Page 1 of Undeniable Love

CHAPTER 1

Meredith

My skin was wrapped tightly around me, my heart pounding against my rib cage. Breathing was increasingly difficult, and my steps so quick I was at risk of falling in my heels.

My brothers were here. In Nashville of all places.

The city I ran to in order to escape the small-town ranch life in Colorado. I was born and raised in a town so small Google Maps didn’t show it until I was sixteen. The first chance I had to skip town and hit the city, I took it. A scholarship to Tennessee Central in Nashville was my ticket out of rounding up cattle and scooping shit out of stalls for the rest of my life.

I’d been gone for three years, only going home that first summer and a couple of Christmases. My family had only made the trek east once, and that was when my brother’s AHL team swept through the state a week before Christmas last year.

But they were here. At least, my three older brothers were here. They’d come to not only celebrate Caleb finally getting called up to the NHL in our home state of Colorado, but also his teammate and friend getting called up to Nashville’s very own Tennessee Avengers team and having his opening home game later in the week. As an avid hockey fan, I was excited to meet him. As the younger sister to a brother who had an incredibly hot friend, I was nervous about it.

“Slow down,” Hailey panted behind me. My best friend had legs for days but hated heels. “I’m going to break an ankle before we get there.” She tugged on my hand and jerked me to a slower pace.

“I can’t help it. I can’t believe they’re all here.”

“What males don’t want a weekend on Broadway these days?” She huffed and pushed her hair out of her eyes before glancing down at the phone in her other hand, frowning at the paragraphs of text on her screen.

I hid my scowl. Her boyfriend, Darrick, was a massive tool and not in any of the good ways. I kept my mouth shut about him, though. Hailey loved him.

He was going to break her heart someday, of that I was certain, and I’d be there to help her through it, but until she asked for my advice or opinion, my lips were sealed.

“Is he still upset?”

“He’s not mad. He just likes his time with me.”

Right. Because all men tried to manipulate a woman they saw every single day into staying home with them instead of heading to the bar with their best friend to see her family. He could have come. I hated the guy, but I still invited him. But this was the shit Darrick pulled. Hailey was smart. Definitely smarter than this, but again… until my opinions were asked for, I was Fort Knox.

“Tell him I’ll make sure to take good care of you.”

Hailey laughed. “Yeah, that’ll make him feel better. He’ll expect a call from the police station.”

She wasn’t all that wrong. Out of the two of us, I was the wild child. I liked to blame it on the fact that I grew up in a town so small there wasn’t a stoplight until the early 2000s and my family was so well-known. A dose of life in a big, vibrant city, rewired my brain. I had no plans of slowing down anytime soon, either. At twenty-one, I was just getting started.

Music filled the streets as soon as we hit Broadway. Along with the music were the screams from women riding by on double-decker busses, wedding veils and sashes proclaiming they were there for bachelorette parties. The smells quickly followed. The stench of sweat and spilled beer and most likely vomit was a horrendous mixture that kept most Nashville locals far away from Broadway. It didn’t matter it was December. Broadway was always alive with party revelers, even if they were now mixed in with the occasional holiday jingle.

But we were twenty-one, in college, and we were still on the party strip of the city. We hit the crowd and weaved through drunken stumblers, many who looked like they’d been around since the bars opened. Hailey and I had moved single file, and I reached behind me to keep a hold of her hand so we didn’t get separated. The crowd forced me to slow down. Hailey was probably thrilled. I was an excited wreck. My family had grown up close, closer than most. With five brothers, two who were too young to make the trip because they weren’t of age to get into bars, I was so looking forward to seeing my older brothers I’d be willing to mow down everyone in front of me who made me slow down further.

“Calm down.” Hailey laughed at me and then pointed to my feet tapping impatiently as we waited for the streetlights to change. “They’re right across the street.”

“And three levels up,” I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes and stumbled as the light changed and I hauled her with me.

“You’re a brat.”

“And you’re slow. Come on.”

We finally reached the bar where my brothers were already at a table reserved for all of us, and by the time I hustled up the three flights of stairs and reached the open, rooftop area, I squealed so loud even the singer on the stage flinched.

My twin brothers, Caleb and Cameron, threw their arms up in the air, each of them holding a beer.

In sync, they both cried out, “She’s fucking here! Let’s go!”

“Athletes,” Hailey muttered. “They’re always so loud.”

I bumped her hip with mine. “Nah. That’s just the Kelley family way. You should know that by now.”

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