Peter’s lips thinned as he pressed them together. Then he lifted both shoulders and dragged his hands through his hair. “I don’t care. If she hurts me eventually, I’ll deal with it. It would still have been worth all the good times. We can’t not live just because we’re afraid we’re going to get cut up some day in the future. We have to try, bro. Even if it means we end up getting hurt. I think it would hurt even more not to try at all.”
His words hit the iron shield I had up around the hole where my heart used to be. “There’s no talking you out of it?”
“There’s no talking me out of it,” he confirmed with a grim smile. “How about this? If she hurts me, you get to say I told you so as many times as you want. In the meantime, you’re on board.”
“Fine.” I crossed my arms and cocked my head. “I’m on board. By, like, half a foot. What did you need from me so urgently?”
He shifted in his seat, his gaze sliding to the side. “I need you to help us plan the wedding.”
“Fuck no.” I slammed my elbows down on the table and shook my head. “I thought you were going to say you needed me to plan your bachelor party or something, but your wedding?”
“You get to plan that too, but we really need help with the wedding, man.” Darkness saturated his eyes, his lips turning down at the corners. “Neither of us have parents that can help us. Jenny’s aunt and uncle will turn it into a spectacle and expect you to foot the bill. You’re all we’ve got. Neither of us can do what needs to be done during the day, but you can.”
He pleaded with me, both his voice and the look in his eyes nothing short of desperate. “Please, Cyrus? I know what I’m asking, but there’s no other way. We really want to get married on the date we chose. It means a lot to us, and we need help.”
My eyes screwed shut to block out the glint in his. I couldn’t say no to my brother under the best of circumstances, but seeing that desperation, that grief over neither of them having anyone else left to ask, broke me.
“I can hire a wedding planner,” I said suddenly, the idea jumping into my head out of nowhere. “That’s what those people do for a living, right? I’ll get you the best in the business. They’ll do a much better job of it than I can.”
“We’ve already looked into it. They charge a fortune, and even the affordable ones will eat into our budget, but they’re not available on short notice anyway.”
“I said I’ll hire one, which means I’ll pay for it. Problem solved.”
“No, you’re not.” He narrowed his eyes in a meaningful glare. “Before you say it, you’re not getting us a wedding planner as a gift, either.”
“But I have to get you a wedding gift. I’m your only brother, your only family even. I have to get you something and it has to be something big and special.”
“If you want to get us an extravagant gift, get us the fancy toaster from the registry,” he said. “You’re not forking out thousands of dollars for someone who’s only going to push us over budget with their suggestions anyway.”
“But—”
“No. You’ve got the time to do a few things for us. It won’t keep you busy for the next few months until the wedding and it would mean the world if you’d just help us out. Like you said, you’re my only family. I don’t want to pay someone to do me a few favors my best man could just do.”
I heaved out a sigh, but I knew I didn’t have much of a choice. My brother was the one person in the world I had trouble saying no to.
“Fine.”
How hard could it really be? I’d designed one of the best security systems in the world. Surely, the intricacies of wedding planning wouldn’t thwart me.
Besides, the grin that broke out on Peter’s face when I agreed was worth it. “Good. That’s settled then. I’m going to go hit the bathroom. Then we’ll order food.”
“Yeah, okay.” I watched him walk away, a cold pit forming in my stomach as I thought about what I’d just agreed to. Getting roped into planning my brother’s wedding was not how I’d expected this day to pan out. “Fuck.”
Chapter 3
Luna
I’ve been paying off nothing but interest for a year. How is that possible?
Blinking at the numbers in front of me, I pulled the books closer and squeezed my eyes shut before opening them again. Surely, I couldn’t have read that right.
Unfortunately, the numbers in front of me remained the same. The capital amount on the debt I owed had hardly shrunk despite the extra money I’d been paying into the loan whenever I had it.
It was ridiculous. At this rate, with the way the interest kept piling on, it would take me years to pay the bank back.
Disbelief and shock coursed through me, making my legs numb and my mouth dry. I licked my lips, half surprised they didn’t feel cracked.
The bell above the door tinkled, but the sound didn’t fill me with hope the way it once had. It was spring again, but the last two had given me none of the same reasons I used to have to feel optimistic.
Landon had walked out on me when all the blossoms were just about to show their color, and last year, I hadn’t been able to stay in the black either. People didn’t buy flowers just because anymore, and most who did ordered them off the internet. Since I didn’t have the resources to deliver and couldn’t afford to close the shop while I made the deliveries myself, people could order my flowers online but had to pick them up themselves.
A knock at my office door reminded me of the bell ringing. I turned around, about to apologize to the customer, when my gaze landed on Adi’s pretty face. “Hey, sweetheart. What are you doing here? Where’s your mom?”
“Right here,” April’s voice called just before she appeared behind her daughter. “How are you?”
“I’ve been better, but it’s always good to see you guys.” I opened my arms and Adi bounded right into them, her backpack from school bouncing on her shoulders just before it whacked me in the chest when she turned on my lap. “Whoa there, baby girl. What’s got you so excited?”
“I have a new teacher,” she said, turning to look at me over her shoulder. Her soft brown eyes shone and she flashed me a gap-toothed smile. “She’s so great, but I’m happy it’s the weekend. We should eat ice cream on Sunday.”
“That’s a good idea.” God knew I could use some ice cream myself. “Let’s see if you still feel like it on Sunday. Then we can talk. Tell me about this new teacher of yours.”
Adi went on and on about her. April sat down in the threadbare chair I kept in my office for the odd occasion when I actually had someone in here, animatedly adding to her daughter’s tales.
“She’s a real old-school teacher,” April said. “She said she’s working on a book filled with phrases she says on a daily basis that most people won’t even say once in their lives.”
“Such as?” I asked.
“Don’t lick the playground,” she replied, her eyes crinkling with silent laughter. “There are more. I’m totally buying that book if it ever comes out.”