by Marie Harte
“Well, yeah, before we set our wedding date, at least.” He grinned at her. But she laughed again, and he had a feeling it was at—not with—him. He frowned. “Okay, what?”
She cleared her throat, her humor still plain to see. “Well, Smoky, there’s a sign on your back that says Kiss me if you pity men with small brains.”
He blinked. “What?”
“I feel for you. It’s not your fault size really does matter.” She snickered again before leaving him busy staring over his shoulder at the mirrored wall behind him.
Son of a… Gavin saw the marker inked into his T-shirt. No doubt why he hadn’t caught it earlier. One of his idiot brothers or sister had written in black marker on his dark-blue shirt.
The war had most definitely resumed. A Donnigan family tradition—pranking on each other until somebody cried.
Well, it wouldn’t be him. Sure, he looked like an idiot. He’d also had Zoe York’s mouth on him, finally. And now he had a valid excuse to retaliate on one unlucky Donnigan. Hell yeah. He just had to figure out which one of them had pulled this stunt.
With Landon so deep into Ava, it probably wasn’t him. Though technically Gavin and Landon still lived together, Big Brother spent most of his waking hours at work or with the doc. Theo was the more likely culprit. Little Brother hadn’t liked the mohawk haircut he’d woken up to a few weeks ago. Gavin thought Theo had looked edgy, but maybe the hair dye had been overdoing it. But that had been Landon’s prank, turning Theo’s hair Oregon State orange. Gavin’s assist couldn’t count as the actual idea, and from what he knew, Theo still blamed Landon for the prank. Had Theo struck back, but at Gavin instead?
Or had it been Hope, his younger sister, showing off the set of brass balls they all knew she had buried under a sweet smile? Conniving little witch. Hell, it could really be any of them. Ava too. The woman had a wicked sense of humor. After all, she loved Landon, didn’t she?
Two women stopped him to give him kisses on the cheek. He flushed.
“It’s okay, Gavin. So long as you’re not small in other places,” Megan taunted. Considering she knew exactly how not small he was, he felt vindicated.
Her laughter didn’t help though. Before someone else could pity him, he swore and ripped off his shirt, assuaged by the momentary silence around him. Megan clapped, someone else wolf whistled, and Gavin hurried past half the gym while he went in search of a new shirt.
Unfortunately, the spare in his locker had also been tampered with. This saying much more visible—and insulting. I might be small down below, but I have a big heart. Don’t hate me because I’m tiny.
“Oh my God. Theo, I know this is you,” he growled and tossed the shirt right back in the locker. He had so many ideas of what to do to his kid brother that he missed Mac and Shane’s entrance.
“So you’re finally copping to the truth—that you have a small brain. The first step is admitting the problem,” Shane Collins, Mac’s good buddy and a fellow former Marine, shook his head. Shane smiled a lot, had a beautiful wife, and would be the perfect wingman for a night on the town. He’d help draw the ladies, then push them toward Gavin—the confirmed single man. Gavin liked him. Normally.
“Not funny, Collins.” Gavin did his best not to belt the guy. “My family did this.”
Mac grinned. “Seems a little immature for Landon, don’t you think?”
“Who the hell knows? With my family, it could even be my father.”
“Ouch.” Mac shook his head. “Let me grab you a gym T-shirt. You know, the new uniform you’re supposed to wear?”
Gavin forced an innocent expression. “I meant to. But I only have two, and I haven’t done laundry.”
“In what, a month?” Shane snorted. “Nice try.” He turned to Mac. “I told you they hated the shirts.”
“Shut up.” Mac left and returned moments later with a bright-red shirt with bold white letters that said Jameson’s Gym. No doubt about where Gavin worked wearing that thing. He felt like a stop sign with arms when he wore it.
With a sigh, Gavin threw it on. “Is this kid-size or what?” The shirt clung to him like rubber.
“It’s an adult large. Not my fault you’re so big you’re growing out of our leftover stock.”
Shane gave him a knowing once-over. “Still, it’s good promo having a muscle-bound freak wearing your name.”
“Hey.” Gavin frowned.
“Sorry. Muscle-bound idiot with a small brain.” Shane snickered. “Seriously, Gavin, do some laundry. That’s just embarrassing.”
“Good thing you can run fast,” Gavin muttered, having watched Shane eat up the treadmill on more than one occasion.
Mac shook his head. “With a mouth that annoying, he’s constantly outrunning daily beatings—and that’s just from his wife.”
“Please.” Shane no longer seemed so amused. “She loves me.”
“Good thing someone does.”
Mac chuckled. “You know, Shane, maybe you should attend our self-defense classes. You might learn a thing or two.”
“No thanks.” Shane’s glare turned even more unfriendly. “I’ve heard the class is all about watching those big, hunky Donnigans prance around.”
“I’m hunky. Landon’s just big,” Gavin offered, trying to be helpful. “But it’s a good thing Shelby’s taking the class. I consider my prancing a public service.”
“My wife,” Shane emphasized, “has learned a few tricks from you two jarheads, I’ll admit. But I’ll be the one teaching her close combat, understand?”
Gavin held his hands up in surrender, stretching his tiny cotton shirt. With any luck, he’d rip holes in the arms and have an excuse to tear off the sleeves.
Mac winked at Gavin. “Best class we’ve had in a while. Well, next to Maggie’s aerobics workouts. Do you know how many gym memberships we got after I put her, then you guys, to work?”
“Well, yeah.” Gavin nodded. “Maggie’s hot. Of course membership increased. Then you have me to balance out my brother’s fat head. He’s big, but I’m fast and handsome. So bam, your female membership goes through the roof.” Not that Gavin believed most of the bullshit he spouted, but it seemed to aggravate Shane, who rolled his eyes. “Enough to give me a raise?”
Mac scoffed. “Dream on. No, but enough to give you the weekend off to go to your cousin’s wedding.”
“Huh?”
“Landon said to make sure you had the weekend off. Something about your mother throwing a fit if you even think of getting out of Mike’s nuptials?”
Mike McCauley—one of the prodigal McCauleys, Aunt Beth’s brood. Not that he didn’t love his cousins, annoying as they were, but Gavin had already been to more than his share of social crap since being back home. He swore. Stupid Landon. “Thanks for nothing, Mac.”
Before he left the locker room, Shane called out, “Nothing on the back of your shirt this time, little man. You’re welcome for looking out for you.” More laughter.
Gavin didn’t deign to answer and left to finish his shift. Unfortunately, he got mobbed by a bunch of women he knew to be familiar with the equipment they asked about, as well as a few guys who wanted to know where they could purchase gym shirts.
But of Zoe, he saw no sign. And his mood went downhill from there.
* * *
Five days later, Gavin sat in a grand reception hall and watched as the oldest of his McCauley cousins twirled his new bride around the dance floor. Damned if he wanted to admit it, but Mike and Del made a nice-looking couple. Mike looking buff and shiny in a tux, while his new wife wore the hell out of a white wedding dress, with colorful sleeves of tattoos and her hair done up in some twisty braid. Gavin definitely approved. Nothing the McCauleys needed more than some fresh blood to dilute their straight-laced gene pool.
Yep, there went more McCauleys spinning around their significant others. In the nine mon
ths since he’d been home, Gavin had attended two weddings, a pre-wedding party, and this shindig. All of his cousins maturing and getting responsible.
He’d grown up hearing how Aunt Beth’s kids could do no wrong. So it had been up to him and Landon to get good grades and kick ass at sports, setting the way for their younger sister and brother. His mother had some kind of weird need to be better than her sisters in all things, including the achievements of her kids. Or so it had seemed at the time. Gavin knew his mother to be ultra-competitive, but she cared about her family first and foremost. Her need to one-up Aunt Beth and Aunt Sophie came second. Mostly.
He saw his mother and father standing at the periphery of the dance floor holding hands. They smiled and laughed a lot, while his mother kept talking to Landon next to her. Landon had his arm around Ava, the pair of them sickeningly in tune. Ava smiled at Linda every time Landon looked like he’d eaten a lemon.
Landon caught his gaze, gave a subtle glance at their mother, and rolled his eyes.
Gavin grinned. Oh yeah, his mother’s competitive streak still ran deep. Of course, Linda had managed to do the one thing her sisters hadn’t. He glanced away from his mother and spotted Hope—the lone girl in a family that only made boys.
To his relief, his sister left the buff, dopey guy staring after her and joined him at the table. Fortunately, he and his family, including Aunt Sophie and her date, had been seated in a corner, away from most of the noise.
Hope flounced next to him, looking beautiful in an aqua-colored gown that came to mid-calf. It didn’t show too much cleavage or thigh, though too much shoulder, in his opinion. “Oh man. My feet hurt in these heels.”
“So why did you wear them?”
“Um, hello? It’s a wedding? I had to look good.” She narrowed her gaze at their parents. “Wouldn’t want to embarrass Linda.”
Gavin sighed. “Hope, forget Mom and enjoy yourself.”
“I’m trying to. But she ordered me—ordered me, Gavin—to stay away from some of the bride’s guests. Like I need to be told who to socialize with. Del’s friends are perfectly nice.”
“But are they housebroken? That’s the question,” he murmured, eyeballing the guys with myriad tattoos and arms as big as Landon’s.
Hope continued to rant. “Give me a friggin’ break. When will she learn I’m a grown woman? I’m twenty-nine years old.”
“With a history of dating losers,” he said bluntly.
“You’re really going there?” A pause. “The guy who slept with Michelle and half her bitchy groupies?”
“Oh yeah. I’m a moron. I admit it. Hey, I already hit rock bottom. Drank myself silly, slept with the wrong people, and still have nightmares about crap I want to forget. My shit is hanging out there for all the world to see.” He sighed, sounding pitiful.
She frowned, looking remorseful. “Gavin, I—”
“I’m not upset about it.” Truth was truth, though he hated his family worrying about him. So he forced a grin. “And that big old pity card helps me get the girls like you wouldn’t believe. Marine with a sob story—A-plus, baby.”
Her pity cleared up, as he’d hoped it would. “You are such an ass.”
“So they say, but normally, it’s more like, ‘Oh my God, his ass is so amazing. It’s like touching gold. I want him so bad,’” he drew out, turning his sister pink.
“And here I thought sitting with you would be better than being drooled over by that guy.”
Gavin immediately straightened. “What? That guy was bothering you? Why didn’t you tell me that straight off? The one you just left, or some other schmuck?”
She blinked. “Why, Gavin, I didn’t know you cared.”
“Of course I do. You think I want some asshole bothering my baby sister…again?” He and Landon had taken care of the last creep to mistreat her weeks ago. “Which one was it?”
She paused, studied him, then reluctantly pointed to the biggest guy there. “Him.” She sucked in a breath, then released a shaky sigh. “Okay, now I just feel stupid. I should be able to handle this kind of stuff.”
“Hope?”
“But, I don’t know. He scared me a little. Gavin, can you just nicely tell him I’m seeing someone else?”
“Are you?”
“No. But it might get him to leave me alone. I don’t want a scene or anything. Nothing physical. Just convince him to leave me be,” she said in a husky voice and blinked up at him.
Gavin automatically nodded, wishing like hell she’d pointed out one of the smaller of Del’s many guests. The guy bothering her was one of the bride’s employees, a mechanic at her garage. Rumor had it most of them hung out at a dive bar called Ray’s. He and Landon had visited once, when they’d beaten some manners into Hope’s ex. If Ray’s groupies hadn’t done time, it was a sure bet iron bars would figure at some point in their futures.
“Stay here.” He left Hope, determined to set those assholes from Webster’s Garage straight, when it dawned on him his sister hadn’t tried too hard to get him to mind his own business. He glanced behind him and saw her smirk, which quickly turned into a frown. So, the gloves were now officially off in the Donnigan Prank Wars. Good to know.
He walked to the big guy she’d indicated, a hulking bruiser a few inches taller than his own six two. He had short brown hair and tattoos creeping up his neck and peeking under the sleeves of his suit jacket. Gavin knew the guy and the two giants next to him worked for Del. Since Aunt Sophie and Del’s father, Liam, were dating, he knew more than he wanted to about Webster’s Garage. It was almost incestuous how closely everyone at this wedding was tied together.
Big Guy paused as he drew closer, and Gavin realized he’d already met this asshole. The guy had danced with Hope a few months ago, back when Del had thrown a pre-wedding party Gavin had been forced—once again by his mother—to attend.
“What?” the dick, Sam Something-or-Other, barked at him. The others with him turned as one, now silent and staring.
Just then, a beautiful blond joined them and frowned. “Sam, be nice.” She tugged his huge arm back down by his side. “Hi,” she said to Gavin. “I’m Ivy.”
Gavin smiled. “I’m Gavin. I need your man to do me a favor.”
“No.” Sam didn’t blink.
Next to him, the two guys chuckled. The taller one snorted. “This is you being nice?”
“Fuck off,” Sam said to Gavin or his friend. Gavin couldn’t tell which. No emotion. Not even a glare.
Gavin ignored the suggestion. “So I need you to pretend to hit me.”
“Don’t you dare,” Ivy admonished.
Sam gave a slow smile. “Pretend? I can do one better than that.”
“Oh, now I really want to know where this is going,” the other of Sam’s friends said, his voice slightly accented, attesting to a Latino heritage.
Tall guy sighed. “Lou, don’t encourage him. Cyn will have my head if he starts any shit.”
“Don’t swear,” Sam said. “Not in front of Ivy.”
“But you told me to fuck off,” Gavin added, enjoying himself. He glanced over his shoulder at his sister and saw her sudden concern. Yeah, not so funny if he got pounded by three giants instead of just the one.
“I did?” Sam blinked. “Oh, sorry, baby.”
“Actually, I prefer Gavin. But if you want to call me baby, I guess that’s okay since you’re doing me a solid.”
Sam’s scowl was enough to freeze hell over. His friends just laughed.
Ivy blushed. So adorable. How the hell had this bruiser landed such a pretty, innocent woman?
“You sure you two are together?” he asked her.
That got him an even more frigid scowl.
“Yeah, we keep asking her that. I’m Foley, by the way.” Tall guy held out a hand. Gavin shook it. “He’s Lou. And you’re…Gavin, right? Where’s Lance
lot?”
Gavin laughed, then coughed to hide his amusement, not wanting Hope to see it. “My brother, Landon, is over with my parents. He’s being tortured as we speak. My mother is fixated on him and his fiancée having the perfect wedding.”
Sam nodded. “Fiancée, huh? Good. I guess he did get his head out of his ass.”
“Huh?”
“I gave him some advice a while ago.”
Lou sputtered, in the process of drinking a beer. “Sorry. Thought you said you were giving out advice.”
“This I have to hear,” Ivy muttered.
Sam flushed, and the look was so incongruous with the badass vibe he projected that Gavin could only stare. “Come on, Ivy. I’m not that bad.”
“No, you are,” Foley said. “I mean, totally awful. Just the worst.”
“The worst,” Lou agreed.
“The advice?” Gavin prodded, loving this.
“Well, your brother was wandering around in the rain, feeling sorry for himself. So I told him to be more like my man Foley here and sac up. Go get his ass in front of his girl and make her see things his way.”
“That’s your stellar advice?” Ivy laughed. “Oh boy. It’s a good thing you have the guys and me to help you, or you’d still be single.”
“Well, maybe.” Sam shrugged, then wrapped an arm around Ivy’s shoulders. “But I have you, so it’s all good.”
She tugged him down so she could kiss him on the lips. The joy in her big, brown eyes didn’t lie. “That’s right, you do.” She popped him in the arm. “But you still need to be nice.” Then she shook her hand. “It’s like hitting a wall. Well, I’m going to go over and talk with the girls. Be good,” she warned one final time, then headed toward a stacked redhead and a woman who looked familiar.
A sweet woman with cocoa-colored skin and bouncy blondish-brown curls. She was a stunner, for sure. How did he know her? And why, when presented with such a delightful package, did his thoughts instead veer toward blue eyes, yoga pants, and a snarky temperament?
“What are you looking at?” Lou asked, his low voice threatening despite his calm.
