“I really appreciate that, Theo,” Max said. “And I hope you’ll help her with some of the planning. It would mean the world to me. You know, this is the only wedding I’m going to have. I asked you to be my best man because you’ve always been there for me. In a way, you’ve been more of a parent to me than our own parents were.”
Theo had to look away. He knew his brother was right about that.
It was amazing that Max was getting married at all, given what the two of them had been through growing up. Their parents had divorced when they were young, and it had been bitter and contentious. The fights, the way each parent had leveraged the boys against the other — it had all been a very difficult way to grow up, and Theo had done all he could to shield his brother from the worst of it.
He was proud of Max. He was happy that his brother had found enough confidence in his love life that he was able to get married. God knew Theo himself would never feel like that.
And his brother wanted him to help with the wedding preparations. They had been together, a team, all their lives, and now Max was asking him for this.
“All right,” Theo said, though he dreaded how much the project would take him away from his work and prevent him from getting things done. “Six weeks. I’m sure we can pull something together in that time.”
“Thanks, man.” Max beamed. “I knew I could count on you. Tara is going to be so happy.”
“All right.” Theo got to his feet and bounce-passed the ball to his brother. “Let’s finish this game, shall we? And get your head in it, or I’m going to have to let your fiancée know that she’s engaged to a guy who can’t make a layup.”
Max laughed, and the game resumed.
At least this maid of honor person is going to be involved in the planning,Theo thought.With any luck, she’ll be so excited about planning her friend’s wedding that I’ll hardly need to do anything at all.
CHAPTER 2
THEO
As it turned out, Theo wasn’t getting off the hook so easily.
He drove five times around the block in front of the café Max had given him the name of, looking for a parking spot and cursing the fact that this brunch had been necessary. He did want to help his brother organize this wedding, but why was a brunch part of that? Couldn’t Max have just given him the maid of honor’s phone number?
He pushed aside thoughts of the board meeting he had skipped to be here. He would get the minutes from someone. He’d be playing catch-up all day, but that was all right. He was doing this for his brother, after all. He would do anything for Max.
He finally found a parking spot and pulled into it. Before getting out of the car, he adjusted the rearview mirror to make sure there wasn’t anything in his teeth. He had sat through enough interviews with people who forgot to do this that he would never forget it again himself. It was a terrible first impression to make.
He got out of the car and went into the diner. It was a quaint place with paintings by local artists on the walls. Theo had neverbeen here before, but itwassweet, and it struck him as the sort of place his brother would like. It charmed him to think that Tara had chosen a place that would make Max happy. Whether it was to her own taste or she’d been picking for his sake, the fact remained that the two of them were a good match, and that was a satisfying thing to realize.
“Can I help you?” the hostess asked as he went inside.
“I’m meeting— oh. There he is.” Max was waving at him from a corner booth. Theo sidestepped the hostess and went in.
As he reached the table, everyone rose to their feet to greet him. Max wrapped him in a bear hug and slapped his shoulder. Tara, so tall she was of a height with Max, blond, and willowy, stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek. She was beaming, and she held out her hand. “Look,” she said happily.
Theo admired the ring. “Congratulations to you both,” he said. “You’ll be great for him, Tara. You might be settling a bit, though.”
“Oh, shut up,” Max said cheerfully. “Theo, meet Harper Martin. Harper, this is my brother, Theo.”
Theo turned his attention to the third person at the table. She was shorter than Tara by at least a foot, and where Tara’s hair was sleek and pale blond, Harper’s was a mass of thick auburn Irish curls. She beamed up at him, looking as if she was being introduced to a celebrity. “Theo! It’s so nice to finally meet Max’s brother. He says the sweetest things about you.”
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Theo said. “My family really loves Tara.”
“Of course you do. Tara’s the best. I’m so lucky to have her as a friend, and I’m so excited to be a part of this wedding. I bet you feel the same. I’ve been waiting ages for these two to finally tie the knot.”
Theo couldn’t honestly say he had felt anything of the sort, but he smiled and nodded. “It’ll be a nice event,” he said. “I know it’ll be lovely for my mother to have a wedding to celebrate. This is going to mean a lot to her.”
“And it means so much tomethat the two of you have both volunteered to help,” Tara said, easing back into her seat. Everyone else joined her, and Tara pulled a large binder out of her oversized purse and set it on the table. “Okay,” she said. “This is everything you’re going to need. Now, Max tells me that you’re going to help with the venue and all of the vendors we need, right, Theo?”
“Um,” Theo hesitated. Was that what he had agreed to? He had certainly said he would try to help, but it sounded like Tara had something very specific in mind for him.
She rotated the binder to face the side of the booth where Theo and Harper sat. Harper leaned over eagerly and began to peruse the pages, but Theo kept his eyes on Tara as she pointed things out.
“This is a list of venues I’m partial to,” she said. “It’s probably going to come down to which one can take us on the date we have scheduled — although if there are multiple options that work, we trust the two of you to choose something that suits our needs, of course.”
