Nothing On You

Chapter 1

Liam

“Damn, big brother. You look like shit.”

Aidan doesn’t reply to my smartass comment. Instead, he just glares at me over the rim of his beer glass as he drinks.

That’s weird. He’s normally quick with the comebacks when I give him a hard time.

But then he does something he’s never done before: he downs his entire beer in two gulps. Then he slams the empty glass on the table of the pub.

My eyes go wide. My buttoned-up English professor older brother isn’t the type to down a pint of beer in two swallows. He must be going through some shit.

“I’m not in the mood for your crap today, Liam,” he mutters.

“Okay, sorry.” I frown. “What’s going on with you?”

He huffs out a rough sigh and drags a hand through his messy hair. “Sorry, just stressed out.”

“Something happen at work?”

He shakes his head before leaning his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose. He takes his glasses off and wipes the lens with the hem of his button-up dress shirt.

“No. It’s just…” He pauses while cleaning his glasses. “Look, I need to ask you something.”

“Yeah, sure. What is it?”

He looks at me, his expression bordering on a grimace. The muscles in my shoulders tense. What the hell is my brother about to ask me for? A loan? A kidney?

“Will you be my best man?”

I blink at him before I grin wide. “Seriously?”

He blinks and nods.

I jump up from my chair so quickly that I knock it over, pulling him into a hug. “Dude! Absolutely! I’d be honored. I thought you were gonna ask me to rob a bank with you or something.” I chuckle as I sit back down. “Why were you so freaked out? You know I’d say yes.”

He lets out an uneasy chuckle. “I haven’t told you the most important part.” He pauses, like he’s working up the nerve. “I’m gonna need you to plan the engagement party. And the rehearsal dinner.”

I start to laugh. But when I realize my brother’s not joking, I stop. My brow jumps to my hairline. “Seriously? I thought the best man only planned the bachelor party and held the rings during the wedding.”

He nods. “Yeah, I know, but I’m going to need you to do more. I know that’s a huge ask. Especially with your schedule.”

“Uh, yeah.” I rub the back of my neck, already stressed just thinking about it.

I’m a center for Nashville’s professional hockey team, the Wolves. And even though it’s the off-season, I’m in the middle of a new tough training regimen and getting ready for the start of the upcoming season, which is in just a couple of months.

Aidan’s eyebrows crash together. “I wouldn’t ask you unless I was desperate. Pre-wedding planning has taken a backseat for Micah and me with everything else we’ve got going on.” He chugs from his water glass. “I started teaching more sections of my courses at the university.”

“All the cool kids wanna take your classes, huh?”

He starts to smile. “Yeah. It’s been great, but it’s a lot to balance. I figured I could use the money to help pay for the wedding and honeymoon.”

In addition to working as an English professor full time, my brother also writes steamy romance novels with his fiancée Micah.

Their first book, a dual POV mafia romance, was a hit when it first came out last year, and they got an offer to write a whole series.

On top of that, Micah writes and publishes books on her own.

“Micah’s been working her butt off,” Aidan says. “Ever since her new series blew up on social media a few months ago, she’s been writing nonstop trying to crank out more books.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a lot.”

I go quiet, unsure of what else to say. My brother has always been the brains of the family. He played hockey most of his life, just like I did, but he also did well in school. He quit playing in college so he could focus on earning his degree.

Pretty much the opposite of me.

I’ve always been the dumb jock. I sucked in school.

I’ve lost count of the number of tests that I’ve failed.

Not like it mattered. I was good enough at hockey that I’ve always been a top player.

I didn’t have to study or write papers or do much school work because my coaches always had an agreement with my teachers, from middle school all the way through college.

As long as I focused on playing well and winning games, my teachers passed me, no matter how I performed academically.

Even thinking about it now sends an ugly feeling gnawing in my gut.

I never had to try in school. No one expected me to be good at anything other than hockey.

My whole life I’ve relied on my body for everything, and it’s given me an amazing hockey career. But sometimes, I wish I could be more…

That gnawing feeling digs deeper, turning into something familiar: insecurity.

I have no idea what it’s like to use your brain for a living. I have no idea what it feels like when people are in awe of your intelligence, of what you know, of how well you speak.

All I am is a guy who’s good at smacking around a puck on ice. Nothing more.

One injury, one bad season, one bad fight, could end it all. I’m twenty-nine, and I could lose everything I’ve worked my entire life for. And then I’d be nothing.

I shove aside that ugly feeling. This isn’t about my stupid insecurity. This is about trying to help my brother.

I smile at Aidan, hoping that my discomfort doesn’t show on my face.

“This must be weird for you, coming to me for help. Usually I’m the one asking you to bail me out,” I joke.

My brother lets out a weak laugh. “Yeah, I guess the tables really have turned.”

“Remember when I got in a fender bender the day after I got my driver’s license and begged you to take the blame because I knew our parents would be easier on you? You were such a goody-two-shoes. You got straight As and you were good at hockey. You never did anything wrong.”

This time when Aidan laughs, it sounds lighter and more natural.

“I forgot about that,” he says. “You offered to give me your autographed Mario Lemieux jersey so I’d do it.”

It’s my turn to laugh. “I was an idiot to give you that jersey. But hey, I avoided getting grounded, so I guess it was worth it.”

Aidan pats my shoulder. “I’ll give you the jersey back.”

“You cleared this with Micah? I expected to plan your bachelor party, but she’s okay with me planning the engagement party and the rehearsal dinner too? She remembers what a dumbass I am, right?” I chuckle.

“She’s totally fine with it.”

I let out a breath. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

A huge smile spreads across my brother’s face. “Thanks, man. You’re saving my ass. Seriously. And hey, you won’t have to do it alone.”

“What do you mean?” I drain the rest of the beer in my glass.

“That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. Kendall is going to plan it with you. She’s my best woman.”

I still, my glass hovering over the table. “Kendall? Kendall who can’t stand me? Kendall who dreams about ripping my heart out of my chest?”

“The one and only,” she says behind me.

I turn around and see Kendall standing just a couple of feet behind me, arms crossed, staring daggers at me. Like she’d rather be anywhere in the world other than in this bar with me.

I grin at the gorgeous woman who hates my guts, like the smug jackass I am. We used to be friends in college, but then junior year she went completely cold on me. She hasn’t liked me since.

I have no idea what I did. All I know is that we’ve spent the last nine years with this weird tension between us.

I tease her and give her shit. She tells me off and calls me names.

I like it because I’m the kind of guy who loves a feisty woman.

But I hate it because she used to be my friend and I’d give anything to make her like me again.

But I don’t think she ever will. So I take what I can get, which are the sharp barbs she lobs at me whenever we’re together.

Kendall’s big brown eyes narrow, and her gaze sharpens. That familiar thrill flickers in my chest.

This whole wedding planning gig just got a lot more interesting.