“I know.” He lifted his shirt with the grin still on his face and gestured at the unmarred skin of his torso. “See? No injuries. I’m good.”
“Why are you here then?” A quick search of recent memory revealed that this visit was unprecedented. I felt the blood drain from my face. “Is it Jenny? Is she okay?”
I didn’t know why he’d be smiling the way he was if she was the one in trouble, but I was genuinely confused about his presence. His expression sobered and he dropped his shirt. “Chill, dude. She’s fine. Why are you so worked up?”
“I’m not worked up. I’m concerned about why you’re here in the middle of a fucking work day.” I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans to keep them still. “The last time—”
Understanding dawned in his eyes and he shook his head hard. “No, this is nothing like the day Mom had her accident. Jenny said you’d been sending her a bunch of questions about the wedding and I took the day off to answer all of them.”
Relief pounded through my veins, leaving me slightly dizzy. It took me a second to fight off the deluge of memories from the last time Peter had appeared at home when he should have been working, but I gritted my teeth and got through it.
“That’s why you’re here? Wedding stuff?”
He nodded with a contented smile spreading across his lips. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be? I told you, Jenny and I both take this very seriously. We might not be able to get days off all the time for wedding stuff, which is why we’ve asked you to help, but the least I can do is to take one day to make sure you’ve got it all.”
“So, lunch, huh?” Blood had resumed its flow through my limbs, making me able to move again. Grabbing everything I needed, I opened the door again. “A little warning would have been nice. How did you even know I was available today?”
“Your calendar is still synced to mine, dumb ass,” he said, smirking as he walked out into the hall again. “I’ve told you a hundred times to undo it since we’re no longer living together, but you never did.”
“That’s because you’re the only person I have left in the world, dumb ass,” I joked as I jabbed the button for the elevator. “Between you and my virtual assistant, I’d rather you know where I am than that guy.”
“You know you could and probably should get a real assistant, right? Like a flesh and blood person who could help you.”
“This person is flesh and blood. I just don’t have to see them twenty-four seven. Besides, Scott’s great. I don’t need to see him to know him.”
Okay, so maybe I was a bit reclusive, but it wasn’t like I was a hermit. Having people around constantly just wasn’t really my thing.
I’d done fine by myself. Leased office space with a receptionist and conference rooms whenever I needed them worked well enough. My business was all done online, so all I needed was my laptop and I was good to go. Even Scott had only been hired as a matter of necessity.
“Trust me, if I’d had a real assistant, they would be dealing with your wedding,” I said as a digital ding signaled the arrival of the elevator.
Peter rolled his eyes at me, shaking his head. “In that case, I’m sorry you don’t have a real assistant. They might have been more enthusiastic about all this.”
“It could have been an octogenarian who would have seen you married before you’d spent a night together or a millennial who might have created an overly complicated wedding hashtag for you.”
He groaned as he put his head in his hands. “Scott’s great. You should keep him.”
“I was planning on it.” I smirked at my brother as the elevator descended. “But hey, if you want an overly complicated wedding hashtag, just let me know. Also, you’re welcome to move in with me until the wedding if you want the no-sex thing.”
“You’re insane.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “And unusually chipper now that you’re over your freak out. You’re not a chipper kind of guy. What gives?”
A night of unadulterated pleasure with the woman helping me plan your wedding. “Nothing. I’m just in a good mood.”
“I’d say.” He gave me a suspicious side-eye, then started laughing. “You got laid, didn’t you?”
“I did, but that’s not exactly something I’d be in a good mood about. Stop making me sound like I was celibate before.”
“Dude, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say this woman had to come glitter for you to look like this the day after.”
She didn’t come glitter, but she might as well have. Fuck, one night with Luna and I already knew I needed a lot more of her. I was borderline addicted to the way her body writhed beneath mine, to the way her beautiful face contorted in pleasure and she looked almost guilty about it.
I didn’t tell Peter any of this, though. He was riding the high of being in love and planning his wedding. A few words out of my mouth and the pussy-whipped fool would be suggesting we make it a double.
“It’s no big deal. We had fun and that was all there was to it.” The elevator let us out, and as we made our way out of my building, I realized I had a problem. “I need to stop so I can get a notebook.”
“What for?” His face screwed up. “You have your phone, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but handwritten always feels better.” I could write faster than I could type. Plus, I had a feeling that with Luna by my side, whatever list I made today was going to have babies. It was always easier to keep track of those on actual paper. “What? You could take the day off but you can’t spare two minutes to buy a fucking notebook?”
“You didn’t even need a notebook at school,” he grumbled, then threw his hands up. “But okay. Let’s stop for a notebook and pretend there’s nothing weird about it, even when the guy who wants it made his fortune off electronics.”
I shrugged as we slowed near a stationery store. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
A few minutes later, I emerged with a pitch-black, faux-leather notebook with the words Nothing like planning a wedding to make you want to punch every person you’ve ever met in the throat emblazoned across the front of it.
Peter took one look at it and burst out laughing. “I kind of feel like you ordered that off the internet especially for today and that was what the whole notebook thing was really about.”
“If only.” I shrugged, but I really should have thought about doing just that. “I think it was the universe just knowing what I needed and giving it to me.”
My brother stopped laughing and dragged his hands though his hair. “The fucking universe? What is with you, man?”
“Nothing. I just feel like karma won this round, putting this particular book in that particular store right when I needed it.”
We kept talking shit as we made our way to our favorite bar, ordering a pitcher of beer and some wings before taking up residence in our booth. I spread the pages of my brand-new notebook and took my newly purchased pen out of my pocket.
“Okay, so you said Jenny talked to you about the questions I’ve asked. So why don’t you start by going through them and giving me the answers?”