Sophie’s sixteen. She’s fully capable of watching out for Emily, and Josephine seems like a trustworthy adult, but I still feel like I’m shirking my duty leaving them when I promised Emily I’d be with her to see the reindeer.
“It’s okay,” Sophie says. “Go have fun.”
“We need to go now,” Brodie says. “Daphne’s already at the dress shop and waiting for us.”
I take a last swig of my orange juice and grab my bagel to eat on the way.
“Text me if you need anything,” I tell Sophie.
“We will,” Sophie says.
“Come on.” Brodie puts an arm around my shoulders and pulls me forward. “I told Daphne about you and Levi, and shesays there’s still time to look at wedding dresses if you want. She’s fully on board with this double wedding idea.”
I roll my eyes, but walk out of the house with him. “Levi and I are not getting married. And if you keep this up, he’s going to run screaming.”
“Don’t worry,” Levi says from behind us. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I look back at him, expecting to see a teasing glint in his eyes or at least to share an eye roll about Brodie, but he meets my gaze with a warm smile like there’s nothing I or my brother can do that’ll scare him away.
Shockingly, that doesn’t worry me at all. In fact, I really, really like it.
***
“So, Brodie says you and Levi might like to make our wedding a double,” Daphne says. I'd been expecting it all morning, but she waited until Liza and her mother left after getting fitted for their dresses.
I was last because I arrived a bit late, and now it’s just me and Daphne.
“Brodie’s not serious,” I say. “Levi and I literally just decided to try dating yesterday.”
Her eyes widen in surprise. “Seriously? I thought this was a brother’s-best-friend situation.”
I stare at her, thoroughly confused. “A what?”
She smiles sheepishly. “You don’t read romance books, do you?”
“I don’t have time to read anything.” I used to love to read, mostly fantasy, and I miss it.
“Right. Well, in romance books, a common trope is when the female main character, the FMC, is dating her brother’s best friend. They don’t want to tell the brother, because he would hate the idea of them dating.”
“That sounds fun,” I say, although it sounds kind of awful. “But we haven’t been keeping our relationship a secret. We really are new.”
She shakes her head, brow furrowed. “I don’t know why Brodie would be pushing you two to get married. I know he loves Levi like family, he talks about him almost as much as he talks about you and Sophie and Emily, but—”
“He talks about us?” I always assumed Brodie stopped thinking about us as soon as he sent the check every month. And this line of questioning is also the only way I can come up with to avoid having to tell her about what my brother walked in on this morning.
She smiles. “Brodie is so much more sentimental and caring than he lets anyone see. He worries about you and everything you’ve taken on with your sisters.” Her brows rise. “Oh. That’s why he wants you to get married.”
She doesn’t even have to explain it. As soon as she says it, it all makes sense. This isn’t really about preserving my honor at all. “He wants Levi to help me.”
She points at me. “Yep. He’s been up nights stressing that he can’t send you all money anymore. It’s been worrying him so much, I thought his panic attacks might come back.”
“Panic attacks?” I thought I knew my brother so well, but I didn’t know he had panic attacks. He should have told me. I tell him all my problems on a regular basis, but he probably doesn’t want to admit any problems. So typical. “Wait, what do you mean hecan’tsend us money anymore?”
She winces. “I was hoping he’d tell you himself.” She worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “You deserve to know the whole story, and he’ll never admit it.”
I’m literally on the edge of my seat.
“Found it,” the shop assistant carries the lavender dress into the small fitting room. “I’m sorry that took so long.”
