Chapter One
Lachlan
Igazed out the airplane window at the majestic Rocky Mountains. I’d never tire of the stunning peaks or the occasional hidden lakes. After the flat prairie, with fields of green or brown, I was happy to see something different.
In my gut, though, dread took hold.
You should be happy. Your beloved sister is getting married. To the woman she loves more than life itself.
An odd expression, that one. Did that mean Taryn would give up her life for Stephanie?
Choose her fiancée’s life over her own? Because that was where my sister was at.
The rough-and-tumble tow-truck driver who’d fought for almost fifteen years for recognition of her abilities had fallen head over heels in love with a woman who wore high heels for fun, and whose smile radiated happiness in every way possible.
Just like her brother.
Ugh.
Cooper.
I snatched my phone off my tray table and tapped on the photos app.
Plenty of pictures of Lydia appeared. Lydia with me at the première of the latest blockbuster.
The two of us at the charity gala raising money for Sick Kids Hospital.
At the presentation of the literary awards.
The movie thing was for work—I’d been the Canadian lawyer for one of the biggest actors in the film, and she insisted I attend.
I’d tried to suggest other people closer to her, but she’d put her foot down.
One did not argue with a megastar.
Especially if one wanted to remain her attorney.
My law firm donated a tidy sum every year to Sick Kids.
A partner’s child had been ill with leukemia a few years ago and had spent extensive time at the hospital.
Our transition into making the corporate donation was a no-brainer.
Each year we did a lottery for which employee of the firm would get the gala tickets.
To the partner’s credit, every single worker was entered into the draw.
This year, I won, along with Jin from reception.
She and her husband had charmed Lydia. Which, frankly, I hadn’t thought possible.
Yeah, my ex was a bit of…a piece of work.
A bitch.
Her attitude at attending the literary event had been the final straw. She’d thrown a hissy fit, and we’d almost been late. Amazing we’d had our photo taken at all—the press had probably thought we were important since we arrived so late.
“You need to put your tray table up.” The flight attendant pointed. “And let me take that cup.”
I downed the last of the tomato juice, stuffed the cookie wrapper inside, and placed it in the bag the very attractive man carried.
When I’d gone to the washroom, he’d asked me what I was up to in Abbotsford after we landed.
Carefully, I’d explained my sister was getting married in Mission City his weekend and my schedule was packed.
His disappointed expression, with a bit of a pouty mouth, had me reconsidering. I was renting a car—no reason I couldn’t pop over to Abby for a quickie.
No. No. No. You’re on the rebound from Lydia.
And if Cooper ever found out…
I made a show of securing my tray table, then offered a wide smile. “All set.”
He nodded. “I hope your sister has a fantastic wedding.” Then he was gone.
Truthfully, so did I. As her only sibling—and the person she swore she was closest in the world to these days except her fiancée—she’d asked me to stand up for her. And since I’d never refuse Taryn anything, I happily agreed.
Only then did I discover that Stephanie, her beloved, had asked Cooper to stand up for her.
Cooper who died spaghetti green and tried to pass it off as healthy…
Ever heard of spinach pasta?
Cooper who’d gotten rip-roaring drunk and hit on the server at the gay bar we’d visited.
Admit it…the guy’d been hot. Also very open to Cooper’s attentions.
You’re just mad you didn’t get there first.
Oh, except, you’re in the closet.
A few fumblings when I’d first been a student at the University of Toronto didn’t count. At least not in my books. Then I’d entered Osgood Hall. Nothing like a conservative law school program to set me straight.
More or less.
Cooper who smiles all the time. Who makes fun of you.
Yeah. Except…never in a mean way.
No, Stephanie’s brother only meant to be friendly.
Or at least, that was what Taryn insisted.
Some of his criticisms, or witticisms, hit a little too close to home.
Yes, I’d stayed in Toronto to work for a prestigious entertainment law firm, putting my business-law degree to good use.
Yes, I’d eschewed Taryn’s suggestion to focus on labor or environmental law.
I was thirty-eight years old and not likely to change my trajectory now.
Yes, I didn’t visit my sister nearly enough.
Business was booming these days thanks to the lower Canadian dollar.
Although Vancouver saw a huge number of American productions, most of Canada was seeing upticks as well. Toronto was no exception.
In other words, I owned my townhouse in Yorkville, my Mercedes SUV, and my timeshare in Florida outright.
The timeshare you’re trying to unload.
Okay, one minor glitch in my life. I was too busy to make it down there, and with all the hurricanes, my investment advisor advised now was the time to bail—before climate change made it completely uninhabitable or a storm took it out.
The plane descended.
Cooper’s face flashed in my mind.
I scrolled to the picture a stranger had taken for us. Of Cooper, Stephanie, Taryn, and me. I enlarged it to zoom in on Cooper. His blond hair matched his sister’s, and they had the same crystal-blue eyes.
Both were stunning.
And yet I only felt an attraction toward Cooper.
My date for the wedding.
He was solo also these days and, when our sisters heard Lydia was no longer in the picture, they’d happily decided Cooper and I would be perfect together.
Oh God, you have no idea what you’ve suggested.
The wheels hit the ground, and the plane shook as the flaps—or whatever they were called—slowed us so that, eventually, we shuddered to a near stop.
“You a nervous flyer?”
The older gentleman sitting next to me patted my hand.
I winced inwardly. I wasn’t big on people touching me. At least not without permission.
“Not really.”
“You’re gripping that armrest—”
“Norman, leave the young man alone.”
The gentleman’s wife poked her head around him. “He’s just…friendly.”
“Yes, he is.” And I’d put my earbuds in as soon as I’d learned just how friendly.
I’d wanted to listen to the latest Harvard law podcast, and after that, I’d selected an audiobook by a local Mission City author.
Young-adult fantasy wasn’t normally something I’d choose, but Taryn swore RD Watts’s trilogy was amazing.
After listening to the first four hours of the first book, I could admit I was hooked.
Certainly, when I jogged on the treadmill, I’d listen to the rest. “I’m just listening to an audiobook and hadn’t realized I was gripping the armrest.”
We stopped and the seatbelt light came off.
I undid my seatbelt, grabbed my briefcase from under the seat, leapt up, and hotfooted as close to the front of the plane as I could get.
I didn’t have carry-on luggage, and I was sitting in the row behind business class, but I still got stuck behind someone reaching for their bag and blocking the aisle.
Being the good person I was—and wanting out of there as quickly as possible—I assisted them.
To their credit, they pressed against their seat so I could escape.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like airplanes—germ-ridden things they were—but I wanted out. I’d still have to wait for my luggage, but I could do that in peace.
Twenty minutes later, with my bags secure in the trunk of my rental car, I left the Abbotsford airport and headed to Mission City.
To my hometown.
To Stephanie and Taryn.
To Cooper.
God help me.