Chapter Three

Leaning against the wall, Brodie Bowie watched the guests gather around the bride and groom in the atelier he and his brothers had built as a surprise wedding gift for Gray’s girlfriend…sorry, Gray’s wife.

Yeah. Gray was married.

Soon, his oldest brother, Will, would make it official with Delilah, and the youngest, Fin, would tie the knot with Callie….and it just felt weird.

Kind of like when Brodie was nine years old, and he and his brothers had snuck out of the house to go skiing under a super moon. Long shadows had disoriented him, and he’d soared right off a cliff. He’d landed on a hard patch of ice, shredding the ligaments in his knee and cracking his skull.

On a helicopter, in the dead of night, he’d come back to consciousness, aware only of a big hand holding his. “Hey, little guy,” his dad had said. Nothing had been scarier than seeing his rough, mountain-man dad turn all sweet and soft. “Next time you’re up for an adventure, invite your old man, huh?”

Head screaming with pain, vision blurry, he’d had no idea what was going on. All he’d known was that one moment he’d been laughing his ass off, caught up in rebellious fun with his brothers, and the next, he was being Life-Flighted to the University of Utah.

On that chopper, his brothers nowhere to be found, he’d felt utterly and completely lost.

That’s what this feels like. Knowing his brothers were gone—well, obviously, not literally gone. Everyone lived on the ranch, and they all still hung out. But it wasn’t the same. That all-for-one, one-for-all bond was over. His brothers had transferred the oath to their women.

And it just baffled him.

One day, they’d all been having a blast snowboarding and surfing, jumping on the jet to go wherever the hell they wanted, free as the wind—and the next three of them were giving dopey-eyed grins to girlfriends. Getting married.

Hard to begrudge them anything, though, considering he’d never seen them so happy. So, that was good. But he missed them. Missed knowing they were all in it together.

The door to the salon pushed open, and the hotel’s manager peeked in. He seemed surprised to find Brodie standing there. “Oh, hey, we’ve got an issue.”

Brodie didn’t want to ruin his brother’s wedding reception, so he followed the man out the door, closing it behind him. “What’s up?”

“Princess Rosalina’s here, and she’s got a problem.”

“Who?” He looked past the manager to see a couple of beefy men in black suits standing in the middle of the lobby.