* * *
Just as Lori had predicted, their brothers stopped and blinked at her in surprise as they walked onto the porch. Surprise, unfortunately, quickly turned into scowls.
“Sophie?”
Her oldest brother’s face looked like thunder and she had to force herself to hold her ground in front of Marcus, rather than take a step back in retreat—and go running back inside to wipe the makeup off her face and brush her glossy, blown-out hair back into the style they were all used to.
“What the h—”
Nicola put her hand on Marcus’s forearm just in time. “Hey, gorgeous,” she teased, “I hear you own this joint.”
Thank God Marcus was powerless to resist his stunning girlfriend, especially when she was going up on her toes to whisper something into his ear that had him dragging her off to a private corner of the porch and kissing her.
Sophie made a mental note to do something really nice for Nicola in the future as payback for that quick save. Maybe a new e-book reader with a hundred fantastic books preloaded on it for those long hours on tour?
Too bad Gabe was only a beat behind with his, “Why are you wearing all that makeup, Soph?”
Megan, who had become one of Sophie’s closest friends after the two of them had reconnected a handful of months ago, shot Sophie a sympathetic look before moving into Gabe’s line of vision.
“Summer needs help with her basket of flower petals. She’s asking for you, Gabe.”
Sophie’s firefighter brother had fallen hard for her friend and her daughter after saving both of them from a deadly apartment fire. He didn’t stand a chance of holding focus on whatever Sophie was up to when Megan’s seven-year-old daughter needed him.
Too bad Ryan, Zach, and Smith didn’t have girlfriends on the porch to distract them.
Ryan looked between her and Lori. “You guys aren’t going to do that twin-switch thing again, are you?”
Zach just looked plain confused. “Whatever is going on here, I don’t want to know about it.” But then he added, “Swear to God, Nice, if anyone even looks at you crosswise I’m going to pound his head into the dirt until he’s fertilizer for Marcus’s vines.”
“What about if someone looks at me?” Lori asked, obviously trying to pull their brothers’ attention away from her twin by acting affronted.
“You can handle yourself,” he retorted.
“So can I,” Sophie said.
“Like hell you can,” Smith said.
Her second oldest brother, who just happened to be one of the biggest movie stars in the world, had been watching her silently until then. Although they were about as different as two Sullivans could be—he’d always thrived in the limelight and she wanted to steer as far from it as she could—she’d always been especially close to Smith.
He took her hand. “Let’s go practice our walk down the aisle.”
She’d been so steamrolled by her brothers, she finally realized who was missing. “Where’s Jake?”
“He had a last-second emergency with the drinks,” he replied and then, when they were around on the other side of the porch, he said, “You look beautiful, Soph.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s going on?”
She swallowed hard. “I wanted to look pretty for the wedding.”
“You were already pretty. Before—” He gestured to the hair, the makeup, the dress.
Her heart squeezed at the way her brother looked at her, as though she were a little girl he needed to keep saving. Didn’t he see? This was exactly why she needed to do this. So that everyone would stop thinking of her as sweet little Nice.
Little did he realize—little did any of her brothers realize—that they were only feeding her resolve more.
A part of her desperately wanted to confide in Smith, to try and take some comfort from her big brother’s strong arms. But she knew better. If she told him what she was doing, he’d likely lock her in the guest house until the wedding was over.
“I’m walking down the aisle on a movie star’s arm,” she forced herself to say. “Who knows where this picture will end up?”
Unfortunately, Smith didn’t even come close to believing her. “Since when did you care about any of that?”
Since never, but that was beside the point.
She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve missed you.”
She felt his kiss on the top of her head. She hadn’t had a father past the age of two, but she’d never felt that emptiness. Not with so much love all around her, not with Smith and Marcus and Chase to hug her, not with Zach and Ryan to tease her, not with Gabe and Lori to play and argue with.
“I missed you, too, Nice.” He pulled back, looked at her again. She wondered why it didn’t rankle when Smith used her nickname, but she wanted to deck Jake for saying it. “I just didn’t expect to come from Australia and see you’ve changed.”
“I’m still me,” she insisted in a soft voice.
Only, the truth was, she was barely an hour into her “transformation” and things were already different. She’d never had conversations like this with her brothers, for one. And while she wasn’t at all certain she’d ever try this particular look again, despite her worries over making a big fool out of herself in the slinky dress and towering heels, there was a part of her that liked the change. Heck, hadn’t the waitress at her favorite Thai restaurant even said to her the last time she was there, “Ordering the same old thing?”