Bad Bridesmaid (Billionaire's Club Book 11) by Elise Faber (important books to read txt) 📕

her face and turning it up so he could kiss her. “Only way to capture those beautiful eyes of yours.”

She made a face.

He kissed her.

But eventually, they needed air and broke apart, sitting on that bench, on a precipice high above civilization, looking out at the Pacific Ocean, and watching the sky brighten as the sun rose behind them.

He’d traveled the globe, visited all seven continents, stayed in tiny villages and big cities, and never had he felt more certain that he was in the right place.

Because the right person was next to him.

Later that day, after they’d taken a much-deserved nap, they made plans to binge another of Heidi’s bad reality TV shows—and he wouldn’t admit this to anyone, but he’d actually begun to like them . . . okay, some of them. But what he really liked was her reactions to them.

The gasps of outrage.

The anger for one of the cast being wronged—which usually came in the form of a broken heart.

The occasional tear when something sweet happened.

But just as they had pulled out their phones to figure out what to order in for dinner, there was a knock at the door.

Heidi frowned.

“I’ve got it,” he told her, shifting her feet from his lap and standing up.

“It’s probably someone trying to sell me solar panels,” she grumbled.

“Well, I’ll tell them to take a hike,” he said, opening the door.

“That hike isn’t happening, bro,” his brother said, towering over a trio of women. He laughed, probably at the confusion on Brad’s face when that trio pushed the door open, barreled past him with nary a look, and sandwiched themselves around Heidi on the couch.

“I haven’t seen this episode,” Kate said, grabbing the bowl of popcorn he’d made—and for the record, had only gotten to eat one handful of. “Start it over.”

“Come on.”

Brad blinked at Jaime’s voice, blinked again when a jacket was shoved into his chest, followed by his wallet, keys, and phone—all of which had been given a proper home on Heidi’s organization station by the door.

“Let’s go.”

“Go where?” he asked as Jaime threw his arm around his shoulders.

“Whatever you were planning with Heidi ain’t happening.” He coaxed Brad out the door. “So, let’s go grab a beer and some wings.”

“I—” He shook his head. “What?”

Jaime sighed and started hauling Brad down the porch.

“Wait—” He ducked out from beneath his brother’s arm, hopped up the stairs, and locked the door. Then turned back around to see Jaime studying him. “What?”

His brother just smiled and shook his head. “Let’s go get that beer.”

“Okay,” Jaime said when they were seated at a bar with a scarred wooden top, their stools slanted so they could watch the latest Gold Hockey game.

“Okay, what?”

“Tell me all about it.”

He took a sip of his beer. “About what?” he asked, playing dumb.

Jaime rolled his eyes. “Nice try. But we’ve been back a week, and Kate has been beside herself with curiosity. You need to give me the goods or my new wife will leave me.”

Brad snorted. “Then she’d have to find someone to take care of the cock.”

His brother froze, slowly set down his beer. “Dude.”

“Heidi would have laughed,” he muttered, glugging down his own, since Jaime had driven them to the bar.

“Heidi is actually why we’re in this mess.”

He glared. “Don’t say anything bad about her. She’s great.”

Jaime raised his hands in surrender. “I would never do that. She is great, and she’s one of Kate’s best friends, but . . .” He trailed off, like Brad would fill in the blanks.

And he supposed he would.

Because he knew exactly what his brother was thinking.

When would he be leaving again?

Reaching across, he grabbed Jaime’s forearm, squeezing it tightly—not because he wanted to hurt his brother, but because he needed him to understand. “She’s it.”

Jaime nodded, but concern was still laced throughout his expression, and Brad knew he didn’t get it.

“She’s my Kate,” he said. “You know all that shit with Mom, with that grain of sand itching beneath the surface, the prickle of irritation that never seemed to go away?”

Jaime nodded when he paused.

“To keep with the metaphor, Heidi is that pearl.”

Brad waited . . . and then waited some more for his brother to say something, to congratulate him on finding the other half of his soul, but Jaime just quietly stared at him.

“You’re wondering if I’m just going to fucking disappear again, aren’t you?” He pulled his hand back, clenched his jaw tight. “Well, I’m not. I’ve been all over this fucking world, and I can say with absolute certainty that none of that means anything without a person to share it with.”

“So, does that mean you’re done traveling, that you’re just going to live here permanently?”

“Yes.” He sighed when he saw his brother still didn’t get it. And who could blame him?

Brad had taken a sharp right turn.

Hesitation in his brother’s gaze, and fuck that stung. “I don’t think you would hurt her intentionally,” Jaime began. “But I wonder . . . if you’re not moving kind of quickly. You’re used to being free and moving to your own beat all the time.” He lifted his hands, palms out in surrender. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, not at all. I just . . . I know that Heidi is married to her job here, and she has deep roots in this area. She grew up here. Cora, Kelsey, and Kate are here. I’m sure she’d be happy to travel—I’ve never seen that woman back down from an adventure or a challenge, but I don’t think that she’d be happy to uproot her life all the time.” He winced. “And frankly, I don’t think her job will allow for it.”

None of these were things Brad didn’t know.

But none of these things made that old prickling to run, to leave, to hide beneath the prospect of leaving, come back.

Instead, he just felt certain.

That he’d be putting down his roots where Heidi was.

“Look, Jaim, I know what you’re saying.”