Page 1 of Risky Play

Chapter One

MADDIE

* * *

JUNE

“Have you told your brother yet?” Dinah, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, asked as she fixed her veil and touched up her makeup.

She asked me to kick her mother out of the room three minutes ago because she was about to explode. Dinah, not her mother. This wedding was supposed to be super low-key, but with my brother being a hockey player and Dinah coming from a large Italian family, it had morphed into a huge affair.

I handed her the flask again, and she took a generous swig. I didn’t care if she was drunk at the altar; all my big brother asked of me was to make sure his bride didn’t have a meltdown. Even though it was totally his fault since he insisted this wedding be perfect.

“Mads?” Dinah asked again.

I sighed. “No.”

“You should have told us you were transferring to Franklin!” she exclaimed. “We would have let you come live with us instead of having to deal with the dorms.”

I shrugged. “I wanted the American Ivy League experience.”

I also didn’t want to be under the constant scrutiny of my overprotective older brother, but I didn’t tell Dinah that. I couldn’t bear to tell her the real reason I transferred to Franklin. When Noah found out about my move, he’d do everything in his power to make me move in with him.

Dinah’s bestie and her matron of honor, Fi, flipped her gorgeous red hair over her shoulder. “You’re going to Franklin?”

I nodded.

“My friend Katie’s a professor there. English.”

“Katherine Fitzgerald?” I asked.

Fi thought for a moment. “Yeah. She used to be at UPENN, but she likes Franklin better.”

“I think I have her for one of my communications classes,” I said and wracked my brain for confirmation.

“You’ll love her,” Fi reassured me and squeezed my arm.

“Are you nervous about transferring?” Dinah asked.

“A little, but at least my brother’s here, so it’s not a completely foreign country.”

They both laughed, and then Roxanne Desjardins came rushing back into the room and looked annoyed. “Okay, D, I get it now. Your mom asked me when Benny and I are getting married.”

“Did you tell her the fifth of never?” Dinah joked.

“Of course!” the tall, curvy woman answered with a laugh.

“Okay, D, are you ready?” Fi asked.

“I’m nervous,” she admitted and took the flask from me again. She took a large gulp that made Rox cheer her on. Rox could hold her liquor like no woman I’d ever seen. It made me want to be her when I grew up.

“D, it’s gonna be fine,” Fi told her gently.

“You love my brother, right?” I asked.

My brother never gave me the whole spiel, but I knew it was a bit of a challenge when he and his next-door neighbor finally got together. Dinah had been married before, but her husband died, so I think she had some hang-ups about it and the fact that she was eight years older than him. Even though nobody gave a shit about that. My mom was five years older than my dad, and it had never affected their relationship.

“I love him so much. I didn’t think I would ever get married again. And…” she trailed off and held a hand against her stomach. “I never thought he’d want me knowing I can’t have children.”