Enemies-to-Bliss - Abby Brooks Page 0,1

if you hadn’t broken his nose right after Junior Prom. I never saw the guy again after that.”

“Hey! I was the one who broke his nose.” James thumbed at his puffed-up chest. “These guys just made sure good old Braydon knew why he got the shit beaten out of him.”

Ellie, James’ girlfriend, leaned forward and placed a hand on his arm. “You broke his nose? Why?” She sounded more awed than appalled, which had Lilah shaking her head. There was nothing awe-inspiring about James’ quick temper.

The truth of the matter was that Braydon Fletcher had his nose broken that night because the guys came home a half an hour earlier than she expected. They found her on the couch, a little drunk, a lot undressed, and completely hidden under a very handsy guy in a rented tux. It didn’t matter how fine she was with what was happening, poor Braydon was brought to the full and complete realization that her brothers were not.

“None of that’s important right now.” Lilah laughed as she silently willed her brothers to shut up. The night was not supposed to be about her. It was for them.

And if they would just shut the hell up and let me talk, she thought to herself, we can move on to the next thing I have planned.

She plastered a bright smile on her face. “What’s important is that you’re all here and you’re all happy. I couldn’t have picked a better set of women to be with my brothers.”

There.

That settled everyone down.

“To love.” Lilah held up her glass. With beaming smiles, her guests echoed her toast and drank. “You girls must feel like you won the lottery, getting to join the Moore family,” she continued, lowering her glass to the table. “Even you Ellie, although officially it’s only your baby who’s part of the family.” Ellie’s jaw dropped, but Lilah didn’t notice. “It must be nice to have everything just fall into your lap like it has.” She smiled at each of the three women in turn before casually sipping her whiskey sour.

“Lilah!” All three brothers barked in unison, none of them sounding pleased, and all of them glaring at her across the table.

“What?” She flinched, taken aback by their sharp tone.

“You need to think about the things you say,” Harry said, as if that was enough to clear everything up.

“What did I say?”

“Everything just fell into their lap? What are you implying?”

“They did each manage to pull off a pretty major Cinderella story without having to work for anything. And now, they’ll never have to work again.”

There. That should make everyone feel better.

Simply put, Juliet, Ellie, and Willow each gained access to a lot of money and the opportunity to spend their days stretched out on the beach when they landed her brothers.

James leaned his elbows onto the table and leveled a finger at Lilah. “Who are you to talk? It’s not like you’ve ever had to work a day in your life.”

“I worked very hard on this party! Frankly, I’m kind of exhausted!” Lilah looked to the other women at the table for support. Surely, one of them would jump in and come to her rescue. They had to know she didn’t mean anything bad by what she said. The truth was the truth even if it was hard to hear.

“Did you cook this meal?” Harry lifted his eyebrows and gestured toward the plates littering the table.

“Well, no…”

“What about the cleaning, did you do that?” Ian had that smug grin on his face that sent Lilah’s blood boiling.

She ducked her chin. What did any of this matter? She was just trying to do something nice for her brothers. “No…”

“I bet she didn’t even do her own hair.” James was in full attack mode, biting off his words and shaking his head as if her party was something to be ashamed of.

“What the hell, guys? I was trying to do something nice for you.” How had they gone from having a great time, enjoying the nice evening she created for them, to everyone being mad at her for doing it? It always happened that way. Everyone was so damn touchy about everything.

“And you did do something nice for us.” James sat back and grabbed Ellie’s hand. “With Mom and Dad’s money. But then you managed to offend everyone.”

“It’s okay. I’m not offended at all.” Willow leaned forward and sought out eye contact with everyone, a wide smile on her face as she tried to defuse the situation.

“Here’s