Page 118 of Borrowing My Bestie's Brothers

Not just the slippery silk of the lining, not just the heavy weight of the wool or linen fabric, but… something that was missing when I tried on that dress.

“Definitely too big, but not too bad,” Mac muttered to herself, turning me around to face the mirror as she started to pull pins from a little cushion strapped to her wrist.

But I could see it already somehow when she pulled the jacket in, stopping it from hanging loose from my shoulders and instead carving out space for my waist and my hips. Masculine and feminine, the stiff, structured fabric was forced to relent, tracing a form that wasn’t a man’s, and that’s when I was able to let a full breath out. Mac stopped, hearing that noisy exhale and then straightening up.

“Feels right, huh?” I couldn’t say anything, my mouth suddenly bone-dry. If Millie walked in here with another rum and Coke, I’d have drunk it down in seconds. “I was the same,” Mac continued. “Mum had hopes of me going in ladies’ fashion, that somehow being surrounded by a sea of chiffon and lace would make me present a little more conventionally female, but…”

She turned me towards the mirror, her hands on my shoulders forcing me to stare at my reflection.

“There’s more than one way to be a girl. Let me show you.”

So she did.

Her pins were like a file, paring away all the excess fabric until all that was left hugged my body like a glove. I’d had to strip down so she could pin the waistcoat to me then the pants, but when I pulled the jacket back on, careful not to dislodge the pins, I saw it.

My anxiety over the engagement party was far reaching and all consuming, no matter how hard I tried to shove it to one side. Staring at the mirror, I was forced to confront it. Of feeling like a duck out of water, my usual uniform of work clothes or denim stripped away from me. Because I didn’t want to embarrass Frankie or disappoint Nadia by turning up looking like a scruffy mechanic, but along with that was a paralysing feeling of not knowing how to fix that. It was why Mum had strong-armed me into a changing room at the bridal boutique, I realised. If I couldn’t sort the situation out, she would, but… Wearing that dress hadn’t made me feel like this. That I could walk into the engagement party with my head held high, my family and Nadia’s filling the room, with one of my guys on my arm.

No, all three.

That feeling had my hands smoothing down the front of my suit and then meeting Mac’s gaze.

“This is amazing.”

“That’s what I was waiting to hear.” She winked at me. “Now, how about we let those boys of yours take a look.”

Millie was standing with her brothers giving them a hard time by the look of her expression, but when they turned around, so did she. Their collective gaze was everything. I could count the times when someone looked appreciative of what I was wearing on one hand, but none of them beat this. Millie’s eyes went wide, her mouth falling open for way too long before she mastered herself. She smiled then, brows twitching, as she took a tentative step forward.

“Jamie…” Nothing shut Millie up, but apparently this suit did. I moved closer and our hands shot out, each gripping the others as she just stared. “Jamie, this looks?—”

“Amazing?” Hunter appeared at her shoulder with a smug smile and shining eyes. “I knew it would. I fucking knew it.”

“And now he’s going to be even more insufferable.” Hayden came to stand at my other shoulder but while he smiled, his eyes told a different story. It felt like he took in every pin, every nip and tuck Mac had made, right before his eyes met mine. “I can tell you how completely amazing you look, but… how do you feel about it?”

I wanted to tell him, but the feeling surging in my chest was too big for mere words. Instead my throat worked, my eyes aching as I stared back at him.

“If you hate it, we’ll find something else.” His words came out in a hurry as his hand gripped mine. “There’s plenty of other places in the city. We can go to every dress shop, every menswear place until you?—”

“I love it,” I finally got out. “I love it.” My eyes went down, seeing the fall of blue fabric. “It’s amazing.”

“We’ll have one in every colour,” Brock said, signalling to Mac. “Suits for daywear, night time, work.”

That seemed to diffuse the tension, all of us laughing.

“I can’t wear something as gorgeous as this while changing someone’s oil,” I said.

“You could if that’s what you wanted.” Brock’s eyes burned into mine. “Whatever you want, Jamie.”

“Whatever you want,” the twins echoed and that had me smiling.

“Well…” Millie drifted over to a rack of suits that was set up on one side, and while many were sober, conventional things, she pulled out a powder blue 1970s style tuxedo, complete with ruffle fronted shirt. “How about something like this?”

“I am not wearing that!” Hunter said, stabbing his finger in the direction of the offending item, but that’s when Millie’s eyes met mine. They twinkled with mischief, something I was well familiar with. We had a secret code born from spending so many years as friends and I knew what she wanted. Back her play, get one of the guys in the ridiculous suit, that was the new objective.

“But it’d look amazing on you.” Millie handed me the hanger like a baton in a relay race because it was my turn now. I held the suit up to Hunter’s chest. “The blue really makes your eyes pop.”

He wanted to refute that, but as soon as my breathy compliment sunk in his mouth thinned.

“Fine.” He snatched the suit from my fingers. “But there better be a whole lot of gluck gluck 9000 at the end of this.”

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