Chapter 5

My brothers and I went golfing with Richard the day after my bender with Lance. It was possible my hangover was contributing to my sour mood, but when he suddenly turned to face us from the front of the golf cart, a sad but seemingly sincere smile on his lips, my stomach flipped over on itself.

"Your mother told me how you boys used to love going golfing with your dad, so I thought it would be nice for us to remember him by golfing together as well."

We drove across the course at the exact same swanky country club my dad used to bring us to as kids. It was only a couple miles away from our home, and for my money, this guy had no right to set foot on this fucking property.

It felt like a betrayal to my father's memory to even be here again, but as I looked around at my brothers' faces, even Zachary seemed to be alright with it. I blew out a harsh breath, but Zach was the only one who caught it and he sent me a warning look.

I flipped him off in response. I didn't know where he got off trying to reprimand me like he was our father now, but I was getting tired of so many people trying to step into the old man's shoes.

He chuckled, shaking his head at me, then faced the front and scooted forward to murmur something into Finn's ear. Our brother spun to smirk at me, letting me know Zach had just tattled on me like a kindergartner.

I rolled my eyes, slamming my back into the padded seat behind me and wondering again why I'd even shown up. But I already knew the answer to that question. I'd pieced it together earlier.

I was here because I knew my mother would want me to be. She wasn't putting any pressure on us to bond with Richard or anything, but we all knew what she wanted. So when she'd mentioned he had the idea to take us golfing, we'd all caved.

Mommy's boys. Every last one of us.

From my position at the very back of the six-seater cart, I looked at each of my brothers, wondering how we could all resemble my dad so closely yet I was the only one feeling like I was betraying him now. While our hair was lighter than his pitch black and varied in shades of darker brown, with Finn's having redder streaks shot through it these days and Corbin's turning almost blond if he got enough sun, we were generally tall and dark.

We stood well over six feet a piece and our facial features were his regal, definite, sharp lines. Eye-wise, I took after my mom with the brown, but mine weren't nearly as rich a brown as hers. Finn and Asher took after my dad with a hazel brown and Corbin and Zach had somehow come out with greenish eyes, but that set aside, we were pretty much his carbon copies.

Yet here we were, pulling to a stop at the first hole of the course we'd last played together with him—and no one else seemed to be bothered by it. I huffed out a breath, waiting my turn, and they teed off. I became a laughingstock for my ball hardly taking to the air before it dropped like rock back down to the ground.

"Ooooh, something's finally gotten to him," Corbin crowed, clearly ecstatic about this ludicrous turn of events. "What was it? Who was it?"

"You were out with Lance last night, weren't you?" Finn asked. "I saw a pic he posted of you guys."

My teeth gnashed as annoyance flared through me. "He posted a picture of us? He should know better."

"More interesting is the fact that Serenity Halverson was there too," Finn said, smirking as he exchanged a glance with Corbin. "I think big bro might have a crush on the enemy."

"She's not the enemy." I scoffed. "I'm working with her for the wedding, remember?"

"Sure, but that's just for this one," Asher said, way too cheerful for my liking. "After this, she'll be a competitor and we know how much you love winning."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Unlike you guys, I've never considered the alternative an option. I've never tried losing, so yes. I like winning. Thank you very much."

Even Zachary joined in on the razzing, cocking his head at me. "Did you finally let a girl under your skin? Is that why you've forgotten how to swing a damn golf club? You're too obsessed with a girl you just met?"

I scrunched my face up. "Who do you think you're talking to? She's not under my skin, and if anyone has messed with my game, it's you nut bags."

"Methinks he doth protest too much," Finn said in a singsong voice, holding up his hand for a high-five from Corbin. He pointed the driver he'd just pulled out of his bag at my chest. "Anyone want to bet that our big bad bro has a crush on his nemesis?"

"She's not my nemesis," I repeated emphatically, shaking my head at him. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

He laughed. "Nothing, man. I've just seen her, is all. Only from a distance in real life, like across clubs and stuff until a few years ago, but she's got all the assets you like."

Zachary smirked. "Everyone knows you're a tits and ass guy. Hers have to be spectacular if she's messed up your game this bad after just one day."

"It's not that," I snapped, beyond exasperated. "Things just would've been much smoother if I would've been dealing with Ethan instead. She knows nothing."

"Do you know him, though?" Corbin grimaced at me. "Dude, have you heard the rumors about the real reason they got a divorce?"

"Speculation." I waved him off. "I don't know him well, but I've met him on occasion and we worked in the same industry for long enough that I definitely know a lot about him even if we're not close personally. There's no way he abused her."

Asher gave me a serious look. "Emotional and mental abuse are real too, Dash."

"I know that," I said. "I'm not saying they're not real. I'm just saying I don't know if I buy into any of the rumors surrounding him doing it to her. The divorce is their business, though. It's got nothing to do with us. What does have to do with us is this wedding and the fact that she doesn't have a clue what she's doing."

"How do you know?" Corbin asked, lifting both of his dark eyebrows at me. "You've had one meeting with her. If it's true that she's been through all that, then maybe you should give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Maybe you should give it to him instead," I countered.

He snickered. "I'd really rather give it to her."

I sighed, shoving a hand into my hair and my club back into my bag. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Yeah, I do, but it's so easy with you today, bro." He laughed, shaking his head at me. "On a scale from one to ten, how hungover are you?"

"Why?"

"We need to know so we can replicate the effect," Finn explained, grinning like he was the funniest guy in the world. "It's fun to get to give you shit for once. You dish it out enough. You should be able to take it."

"Oh, I can take it," I told him. "On a scale of one to ten, I'd say a six. Headache. Nausea. Cotton mouth. The whole shebang, but I'm not dying."

Asher chuckled. "What did Lance feed you last night?"

What he'd fed me hadn't been as much of a problem as the binge I'd gone on after I'd gotten home, but I didn't tell my brothers or my suspiciously quiet future stepfather about that. If I did, I'd probably wind up admitting that I'd drunk until I'd gotten Serenity's eyes—and her tits—out of my head, which had only happened after I'd passed out.

Since I had no intention of ever admitting to anyone how attracted I was to that clumsy amateur, I was playing this one even closer to the chest than usual. Which meant I was more impenetrable than Fort Knox in its glory days.

It was unfortunate that she affected me in ways I didn't care to think about. The tabloids made me out to be a playboy and that was fine by me, but reports of my sexcapades were greatly overexaggerated. There was a little bit of truth to them. I was no saint and I would never pretend to be one either, but I was hardly as active as they made me out to be.

That was what I was blaming this on anyway. She affected me so much because it'd been a long-ass time and she was built like the fifties pin-up girls I'd had on my wall as a teenager. Except that she was more voluptuous—and real instead of just some woman in a painting.

Blowing out a deep breath, I inhaled just as deeply and focused on slowing my rapidly increasing heartrate. Whenever I thought about her today, the hangover made me want her even more.

Lazy sex. Slow thrusts into?—

"Dash?"

"Yep?" I came crashing back to earth hard when I found all four of my brothers and Richard staring at me like I'd missed something.

Zachary pointed his club at my ball. "Are you going to hit that?"

No, but I really want to.

Instead of saying that though, I strode up to the ball and imagined it was this whole wedding fiasco. Not even that helped my swing today. I ended up playing the worst game of my life.

They kept hazing me, mentioning Serenity at any available opportunity until eventually, Richard glanced at me with sympathy shining in his eyes. "Maybe we should cut her some slack, huh? I don't know much about her outside of what your mom has told me, but it seems the poor girl has had a rough go of it the past couple years. Besides, the wedding is going to be incredible no matter what goes wrong simply because of who I get to marry."

I rolled my eyes internally. Gag.

Finn smacked me in the back of my knees with his club. "Seriously, Dash? Where the hell is your head today? It's your turn. Again."

The rest of the game was even more abysmal, with even Zachary joining in the banter with Richard and honestly seeming interested in getting to know the guy. When he turned to us after the game, a pile of rocks sank to the pit of my stomach.

"Does anyone want to head into the club and grab a beer? My treat."

As I'd expected, everyone else said yes, but I declined. At least I had a handy excuse at the ready. "I have wedding business to attend to with Serenity."

Honestly, I wasn't sure what would be worse, beers with my soon-to-be stepdad or wedding planning with her, but wedding planning was what my mom had signed me up for. After shaking their hands and saying my goodbyes, I decided that I would simply be more closed off with her today than I had been before.

In order to survive the next couple months with her, I had to keep my eyes and hands to myself and my mind focused on the wedding instead of losing it to the gutter. If not, this inconvenient attraction was going to drive me crazy and I could never allow that to happen.

There was too much at stake.