Page 1 of Vegas with my Brother’s Best Friends

Chapter one

Chapter 1: Cassidy

When the new year started, I had a feeling that I would be attending a bachelorette party in the following months.

I just thought it was going to be my bachelorette party.

A loud pop fills the huge hotel suite as my best friend and the bride-to-be opens another bottle of champagne. She climbs on top of a coffee table, stepping over silver, plastic tiaras and white and pink confetti.

“Who wants another round?” Sarah calls out as she lifts the open bottle in the air.

Cheers from her bridesmaids and friends surround her, empty champagne flutes rising.

Sarah smiles and tips the bottle, sloppily pouring champagne in whichever glasses she can reach.

That’s my cue.

I slip between Gina and Tessa to reach Sarah, plucking the bottle out of her hands before she can dump champagne on their heads. “I’ll take over from here.”

Sarah wraps her arms around me, her cheek pressing against mine. “You’re the best maid of honor a bride could ever ask for.”

She’s always giggly after a few too many drinks, but she’s the best to party with. No one else lifts spirits like her, and she deserves to be celebrated.

She deserves to be a bride, even if the thought of a wedding crushes my spirit like it’s made of tissue paper.

I take her hand and guide her closer to the others. “How about you get off this table before you break something?”

Sarah pecks me on the cheek before holding her hands out. “Love you.”

“Love you,” I tell her with a warm smile.

Becca and Kara take Sarah’s hands and help her down before the three join the small group of girls dancing to the pop playlist that I put on.

“She’s right. She couldn’t have gotten a better maid of honor,” Tessa says as I manage to step down from the coffee table without snapping a heel.

I adjust the low neckline of my silver mini dress, my eyes scanning the suite for anything that needs to be done. There’s somehow still plenty of alcohol left, and the kitchen island is still full of catered trays of food. The balloons I filled up and the streamers I hung earlier remain in place, and the sash decorating station has more materials if anyone messes theirs up.

“I just want her to have a good time. The best time.”

Tessa glances at her phone and laughs. “Well, it looks like the groom is having fun too.”

When she shows me the screen, I immediately spot my older brother, Ryan, in the middle of the photo. His face is flushed, and there are already a few buttons of his shirt undone. There’s a shot glass in one hand, and his other arm is wrapped around one of his groomsmen’s shoulders.

It looks like the bachelor party is just as wild as the bachelorette party.

That’s what happens when the bride and groom decide to party in Las Vegas on the same night.

“My brother cannot handle alcohol,” I say, my lips curling up in amusement. “And neither can his fiancé.”

“I don’t think anyone in the wedding party can.”

Before I can laugh, my eyes land on a man in the background of the photo, my voice locking up in my throat. My smile plummets off my face, all of the joy draining from my body.

Derek Adams used to always make me smile.

When we met a few years ago, he made me laugh all night long with his funny stories and ridiculous jokes. He wooed me with surprise flower deliveries, long goodnight texts, and movie tickets every other Friday night.

He got me. He loved me.