Isn't It Bromantic (Bromance Book Club #4) by Lyssa Kay Adams

            Mack looped his hand around the back of Vlad’s neck and squeezed. “I’d be honored to have you say whatever comes to mind. No one has a heart like you.”

            Vlad wiped a tear away. “I am the one who is honored.”

            Liam squeezed out a noise that brought an abrupt end to the tender moment.

            “Maybe we should continue this outside,” Mack suggested.

            Vlad nodded, and Mack called out to Liam, “We’ll be back to check on you later, okay?”

            “Love you, big brother,” Liam groaned.

            “Love you too—”

            Another noise sent them scurrying for the door.

            Outside, Liv was pacing in her wedding gown, arms crossed. “Finally,” she said, throwing her hands up. “I was about to come in there. Is he okay?”

            “He will be,” Vlad said, “but not for a while.”

            Mack patted his back. “Vlad is going to give the first toast so we can keep things moving.”

            Liv’s face softened into the kind of smile that he knew was the reason Mack fell in love with her. Beneath her tough exterior, she was as soft as a baby chick. She hugged her arms around Vlad’s chest. “I’m going to cry.”

            “So am I,” he said, squeezing her back.

            “I hate crying,” she said.

            “I know you do. I will cry for us both.”

            Mack tugged her away and plopped a heavy kiss on her upturned lips. “Let’s get this party started.”

            Back in the ballroom, the DJ made a quick announcement that there was going to be a minor change in the night’s festivities. Everyone accepted a flute of champagne from the serving staff who wandered through the crowd, and then Vlad took the microphone.

            He scanned the room, and a different kind of emotion washed over him, one he’d become too familiar with lately. Envy. His best friends nuzzled their wives and girlfriends as they waited for him to impart a bit of wisdom for the new couple, but Vlad had none to give. He was a fraud. He’d joined the book club because Mack had said “the manuals,” as they called the romance novels they read, would help him be the best husband he could be to his wife, Elena, but, of course, he had failed.

            Because his marriage had never been real.

            And though he hated deceiving his friends, the idea of telling them after all this time that Elena had only married him to find a way out of Russia and to attend university in America was too humiliating to consider.

            He’d learned one important thing, however, from the manuals. He’d learned that he deserved more than this one-sided relationship. He wanted love. He wanted a family. He wanted the grand gesture and the happy ever after. So, one month ago, he’d finally taken a step toward a new story for his life. He’d done the scariest thing he’d ever done. Scarier than his decision to leave Russian professional hockey to play for the NHL. Scarier than his hasty proposal to Elena. Scarier than his decision to let her leave him for school in Chicago after they’d moved to Nashville.

            One month ago, he’d mustered every lesson he’d learned from the manuals and told Elena that when she was done with school next spring, he wanted them to have a real marriage.

            He had hoped she would throw her arms around him and kiss him. Tell him she had loved him all along and just never knew how to tell him. Instead, she’d just quietly told him she needed time to think about what he’d said. And though that broke his heart, he felt more hopeful than he had in a long time. He’d finally done something to push beyond the state of limbo he’d been living in for nearly six years.

            “My friends,” he finally started. Everyone quieted and turned their smiles his way. “I am Russian—”

            “No shit?” one of his friends shouted.

            He held up his hand appreciatively. “I am Russian, so I will not make it through this without crying. I must warn you of that. When I came to America, I did not know what to expect, and the first few months were . . . they were lonely.”

            He looked to his right, where Liv and Mack had their arms around each other as they listened to him speak. “But then I met Mack. He is very, how do I say this, annoying.”