fourth margarita . . . or maybe it was her fifth? Lightweight that she was, she couldn’t remember anything after the second. Mentally shrugging, she decided she didn’t care. She could kick her friends to the curb, collapse into bed, and sleep until noon tomorrow if she wanted.
A table overturned on screen, sending an arrangement of cupcakes flying in all directions—and making her wince in memory of Kate’s ruined wedding cake—but then she couldn’t help but giggle.
Because the show’s stars had decided to attempt to save the remaining stack that was teetering this way and that. Unfortunately for them, that teetering ended up turning into splatting when two of the cast slipped on fluorescent blue frosting and managed to knock the remainder of the sweet confections to the ground.
“You should take lessons from them,” Kelsey said, her color high, the words carefully enunciated in a way that told Heidi she’d had more than three margaritas, too.
“Why?” she asked innocently. “It’s not like there are any weddings coming up for me to ruin.”
Kelsey took a sip. “Well, actually. Tanner and I did a thing.”
She held up her hand.
Heidi squinted through blurry vision, blinking until it focused . . . on the sparkling diamond band sitting next to the engagement ring on Kelsey’s finger.
Kate, the only one of them who had any skill in holding her alcohol, lurched up from the couch, nearly spilling the remnants of her margarita as she plunked the glass on the table and clambered over Cora’s legs to grab Kels’s hand.
“Are you fucking serious?” Cora asked, but it wasn’t directed at Kate and her clambering.
Rather, it was said to Kels.
Who they all waited with baited breath to answer.
Who . . . nodded, her lips curving into a huge smile. “We eloped,” she said. “We just . . . wanted to be married without all the hoopla.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “I was hoping you guys might be able to help us plan a big party to celebrate.”
Heidi looked at Kate, who looked at Cora.
Then they all moved at once.
“Oh my God!” They all jumped up, throwing their arms around each other, a tequila-scented hug surrounding them all, their voices overlapping, the chatter indecipherable except that it was filled with excitement.
“When did you guys do it?” Kate asked once they’d managed to calm themselves enough to conduct actual adult conversation again.
“Last weekend. We just woke up on Saturday morning and decided to fly to Vegas,” Kels said, dutifully holding out her hand so they could admire the ring and then told them the rest of the story—how her family was pressuring her for a wedding (preferably a big one since Kels was the only daughter), how the wedding planning was stressing them out, and how they’d ultimately just decided to fly to Vegas and become husband and wife in truth. “I did promise my mom a big party,” she said. “After we got home.”
“Kels,” Heidi whispered, hugging her tight. “I’m so happy for you.”
Cora nudged her out of the way. “I need to hug the bride.”
“Or the former one anyway. Now I’m just the wife,” Kels said, her smile huge as she wrapped her arms about the petite brunette for a few moments before they all circled up, drinks in hand, and toasted Kels.
“Thank you, guys, but actually I feel terrible,” she told them, setting her glass down then lifting her hands to her cheeks and pressing them against the flushed skin. “I think my mom is really disappointe
d.”
Cora grinned. “She’ll have a big party to plan. She’ll be fine.”
“You deserve to have what you want,” Kate reminded her. “You didn’t want a huge wedding with you at the center of it. You wanted your special moment with Tanner.”
“You’re not mad I didn’t invite you guys?”
Heidi smoothed back her hair. “No, babe. We’re happy that you’re happy.”
“You sure?”
Cora snorted and refilled her glass. “We’re sure.” A beat. “Just keep the cake far away from Heidi.”
“Hey!”
Kels sank back down onto the couch, picking up her glass again and drinking deeply, her eyes still tinged with chagrin. “Even my mom and you guys aside, and the requisite guilt, it was still the happiest moment of my life.” A sigh. “I love him so much, guys.”
“Why am I sensing a but?”
Kels made a face. “Well, he had somehow taken the time to write these beautiful, touching vows, words that made my heart squeeze and my tears coming into my eyes and he’d probably been planning them for months, and I didn’t even have anything besides the normal ones, and I kept thinking I should have done more.”
Cora snorted. “Kels. Seriously?”
“What?” She tossed up her hands, nearly spilling her drink.
“He was just probably relieved he didn’t have to keep waiting forever to marry you,” Kate said. “Jaime told me that was the worst part of getting engaged . . . well, our real engagement anyway. That there was so much waiting until our real lives could start—not that we didn’t have something real together before the wedding. It was just like there was a hidden hurdle ahead that we needed to leap over, and it didn’t matter what flowers we had or the cake or the vows, we were just ready to start our happily ever after.” She squeezed Kels’s hand. “This is the important part. The rest of it is just . . . calorie-adding condiments to the happy sandwich of your lives.”
Cora burst out laughing.
“What?” Kate asked on a scowl.
“Condiments?” Cora asked. “Really? What’s the wedding? Mayonnaise?”
“Ew,” Kate said. “No, it’s fig jelly on a yummy toasted sourdough.”
