The WRONG Brother (Love You Forever #1) - Alexis Winter Page 0,78
not be hung over tomorrow,” I point out.
Dad looks at me. “Well, we could always go across the street for some garage fun. No hangovers with that stuff.”
I laugh. “No way. I’m never smoking again.”
Preston laughs as he talks about all the stupid shit I said and did that day. I just hold up my middle finger.
Mom walks in with a photo album and sits with us. “While you’re getting drunk, I thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane.” She sets the book on the table and opens it up. The first picture is of her and my dad when they first got married. She turns the page and there’s a picture of me right after I was born. Then Preston shows up on the scene. The following photos have us growing up and turning from babies to toddlers to kids. That’s when Piper makes her way into the photos.
There’s one of us climbing the tree in our backyard. In another, we’re all sitting on the edge of the pool with our feet dangling in the water. We’re all wearing arm floaties and eating Popsicles. There’s Preston, Piper, and me. In fact, over the course of the rest of the book, it’s pretty much the same—Piper right between my brother and me. It makes me laugh because she said she didn’t want to be stuck between us forever, yet that’s where she’s always been.
The photos go through their teenage years, but I’m rarely in them. Most of the pictures are just of Preston and Piper. It almost makes me a little jealous, but then I realize that most of the photos from here on out will be of Piper and me. He got her for the first part of our lives, but for this part—the part that really matters—she’s all mine. We’re getting married, having a baby, and soon, I’ll be right here doing this same thing with my child the night before his or her wedding. I smile, knowing that I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I’m getting ready in the church with Preston—as well as Piper’s brother, Jake—when my brother looks up at me. He’s posing in front of a mirror. “Hey, Cal? You think Pipes would have a meltdown if I walked down the aisle wearing my Chucks instead of those uncomfortable dress shoes that came with the tux?”
I chuckle. “I think she’d stop the wedding and make everyone wait while you went to change.”
Jake pipes up. “Yeah, don’t do that. Let’s not delay the boring part any longer than we have to. The reception is where it’s at!” He smiles wide, and when he does, I see so much of Piper in him it isn’t funny.
I haven’t seen Jake in years. He’s older than me and went off to college before I was even in high school. After college, I think he spent a summer at home before moving to the city, where he started working in insurance. He met his wife and they started a family, only recently moving from Chicago to New York for his work.
He helps straighten my tie. I’m so nervous that my hands are shaking. “Who knew that my kid sister would marry the kid across the street?” he says, looking at me fondly.
I laugh. “Yeah, let’s just hope she doesn’t run away with the other kid from across the street,” I reply loudly enough for Preston to hear.
He turns around. “You know I’d never let her do that, right?”
I grunt, not sure of anything when it comes to those two.
“Seriously, she wouldn’t even consider it. The two of you are so perfect together that I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Plus, you’ve knocked her up. She ain’t going nowhere, man,” he laughs out, then stops as he realizes he’s spilled the beans to her brother.
I look over at Jake and Jake looks at me. He smiles and raises his hands in the air, showing me his palms. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“Thanks. We’re telling everyone at the reception, so you don’t have to keep the secret for too long. Hell, I’m surprised my dumbass brother has kept it in until now.” I glare at him and he shrugs.
“Sorry, man. It just slipped out.”
“Mm-hmm, as long as it doesn’t slip out again.”
We get the knock on the door that indicates it’s time to get this show on the road. The three of us walk out of the room and head to the chapel. We enter