The Wedding Date Disaster (Harbor City 4)

Fuck the scotch. He needed something more like bare-knuckle boxing than golf on the highlands. “The biggest, highest-proof shot you’ve got.”

The bartender didn’t ask twice; he just reached for a bottle of clear liquid on the bottom shelf and poured a double. “Woman or family?” he asked as he set the shot down in front of Will.

“Both,” he said before downing the liquor. It left a burning trail of fire from his tongue to his gut, and he couldn’t wait to have another.

“Well, don’t look now,” the bartender said. “But I’m guessing the family just walked in.”

Will looked over his shoulder and there was Web. His brother must have followed him, and he was in too much of a fog to notice. Web sauntered over and sat down on the stool next to him.

“I’ll have what he’s having.” Then Web turned to Will. “So you really fucked this up, huh?”

Will lifted his empty glass in the universal sign for one more. “You really have to ask?”

“Not judging by how shitty you look.” Web sniffed the single shot the bartender put down in front of him and then downed it.

“Is that your new thing, telling me how crappy I look? You do realize we look exactly the same.”

“Maybe, but at least I’m wearing shoes that match, and I look like I slept sometime in the past twenty years.”

The bartender didn’t say anything, but the look he slung at Will when he dropped off another shot—a single this time—pretty much yelled he’s right. Will scoffed and slammed back the liquor. Whatever was in his glass tasted like radioactive poison, but that was fine. It’s what he deserved.

“Why don’t you go home,” he snarled at his brother. “Just leave me alone.”

Web laughed as if he were having the time of his life. “I can’t.”

“Sure you can. You just take a cab and bam, you’re there.”

“You aren’t going to figure out how to fix this on your own. You’re fucking it up even more than you already have by wimping out.”

Fury and whatever he’d been drinking had him up off the stool on the inhale, then grabbing his brother by the shirt collar and hauling him up on the exhale. “Don’t tell me what I’m doing. I know what I’m doing. I’m walking away because she doesn’t want me.”

Web didn’t flinch. “Or is it because you just can’t stand to admit you were wrong about her, about how you feel, and about what’s really important?”

Important? Will had always known what was important. He’d been protecting his brother practically since he was born. That’s what older brothers did. They watched over the younger ones. They protected the family fortune. They made sure that they always won, they were always right, that nothing bad ever happened. Like their parents dying. Like going to boarding school when they were so young. Like falling in love with the woman he’d thought was out for his brother’s money and then accusing her of being a gold digger to cover up his feelings.

Fuck.

He let go of Web and slumped back onto his stool, realization like a million-pound weight on his shoulders.

“I failed at everything. I’m sorry.”

“My God, you’re an idiot. You’re one of the most successful people I know, but you can’t control everything. Anyway, you’re my favorite brother.”

“I’m your only brother.”

“What can I say, I have low standards.”

But Hadley didn’t. “How do I make this up to her? Diamonds? That’s what our grandmother always wanted.”

Web grimaced. “Oh yeah, nothing shows affection and esteem like sparkly things.”

“That was about as close to a nursery rhyme as she ever told us,” Will said, covering the shot glass with his hand when the bartender held up the mystery bottle again.

He’d spent his entire life thinking that buying someone’s affection was normal, and then he met Hadley. Seeing her with her family was like stepping into another dimension. For them, it wasn’t the money that mattered but time and togetherness. Even with all his money, he couldn’t buy that. Hell, even if Hadley had his money, she’d probably spend it on helping her family’s new business, charities, and getting out to see them more often.

Something settled in his chest, a certainty that he knew what he needed to do next.

“I gotta get to that fundraiser,” he said. “I have to get Hadley back.”