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

He sighed. “But the truth is that for the first time in my life, I don’t have another trip planned. Usually, when I’m still in the middle of one set of travels, I’m already searching for the next place to visit, chasing that high of something new, something that could mute the itch that tells me to keep moving, to keep searching, to never stop looking.” He clenched his hand into a fist, rested it on his thigh. “This is different. I feel different.”

“How?”

“When I first met Heidi, it was like everything inside me both stood up at attention and settled down. I knew that she was special, but I was fucking terrified after spending time with her. I knew that given the chance, she’d burrow herself deep inside my soul, and not because she was trying to, but because she didn’t have to.” A shake of his head. “She was just herself, and I knew that she was more than anyone I had ever met. She’s fucking incredible, and she was in me deep in an instant . . . and I was so unnerved that I ran in the other direction.”

Jaime was quiet for a moment then asked, “What changed now?”

He stopped, considered how he could possibly encapsulate how much had changed.

Because everything had changed.

“Jaime,” he began. “There’s . . .” Then stalled out.

“Hey.” His brother grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it lightly until Brad looked up from counting the bubbles in the froth of his beer. “The girls are together and watching reality TV. They’ve got a bottle of tequila for margaritas, books to discuss, and two members of their Un-Wine Club to interrogate—Heidi, because of you, and Kate, about our honeymoon.” He picked up Brad’s beer and handed it to him before snagging his own and clinking the glasses together. “What I’m trying to say is that we have plenty of time to hash out all this shit.” He took a sip. “It’ll be a good four hours before I get the call to go play designated driver.”

Brad traced a pattern in the condensation on the outside of his glass.

“I know it seems like I’m being an asshole,” Jaime said, “and it’s not that I don’t believe what you’re saying. I’m just—I don’t want either of you hurt, and I don’t want you to have gotten things straight in your head and then limit yourself and—fuck, now I sound like an extra-large asshole.” He thumped his hand on the bar. “Ignore me. I’m playing the role of the worried older brother. You’re great. Heidi is great. You both deserve to be happy, regardless of my big brother vibes.”

“Jaim,” he said and stopped, not sure what to say, not when his mind was spinning.

“Fuck,” Jaime said, probably catching a glimpse of that whirlwind. He shoved a hand into his hair. “For real. Ignore me. I don’t have any right to question you or Heidi’s decisions. You know that my relationship with Kate all began with a lie. We pretended to be engaged, for fuck’s sake, so how could I possibly think that I can give anyone any advice on relationships?”

Brad’s shoulders relaxed, the tension in his gut brought on by his brother’s questions easing with the sincerity in his tone.

“If Heidi is your Kate, then I’m so fucking happy for you.” Jaime laughed. “Because God knows these women give us a hell of a ride. But it’s absolutely worth it, and I thank fuck every single day that I answered that DM, that I somehow managed to get Kate in my life.”

“And now she’s tied to you permanently,” he said.

Jaime nodded, happiness etched into the lines of his face. “Yup. She’s mine forever.”

A fact that made Brad very jealous.

He wanted Heidi in his life always. He wanted her to wear his ring, to carry his babies, to be tied to him forever.

Jaime chuckled. “Until she realizes that I did a shit job of collecting her gossip.”

That made him smile and shake his head. “We’d do anything for them, wouldn’t we?”

Jaime clinked their glasses again. “Yes, we would.”

And with that, he took another sip, then a deep breath, and he told his brother everything—how his last trip had opened that lid and made him understand he wasn’t happy, how coming back and realizing he’d hurt Heidi had made him feel like the lowest piece of shit on the planet, how Jaime telling him what their mom had said had made everything clear, how Heidi deciding to give him a chance had made everything seem possible, and how this last month had been the absolute best of his life.

He confessed every last thing in his heart and mind.

Because his brother was that older, constantly worrying sibling.

Because he wanted to tell someone who would understand, someone who got just how important this all was.

And because . . . he didn’t want his brother to get in trouble with his wife.

Heh.

Twenty-Two

Heidi

“I’m inviting my friend, Stef, to join us on our next girl’s night,” she declared, the moment the door had shut behind the boys.

There was a strategy with these . . . playdates, she supposed was the correct word. But the point was, the person with all the gossip couldn’t just give it up right away, she had to make the others work for it—

No. That wasn’t true.

She wanted to share every detail with them.

Just first, she had the more pressing business of making sure Stef was included.

Cora sat back, snagging the bowl of popcorn from Kate’s hands and scarfing down a huge handful. “Isn’t she your assistant at work?”

“She’s my lab assistant,” Heidi told her. “Not answering my emails and taking notes during meetings. She runs the lab when I’m not there, and she just broke up with her boyfriend—who got her friends in the divorce, by the way, the fucking assholes—and she doesn’t have any family close.”

They all made sympathetic noises, lamenting about fair-weather friends, and she knew that Stef would be welcomed into the fold of the Un-Wine