by Bella Andre
Page 3
Author: Bella Andre
“Hmm. ” Lori scanned her again, head to toe, and Sophie knew the exact moment the truth hit her sister. “Oh, no. You’re not actually going to try to get J—”
Sophie leapt toward her sister to cover Lori’s mouth with her hand before Jake’s name left it. She wished she could tell Lori her transformation had nothing to do with him, but she couldn’t lie to her twin.
“I know what I’m doing. ”
Lori shook her head, yanking Sophie’s hand from her mouth. “You don’t have a clue what you’re doing. I love J—”
“Lori!”
“—him like a brother, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see his faults, Soph. Especially where women are concerned. ” Lori pinned her with a hard gaze. “Don’t do this. ”
She’d never thought to admit this to anyone, not even her sister, but now she found herself saying, “You don’t know what it’s like to be invisible. ” She instinctively lifted her chin and pushed back her shoulders. “I’m sick of it. ”
She wanted her twin to understand, but instead of encouraging her, Lori said, “You love to tell me when and where I’m screwing up. ” Sophie tried to interject, but her sister put her hands on her shoulders and made her turn around to face the full-length mirror. “This time you’re the one who needs to listen. Don’t do this, Soph. ” Lori squeezed her shoulders tight. “Don’t. Do. This. ”
Sophie stared at the incredibly sexy woman staring back at her in the mirror. She’d never have been able to pull this together without professional assistance.
It was now or never.
“I have to. ”
Lori looked as serious—and worried—as she could ever remember seeing her. “The boys are going to be beside themselves seeing you looking like that. I mean, they’re used to me playing up the goods, but you. . . Nope. They aren’t going to like it. Not one bit. ”
“Too bad. ”
Finally Lori almost smiled, but then she asked, “What’s going to happen if your plan backfires?”
Sophie’s heart stuttered in her chest at the thought of just how many things could go wrong with her brilliant plan to teach Jake a lesson for ignoring her all these years. Still, she thought she sounded confident and secure as she assured her sister, “It won’t. ”
And even though she could still feel the heated imprint of Jake’s fingers against her cheek where he’d touched her, she told herself it was the truth. Because if there was one thing everyone knew about Sophie Sullivan, it was that she never, ever lied. Not to anyone else.
And certainly not to herself.
Ellen, Marcus’s winery manager, who had helped Sophie with plenty of the wedding details, popped her head into the room. “It’s time to give the bride her big send-off. You two are gorgeous. ” She spent a few extra seconds looking at Sophie, a faint hint of surprise on her face, before saying, “Beyond gorgeous, actually. Are you ready?”
Sophie’s heart jumped in her chest at the thought of making her grand entrance. Of course she wasn’t ready. . . but she was as ready as she’d ever be.
She joined Lori, Marcus’s pop-star girlfriend Nicola, Gabe’s girlfriend Megan, and the other two bridesmaids, who were old friends of Chloe’s, on the porch. As co-maids-of-honor, Sophie and Lori had had a fierce match of rock-paper-scissors over which of them would walk out first with Marcus, the oldest Sullivan.
Sophie was certain that Lori had cheated. Her twin always did. But now she was glad that she wouldn’t be the first to enter the proceedings. It was even better that Smith was her partner for the walk down the aisle. Everyone would be oohing and ahhing over the movie star in their midst. At least long enough, she hoped, for her to settle a little better into her brand new sex-goddess persona.
* * *
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 did
n’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?”
Sophie suddenly realized she’d gotten stuck in a rut. A nice, comfortable rut.
Footsteps coming toward them had them pulling apart and Smith smoothing her hair back into place. “You really do look great, Soph. Different, but stunning. ”
This time only pride shone from his eyes. And when the two of them obeyed Ellen’s instructions to follow Marcus and Lori down the steps of the porch, out through the vines to the rose-strewn aisle, Sophie didn’t have to fake her radiant smile.
Watch out, world, she thought, Sophie Sullivan is about to cut loose.
And, hopefully, Jake McCann wouldn’t know what hit him.
Chapter Three
Jake stepped out from behind the bar just as the wedding march started up and a cute blonde kid skipped down the aisle, tossing flower petals into the air. Charmed, the crowd laughed and admired Gabe’s girlfriend’s daughter. Marcus and Lori came next, the oldest Sullivan and one of the youngest. Lori took her place as one of the Maids of Honor and Marcus moved to the center in preparation for officiating the ceremony.
Yet again, Jake could hardly believe this day had come. There were a few things he’d always been able to count on in life.
Beer always tasted better from the tap.
His father had never been anything but a worthless drunk.
And the Sullivan boys weren’t going to be heading to the altar any time soon.
Ellen caught sight of him and waved him over to his place by the bridesmaid he’d be escorting. He hadn’t met her yet, but he hoped Chloe had good taste in friends. At this point, the only way he had even the slightest chance of working Sophie out of his system after a long day together at the wedding, was to make sure he ended it in bed with a gorgeous woman who was her polar opposite.
He was almost to the bridesmaid when his heart—and his feet—stopped cold.
What the hell had Sophie done to herself?
Jake blinked to try to fix his vision as Sophie and Smith rounded a row of vines and continued walking down the aisle. When he was still seeing things a few seconds later—crazy, insane things—he ran a hand over his eyes.
But nothing changed the fact that Sophie was looking like walking sex in a silky pink dress and high heels. She sure wasn’t wearing that sweater and skirt he’d been so rough on anymore. But the dress wasn’t the only thing different about her. What had she done to her hair? And why did her eyes look so big, her mouth so red?