by Layla Hagen
Ian groaned. “Sis, don’t reveal that. I just got back in his good graces.”
“Oops.” The truth was Ian had needed a bit more cheering up than I thought. Dylan needed it too, but in his case, my tactics were more effective in person. I was hoping to get some alone time with him today.
“Let’s go upstairs and start building Sophie’s new crib,” I said. That was another reason why we met up today. Josie had ordered a new crib that came in about one hundred pieces. Hunter was caught up in a bid he was trying to win in London, so he was spending a lot of extra time at the office. Josie couldn’t do it on her own, but what good were three siblings if you couldn’t call them to help you with stuff like this?
“Josie, you said you needed help with something in the basement too, right? Ian can get on that while Dylan and I figure out instructions.” I looked pointedly at Ian and Josie.
My sister immediately caught on, but Ian said, “Why? It’s easier if we—”
Josie elbowed him discreetly, and he cleared his throat. “I mean, yeah, okay.”
“Okay, troops, let’s split up,” I declared, getting to my feet and hoping Dylan didn’t catch on. Sophie’s room was upstairs. I sighed when I stepped inside. The walls were pink, and there was glitter everywhere.
I swear to God, every time I saw her room, I became more aware that my inner child was still very much a part of me.
“That wasn’t obvious or anything,” Dylan said with a half smile as he took the booklet with instructions from the nightstand. The crib was still packed in a huge box.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“You’re just as smooth as Ian, I swear.”
“Oh, come on. I’m a tiny bit better.”
“I’m fine, Isabelle.”
“Fine as in ‘I’m not mad at my brother anymore’ or fine as in ‘I’m not going to be such a grinch when it comes to relationships’?”
Dylan laughed, and I was relieved that it reached his eyes. “Being cheated on is not an improvement over being dumped for other reasons. And I wasn’t exactly mad at Ian, just couldn’t understand why he didn’t tell me.”
“Maybe because he knew it wouldn’t make a difference? Not in the positive sense, anyway...”
“I don’t need anyone to coddle me, Isabelle.”
“Awww, but we’re your siblings. Coddling comes with the territory, whether you want it or not.” To prove my point—and maybe to annoy him a little—I hugged his arm, glancing at the instructions.
“Holy shit, these instructions make me miss IKEA.” There were seven pages of them, and every step was mind-boggling.
He chuckled. “Bet you wish you hadn’t volunteered us to read the instructions.”
“You don’t say.”
I spent half the day with my Gallaghers, and even with the nightmarish instructions, it was such a treat! Before we all moved to New York, we only had these gatherings once in a blue moon.
Paul picked me up afterward, of course. Dylan was riding with us, since dropping him off only required a few extra minutes.
“I’m glad you enjoyed the tour, Sis,” Dylan said. “Brayden said you were having fun.”
“When did you talk to him?”
My brother flashed a secretive smile. “Sometime in the past few days.”
“What did you talk about?”
“A bit about you, and the tour.”
“That sounds purposefully vague.”
“That’s because it is.”
“Dylan, you can’t tease me like this!”
“It’s coddling. Sibling privilege, remember?”
“As is revenge,” I reminded him just as we arrived at his place.
Paul looked at us in the rearview mirror with wide eyes. Yeah, the Gallagher craziness was not for the faint of heart.
Dylan kissed my forehead before getting out.
“What kind of revenge are you thinking about, miss?” Paul asked conversationally.
“Oh, nothing too serious. Don’t worry about it.”
“I wasn’t worrying, but I might have a few ideas.”
I grinned at him. Paul and I were going to be good friends.
He pulled the car up in front of Brayden’s building. There were no paps or fans, but we weren’t expecting any here anymore since it had been a long time since the concert and they were already old news.
The concierge let me in and called the elevator without alerting Brayden first.
I had butterflies in my stomach as I entered the apartment, which was ridiculous. I hadn’t seen him for all of seven hours, but there you go.
“Hello, sexy boyfriend,” I said loudly before I even closed the door completely.
***
Brayden
“I’m in the living room,” I replied.
I didn’t get nervous. It wasn’t who I was, but this evening was different. The team prepped everything the way I wanted it, but my nerves were still shot.
I didn’t go greet her at the door because I didn’t want to spoil the wow-effect.
She sauntered into the room, immediately stopping.
“Oooh, we’re having a romantic dinner,” she whispered. The table was covered in a white cloth, and on the side were several chafing dishes that still had the covers on.
“That’s what I call a welcome home dinner.” She peeked inside one chafing dish. “Wow, this is Tony’s beef Wellington. And mash potatoes with mixed vegetables. My favorites!”
“Exactly.”
“I didn’t know they did catering.”
“They don’t. I pulled some strings.”
“Did you now? Why?”
“I knew it would make you happy.”
She sighed, looking up from the dish. “You can’t make me swoon on an empty stomach. I’m even more susceptible.”
Good. I wanted all cards in my favor.
I pulled out the chair for her. She sat down and I pushed it up to the table, also stealing a kiss on the side of the neck.
She giggled, turning her head. “Oh, I see. This is a romantic dinner with an extra side of kisses? I’ll take it.”
I kissed her again, this time even biting her neck a little, before going to my seat. The chafing dishes had an extra plate where we put the covers while we served ourselves food.
“How are your siblings?” I asked, but I only registered part of the answer. Honestly, the entire time we ate, I was half listening, mentally planning every second of the big moment.
Fucking hell, how can I be this nervous?
I only realized I spaced out completely when Isabelle nudged me with her leg under the table.
“Babe? Dessert?”
“It’s in the fridge. I’ll bring it!”
“Need help?”
“No, no. I’m fine.” I got up, covering the chafing dishes again and taking our empty plates to the kitchen. I took out the dessert from the fridge. The setup looked innocent enough: three small jars painted white with a cover on top. The team had even given me a special serving plate to put them on.
I brought it to the table, setting it right in front of Isabelle.
“Want to do the honors?” I asked, standing next to her.
“Uuuh, I’m trying to guess which of Tony’s desserts could be in jars. The cheesecake, the rice pudding... and ice cream? You had it in the fridge though, not the freezer. Hmmm...”
I grinned. “You’ve got two out of three right.”
Rubbing her palms together, she removed the lid from the first jar.
“Cheesecake. Yes!” She moved on to the next one, which was indeed rice pudding. She ate a teaspoon of it, cracking me up that she couldn’t even wait to unveil all of them.
Glancing at me sideways, she rubbed her palms again.
“Let’s see...” She took off the lid and gasped. “That’s a ring.”
I took it out of the jar before dropping down to one knee, holding it out for her. She turned around so she was facing me. Her smile was huge.
I drew in a de
ep breath, mentally reviewing the notes I made... and couldn’t remember even one damn word.
Me, the songwriter. I know a million songs, and I can’t remember a word!
“Isabelle, I love you. I had this whole speech planned, but my mind is completely blank.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered.
“You’re the woman of my dreams. I knew you’d change my life since the day we met.”
She cocked a brow. “I don’t think so.”
Feisty even during my proposal. I loved this woman so fucking much.
“Fine, not the first day, but soon enough, all I wanted was you. You’re everything I need. Being with you brings me a happiness I didn’t even think existed. And having you as my wife, that’s... I can’t put in words what it would mean to me.”
Isabelle’s smile was even wider than before. She touched the hand that was holding the ring, swallowing hard. “To me, it would mean everything.” Her voice was just a whisper.
I threaded my fingers in her hair, pulling her down to me, needing to kiss her right now. She tasted like pudding, and I couldn’t get enough of her. With my other hand, I put the ring on, then buried both hands in her hair. I got up carefully, pulling her up with me. When we were both standing, I felt her hands press hard on my shoulders before she jumped in my arms.
I jerked my head back in surprise.
She was grinning. “I bet you weren’t expecting this.”
“No, but it’s very welcome.” I positioned us so her ass was on the edge of the table. She still had her legs wrapped around my upper thighs.
“Good, because I wasn’t planning on letting you go.” She kept looking at her ring. “Oh, that’s why you were so happy to ship me off to Josie’s.”
“Well, I could have arranged all this and passed it off as dinner plans, but I wanted to surprise you.”
“You sure did.”
“I thought about this since before we left for the first leg of the tour.” I kept threading my fingers through her hair as I spoke. “Then I ran my mouth when I asked you to move in with me, and I didn’t bring it up again. Thought I’d let this slip too.”
She tugged at my shirt, now dangling her legs in the air. “I can’t believe this! Wait... did you tell my brothers about it? Dylan said you spoke with him while touring but was sort of secretive.”
“That’s a hard no.”
“So what did you talk about?”
“Guy stuff.”
She tugged harder at my shirt. “You don’t think you’ll get away with that, right?”
“You said he was going through a rough time. I wanted to check on him.”
She blinked, pulling me closer. “How are you even real? I’m so happy you’re going to be my husband.”
She smoothed her hands over my shoulder before resting them in the crooks of my neck.
I kissed under her right eye, then the left one before moving my mouth lower on her cheek, right at the corner of her lips.
Instead of turning to kiss me, she pulled back a little, pointing to the plate with desserts next to us.
“Hey, think we should eat these while they’re still cold?”
I threw my head back, laughing. “Sure. I was surprised you waited for me to propose before polishing them off.”
“Hey, I’m a foodie. I can’t help it.” She grabbed a teaspoon, handing me another one.
“That’s why I had all this brought here. I knew you’d missed your favorite eateries in the city.”
She looked up at me with so much joy. I was going to bring this happiness to her every damn day.
I was in a position to do it, and I wanted to.
I put both our spoons down the second the plates were empty.
“Uhh... my sexy guy is in a hurry. What other plans does he have tonight, I wonder?” She looked up seductively, dangling her feet.
I cupped her cheek with one hand, her hip with the other.
“I want to kiss my foodie.”
“And she’s all on board with that... as long as there’s a liiiiiittle more than kissing involved.”
She drew in a sharp breath when I pulled her up from the table, speaking against her lips. “A lot more than that. It’s a promise.”
Epilogue
Isabelle
Six weeks later
“This looks good to me,” Brayden said.
“I agree.”
Tess sighed. “You said the same thing about the last five locations I’ve shown you.”
We were at Dumont’s in Tribeca, throwing a little engagement party. Rob closed it for the evening, so we had complete privacy. I loved everything about this space, from the redbrick window arches to the industrial-style light fixtures and glass tabletops.
Tess—who was, of course, our unofficial wedding planner—was showing us pictures of possible locations for the wedding. I liked every single one of them.
We decided to have an engagement party since it would take a while until we could have the actual wedding. We had to wait for the tour to be over to have time for the preparations, which included scouting locations. Tess insisted that visiting them in person was the best way to decide. I had a feeling we’d still like all of them.
“Let’s focus on the engagement party right now,” I said.
She pouted, putting her iPad away. Tess was so cute, always getting so excited when we talked about the wedding.
Everyone was here already, some sitting, some gathered in front of the open-space kitchen watching the chefs cook. I loved this concept where you could watch what was going on in the kitchen, at least on the front line. They had hidden cooking stations in the back where all the prep work happened.
We thought it might be fun if everyone went to the counter to give their order and watch as it was prepared, so there were only two servers circulating between us, carrying drinks.
Even though it was just family and close friends, there were a lot of us. We’d decided not to unite tables into a long one, because there were honestly so many of us that it made no sense. We kept the tables as they usually were, but there were no seats assigned or anything, so everyone moved around. The band and Sasha weren’t here yet, but they’d arrive any second now. The family was here though.
Josie, Hunter, and Sophie were sitting down at one of the tables, next to Ryker and Heather, who was holding Ray on her shoulder, patting his back.
Skye and Rob had come without their son, who was with Skye’s Mom. She and her husband stayed home because he was recovering from a torn ligament he’d gotten while jogging.
Cole and Laney were in the front, waiting for our food. She and I had both ordered Caesar salads. I wasn’t a fan of salads, but Dumont’s had a secret recipe or something. It was delicious. Rob insisted the secret was in the parmesan.
Mom and Dad had flown in yesterday, and they were staying at the same hotel as Brayden’s parents. They’d arrived two days ago. Sadly, Jana and Donna couldn’t take time off work, but they promised they’d be here at the wedding.
Currently, both sets of parents were in front of the counter with my brothers, all watching the cooks do their magic.
“Our parents seem to get along fine, don’t they?” Brayden asked.
“Yes. It’s a bit scary, actually.”
He chuckled. “I think my parents had resigned themselves that I would never marry and are being extra nice to make a good impression.”
“Aww, that’s cute.”
Our parents abruptly stopped talking when they noticed us.
“What’s with the sudden silence?” I asked.
Brayden glanced pointedly at his parents, but both of them just shook their heads.
Mom smiled. “Always so curious. You don’t have to know everything.”
I glanced at Dad, who pointed to Mom. “I agree with her.”
Dylan and Ian, who were on Mom’s other side, inched closer.
“Careful, Dad. Sis promised me payback when I withheld information from her,” Dylan said.
“Actually, we were talking about you two,” Mom said.
Ian cocked a brow. Dylan frowned.
“Why?” Dylan asked.
“Esther here was telling us how she never thought Brayden would find a girl, and I said that gives me hope for both of you. Who knows, next year we might fly to New York not just for one wedding but for more. Or at least another engagement party.”
The looks on my brothers’ faces were epic. I burst out laughing.
“You know what? I’m dropping any payback plans. This right here is gold!” I informed Dylan.
“So generous,” he said.
“My offer still stands. I can always introduce you to some friends of mine. Both of you.”
“Suddenly you’re extending your offer to me too? Now I’m suspicious.”
“Well, I’ll give it to them straight. Explain I have two brothers. That one’s a bit broody but actually a great guy, and the other can make you laugh, but you can’t trust him with your heart.”
“That’s your endorsement for us?” Ian asked.
I grinned. “I’m nothing if not honest.”
“Then I have no problem with you pimping us out. As long as no one expects me to be their Prince Charming.”
“I have a problem with it,” Dylan growled.
I sighed, patting Dylan’s shoulder. “Okay, point taken. I’ll leave you out of it.”
“Two Caesar salads ready,” one of the chefs announced.
A few seconds later, Laney and Cole came up with the salads. I relieved him of mine. My mouth was watering.
“Just putting it out there, but meeting the right person can change your mind. Fast. Don’t fight it,” I heard Brayden say. Was he trying to be a supportive brother-in-law again? I had no idea why that got to me so much. I loved him even more for it.
Two more dishes were called out, and Hunter and Tess joined us in the front.
“We can back that up,” Cole said, earning points for catching on to what the conversation was about so fast.
“What are you all talking about?” Hunter asked.
“Relationship bliss,” Cole said with a straight face. He was completely serious.
Ian groaned. “You all sound like you’re endorsing an ad for a dating site.”
Hunter smiled, looking around the group. “Well, I don’t want to add—”
