Page 1 of This Wild Heart

Chapter 1

Parker

Three months earlier

“I’m married. That’s so weird.”

I smiled against the bottle of beer at my lips. “You’re married to my sister. That’s even weirder.”

Emmett glanced out onto the dance floor, watching his new wife dance with my sisters, and the love in his eyes was enough to make even the greatest of cynics feel a tiny flicker of hope in their chest.

Not me. I didn’t really feel much of anything these days.

All I felt was the collective gaze of my many sisters and mother trying to introduce me to every woman under the age of forty. This was what happened when you were the only single one left in the entire giant fucking family of mine.

I didn’t want to meet anyone. Least of all here where they could all watch and dissect and plan and plot. All they did was plan and plot.

I could practically hear it: How can we fix Parker? He’s still so sad. Maybe if he met the right woman…

Enter the parade of eligible wedding attendees. Honestly, it was a fucking miracle I wasn’t drunk off my ass.

Didn’t mean I wasn’t happy for my sister, even if she did marry my asshole best friend. Their wedding was stunning. Probably one of the most beautiful I’d ever been to—which made sense since my sister owned an event planning company.

Everything was tasteful and elegant, their personalities stamped into every inch. The room was covered in white and cream flowers, flickering candles and twinkling lights on just about every surface. The whole room fucking glowed.

Like drowning in a bridal magazine or something.

But damn, if everyone wasn’t happy. Emmett and Adaline came from big families, and even without the added guest list of Emmett’s teammates at Washington, it would’ve been a packed room.

Two hundred and fifty people were there to watch my sister marry the love of her life after spending a couple of years planning their perfect day.

After a sweet, emotional ceremony, where my stepmom, Sheila, walked Adaline down the aisle, and my eldest stepbrother, Erik, performed the ceremony, Emmett and Adaline cried their way through their vows. Almost everyone cried while they said their vows, based on the sound of sniffles echoing through the room.

Not me. Not because they weren’t great. I was just … distracted. Hell, I’d been distracted for six months. Burying one’s father had a tendency to do that to a guy.

All I could think about through the entire thing was that my dad should be there. He should be the one walking her down the aisle. Should be sitting next to Sheila while vows were exchanged and people whooped and cheered during their first kiss.

He should be there.

He should be there.

And he wasn’t.

Because he was gone. I’d lost him too. We’d all lost him.

Boom.

Once the thought of my father was there, there was no dislodging it, a persistent ache under my sternum that never quite went away. And when I thought things likethatit was like someone set off a fucking grenade next to my ribs.

Six months since he died, and I still felt like it happened yesterday. Which was why I sat at a wedding with an empty feeling in my chest, trying to ignore the urge to get more beer. To find someone to make me feel just a little less alone.

I’d done that for a long time. Not tonight. Not anymore.

I pinched my eyes shut and took a few breaths. None of that would help. The song changed, and I heard Adaline yell for her new husband. He smiled and held up a finger.

“You’re being summoned.”

“Parker,” Adaline yelled. “Get your ass out here.”

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