Chapter 16
SULLIVAN
The night before my sister’s wedding, I sat at her kitchen table with a stack of cream-colored cards, a fountain pen, and the distinct feeling that I did not belong here.
“Make the L a little curlier,” Liana said, peering over my shoulder. “That looks too severe.”
“It’s a letter, not a personality test.”
She laughed, that same light, breathy sound she’d had since she was a kid, and nudged my arm. “Guests can tell when something has been rushed. I want it to feel personal.”
“You know we could have hired someone to do this, right?” I said. “A whole team of someones.”
“I know.” She shrugged, already reaching for another card. “These matter to me, though. I want them to have a personal touch.”
I sighed but did my best to make my L curlier. Whatever the fuck that meant. Because this was the thing about Liana. She cared deeply, about details, people, and how things felt instead of how they looked on paper.
It made her brilliant at some things and dangerously forgiving at others. Her fiancé, for example, was supposed to have been here helping. Instead, he was attending to yet another work emergency.
When I’d asked her where he was, she’d explained it lightly, breezily, like it didn’t sting, but it did.
I knew that because I’d noticed everything she didn’t want me to.
How thin she’d gotten these last few weeks.
How her excitement was jittery instead of happy.
How she kept smiling like she was afraid if she stopped, the doubts might slip out.
Frankly, she’d been trying too hard to be cheerful, positive, and normal, but I could tell it was forced.
“You don’t have to do all this tonight,” I said, gesturing at the mountain of bags and ribbons that were waiting for the cards we were writing. “We can finish in the morning.”
“No,” she said immediately, but the words came out much too fast. “If I don’t do it now, I’ll start panicking.”
“Panicking?” I paused, my pen hovering over the card as I looked up. “About what?”
She hesitated, then waved a hand and smiled, trying to play it off. “It’s nothing. Okay, actually, it’s everything, but it’s just normal wedding jitters. Nothing to be concerned about.”
I didn’t push, but I wanted to. I wanted to so damn badly, but she was an adult.
She was also my little sister, which meant that naturally I was biased against the guy because no one would ever be good enough for her, but she was still a woman who got to make her own choices, even if I didn’t like them.
And I didn’t like this one at all.
It’d been the same pattern for a while now. Ever since she’d moved here, actually. There had been so many missed dinners, canceled weekends, and unanswered phone calls. It was always work, always urgent, and always more important than her.
I understood ambition. I respected it. Hell, I’d built my life around it, but there was a difference between being busy and being absent—and this guy was coming down hard on the wrong side for a man who was getting married this weekend.
Swallowing the urge to say something I couldn’t take back, I held my sister’s gaze and said the only thing that really mattered right now anyway. “I’ll support you no matter what. You know that, right?”
Her eyes suddenly became shiny. “I know.”
“I mean it,” I said firmly. “If you wake up tomorrow and decide you don’t want this—”
“Don’t,” she said softly. “Please don’t say it out loud.”
I nodded. “That’s fair.”
She smiled again as she reached for another card, but it was smaller this time. “Thanks, Sullivan. I just don’t want you to think I’m doubting him. Or us. Because I’m not. It’s just been a long few weeks, you know?”
I arched both my eyebrows at her. “You’re telling me. Shit, I think this has been the longest two years of my life and it’s actually only been a month.”
She breathed out a gentle laugh, but as delicate as it was, I liked hearing the sound. It meant she wasn’t completely freaking out. “Well, you have had about twenty-four months of problems shoved into the one month here, so that makes sense.”
I paused for a beat before I shrugged. “We both knew it wouldn’t be easy, the move. The takeover. You and Neil finally being in the same city.”
“Yeah, I know.” She raked her fingers through the end of her ponytail, bringing it forward to study her hair. “I guess I just thought it would be different, you know? Finally being able to see each other after work or grab a quick lunch.”
“Neither of which has been happening?” I guessed, even though she’d never actually told me this part before.
She glanced up at me again. “He’s just—”
“Busy,” I finished for her, nodding before I exhaled a harsh breath.
“Look, I know he’s got a demanding job, but so do you.
Yours might even be more demanding. You’re the Head of Accounting for one of the foremost medical technology companies in the country right now.
All I’m saying is that once you’re married, maybe you should sit him down and explain that he needs to learn how to respect your time. ”
After holding my gaze for a beat, she dropped her chin in a curt nod. “Maybe we should’ve waited a bit longer before we got married. I don’t know. Maybe we both just needed a little more time to settle in after the move.”
I didn’t tell her she still had time to call it off, because I knew she wouldn’t do it and she didn’t need to feel like I was pressuring her into anything, but shit.
This was the first time she’d expressed any doubt whatsoever about getting married, and I couldn’t really say anything without sounding like a biased dick.
I fucking hate this. “If Neil is the man you think he is, he’ll listen if you tell him that or anything else. It might take him some time to process it, but he will listen. You guys are going on a honeymoon, right? So use that time to talk to him about how you’re feeling.”
She nodded quickly and swiped under her eyes. Then she inhaled a deep breath before grinning at me. “You’re being very helpful for a man who usually delegates his feelings.”
“I don’t delegate feelings,” I said. “I suppress them.”
She snorted. “Because that’s so much healthier.”
“It’s efficient.”
Her mouth curved into a sly smile. “Does that mean you’re suppressing your feelings for Bree?”
I didn’t miss a beat. “I don’t have feelings for Bree.”
“Uh-huh.”
She had that look in her eyes that told me she was basing this line of questioning off an observation rather than it being a simple shot in the dark, so I sighed and shook my head at her. “I don’t know what you think you saw—”
“You changed the gowns,” she said. “You hate admitting that you’re wrong.”
“Sure, but have you tried one on? They’re objectively terrible.” I cringed just thinking about it. “Bree was simply the only person with the balls to bring that atrocity to my attention, but as soon as I actually felt them, I would’ve switched them back immediately no matter what.”
She was smiling now, fully amused. “You’re not subtle.”
“I’m not anything,” I said flatly.
Liana arched an eyebrow at me but went back to the gift bags. As I joined in, dropping little soaps and all sorts of absurd but thoughtful tokens into every bag, the truth sat heavy in my chest.
Bree Bennett was a complication I hadn’t planned for, and I had to get my head on straight where she was concerned before I wound up doing something even more stupid than I already had.
Eighteen hours later, I stood outside the church in my new tux, shaking hands and greeting guests as they arrived.
“Sullivan Crowne,” I said, smiling like I wasn’t mentally running through contingency plans in case this thing went sideways. “Thank you so much for coming.”
Liana had told me to turn on the charm today, and I’d listened. It came effortlessly when I wasn’t at work, trying to wrestle an entire institution into compliance. Away from the office, I could turn it on like a switch, and for my sister, that was the least I could do.
This was the version of me people liked, the one who asked about their kids, remembered names, and laughed at jokes that weren’t funny. As I squeezed another hand, the older man grinned at me like I was his best friend. “It’s a beautiful day.”
“It really is. Perfect for a wedding,” I replied, meaning it.
Despite the knot of anxiety in my chest, I was genuinely happy. Liana was excited in that glowing, barely contained way, and I wanted the day to be exactly what she’d dreamed. I wanted to protect that smile at all costs.
What I didn’t want was to keep scanning the sidewalk and not seeing her fiancé. There were a thousand reasonable explanations for why I hadn’t seen him yet, but none of them stuck and that wasn’t a good sign.
I checked my watch, then my phone, but there was nothing. Maybe he used a different entrance. He could’ve forgotten a cufflink.
“Relax,” I finally muttered to myself when I realized how tense I was becoming. “This isn’t about you. They’ll be fine.”
As I lifted my gaze again, ready to resume my duties, everything else suddenly disappeared. Bree was walking up the sidewalk toward me and my brain fully collapsed. I’d seen her outside of the hospital before, of course, but when we’d gone cake tasting, she’d had on jeans, sneakers, and a sweater.
That version of her had already done dangerous things to my pulse, but this one? This was a fucking problem.
The dress skimmed her curves like it’d been designed specifically to ruin my life. It wasn’t flashy or trying too hard, but elegant in an understated, natural way. Her hair was done in soft waves, loose enough to touch, and my hands actually twitched at the thought.
She looked radiant, like she belonged in this moment, in this place, and had always existed in color while I’d only ever seen her in grayscale. It got worse when she smiled as she saw me.
My reaction to her was immediate and violent—heat and want combined with something deeper and far more alarming. My heart kicked hard against my ribs, and for half a second, I forgot how to breathe.
This is ridiculous.
Bree kept walking toward me, smiling like she had no idea she was detonating my brain. No idea that just the sight of her turned my whole world upside down, but I shoved it all down to where I kept inconvenient feelings and stepped forward when she reached me.
Liana had made me turn on the charm for the day, and I was curious to see how Bree was going to react to that. It was time for her to meet me, Sullivan Crowne, the man instead of the CEO.
And yeah, maybe I am just a little bit too excited to find out where that might lead.