Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
But avoiding love when you've sworn it off should be easy...right?
Not for these siblings.
Someone really should have warned them that happily ever after waits for no player. When it hits, these siblings will make waves in the sporting world. That is, if they can keep their lives together long enough to make it down the aisle.
Sibling Goals is a spicy sports rom-com series featuring alpha heroes who have it all (maybe?) and curvy heroines who think they know exactly what they want (dresses with pockets, not love).
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Briggs
"You're late," my brother, Harlan, growls, appearing in the church doorway like some timekeeping demon, his face set in a dark scowl. "You were supposed to be here an hour ago."
"Take it up with Jesus and the traffic." I grin at him. "I got here as fast as I could. Any faster, and we'd be having a different conversation right now." I glance at the parking lot behind me, where friends' cars are scattered across the first couple of rows. "With a whole lot of Chicago's finest behind me, trying to take me down."
Harlan grumbles under his breath like he wants to argue, but my point is solid. There's only so much a motherfucker can do about traffic in Chicago on a Friday night without divine intervention. And if there is a God, I don't see him stepping in to part the seas to get me to my brother's rehearsal dinner. The world is a shitshow. He's got more important things to do.
"Come on. Everyone is waiting," Harlan says as I duck past him into a grand foyer. The tile floors gleam at my feet, the crucifixion hanging overhead reflecting off them. Benches and floral arrangements line each side of the foyer, with lines of scripture carved into the walls. It's ostentatious, but unsurprising for a church big enough to hold half of Chicago. The big ones are rarely known for subtlety.
A giant sign announcing Harlan and Sophie's wedding stands in the center of the antechamber, with one of their engagement photos above the date.
"You nervous?" I ask my brother, clocking the way he tugs on his suit jacket, trying to get it just right. He's already more put together than he's ever been, not a wrinkle or crease in sight.
"About marrying Sophie? Fu…I mean no," he says, casting a furtive glance around, like he's afraid Jesus is going to pop out of the flowers and strike him down for almost cursing. "I've been ready to marry her since Tye's wedding." He rakes a hand through his hair. "Worried about our mother showing up."
"Ah," I say, nodding. Once, she might have made the guest list simply to keep the peace. That changed almost two years ago, when we found out she was trying to force our baby sister, Hattie, to attend Tye's wedding with a man who doesn't even deserve to breathe the same air as her. Tye, Harlan, and I handled the situation with the help of Sidney Hawkes, Hattie's now-husband, and none of us have been on speaking terms with her since.
Frankly, I'd prefer to keep it that way. But our mother never goes quietly. She's done nothing but cause problems, especially once she found out that Hattie and Harlan were both getting married.
I'm the last motherfucker standing out of my siblings…and our mother hasn't been to a single wedding. No, she isn't taking it well. Not in the least.
That's on her.
"She won't show up," I promise Harlan. "I made sure of it."
"What?" He looks startled. "How?"
"We had a conversation."
"You had a conversation."
"Yeah, a conversation. I said some shit. She listened." I shrug like it's not a big deal, but we both know it is. I never willingly speak to her if I can help it, not after all the shit she's pulled. That doesn't really matter, though. What matters is that she isn't going to show her face at the wedding, not if she doesn't want the whole world to know what kind of mother she truly is.
The only thing that our mother loves more than money is being the center of the right attention. Trust me when I say she does not want the world to know half the shit she's said or done over the years. What little bit of standing she has left would crumble, and she'd really be alone then.
Harlan stares at me for a long moment, gratitude etched across his face. "Thanks, Briggs. I mean it."
"Don't mention it." If our roles were reversed, he'd do the same for me. But he's the one getting married, not me. And it's not like he even lives in Chicago to deal with her. Trying to plan a wedding from the other side of the country has been hard enough for him and Sophie. Someone had to deal with our mother for him. She can hate me for running interference if she wants. So long as she stays away from my sister and brothers, I don't fucking care.
I stopped caring about her a long time ago, right around the time I realized that she was a monster who hated her own daughter. She made our sister fucking miserable out of sheer spite and jealousy. And Hattie wasn't the only one. I never felt good enough because of her, because the only thing I've ever been to her is a bank account and a paycheck.