Badd Love (The Badd Brothers #22)

Prologue Dane

Ihonestly can't quite believe this is happening. My big bro, Duncan, is getting married.

What a tool.

I mean, look—Rune is fucking great. I like her. I love her for him. I love them together. Honestly, I do. She inspires him to be better—and he is.

But my god, what a try-hard.

Twenty-three and you're getting married and having a baby and moving out of Mom and Dad's?

I have no interest in any of that. Marriage, babies…nah. Not for me. I have no problem with marriage and children as, like, an idea. But for now, at least, it's just not for me.

And I really don't understand how all this happened so fast. One second, he was hanging out with some random tourist chick, hooking up, and being the bro I know. And then suddenly he's all serious and in love and moving in with her and she's fucking pregnant…

Sure, I might be projecting my own issues onto Duncan. I'm in no way ready for or interested in a serious relationship, let alone the fast and furious assault of adulthood he's going through.

You can miss me with that shit.

A certain memory nibbled at the edges of my awareness, but I pushed it away as I stood next to Jax at an angle near the altar in our backyard.

Our being Mom and Dad's, the place I at least still call home.

Delia's moved out, Emerson's moved out, and now so has Duncan, which means I'm the last one still living with my mommy and daddy.

It's fine. I'm fine.

The subject of said memory stood opposite me, and my damned eyes were having a hell of a time staying away from the wondrous vista that is Lindsey Snelling's epic cleavage.

The woman has incredible tits.

Her ass is divine.

Her hips that definitely do not lie.

Legs for days.

Snatched waist.

In a word, she's fucking gorgeous.

Piercing sapphire eyes, platinum blonde hair cut with razor precision at her shoulders, swinging loose around her perfect, heart-shaped face.

And yet, after what happened several months ago, she still won't even look at me.

Her eyes were fixed on Rune as she wafted gracefully down the aisle in her white wedding dress, which was an admittedly amazing piece of fashion, being created almost entirely of a spiderweb of sheer lace, with a stripe of silk covering her from chest to thigh, highlighting rather than hiding her belly bump.

The result was sexy as hell. Rune's hair was loose around her shoulders, her bangs braided back and held in place with a strip of blue silk donated by Mom as something blue, according to that "something borrowed, something blue" business.

Duncan, unsurprisingly, has eyes only for his about-to-be wife, and his eyes were shining. Uncle Canaan, Uncle Corin, Aunt Aerie, and Aunt Tate form a four-piece band playing the wedding march. Opposite Jax, Rune's other best friend, Raquel, was positively beaming.

Lindsey…also beaming. But every so often, her eyes flicked to me, and her expression went carefully blank.

I still don't understand what happened.

I pushed that out of my mind yet again—as I've done multiple times a day every day since that incident occurred.

She won't talk to me about it, and I'm stuck in some sort of limbo, wondering if I'm the asshole for reasons I'm not self-aware enough to understand, or if there's something in Lindsey's past that created the situation.

It's put a serious cramp in my style, to be honest. I hooked up with a girl a few weeks ago—or tried to, but I kept thinking about Lindsey and what happened, and had to pull the cord on the poor girl I was with.

She was understanding and didn't seem too upset about it, which was cool of her, but it's messing with my head.

I haven't been able to even think about being with anyone since.

Fuck—I'm spacing out at my brother's wedding.

Focus, jackass.

I put Lindsey out of my mind as best I can—a big ask, considering she's standing a few feet away wearing a pale blue dress that cups her epic tits, hugs her killer hips, and leaves bare her fucking endless legs.

All of which I've had the immense privilege of having seen naked. And can't stop seeing…

I daydream about her. I dream about her at night and wake up hard as a damn rock.

"And now the bride and groom will exchange vows," Papa Lucas said. "Hit it, Dunc."

I shook myself like a dog in an attempt to clear my wandering brain. It mostly worked, and I tuned into Duncan's vows.

"…To say the events of the last few months have been unexpected is an understatement," Dunc was saying. "I definitely didn't have 'meet the love of my life, get engaged, and find out she's pregnant' on my bingo card, especially when things didn't exactly happen in that order."

This got a smattering of laughter from the gathered audience—the entirety of the extended Badd Clan, plus Raquel and Hamish, Lindsey, Rune's parents, and a handful of Rune's social circle from USC, most of whom were just up here for Raquel's wedding a few months ago.

"I wouldn't trade any of it," Duncan said.

"My life was on a specific track, and this…

none of it was in my plans. And I honestly couldn't be happier that my plans got derailed when a certain black-haired spitfire with the bluest eyes I've seen asked me to be her fake date for a wedding, specifically for the purpose of making her douchebag ex jealous.

" His eyes flitted to Ricky, Raquel's brother, who was said ex's best friend.

"Sorry, Ricky, but he's a cheating jack-hole. "

Ricky just held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, laughing. "Hey, I told him he was making a mistake when he first started flirting with that chick. He didn't listen, obviously."

"I don't think we need to go there, Dunc," Rune said, laughing.

Duncan just grinned. "I've never been so glad to be anyone's fake date.

That weekend changed my life in so many ways.

I can't imagine my life without you, Rune.

I'm excited for our future together. I know being young parents won't be easy, but we've got a hell of a support system in place.

I love you with every last part of myself, and I vow to you in front of everyone we know and love that I will spend every moment of the rest of my life trying to be worthy of your love, making you feel cherished, supported, and protected.

I promise that I will always try to put you first. I probably won't succeed at that all the time, but I sure will try.

You're the best thing that's ever happened to me.

I love you. You're my everything." He sniffed, shook his head.

"Um, yeah. That's it. Do I say, like, amen? "

"No, you doofus," I said. "You're not praying."

"Dane Badd, you cannot call your brother a doofus while he's getting married," Mom hissed at me, while Dad endeavoured to not look like he was stifling laughter.

"Do not encourage him, Sebastian Badd," Mom snapped at Dad.

"Guys," Duncan muttered, narrowing his eyes at me, Mom, and then Dad. "Can we not?"

Rune's shoulders were shaking with laughter, and she wiped a tear out of her eye—tears of laughter, tears of wedding emotions? Who knows.

Feelings are not my specialty.

Papa Lucas sent a warning glare at us offenders and then gestured to Rune. "Now that my family is being rude, it's your turn, Rune, my dear."

"Thanks, Papa Lucas." Rune takes a deep breath, focusing on Duncan.

"Dunc, my love. Falling in love with you was definitely not in the plans, but it's absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me.

" She covers her slight bump with one hand.

"Becoming a wife and a mother were always someday goals for me.

But life has a funny way of throwing twists and turns at you, and now, suddenly, I'm getting to be both of those things, and I could not be more excited.

We get to discover life together, Dunc. I'm so incredibly grateful to have found you.

" She looked to Lindsey and then Raquel.

"Linz, you encouraged me to stop hiding and running and get back out there after certain things took a very wrong left turn. Raquel, if it wasn’t for you and Hamish planning your wedding here, I'd never have met Duncan. "

"Good thing the Old Toby burned down then, eh?" Hamish called out, to much laughter.

Rune took another deep breath, held it, and squeezed Duncan's hands.

"I promise to love you as hard as I can, Duncan.

I promise to always forgive you when you're a jackass, and I promise to never run when things get hard.

Or, if I do, I promise to at least let you catch me again.

" More laughter. "I can't promise to obey you all the time because I've never been good at that, but I'll definitely try to listen to you.

I love you, Duncan Badd, and vow, here and now, in front of everyone we know and love, that I will spend the rest of our lives learning how to love you more perfectly. "

"If anyone has reason to object," Papa Lucas said, with a dramatic pause, "keep it your damn self. These kids are gettin' hitched. Now. Rune. Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and at least try to obey Duncan for the rest of your days, no matter what?"

Rune sniffled, nodded. "Yes. I do."

"Duncan, grand-nephew, do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and at least try to obey Rune for the rest of your days, no matter what?"

"Absolutely, I do," Duncan said, blinking hard.

Oh god, he's crying.

Shoot me.

I glanced at Lindsey, and I guess I must have rolled my eyes or something because she was glaring daggers at me. Or maybe the glaring-daggers was for some other reason. I honestly wish I knew.

Maybe I can corner her fine ass and get some answers out of her at some point this evening.

"Well then, by the powers given to me by the good ol’ internet and the great state of Alaska," Papa Lucas said, with a big old grin, "I now pronounce you two beautiful kids married as hell. Kiss'er, kid."