"You realize I came to talk you out of this." Might as well get into it.
Ty chuckled, low, disbelieving. "You know, I'm grown up now. I know what I'm doing. I don't need my big brother looking out for me."
Five years younger, Tyler was the son of his mother's second husband. When the marriage went south,
Drew made sure Tyler ate his breakfast, did his homework, and took his nightly bath.
"You just met this girl. On a surfing trip to Costa Rica. How can you pledge your life to someone you've only known for three months? Need I remind you about the others?" The ones Ty fell head-over-heels for. "You were engaged to--"
"I knew you'd bring up Amanda."
"And Kayleigh. And Jodi."
"I wasn't engaged to Kayleigh or Jodi. Look, I'm not the same guy. This with Noel? It's real. I know it." He smacked his chest. "I feel it."
"That's what you said about all of them." What Drew had said about Louise.
"I was eighteen with Amanda." Tyler sighed, hammering the steering wheel as he pulled up to a red light. The sign on Drew's left indicated they were heading up US 1.
"I'm just pointing out your track record."
"I'm sorry about what happened with you and Louise, but don't rain on my happiness."
"There's no rain. Just sound advice. Losing Louise, and my career, was the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Oh, really? So why are you hiding in Hawaii? When are you going to give love another chance?"
"I'm busy, building the business. But you ... you're basing the next fifty-plus years of your life on a two-week dalliance in Costa Rica followed by three months of texting, FaceTime, and a couple of long weekends. There's been no testing of your relationship, of how you'll be together. You're not even out of giddy, butterflies stage."
"We've had plenty of reality checks." The light flashed green, and Tyler hit the gas.
"Okay, like what?" Drew powered down his window letting the wintery breeze of Florida's east coast cool his jet-lagged, hot skin, listening as Tyler rattled off a bunch of stupid "challenges" he and Noel had faced.
Like where to have the wedding. If he should wear a tux or not. If they should have a vanilla or chocolate cake.
Drew laughed, and even he heard the sardonic note. "Vanilla or chocolate cake? You think cake flavors are a test of your relationship?"
"Okay ... we had a tough time deciding if we'd have joint or separate checking accounts."
Drew slapped his chest. "You're killing me."
"What? Money is the one thing couples fight over more than anything. We decided if we keep separate accounts, then we won't fight."
"Until you realize she spent three hundred dollars on a pair of shoes while you paid five hundred for the electric, water, and garbage bill."
"That's not fair, Drew. Don't make Noel out to be like Louise."
"My past doesn't change the truth, Ty. You're a dreamer, and this marriage is in haste. I aim to take you to Honolulu as a single man."
In the light of the dash, Drew caught the tense knot in his brother's jaw. "I'm not abandoning my fiancee three nights before our wedding."
"Then I can't be your best man." He threw down the gauntlet. It was harder to say than Drew imagined.
Tyler swore under his breath. "You beat all, man. My own brother ..."
"I'm trying to save you from yourself."
"No, you're trying to save me from you. But you have us confused. It's my life, Drew. My choice. You can't always be bossing me around, playing the big brother. You haven't even met her yet."