“Jesus, would you knock it off?” Aidan says to his brother.
Liam holds up both his hands in mock surrender as he chuckles.
Aidan sighs and looks at me. “Sorry, Kendall. Want a beer?”
I sit down next to him and thank him when he pours me a glass from the pitcher at their table, ignoring Liam’s gaze on me.
I remind myself why I agreed to do this. Because Aidan is one of my best friends. We’ve known each other since we were students at Vanderbilt together. He helped me study for my grad school entrance exams because he’s a few years older than me and knew the process. He helped get me my job at East Nashville College. He let me take over the lease for his duplex when he bought his first house. And he always volunteers to cover for me when I have to miss class to take care of my aunt.
He’s one of the kindest and most generous people I know. And I’ve noticed how stressed out he’s been these past few months, balancing his work at the university with his work as an author. Whenever I asked him about wedding planning, I didn’t miss the look of panic in his eyes. The poor guy is drowning.
So when he asked me today at work to be his best woman and plan the engagement party, bachelor party, and rehearsal dinner, it was easy for me to say yes to him.
Even if I have to do all that with his asshole brother.
Aidan turns to me. “Thanks again for agreeing to do this.”
I smile at him. “You’ve helped me out more times than I can even remember. This is the least I can do.”
I set my glass down and pull up the Notes app on my phone. “Any specific requests that you and Micah have for the engagement party, since that’s the first event?”
Aidan shakes his head. “Just something low-key and laidback. Nothing stuffy. Drinks and good food would be perfect.”
He tells me the budget for the engagement party, and I toss out the names of a few local restaurants and bars that I think could work. Aidan says he’s good with any of them. He tells us that he and Micah would like to have the party the last weekend of this month.
He winces. “I know that’s only a couple of weeks away, but since the wedding is this fall, we wanted to have the engagement party as soon as possible. Sorry this is all last minute. I’ve been so focused on grading and keeping up with writing and deadlines. Micah’s been swamped too.”
“It’s okay,” I say. “I promise we’ll pull it all together.”
Aidan checks the time on his phone. “I gotta go. I’ve still got a bunch of work to finish tonight.”
“Yeah, of course,” I say. He stands up and pulls out his wallet. He starts to dig out cash, but Liam stops him.
“Nope, I’ve got it.”
Aidan nods at his little brother. “Thanks.” He looks at both of us. “Look, I know you two don’t really get along, so I really appreciate you putting your differences aside to help Micah and me.”
I smile, despite how annoyed I am at the thought of having to spend time with Liam over the next couple of months.
“Don’t worry about it,” I say.
“Yeah. We got you, big brother.” His teasing gaze cuts to me. “By the time your wedding rolls around, Kendall and I are gonna be best friends.”
I roll my eyes. Aidan makes a scoff-laughing noise.
“Right.” He walks off, still laughing.
I look across the table at Liam, whose smile is dialed back as he gazes at me. He looks more amused than smug now.
“We should come up with a schedule for us to meet to plan out all the events,” I say.
“Yeah, okay.”
I tap away on my phone screen, surprised that he didn’t say some smart-ass comment.
I’m quiet as I type up a to-do list. I turn my phone and show it to him. “These are all the things we have to do before the engagement party. I’ll take the top of the list, and you can take the bottom. Does that sound okay?”
He blinks at the list, his mouth a straight line, almost like he’s surprised at what I’ve put together. “You thought of all that stuff just now?”
