Chapter 1
Liam
“Damn, big brother. You look like shit.”
Aidan doesn’t reply to my smartass comment. Instead, he just glares at me over the rim of his beer glass as he drinks.
That’s weird. He’s normally quick with the comebacks when I give him a hard time.
But then he does something he’s never done before: he downs his entire beer in two gulps. Then he slams the empty glass on the table of the pub.
My eyes go wide. My buttoned-up English professor older brother isn’t the type to down a pint of beer in two swallows. He must be going through some shit.
“I’m not in the mood for your crap today, Liam,” he mutters.
“Okay, sorry.” I frown. “What’s going on with you?”
He huffs out a rough sigh and drags a hand through his messy hair. “Sorry, just stressed out.”
“Something happen at work?”
He shakes his head before leaning his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose. He takes his glasses off and wipes the lens with the hem of his button-up dress shirt.
“No. It’s just…” He pauses while cleaning his glasses. “Look, I need to ask you something.”
“Yeah, sure. What is it?”
He looks at me, his expression bordering on a grimace. The muscles in my shoulders tense. What the hell is my brother about to ask me for? A loan? A kidney?
“Will you be my best man?”
I blink at him before I grin wide. “Seriously?”
He blinks and nods.
I jump up from my chair so quickly that I knock it over, pulling him into a hug. “Dude! Absolutely! I’d be honored. I thought you were gonna ask me to rob a bank with you or something.” I chuckle as I sit back down. “Why were you so freaked out? You know I’d say yes.”
He lets out an uneasy chuckle. “I haven’t told you the most important part.” He pauses, like he’s working up the nerve. “I’m gonna need you to plan the engagement party. And the rehearsal dinner.”
I start to laugh. But when I realize my brother’s not joking, I stop. My brow jumps to my hairline. “Seriously? I thought the best man only planned the bachelor party and held the rings during the wedding.”
He nods. “Yeah, I know, but I’m going to need you to do more. I know that’s a huge ask. Especially with your schedule.”
“Uh, yeah.” I rub the back of my neck, already stressed just thinking about it.
I’m a center for Nashville’s professional hockey team, the Wolves. And even though it’s the off-season, I’m in the middle of a new tough training regimen and getting ready for the start of the upcoming season, which is in just a couple of months.
Aidan’s eyebrows crash together. “I wouldn’t ask you unless I was desperate. Pre-wedding planning has taken a backseat for Micah and me with everything else we’ve got going on.” Hechugs from his water glass. “I started teaching more sections of my courses at the university.”
“All the cool kids wanna take your classes, huh?”
He starts to smile. “Yeah. It’s been great, but it’s a lot to balance. I figured I could use the money to help pay for the wedding and honeymoon.”
In addition to working as an English professor full time, my brother also writes steamy romance novels with his fiancée Micah. Their first book, a dual POV mafia romance, was a hit when it first came out last year, and they got an offer to write a whole series. On top of that, Micah writes and publishes books on her own.
“Micah’s been working her butt off,” Aidan says. “Ever since her new series blew up on social media a few months ago, she’s been writing nonstop trying to crank out more books.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a lot.”
