Back to Me without you (Sibling Love Book 1) (12 page)

“I started out wanting to find the right person to be intimate with, but then I realised I also want the moment to be special as well as right. There is no moment more special than my wedding night, and so I’ve decided to wait until then.”

“How does Justin feel about this? Most guys I know don’t like the idea of waiting to consummate the relationship until the wedding night.” Steven flexed his legs out on the lounge.

“You mean most guys like you?” Jessica returned pointedly.

“Is this why you’re getting married?” Abby asked. Now it was starting to make more sense as the missing pieces of the puzzle came together.

“Is that what you think? Contrary to your assumptions, we’re not rushing into the wedding so that we can consummate our marriage. I don’t know why you can’t just be happy for me.”

“I never said I wasn’t happy with you,” Abby tried to explain. “I think that it’s happening too fast. Wait until you are a little more familiar with each other.” Abby looked over at Steven as though she expected him to back her up, but he didn’t. He kept his focus on the television, not willing to get involved into another one of his sisters’ fights.

“We know one another well enough. We don’t want to be one of those couples that have a long engagement. I guess it was too much for me to think that my family would respect my wishes. If you can’t be happy for me, then I don’t want either of you at the wedding. You’ll only bring me down on one of the most carefree days of my life.”

And with that, Jessica was gone, picking up her handbag, car keys and then she disappeared out the front door.

Abby shot daggers at her brother.

“What?” Steven asked when he could feel her eyes on him.

“You could have maybe agreed with me!”

Steven used the TV remote to pause the television. “Whether I agree or not wouldn’t have made a damn difference. We both know what she’s like. When she has an idea in her head, there’s no changing her mind. And there is no way I’m going to get in the middle of one of your fights. I love you both. I want to be there for the both of you.”

Abby to a deep breath and then grinned at her brother, his sweet words lightening her mood. “You said you love us. Aw, little brother. Are you going soft on me?” She gave him a squeeze, which he tried to shrug off.

“Yeah, okay. I say many things. I love you guys. But that doesn’t mean you need to hug me or repeat it to anybody else. No one else has to know that I love my sisters. You annoy me on most occasions.”

“You said you l-o-v-e me,” Abby teased. “That’s something I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.”

“I suppose you’re going to tell Jessica, too?”

Abby nodded her head with a grin on her face. “Are you kidding? Jessica has to know that you admitted loving your sisters.” She took a deep breath. “Now I just have to figure out a way to get her to talk to me again before the wedding.”

“S
o have you spoken to Mom and Dad at all since your news?” Sam asked his brother as they sat outside at a cafe along Sydney Harbour. They were taking particular note of the way the sun glistened off the water. The sight was breathtaking.

“I’ve talked to Mom. She’s beginning to be as excited about this wedding as she was for yours.”

Sam thought back to his wedding. He remembered how there had been a time when his mother believed he and India would be together forever. She and India both loved fashion and shopping, and she’s seemed thrilled to have a daughter-in-law who shared her passion. Of course, that had been before she discovered India was a gold-digging tramp. Now she didn’t even want to know about the woman her oldest son had married.

“How about Dad?”

Sam knew their father was a different story. Their mother wanted what was best for her sons. If that meant marrying women they loved, then she was on board. Their father had a whole other set of rules for Sam and Justin. What he expected from them was entirely dissimilar from what Sam and Justin wanted. He didn’t believe that Sam and Justin needed to marry to meet great success in their careers. In fact, Gordon didn’t want his sons to tie down to just one woman so early in their respective careers.

“We made small talk at the party for Mom’s sake, but that’s as far as it went. I don’t care what he or anyone else thinks. This wedding is happening whether people like it or not.”

After last night’s debacle, Sam didn’t want to give Justin a reason to stop talking to him. He loved his brother too much to allow that to happen.

Justin was happy to be marrying Jessica. For his brother’s sake, Sam pasted on a smile as best as he could.

Besides, Justin had been Sam’s biggest supporter when he had married India. Everyone else said it was not going to work out. Sam owed it to Justin to do the same for him. And he didn’t think Jessica looked to be the kind of person who was only seeking to marry a rich man. She wasn’t like India, and he guessed Abby wasn’t either.

“So, I apologise for last night. I never intended to make a big deal about not liking your idea to marry, particularly at the engagement party. I was hoping I could make amends by planning a bachelor party for you.”

Justin shook his head, showing a tiny smile in his brother’s direction. “It’s okay,” he said. “I know you’re just watching out for me. Your intentions were in the right place, and you have a great heart. Besides, you didn’t destroy my evening. My fiancée and I still had a good time celebrating with those we love most. Jessica and I have decided together that we don’t want a hens’ night or a bachelor party. We just want to keep things simple. We wouldn’t have even had an engagement party if it weren’t for Mom. That was her idea. There are some things that we’d like to do our way.”

“Okay, okay,” Sam surrendered his hands in the air. “So no bachelor party. But we can still go out for a beer together, right? You know before your man card goes away altogether?”

Justin flexed his arms behind his head. “Of course, we can do that. I’ll always have time for you. But enough about me. What about you?”

“What about me?” Sam was wondering what Justin was getting at.

“Don’t play coy, big bro. I know when something is up, and something is up with you. What happened last night? And don’t worry; whatever we talk about won’t go any further than you and me. I respect the bro code.”

“So no pillow talk between you and your fiancée?”

“There’s not much that I won’t fill Jessica in on, but I’ll still respect anything that you might disclose to me in confidence. So c’mon, tell your little brother what you got up to last night.”

Sam sipped his steaming hot espresso. Working long hours at the hospital meant he lived on more coffee than he cared to acknowledge. But he loved his coffee. If he had to have a vice, he supposed he could have chosen worse things. He raked one hand through his too-long hair. He needed a haircut, but he’d been so busy that he just hadn’t had time. When he wasn’t working, he was usually sleeping off the previous shift and getting ready for the next one. He supposed his mother would find him a hairdresser before Justin’s wedding. She wouldn’t want her eldest son serving as the best man with his hair the way it was.

“There’s nothing to tell,” he replied nonchalantly. “She’s a nice person.”

Justin crossed his arms and watched his brother. “I don’t believe you. Abby is fucking hot. You’d have to be nuts or crazy in love to not try to pull something off with her. So excuse me if I don’t believe the load of bullshit you’re trying to feed me. I know you better than anyone.”

It was true. He did. Justin would make one hell of a lawyer some day, much like their father.

“Something did happen between you and Abby?”

Sam didn’t say anything. That was all the response Justin needed. He fist-pumped the air with a satisfying grin planted on his face. “I knew it! But I didn’t believe we could pull off sisters.” Justin whistled, shaking his head like he had trouble understanding his words.

“It isn’t like that,” Sam tried to explain, then paused. What exactly was it like? Whatever it was he had going with Abby was still a mystery, even to him. He continued carefully. “Last night was a one-time thing. We didn’t do anything.”

Sam watched his brother try to keep a straight face. “Sure, okay. Nothing happened. Is that the line you have to tell yourself so you don’t fall for my fiancée’s sister?”

One thing that he did figure out from last night is that he and Abby had at least one thing in common. She hadn’t mentioned it directly, but Sam could sense that she was guarding a heart that had been broken and betrayed. She’d encountered relationship woes in her past, too.

Sam gave Justin a pointed look. “Look, nothing happened last night. That’s my story. And even if something had happened, Abby wouldn’t want Jessica to find out.”

Justin nodded, telling Sam he understood the unsaid implication of his non-admission. “Okay. But if something had happened and Jessica found out, you know, she might feel different about the whole thing if she knew you a little better. She’s protective of her siblings because of what they’ve been through as a family.”

“C’mon, man. Just drop it. If that happened, we’d address it then. But it won’t, and even if it did, it wouldn’t change anything because Abby and I don’t want to be together.” Sam took a sip of his coffee to soothe his irritation, then spoke plainly. “Last night was a one-time thing, and it only happened because we were both drunk and didn’t know what we were doing.”

“You mean Abby was drunk. I know you know how to hold your liquor,” Justin corrected.

Sam brushed his brother’s comment off. “Jessica won’t find out because you promised me you won’t tell her.”

“Fine. I won’t tell Jessica. I just hope this doesn’t blow up in your face.”

“It won’t,” Sam assured his brother, although he wasn’t completely sure he believed his words “I’m not worrying about anything like that. I’m just going to look forward to getting to know your future sister-in-law. After last night, I can tell she’s a whole lot of fun, and that’s all I’m looking for right now.”

There was a small part of Sam that thought he might have genuine feelings for Abby. Then again he didn’t know her that well and sometimes he thought with his heart more than he liked. It was why his heart had been betrayed more times than he’d like to admit. He’d been known to jump too fast into relationships without thinking about what might happen next. Last night’s sex had been pretty good and maybe that was playing with his emotions more than he wanted it to.

Justin tipped his hot mug at his brother, making one final comment. “Okay, but I hope you know what you are getting yourself into. Careful bro, those are words spoken by men who fall too fast for women and end up with a broken heart.”

Sam knew that better than anyone. With one disastrous marriage already under his belt, he was keeping his heart under lock and key, or trying to, anyway. Fun was all he could handle right now.

Now he just had to get through the two weeks before the wedding without getting closer to Abby than he was already feeling.

Five days had passed following Abby and Jessica’s blow-out with each other. Jessica had managed to slip past Abby at every available opportunity, avoiding her so they didn’t get into another quarrel over her approaching wedding.

Abby made it no secret that she didn’t like the fact that her sister was getting married. She had also promised herself she would try to be happy for Jessica. If it was what she wanted then Abby couldn’t stand in her way, nor could she try to stop the wedding. When it came to what Jessica wanted, there was no one altering her plans. She was a Carter after all. Abby had tried to apologise for the way she had acted but to no avail. Abby wasn’t even sure Jessica still wanted her as the maid of honour. That hurt. Jessica was her little sister and besides Steven, she was the only family she had left in the world.