The older gentleman sitting next to me patted my hand.
I winced inwardly. I wasn’t big on people touching me. At least not without permission.
“Not really.”
“You’re gripping that armrest—”
“Norman, leave the young man alone.”
The gentleman’s wife poked her head around him. “He’s just…friendly.”
“Yes, he is.” And I’d put my earbuds in as soon as I’d learned just how friendly. I’d wanted to listen to the latest Harvard law podcast, and after that, I’d selected an audiobook by a local Mission City author. Young-adult fantasy wasn’t normally something I’d choose, but Taryn swore RD Watts’s trilogy was amazing. After listening to the first four hours of the first book, I could admit I was hooked. Certainly, when I jogged on the treadmill, I’d listen to the rest. “I’m just listening to an audiobook and hadn’t realized I was gripping the armrest.”
We stopped and the seatbelt light came off.
I undid my seatbelt, grabbed my briefcase from under the seat, leapt up, and hotfooted as close to the front of the plane as I could get. I didn’t have carry-on luggage, and I was sitting in the row behind business class, but I still got stuck behind someone reaching for their bag and blocking the aisle.
Being the good person I was—and wanting out of there as quickly as possible—I assisted them.
To their credit, they pressed against their seat so I could escape.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like airplanes—germ-ridden things they were—but I wanted out. I’d still have to wait for my luggage, but I could do that in peace.
Twenty minutes later, with my bags secure in the trunk of my rental car, I left the Abbotsford airport and headed to Mission City.
To my hometown.
To Stephanie and Taryn.
To Cooper.
God help me.
Chapter Two
Cooper
“How can you be such a stick-in-the-mud asshole?” I was on the verge of pulling my hair, but given how much time I’d spent on the coif, even the likes of Lachlan Briggs wasn’t enough for me to risk messing up my do. I glared at my nemesis—aka my sister’s fiancée’s beloved brother—and scowled.
“Why are you being so weird?”
“Like what?” My heart did a little pitter-patter when he blinked those deep dark-brown eyes. Along with his longer-than expected dark-brown hair, he looked like the brooding dark hero from a gothic novel. Which sometimes made it difficult to concentrate. Like now. We were reviewing the floorplan for the ceremony. Mr. Corporate had unprecedentedly taken a week off work, Taryn had pointed out. Which meant I had to deal with stick-in-the-mud for that entire time.
It's going to feel like a million years.
Your cherished sister is getting married. You love her.
Oh, right.
So I’d be on my best behavior. “How would you like me to act? What would make me lessweird?”
"Well, you could check the weather report. The ceremony is supposed to take place outside. What if it’s raining?" He growled the words.
"Surely you know you can’t trust a forecast. This is the wet coast. Wait five minutes and the weather will change. Unless you have some magic wand that you could do creative things with.”Like run it over my naked body while you—
He blinked. "No...." He cleared his throat. “I have to go to the washroom.”
“To remove the stick from your ass?”
