Page 1 of My Brother's Best Men
1
SOPHIE
Love fucking sucks.Seriously, I swear Disney lied to us as kids. Because if love truly existed, I wouldn’t be on this stupid plane right now, heading back home to Cherrywood earlier than planned.
At least, that’s what goes through my mind as I watchTangledon the plane, while sitting next to the most obnoxiously adorable couple.
It’s going to be a long flight.I shift in my seat, trying to get comfortable, but it’s no use. For starters, there’s barely enough leg room, the air vent seems to be broken because it’s not working, and I’m still reeling from what happened this afternoon.
I’ve been looking forward to my twin brother Sam’s wedding, ever since he and Raegan announced their engagement last year. Despite living so far from home, I still managed to be pretty involved in helping Sam and Raegan plan this wedding, and if I’m being honest, it was the one thing I most looked forward to every day. Pouring over table linens and menus and wedding dresses was like a jolt of dopamine to my system. Sneaking peeksat tropical destinations while holed up in my cubicle atHarding & Holtwas like some form of corporate fantasy therapy.
And my exposure to such whimsical, romantic ideals was apparently “rotting” my brain, according to Keaton, my fiancé.
Well, ex-fiancé now, all things considered.
I shift in my seat once more, my heart sinking at the memory of the man I was hoping to introduce to my family this weekend.
Or more accurately, the memory of said man with his damn dick buried in the ass of some woman who was clearlynot me.
Our engagement was still fresh. We were barely engaged for three months, but Keaton knew how excited I was for him to finally meet my family, and maybe soak up some of that wedding bliss by osmosis. Not to mention how excited my parents and the rest of my family—including my brother and Raegan—were to meet the man who was going to make me a wife, and maybe even a mother someday.
I mean, we hadn’t discussed kids or anything, but Keaton came from a pretty big family, and he hadn’t given any indication that he wasopposedto the idea. We’d been together for a year and a half, and I thought things were going according to plan, you know? Once we got married, we could start trying to build a family. Not that I’m on a timeline or anything, but I am twenty-eight. I would have liked to be married by twenty-nine and maybe even have my first kid by thirty-one, but I was trying to stay flexible…
I know when I try to plan things, sometimes things happen and then I just sort of have to go with the flow, but things seemed like they were flowing between Keaton and me…
We both work for H & H,though his position is a little higher up than mine considering his dad owns the damn company. I’ve met his dad once or twice, at a couple family events, but I can’t say I’ve exchanged more than a few words with the guy.
Keaton was, by all accounts, theperfectman. On paper and in person.
He was rich. Successful. Hot as fuck. We’d fallen into a sort of routine at home—home being his penthouse in the city of Seattle, close to H & H, and I felt like things were just…perfect. Like everything was going according to plan. Like I was the luckiest woman in the world, because our life—our beautiful life—was so close I could taste it.
Happily Ever After was on the horizon.
I was so happy, my mind full of endless possibilities…
Now I stare down at my hand, absentmindedly twisting a phantom ring. I didn’t realize that I’d grown so used to seeing the ring, but I guess I had. My memory of that teardrop diamond ring is so vivid, I swear I can almost see it as much as I can feel it on my finger.
I can still remember when Keaton proposed on Valentine’s Day. How he slipped the ring into my glass of champagne and I nearly choked on the damn thing.
Still, potential murder aside, I was happy. I said yes immediately, because why wouldn’t I? It seemed the logical next step, and he was absolutely perfect. I’d just moved in with him a few weeks prior to our engagement, and we were fucking like rabbits, and everything was just so bloodyperfect.I told him I didn’t want to start planning anything until we told my parents. So the plan was that we would go home to Cherrywood andspend some time with my family so they could get to know Keaton, before leaving forParadise—the resort my brother and Raegan had settled on for their swanky destination wedding.
My family is not as well-off as Keaton’s, but they aren’t struggling either. Dad offered to pay for the whole wedding, but Sam insisted that he and Raegan could cover things themselves and that they didn’tneeda destination wedding. But we all knew it was what they wanted, and Raegan—being the sweetheart she is—wasn’t going to ask for it. She would have been perfectly content marrying my brother down at the park.
I knew how badly Sam wanted it too. Most boys don’t plan their wedding as a kid, but my brother did. He’s always been a bit of a romantic, and he’s always been pretty open about what he wants. He and Raegan were friends practically their entire lives, and none of us were shocked when they announced they were dating.
So, I booked the resort.
Between our parents, Raegan’s parents, me, and the bridal party—including my brother’s best friend slash my high school crush Benny, my ex–best friend Elijah, and Raegan’s neighbor Matthew who I used to tutor—we all managed to pay for my brother’s dream wedding.
And I had been so thrilled to be going to this literal tropical paradise with Keaton, to celebrate our engagement and maybe even start planning our own wedding.
And now it’s all just…fucking gone.
A broken dream.
I close my eyes, trying not to think about this afternoon. The worst afternoon of my damn life.
I went in to work early so I could leave early, since my PTO doesn’t kick in until Friday, considering I’m using the entirety of my vacation days for this wedding. As antsy as I was about packing, and about this wedding in general, I wanted to get a head start on things. That apparently was my mistake.
