Merrily Us (Steel City Legacy)

Prologue

brIAN

THREE YEARS AGO

“Uncle Bry in the house!”

Molly Jenkins’ bubbly voice greets me as soon I walk in the front door of her home and the second I lay eyes on her, I grin wide.

Standing in the entryway, I see her laying on the living room couch, blanket draped over her legs and a tiny, dark-haired infant curled in her arms. Her feet are up, her eyes bright, and she’s beaming.

Walking over to the couch, I lean down and kiss her cheek, handing her the gift bag I brought with me. “Why do you look so pretty three days after having a whole entire baby?”

She winks at me, adjusting the baby in her arms. “I’m always pretty.”

“You hitting on my girl, Simpson?”

I turn as Molly’s husband, Gabe Sullivan—billionaire former tech CEO, inventor of the Redwood phone, one of my best friends, and more in love with his wife than anyone has ever been in love with anyone in the history of the universe—strolls into the living room, smirk on his face.

I met Gabe and Molly a few years ago when I moved to Pittsburgh to be closer to my half-brother, Jeremy, and his family.

Gabe, Molly, and Jeremy are part of a big, very tight-knit friend group that accepted me into their circle immediately and with no questions asked.

I love them all, but Gabe and I have always understood each other in a different, more profound way.

It’s the former tech entrepreneur thing.

I only found out I had a brother when my dad died a few years ago, and I discovered he’d been hiding the existence of a child that came from an affair long before I was born.

I found Jeremy soon after, and while it took us some time to navigate this weird, late-in-life brotherhood, I couldn’t imagine my life without him and all the people who inhabit his world.

My world now. As someone who grew up an only child and was never all that good at making friends, finding myself with a brother, best friends, nieces, nephews, and all of the chaos they bring is a revelation.

“Never. I prefer my balls right where they are.”

Grinning, Gabe bends and kisses Molly, then scoops up the baby, pressing a kiss to her tiny head.

“Hey, Sophie girl,” he murmurs, looking down at her with so much love in his eyes that my heart clenches in my chest. “Meet your Uncle Bry. He’s a pain in the ass most of the time, but he’s mostly a good guy. ”

Chuckling, I study the baby in Gabe’s arms. Head full of curly, dark hair, tiny button nose, bow shaped lips—a tiny, carbon copy of Molly. “She’s gorgeous, you guys. Congratulations. Where is everyone else?”

“They’ll be here eventually,” Molly says, peering into the gift bag I brought.

“Hallie and Ben’s kids are taking a ridiculously long nap, Julie has a doctor’s appointment, probably to try and bully the doctor into inducing her early, and Maddy has hockey practice.

Gabe’s sisters are coming in from Boston and D.C.

today too. They should be here soon. You can finally meet Olivia. ”

I’ve met Gabe’s middle sister, Amelia, a bunch of times, but the few times Olivia has been here since I moved, I’ve either been busy with work or out of town, so I’ve never met the youngest Sullivan sibling.

I figured I would be the first one here.

My twelve-year-old niece Maddy—Jeremy’s daughter—is entirely hockey obsessed, and not even the promise of holding a newborn baby could convince her to skip practice.

The rest of our friends either have kids or are expecting kids, and then there’s me.

Single, living alone, starting a second career at the age of thirty-two as director of football operations for the Pittsburgh Renegades, Pittsburgh’s professional football team, for fun rather than necessity, beholden to no one and nothing.

Just the way I like it.

Sort of.

“Oh my god,” Molly gasps, pulling out a tiny pink hoodie with the word feminist scrawled across the front in purple script. “Have you ever seen anything so perfect?”

Turning, I grin at Molly. “So Soph can be your patriarchy-smashing partner in crime. Also, the CityZen is being delivered on Monday.”

Molly gasps. “You got me the CityZen? The stroller that the internet says is the Aston Martin of baby transportation?”

Winking at her, I plop down on the chair next to the couch. “In pink.”

Molly shakes her head, looking at me in awe. “The pink was a limited edition that sold out in like thirty seconds months ago.”

I shrug. “Not for me.”

“You are my favorite human,” she says in thanks.

“No fucking way,” Gabe says, setting Sophie down in her bouncy seat and picking Molly right up off the couch and taking her seat, settling her in his lap. With a finger on her chin, he turns her head and kisses her, long and slow. “Want to try that again, Rory baby?”

Molly grins at him, eyes a little hazy, the way they always get when Gabe calls her by her old nickname. “You’re usually my favorite human, but did you get me the limited edition pink CityZen stroller?”

Gabe smirks, kissing her nose. “No, but I could have if I wanted to.”

Laughing as she snuggles deeper into Gabe’s hold, glancing over at her baby, Molly’s face goes a little dreamy. “I can’t fucking believe this is my life right now.”

Gabe’s face goes soft and he closes his eyes for a second, leaning down and pressing his lips to the top of Molly’s head. “It’s the best life I ever could have dreamed of,” he murmurs. “The only life I want.”

The love that pours from them as they stay wrapped together, staring at their daughter and entirely oblivious to anyone else in the room, is palpable.

Gabe and Molly fell in love in college and then broke up during their senior year after Gabe’s parents died and Gabe went home to act as guardian for his two younger sisters.

They were apart for ten years before finally getting back together, so I know their love is hard won, and I’m so happy for my friends even as their happiness makes the nagging voice in my head that I can usually squash roar.

The voice that says the one thing I try really hard to ignore.

I’m lonely.

When the front door opens, I breathe a mental sigh of relief, knowing that the noise and chaos of the rest of our friends will be a good distraction from my asshole thoughts, except the person who walks into the room isn’t one of my friends.

It’s a woman I’ve never seen before, and the second I lay eyes on her, my breath catches, my heart slamming against my ribs as every single thought empties straight out of my head except for one.

There you are.

I accept this with a weirdly detached sort of certainty my brain is too addled to parse right now as the room fades around me, every ounce of my attention focused on her.

On the black leggings that hug every perfect curve of her legs, bright pink sweater, and wrist full of bracelets clinking together cheerfully.

On the brown hair tumbling over her shoulders.

Sparkling, forest green eyes I could lose myself in.

Pretty pink lips curved up in a smile. Lips I want to feel against my own more than I want to breathe.

I’m no longer sitting in Gabe and Molly’s living room. I’m in a dark room, wrapped around this gorgeous stranger, sighs and moans and yes and more and please and right there and don’t stop.

If I had her under me, I would never, ever stop.

I could wonder what exactly is happening to me right now.

I could wonder why this stranger is making my palms sweat and my heart pound.

I could wonder who she is and what her name is, for fuck’s sake.

But I don’t wonder any of those things as I press my hands to my knees to stand from the couch, my thoughts running on one single track.

Get to her.

“There’s my girl!” Gabe’s voice filters in through my subconscious, seemingly oblivious to my temporary insanity as I fall back onto the couch. “Bry, meet my little sister, Olivia. She’s graduating from Georgetown in a couple months. Liv, this is Jeremy’s brother, Brian.”

“Hey,” Olivia says, smiling as she walks over to the couch.

When she passes me, I have to practically sit on my hands to keep from reaching out and touching her.

“Nice to meet you. And oh my god,” she squeals, hugging Molly and Gabe and then bending to scoop Sophie out of her seat, cuddling her close and bouncing on her toes in excitement. “You guys, she’s perfect.”

As she lavishes her attention on the baby and my attention is focused solely on her, Gabe’s words finally sink into my brain, my breath backing up in my lungs as I realize who this woman is who has struck me utterly speechless.

Sister.

College.

Fuck.