“How did you beat us?” We looked towards the front of the house and another couple walked towards us.

“All of you were supposed to get here tomorrow.” Jane smiled, walking towards them.

“We didn’t want you to have to do everything by yourself.” The guy scooped Jane into a hug, giving her kisses on her face making her squeal with laughter. He set her down, walking towards us. “It looks like we might not have been needed.”

“Hey, I’m Matthew. You must be Aiden.” He smiled at me. “That beautiful lady with Jane is my wife, Sabrina.”

“Hey, nice to meet you.” I shook his hand. I looked up to see her talking to Jane and Katherine, more than likely talking about us again by the shy looks the other girls were giving us.

“Jane said you were in the Marines, too.”

“Yeah, Callum and I were in the same company, and we deployed together.” This brother seemed more relaxed.

“I did a couple of tours too, fucking rough, man.” He gave me a forced smile I knew all too well.

“Brutal.” I agreed.

“Hey, you must be Nathan,” he said, shaking Nate’s hand and walking over to Cal and JD. I’d never had to deal with a girl’s brothers before, not that they scared me but from what Callum said, they were very protective of her. I just didn’t know why they didn’t call her more. I was an only child, but by the way Cal was with Kelsey I figured they would at least be half as annoying, calling to check in every so often. We spent the rest of the afternoon building and setting up the rest of the boxes. We had dinner outside, and they talked about Jane’s other brother coming tomorrow. He was the asshole who’d been insensitive about Jane’s loss, and I already hated him. The shit Cal said about him made it even worse. I was not looking forward to meeting him.

* * *

“Fuck, it’s really peaceful here.” JD climbed to the top of the mountain. “I can see why Jane and Henry wanted to come here.”

“It even smells so much fresher out here, and the quiet is intoxicating.” Matthew added, also making it to the top.

For JD’s bachelor party or day, he wanted to hike and hit some trails before fishing and getting shit-faced. His words, not mine. I didn’t think it was a good idea, but what did I know?

“Living in the city isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and I would trade it in a heartbeat for this,” Nathan said, looking around.

“Definitely better than all the smog, noise, and traffic.” Callum said.

“Don’t you miss the easiness of living in a bigger city?” JD looked at us, confused.