Chapter One
Lennix
Then
My heart clenched painfullyas I stared across the dance floor, through the sea of familiar face, all laughing and smiling, to the person who was currently crushing my heart to smithereens without even realizing.
The atmosphere was throbbing with celebration, excitement and joy shimmering in the air all around me. I should have been one of the happiest people there. After all, my big brother—one of my favorite people in the whole wide world—had just gotten married to the love of his life, and if there were any two people on the planet who deserved their happily ever after, it was Zach and Rae. But as happy as I was for them, and as thrilled as I was to have a new sister, my elation had turned into a rock, dropping heavy and painful in the pit of my stomach the moment Raylan showed up for the day’s festivities with a date on his arm.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Raylan Bradbury was known around town to be a bit of a playboy. An eternal bachelor. He was a good-time guy whose longest relationship had barely lasted more than a couple months. However, even though I knew the odds of seeing him with tonight’s companion a second time were slim to none, it didn’t make it hurt any less.
It killed me every time I had to see him with another woman. It was a pain I had been living with for years.
I didn’t have any business falling for my big brother’s best friend, but I hadn’t been able to stop myself. He’d been such a big part of my life for so long that developing feelings for him was like breathing. It was simply second nature and something I couldn’t have prevented, no matter how hard I tried. He’d been around as long as I’d been alive. Sometimes it felt as if I knew him better than I knew myself, and I had loved every single part of him for as long as I could remember.
The problem was, in his eyes, I was nothing more than his best friend’s little sister. The girl who used to follow him and Zach around everywhere they went, trying to be a part of whatever they were doing.
Little Lenni.
As I stared across the dance floor, watching his hand creep lower down his date’s back, I struggled to keep the piece of wedding cake I’d eaten earlier from making an unpleasant reappearance. I would have given anything for him to look at me and see the woman I’d become, but even at twenty-two, I was still a little kid to him.
I forced myself to turn away just as his palm reached the swell of his date’s ass, swallowing down the lump of emotion that threatened to choke me. The lively beat of Flo Rida’s “Low” filled the air. That song usually got me going. It was my anthem, especially after a few drinks. But it was more grating than energizing just then.
“Hey.” At the sound of her voice, I glanced over at my friend Holly Bradbury as she came to a stop beside me, bumping her shoulder against mine. She was a few years older than I was, but just like with Raylan, I’d grown up with the rest of the Bradbury siblings and was friends with all of them, however I was closest to Holly. She, along with Rae and our other friend Ivy, were my ride or dies. My girls. Out of all my friends, they were the three I trusted with everything.
Well…almost everything.
On that thought, I cast a quick glance in Raylan’s direction, then quickly averted my gaze away before I could risk getting caught or seeing anything that might make me feel even worse than I already did.
I returned her shoulder bump. “Hey back.”
“Thought for sure I’d see you out there, shaking thatthang.” She waggled her brows and shimmied her hips for emphasis.
I forced my lips into a smile. “Just tired,” I said with a shrug. “It’s been a long day.” That was only a partial lie. I had been up before the sun to help set up and make sure that everything was absolutely perfect for Rae and Zach’s big day. But that wouldn’t typically stop me from dancing my ass off. Only, my usual energy had abandoned me tonight.
I’d been running on coffee and adrenaline most of the day, and now that my tank was coming close to empty, I could feel the crash setting in. And the ache in my chest, thanks to Raylan, wasn’t making it any better.
Holly’s brows pulled together as her eyes scanned my face. “Are you okay?”
I forced the corners of my mouth to curve a little wider, hoping the smile didn’t look as fake as it felt. “I’m good,” I fibbed. “Just need some fresh air is all.”
The concern on her face only grew, seeing as we were standing in the middle of a tent that was open on all sides. Wewere literally surrounded by fresh air, yet it still felt stifling. The worry marring her face was starting to make me twitchy, so I jumped on the first thing I could think of to take the focus off me. “Hey, why are you standing here with me? You should see about getting a dance with that fine-ass hockey God everyone’s been whispering about all night.”
Tanner Fine truly lived up to his last name, that was for damn sure, and I’d caught my friend checking him out more than once as the evening progressed. A gorgeous slab of man who played professional hockey and was built like a freaking mountain. He had been staying at Second Hope, the lodge owned and operated by my family, for the past few weeks, and had come to the wedding and reception as our friend Ivy’s guest.
Holly looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Are you serious? He’s Ivy’s date.”
I let out a snort and rolled my eyes. “Oh please. I’ve seen more chemistry between a turkey vulture and a dead fox on the side of the road than those two.”
She scrunched her face up in disgust and let out a laugh. “Gross, Len. That was a visual I didn’t need.”
My grin came a little easier that time. “You know what I mean.”
Tanner had shown interest in Ivy since first arriving in our little town, even going so far as to ask her out. She’d turned him down at first, only changing her tune when we pushed her to say yes and bring him as her plus-one to the wedding. But you would have thought they were brother and sister for all the heat brewing between them.
Holly huffed out an exasperated breath. “Please. Like a rich, gorgeous, hotshot hockey player would ever take a second look in my direction. I mean, the man has been on the cover of magazines for crying out loud.”
I’d seen a few of those spreads. In my favorite one, he’d been wearing nothing but his pads and gloves, with his stick strategically placed to cover up those NSFW areas. It was an image that had gone straight into the spank bank section of my memory palace to be pulled up and used whenever the urge came over me.
