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What the hell were the odds of us attending the same wedding?
"Good morning," I said.
Hannah startled, turning around, and then her gaze dropped to my chest. I’d soaked through my shirt, so I’d taken it off. My attention was now on her full lips as she pressed them together, moving them about.
I enjoyed her reaction more than I cared to admit.
"Chase, good morning," she said.
The other woman nodded at me. "Hi, I'm in charge of catering.”
I offered my hand in greeting. “I’m the best man.”
After we shook, she quickly dismissed herself. "All right then. I’ll leave the two of you and get started on my to-do list." She was clearly in a hurry to escape.
Once she was out of earshot, Hannah sighed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"The wedding planner called me this morning. She has a stomach bug and can't make it."
"For fuck's sake," I exclaimed.
"My thoughts exactly," she replied, then finally made eye contact again. She was watching me so intently that I suspected she was making an effort not to look down. A gentleman would put on his shirt, but I was enjoying Hannah’s discomfort.
What the hell?
"When is her backup arriving?” I asked.
“No backup. It’s a one-woman show. She gave me access to all her lists, but still, I’m sure I'm going to screw up some things."
"Hannah, you can't run your sister's wedding. You’re the maid of honor. You've got enough to do."
She shook her head. "Chase, don’t start."
"No, I mean it. If you manage everything, you won’t have any time to enjoy the wedding.”
"No, but my sister will enjoy it, and that's the point of this. I don’t have any choice now, do I? If you'll excuse me, I need to go back to the caterer to finalize some things with her."
Hannah mustered a small smile before turning around and heading to the caterer.
Fuck, she looked so damn hot in that pink dress, making my imagination run wild. I barely held back from going after her.
I wanted to help her in some way, but I needed to go clean up. Then I had my own best-man duties to deal with. Yet I knew I couldn't leave her alone to take care of everything. Her determination to give her sister the best wedding possible was endearing. What idiot agency didn't have a contingency plan if they got sick on a client's wedding day? I deeply disliked unprofessional people, but what was done was done, and now Josh and Blair needed a solution.
Back in my room, I showered and changed quickly. I had an idea. All my brothers, except Wyatt, were attending the wedding. Between the five of us, we could do some heavy lifting.
Duncan was closest in age to me. Growing up, Mom said we could be twins in personality and looks. But he’d grown up faster than me because he had Jeremy when he was twenty-two.
Griffin was the most impulsive of us all. Wyatt was more cerebral than Griffin but shared his spontaneity.
And Knox and Finn were... different. You never knew what they were up to or what they were thinking.
When Duncan and I had the idea for Sterling Investments, Griffin and Wyatt had just graduated from college and immediately joined us. Finn was a freshman in college, and Knox was a senior in high school. Initially, I’d been against them joining us at such a young age, thinking they should enjoy their college years before they got strapped down in the business world. But they were stubborn and 100 percent into it, and really good at what they did—developing software. In hindsight, it would've been more difficult launching the company if we hadn’t had their expertise.
I was fiercely protective of my brothers. I had their backs no matter what. And the reverse was true as well. I didn’t take that for granted.
Sterling Investments was one of the first brokerage companies to offer an online platform where clients could do many of the transactions themselves. The technology was cutting edge, and it was more user-friendly than what the competition offered. It was one of the keys to our success.