We took completely different roads after high school. I left for the Marines—a way to prove I was more than just my uncle’s nephew. Eli stayed in Sully’s Beach, working the coffee shop counter alongside his parents and sister, watching his friends leave while he held down the fort.
When I came back, we were strangers with familiar faces.
I’d like to say it was just time and distance that changed us. But that’s not the truth. While I was deployed, Eli was grinding hard, launching one business idea after another, putting everything he had into each one—a landscaping company that never got off the ground, an online resale business that went under after six months, a food delivery app that just couldn’t compete against the big ones—each one failing a little more publicly than the last in a town small enough that everyone noticed. People started to make judgments.Failure to launchis what they called it.
And then I walked back into Sully’s Beach, and within a short time I landed a coaching position with the Crushers. Because my uncle owned the team.
I’ve never said that out loud, but I don’t have to. Eli said it for me the night things finally boiled over between us.
I worked hard for this job, learning everything I could about conditioning and coaching. But I didn’t spend decades working my way up to my new coaching position. My uncle fast-tracked it. And no amount of hard work changes the fact that Eli never got an opportunity like that. He never had an uncle with connections, never had anyone hand him the chance of a lifetime.
Well, except once.
I tried to be that opportunity for himonceand pulled strings I probably shouldn’t have pulled. Nobody from his family knows I did it, including Scarlett. It was between Eli and me, and as far as I’m concerned, it stays that way.
But when it failed, it burned a bridge between us that I don’t think we can ever get back, no matter how much Scarlett hopes for the best.
Eli’s smile fades as he looks at his plate. “We were just kids back then.”
“Yeah, well,” I say, carefully. “We’ve grown up now, I hope.”
“Some people still haven’t improved their driving skills, though,” Eli adds with a teasing glance at his sister.
“Okay, enough with my driving.” But the smile on her face tells me she’s taking this good-naturedly.
I rise from the table. “I should probably go. Early practice tomorrow.”
Scarlett walks me out, unusually quiet until we reach my car. “I don’t know what happened in there, but thank you,” she says, looking up at me with those brown eyes that make me crazy.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know the details.”
“You’re probably right.” She lays her hand on my arm, her touch making my pulse speed up. As disappointing as it was to discover this wasn’t a date, this moment might entirely make up for it.
“I appreciate you trying with Eli tonight. It means a lot. Now it’s up to me to wow your family with what a good fake girlfriend I can be.”
“You already have. You survived the bridesmaid fitting, didn’t you?”
“I came out mostly unscathed,” she says. “But the best is yet to come.”
I tilt my head. “Really?”
She pokes my arm lightly. “You doubt me?”
“I’m just saying, you’re awfully confident for someone who can’t even get our origin story straight.”
“Hey! That wasn’t entirely my fault,” she protests, but her lips curve into that smile I love. “Just you wait. I’m going to be the best wedding date you’ve ever had.”
“Well, you’re definitely theonlywedding date I’ve ever had.”
“Even better. No competition.” She grins. “I’m going to knock your socks off, Brendan Marco.”
Looking at her standing in the moonlight, I realize she already has.
SIXTEEN
Scarlett
The start of the Marco family wedding festivitiesshouldelicit squeals of excitement. After all, I’m getting an unexpected, weeklong vacation at a beachside mansion, none of which I’m paying for.