I looked up at my youngest brother. Technically I was the youngest by a couple of years, but I had been bossing him around since we were in diapers, and found him watching me with those hopeful greenish-hazel eyes.
“Looks like you’re stuck with me,” I said, holding up the paper.
He lifted his hand up for a knuckle bump. “Hell, yeah.”
“When I eventually find someone willing to put up with me forever, you’re going to be my Best Isak.” I tucked the slip into my pocket like it was something worth keeping. “And you’re going to take it very seriously.”
“I take everything seriously.”
“You have a FlipFlop dedicated entirely to ranking gas station snacks.”
“And I take itveryseriously. It’s investigative journalism, Jules.”
“Sure it is.”
He threw an arm around my shoulders, tugging me into his side. Isak gave the best hugs, probably because he was built like a tree and ran approximately eight thousand degrees at all times. “This is gonna be great,” he said. “We’re gonna be the best best-people ever.”
“Obviously. We’re Kingmans.”
Dad stood up, clapping his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, it’s settled. Chris, Hayes, you two are up first.” He pulled Chris into a hug, and I watched my big brother lean into it. For all that Chris was a celebrity, a champion, the face of the franchise, he was still just a kid who wanted to make his dad proud.
We all were, really.
“April eighth,” Dad said. “We’ve got a wedding to plan.”
Chris looked over at Trixie, who had been watching all of this chaos unfold with hearts practically visible in her eyes. She fit into this family like she’d always been here, because honestly, she kind of had been. She’d been loving Chris since before any of us understood what that meant.
“We’ve got a wedding to plan,” Chris repeated, softer, just to her.
And standing there in that living room, surrounded by my loud, competitive, fiercely loving family, I felt something settle in my chest.
This was just the beginning. Declan and Kelsey, had picked this summer, but still hadn’t released their actual date. Hayes and Willa, and Everett and Penny still had to figure their plansout too. And someday—way, way in the future—me and whoever was brave enough to take on the Kingman gang as in-laws.
But for now, it was Chris and Trixie’s turn. And with all of us behind them, and hopefully a very savvy wedding planner, it was going to be perfect.
Or at the very least, it was going to bememorable.
With this family, that was basically the same thing.
WHAT HAPPENS IN NEW ORLEANS...
CHRIS
The SUV rolled to a stop in a back alley that looked like the opening scene of a true crime documentary. Brick walls, dim lighting, a single red door with no signage. If I didn’t trust Hayes with my life, I’d be checking for exits.
We’d spent the last three days in New Orleans eating our weight in crawfish, losing money on the golf course, taking pictures with Touchdown Jesus, and sweating through a swamp tour that Isak live-streamed to his followers. It had been the perfect bachelor party weekend. But now, on our last night in the city, my sweet baby brother had apparently decided to take us somewhere that looked like it required a secret password and possibly a blood oath.
“Hayes.” I leaned over as the door opened. “Where the hell are we?”
“Trust the process, Chris.” He climbed out of the SUV with a grin that told me nothing.
Dad had already taken Isak back to the hotel, something about not wanting his underage son anywhere near whatever this was. Isak was not happy about having to miss out on anyactivities because of the mere one year keeping him from being of legal drinking age, but if there’s one hill that Bridger Kingman would die on, it would be no underage drinking, which meant the rest of us were at Hayes’s mercy. My brothers piled out of the vehicles, a wall of Kingman muscle in button-downs and blazers, and I followed them toward the red door.
My phone buzzed. I checked it automatically.
Ciara
The florist confirmed the purple ranunculus. Stop asking.
