by Andre, Bella
“It will be,” Ellen promised her. “I’ve helped put on dozens of weddings at the winery, and I have to say, I think this is going to be the very best.” She looked down at the iPad she brought everywhere with her. “It’s nearly time to give the bride her big send-off. Are you both ready?”
Sophie’s heart jumped in her chest at the thought of making her grand entrance. She was as ready as she’d ever be.
She joined the other women—Lori, Marcus’s pop-star girlfriend, Nicola, Gabe’s girlfriend, Megan, and the other two bridesmaids, who were old friends of Chloe’s—out on the porch. As co-maids-of-honor, Sophie and Lori had had a fierce match of rock-paper-scissors over which of them would walk out first with Marcus, the oldest Sullivan.
Sophie was certain that Lori had cheated. Her twin always did. But now she was glad that she wouldn’t be the first to walk down the aisle. It was even better that her brother Smith was her partner when she made her entrance. Everyone would be oohing and ahhing over the movie star in their midst. At least long enough, she hoped, for her to settle a little better into her brand-new sex-goddess persona.
***
Just as Lori had predicted, their brothers stopped and blinked at Sophie in surprise as they walked onto the porch. Surprise, unfortunately, quickly turned into scowls.
“Sophie?”
Her oldest brother’s face looked like thunder, and she had to force herself to hold her ground in front of Marcus, rather than take a step back in retreat—and go running back inside to wipe the makeup off her face and brush her glossy, blown-out hair back into the more casual style they were all used to.
“What the h—”
His girlfriend, Nicola, who was a pop star he’d fallen for six months earlier, put her hand on Marcus’s forearm just in time.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Nicola teased. “I hear you own this joint.”
Thank God Marcus was powerless to resist his stunning girlfriend, especially when she was going up on her toes to whisper something in his ear that had him dragging her off to a private corner of the porch and kissing her.
Sophie made a mental note to do something really nice for Nicola in the future as payback for that quick save. Maybe a new e-book reader with a hundred fantastic books preloaded on it for those long hours between tour stops?
Unfortunately, her brother Gabe was only a beat behind with his, “Why are you wearing all that makeup, Soph?”
Megan, who had become one of Sophie’s closest friends after the two of them had reconnected a handful of months ago, shot Sophie a sympathetic look before moving into Gabe’s line of vision.
“Summer needs help with her basket of flower petals. She’s asking for you, Gabe.”
Sophie’s firefighter brother had fallen hard for her friend and her daughter after saving both of them from a deadly apartment fire several months ago. He didn’t stand a chance of holding focus on whatever Sophie was up to when Megan’s seven-year-old daughter needed him.
Too bad Ryan, Zach and Smith didn’t have girlfriends on the porch to distract them.
Wearing his tux as well as he did his baseball uniform, Ryan looked between her and Lori. “You guys aren’t going to do that twin-switch thing again, are you?”
Her brother Zach just looked plain confused. “Whatever is going on here, I don’t want to know about it.” But then he added with a fierce scowl, “Swear to God, Nice, if anyone even looks at you crosswise, I’m going to pound his head into the dirt until he’s fertilizer for Marcus’s vines.”
“What about if someone looks at me?” Lori asked, obviously trying to pull their brothers’ attention away from her twin by acting affronted.
Zach rolled his eyes. “You can handle yourself,” he retorted.
Hating the way everyone was acting, even if it wasn’t exactly unexpected, Sophie said, “So can I.”
“Like hell you can,” Smith said.
Her second-oldest brother, who had millions of fans around the world, had been watching her silently until then. Although they were about as different as two Sullivans could be—he thrived in the limelight and she wanted to stay as far from it as she could—she’d always been especially close to Smith. As long as she could remember, he’d been the one to make sure her voice was heard at the dinner table and that she was included in the older kids’ games.
He took her hand. “Let’s go practice our walk down the aisle, Soph.”
She’d been so steamrolled by her brothers, she finally realized who was missing. “Where’s Jake?”
“He had a last-second emergency with the drinks,” Smith replied, and then, when they were on the other side of the porch, he said, “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” But she knew better than to think he’d pulled her away from the rest of their siblings just to compliment her.
“But I’m confused about the new makeup and hairstyle.” If anyone knew about transforming into a brand-new character, it was Smith. Which was why he was even more suspicious than her other brothers. “What’s going on?”
She swallowed hard. “I wanted to look pretty for the wedding.”
“You were already pretty. Before—” He gestured to the hair, the makeup, the dress.
Her heart squeezed at the way her brother looked at her, as though she were a little girl he needed to keep saving. Didn’t he see? This was exactly why she needed to do this. So that everyone would stop thinking of her as sweet little Nice.
Little did he realize—little did any of her brothers realize—that they were only feeding her resolve with their overprotectiveness.
A part of her desperately wanted to confide in Smith, to try to take some comfort from her big brother’s strong arms. But she knew better. If she told him what she was doing, he’d likely lock her in the guesthouse until the wedding was over. And then he’d go tear Jake limb from limb.
Sophie wanted that pleasure all for herself, thank you very much.
“I’m walking down the aisle on a movie star’s arm,” she forced herself to say. “Who knows where this picture will end up?”
Unfortunately, Smith didn’t even come close to believing her. “Since when do you care about any of that?”
Since never, she thought, but that was beside the point.
She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve missed you while you’ve been away.”
She felt his kiss on the top of her head. She hadn’t had a father past the age of two, but she’d never felt as if her life had been empty. Not with so much love all around her, not with Smith and Marcus and Chase to hug her, not with Zach and Ryan to tease her, not with Gabe and Lori to play and argue with.
“I missed you, too, Nice.” Smith pulled back, looked at her again. She wondered why it didn’t rankle when Smith used her nickname, but she wanted to deck Jake for saying it. “I just didn’t expect to come home from Australia and see that you’ve changed.”
“I’m still me,” she insisted in a soft voice.
Only, the truth was, she was barely an hour into her “transformation” and things were already different. She’d never had conversations like this with her brothers, for one. And while she wasn’t at all certain she’d ever try this particular look again, despite her worries over making a big fool out of herself in the slinky dress and towering heels, there was a part of her that liked the change. Heck, hadn’t the waitress at her favorite Thai restaurant even said to her the last time she was there, “Ordering the same old thing?”
Sophie suddenly realized she’d gotten stuck in a rut. A nice, comfortable rut.
Footsteps coming toward them had Smith smoothing her hair back into place. “You really do look great, Soph. Different, but stunning.” This time his words were accompanied by the brotherly pride that shone from his eyes. Of course, the concern was still there. “And if you need to talk to me about anything, anytime, I’m always here for you.” He lifted her chin up with a finger so that he could look directly into her eyes. “You know tha
t, don’t you? That I’ll come home from any set, anywhere in the world, if you need me.”
She squeezed his hand, and was saved from starting to bawl her eyes out in her brother’s arms by Ellen’s arrival.
“Smith and Sophie, we need you with the rest of the group now.” Fortunately, Ellen was in enough of a rush that she didn’t see Sophie work to quickly compose herself. “Marcus and Lori will lead everyone off the porch and down the aisle, and I’ll give you the go-ahead when it’s time for you to head down after them.” She noted Sophie’s heels and said, “Careful on the stairs. They’ve felled more than one bridesmaid, I’m afraid.”
A few seconds later when Ellen gave them their signal and Smith shot her a wide smile, Sophie couldn’t help but return it full force. She’d been looking forward to Chase’s wedding for what felt like forever, and even though her family had freaked out a little, she knew she’d never looked better.
As they walked through the vines out to the rose-strewn aisle—with Smith keeping a firm grip on Sophie’s arm to make sure she didn’t fall face-first off the steps into a bush—she didn’t have to fake her radiant smile.
Watch out, world, she thought, Sophie Sullivan is about to cut loose.
And, hopefully, Jake McCann wouldn’t know what hit him.
Three
Jake gave a few last-minute instructions to the staff he’d brought in to work the wedding, then stepped out from behind the bar just as the string quartet started playing the Wedding March. A cute little blonde girl skipped down the aisle, tossing flower petals into the air. Charmed, the crowd laughed and admired Summer, the daughter of Gabe’s girlfriend. Marcus and Lori came next, the oldest Sullivan and one of the youngest. Lori took her place as one of the maids of honor, and Marcus moved to the center in preparation for officiating the ceremony.
Yet again, Jake could hardly believe this day had come. There were a few things he’d always been sure of in life.
Beer always tasted better from the tap.
Ryan Sullivan’s fastball could be counted on to take the Hawks to another World Series as long as he was on the pitcher’s mound.
And the Sullivan boys weren’t going to be heading to the altar any time soon.
Ellen caught sight of him and frantically waved him over to his place by Brenda, the bridesmaid he’d be escorting. A staffing emergency at one of his pubs meant he hadn’t been able to attend the rehearsal dinner, so he hadn’t met her yet, but he hoped Chloe had good taste in friends. At this point, the only way he had even the slightest chance of working Sophie out of his system after a long day together at the wedding was to make sure he ended the night in bed with a woman who was her polar opposite.
He was almost to the bridesmaid when his heart—and his feet—stopped cold.
What the hell had Sophie done to herself?
Jake blinked to try to fix his vision as Sophie and Smith rounded a row of vines and continued walking down the aisle. When he was still seeing things a few seconds later—crazy, insane things—he ran a hand over his eyes.
But nothing changed the fact that Sophie was looking like walking sex in a silky pink dress and high heels. She sure wasn’t wearing the jeans and baseball cap anymore. But the dress wasn’t the only thing different about her. What had she done to her hair? And why did her eyes look so big, her mouth so red?
His body reacted to the shockingly sensual picture of her before he could stop it, all of the blood that was supposed to feed a brain that knew not to ever look at Sophie Sullivan like that—especially in front of all six of her brothers—shooting south.
Ellen’s hand at his elbow jolted him. “It’s almost your turn to head up the aisle, Jake.”
He heard what she said, knew he needed to join the rest of the group, but even as he held out his arm for Chloe’s friend, he couldn’t take his eyes off Sophie.
The view from the back didn’t help his current problem, damn it. Sophie Sullivan had a perfect ass, and right then she was showcasing it to three hundred people in a dress that slipped and slid over her curves so tightly he knew she couldn’t possibly be wearing anything under it.
An urge to drag her away from the wedding, away from all those hungry male eyes drinking her in, to make her change back into her normal clothes—clothes that covered her up the way she should be covered!—came so fast, Jake was hard-pressed to ignore it. He couldn’t stand knowing dozens of guys in the audience were drooling right now, even the ones who were married and had no business thinking those kinds of thoughts about little Sophie Sullivan.
Although…she didn’t exactly look young and innocent, didn’t seem quite so untouchable anymore, did she?
Ellen said his name again—this time a little louder—and he took it as his cue to start walking down the aisle. Gabe and Megan, who were in front of him, impeded his view of Sophie for a few seconds, and he had to crane his neck to keep his eye on her as she took her place beside Lori beneath the rose-covered arches.
A moment later, Sophie looked up and caught him staring at her. Jake tried to look away.
And failed.
The woman on his arm had to tug him to keep his feet moving in the right direction. The last thing Jake saw before taking his place beside Gabe in the lineup was Sophie’s soft mouth turned up into a sensual, utterly feminine smile.
***
Sophie had always loved weddings and, despite her nerves, she couldn’t help but get caught up in the romance of it all. Of course, Sullivan Winery was quite possibly the most glorious wedding venue she’d ever seen. The budding leaves on the vines, the mustard flowers blooming in every free patch of soil, the rolling hills, the bright blue sky above, the masses of flowers in pots and displays at the end of every row of seats—these were all breathtaking additions to the celebration of love between Chase and Chloe.
Marcus was doing such a beautiful job officiating Chase’s wedding. She was so glad he’d agreed to do it and one day, when she got married, she hoped it would be Marcus standing up in front of her and her groom, too.
Sophie could tell her oldest brother was as choked up as the rest of them, but his voice was steady and solid as he asked Chase and Chloe if they would love, honor and comfort each other.
She had to reach for Lori’s hand and hold it tight as she waited for that perfect moment when her brother declared his love to his bride. It felt as if the entire world stood still as Chase turned to Chloe and smiled at her. Sophie’s chest squeezed tight at the undying love radiating from her brother to his bride.
What, Sophie wondered, would it feel like to have a man look at her like that? As if she was absolutely everything to him?
Chase said, “I will love you forever, Chloe,” and a soft sigh left Sophie’s lips as a tear slipped down her cheek. A few moments later, as Chloe made the same vow to Chase, more tears fell down Sophie’s cheeks, one after the other. And as Marcus pronounced them husband and wife, everyone cheered, but none louder than quiet Sophie Sullivan.
***
Jake had never cared much for weddings. As far as he was concerned, they took up too much of a perfectly good weekend and were a waste of hard-earned money. Especially given that at least half of the unions ended in divorce.
For some reason, though, this wedding was different. He’d spent enough time with Chase and Chloe to think they actually had a shot at making this thing work. With that kid in her belly, he sure hoped it would.
Not, of course, that he was paying much attention to the actual wedding taking place…because he couldn’t take his eyes off the groom’s sister.
When Sophie walked up the aisle, he’d been struck stupid at how sexy she was in that dress. He almost hadn’t recognized her as the sweet Sullivan who was always hanging around his heels when they were kids. But then, as he’d watched her during the ceremony, she’d transformed again.
Still ridiculously sexy, but sweet again, her eyes big as she listened to the vows, leaning in toward the bride and groom as if she wanted to become a part of their happin
ess. And in that moment when she’d reached out to grab Lori’s hand, he’d had a split second of wishing it had been him she was grabbing for instead.
And that he could be the one to hold her.
Jake felt as if someone had reached a fist into his chest, grabbed hold of his heart, and squeezed until it was nothing more than a messy pile of blood and veins. He’d never be able to erase the memory of the hope, the longing and the love in Sophie’s eyes as she watched Chase and Chloe pledge their love to each other.
Before he knew it, the ceremony was over, the guests were clapping and the happy couple was walking back down the aisle together while the string quartet played a classic Italian love song that harkened back to their mother’s roots. Sophie took Smith’s arm and walked down the aisle, her perfect little backside swaying in time to the music.
Jake was suddenly pulled from his reverie when he heard his name being called. “Earth to Jake,” Gabe said, elbowing him in the ribs. “Wedding’s over. Time to go eat cake.”
Four
There was only one sure cure for Jake’s sudden bout of insanity. He’d tend the bar…and then he’d find himself a willing single woman who didn’t have anything to do with the Sullivan family. And he was going to steer completely clear of Sophie for the rest of the wedding. A little distance from all those soft curves and those plump, red lips would help him get his head back on straight.
“I’ve got this,” he told Sammy, one of his best bartenders who worked at the original McCann’s in the city. “You can circulate with the trays.”
Fortunately, the wedding guests were thirsty, clearly wanting some vino or hops to begin celebrating. Pouring drinks for strangers was as natural to Jake as breathing, and he immediately got into a rhythm in the middle of the vineyard as the meal was served and people kept a running line behind the bar between courses. He couldn’t remember a time he hadn’t been drying clean glasses, rearranging bottles. As a kid, when his dad had been the one running the taps, Jake had been in the back loading and unloading the dishwasher for a few extra bucks, while the cooks at whatever pub they were at slung together plates of fish and chips and colcannon.
