Prologue

Braden

I’m already sitting on the vast balcony overlooking the college when my best friend, and roommate, gets home. It’s just about dusk and the city lights are starting to wink on, but I tear my gaze away from the view I’m about to leave behind. Matt looks as triumphant as I feel, shoving a big cooler outside toward me while he balances a pizza box and bags of chips in his hands.

“We did it, man,” he says with a grin.

Pulling myself out of my reverie, I feel my own grin stretch my cheeks and rub a hand across the perpetual stubble. We’re done. We both finished our last classes today and all that’s left is the silly ceremony where we race across a stage and shake the dean’s hand.

“Did you ever have any doubts?” I ask, shaking my head and reaching to help with the overstuffed cooler.

Four long years gone in the blink of an eye. There were plenty of times when I was ready to walk away, uninterested in most of the required classes everyone has to take in the first couple of years. Rudderless, with only one reason to really be there. An easy one to overlook when I was at my lowest.

“Never,” Matt says. “You always had this.”

He’s always been my strongest supporter— well, his parents, too. If it hadn’t been for them, I might have bailed more than once. Not even the reason I started in the first place was enough to get me through some of the tougher times. What was money, anyway? Did it keep you warm at night, hug you when you were so empty you felt like everything was shit? The thought of the money never mattered to me.

That was always Matt and his family who pulled me through. They always looked out for me when I was kid, having me over all the time when my own parents neglected me. They came through even more once my parents were killed in a helicopter crash they generously offered to take me in for the remainder of high school. I would’ve never gotten through the last few years without them.

While Matt’s family is well off, mine was straight-up loaded from my father’s early tech investments. He was considered the second luckiest man in Seattle.

My parents deaths meant that all their money went to me—the only stipulation to inherit their billions was that I needed to get my degree. Everything was in a trust to pay for my physical needs, but if I wanted the entire, massive fortune, it would only be handed to me when I got a college diploma.

Now it’s just a couple days until that walk across the stage, and then I’m officially a billionaire. Most people would be thrilled. I groan and take a deep swig of my beer, draining the bottle.

“Oh, come on,” Matt says, pushing the pizza box toward me.

I take a slice of the greasy pepperoni, not caring that the cheese is already starting to congeal. There are only a few more days of this kind of freedom, here in this apartment that’s become a second home to me. My first will always be at Matt’s. What the hell am I going to do now that I’m on my own?

“We’re supposed to be celebrating,” he says, his brow furrowing when I silently chew my pizza, stuck in my thoughts. “What have you got to be worried about?”

He knows me well enough that there’s no way to pretend I haven’t started to spiral. Everyone else who knows me sees a guy who loves a good time and doesn’t have a care in the world. And most of the time that’s true. It’s only with someone who’s as good as a blood brother that I can show my true self, the one who’s not always so confident, cocky, and on top of the world.

With a shrug, I crack open another beer. “I don’t actually have a single clue what I’m going to do after this,” I admit.

With my parents’ trust finally being signed over to my complete control, it’s not like I’ll have to worry about money. I never have to work again if I don’t want to. But that’s not me. It never has been, and my drive has only grown under Matt’s father’s influence. He’d give me a job in his company without hesitation—like he did Matt—but as much as I love the guy, I’d die of boredom in that environment.

“I don’t want to become one of those assholes who just parties on a yacht all year long, surrounded by women and booze,” I say.

Matt nearly spits out his drink, wiping his chin as he cracks up. “Okay, so step one. Don’t buy a yacht.” He turns serious after a moment. “You know there are things in between utter debauchery and immediately buckling down into a commitment. Give yourself some time.”

“It just feels bad, not having everything figured out.” I leave the ‘like you’ unspoken but he still somehow hears it and rolls his eyes.

“It’s okay not to have everything figured out right away. You’ll get there.”

I turn back to the view. It’s full dark now and the city is lit up below us, the stars trying their hardest to compete overhead. His words are comforting, and I can only hope he’s right.

“If you say so,” I tell him, unconvinced.

He laughs. “I’ll be sure to tell you if you become too much of an ass, okay? And legit, don’t buy a yacht. At least not right away. Because that sounds way too tempting, even for me.”

We start rambling on about renting one for a week after everything’s official, even going so far as to start a guest list and begin searching for companies on our phones. Matt is interrupted from showing me one sixty foot beauty when he gets a call.

He makes a face, but there’s delight in his eyes so I know it has to be a family member calling him. He puts it on speaker and sets the phone on top of the cooler.

“Congrats,” a cheery voice calls out. “You actually made it, you big slug. We thought you’d never get that last paper done, but it seems like you did it.”

Matt good naturedly tells his little sister, Carly, to shut up, then thanks her. “Hey, I’ve got you on speaker phone. Braden’s here, congratulate him, too. He put his last class behind him this morning.”

There’s a moment of silence, then a scuffling sound. “Oh, uh. Yeah. Congrats, Braden. Good job.” She falls silent again and Matt rolls his eyes at me, like I’m supposed to know why Carly suddenly sounds like she’s choking on a frog.

He asks her what’s up, because he wants to get back to planning our final college adventure, and she reprimands him for being unserious. “Just like Braden,” she says a bit snippily.

I pretend to be offended and tease her about being too serious. “What color paint is under your fingernails today?” I ask.

If Matt’s kid sister isn’t stuck in front of her easel surrounded by pots and trays of paint, she’s got her nose firmly stuck in a book. Usually about art. The girl has always been obsessed, and I’ve teased her plenty, but there have also been times I wished I could find something I was so passionate about.

She sniffs haughtily. “For your information… okay, I guess I do have some still stuck to my thumb. It’s red ochre. Damn it.” She trails off as Matt guffaws at her honesty.

I grab another piece of pizza and check out of the conversation as she tells him that they’ll all be traveling up here in the next two days to watch us graduate and then help pack up the apartment. I lean back and smile up at the stars. A family as wealthy as the Hagels could have a dozen professional movers get this place sorted out in a few hours, but they’d prefer to spend the time together. I can already imagine Matt’s mom reminiscing about the last four years with everything she touches.

Hell, with my new fortune finally being available I could hire my own movers and not have to touch a single box or sheet of packing paper, but there’s no way I’d give up time with Matt’s family. My family.

Even his grouchy little sister who can’t seem to stand me these days. Not that we’d ever been close. She was seven years younger than us and had her own friends. If she dared to tag along, Matt and I would tease her until she ran off in tears… okay, maybe that’s why she can’t stand me. But it seems different now, more direct, where before she’d treat me the same as she treated Matt, like an annoying big brother.

“What’s up with Carly?” I ask. “She acts like she really hates my guts these days.”

“Pfft, more like she’s got a raging crush on you.”

“Fuck off,” I say mildly. “That’d never happen in a million years.”

He nearly spit out his beer with laughter. “Didn’t you see how she was perpetually red around you the last time we were home?”

I stare at him in disbelief and he shrugs, joking that there’s no accounting for taste.

“No way. She’s probably just in that weird teen phase where she hates everything. I went through that.” I brush it off, unconvinced that Carly would ever have a crush on me.

She was just a kid, and always seemed to view me as an extension to Matt that she’d rather not have to deal with most of the time. I hadn’t had any meaningful interactions with her in years since I’d been so busy with school I sometimes didn’t even go back for breaks when Matt did.

I’m glad Matt has dropped it and seems to think it’s nothing, because if he suspected I had any designs on his teenage sister he’d have my guts for breakfast. And rightly so. I can feel my own fists clenching up at the thought of anyone trying anything with Carly. The whole notion she feels anything for me, but disdain is ridiculous, so I put it completely out of my head.

We just about have the boat trip all planned when a couple of our buddies drop by to tell us about a big party at someone’s house on the other side of town. We keep our wealth on the down low, so they don’t believe us when we invite them onto our newly acquired yacht.

Matt and I exchange a glance as they tell us to get off our asses and get to the party. I feel a stab of nostalgia and it’s not even over yet.

“Why the hell not?” I say to Matt.

We may as well wring every last second of fun out of this college experience. Sometimes it was hell on earth, but we made it. Now is the time to let loose before we’re tied down with our real lives. Matt with his job at his father’s company.

Me with whatever I choose. As we all crowd out of the apartment, I can only see the brightest of futures ahead of me. In less than a week, this life will be behind me. And for the first time, I’m excited about that.