Copyright © 2026 by Samantha Brinn

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction including names, some places, and incidents that are either a work of the author’s imagination or have been used for the purposes of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Book Cover Design by Melissa Doughty of Mel D. Designs

  Cover photography by Beverly Brinn

  Editing and Proofreading by Tina Otero

  CONTENTS

  Content Warning

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon

  Books By Samantha Brinn

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  CONTENT WARNING

  While this book is a work of fiction and is, of course, a happily ever after, readers should be aware that Perfectly Us contains mature themes and potentially triggering content, including an on page panic attack, an on page description of death during childbirth that occurred off page and in the past, and mentions of grief and growing up in foster care.

  To the very best readers in the world.

  The Steel City Legacy is for you.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to the Steel City Legacy!

  Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or are visiting for the very first time, I am so incredibly happy to have you.

  Perfectly Us, along with my nine previous books, all exist in the same universe. This book, as with all books in this universe, can be read as a complete standalone. However, characters from previous books and series appear in Maddy and Cam’s story and if their stories have you intrigued, here is a suggested reading order:

  Because of You

  (Ben Parker and Hallie Evans)

  When I’m With You

  (Asher Hansley and Julie Parker)

  Anything for You

  (Jeremy Wright and Emma Langley)

  It’s Always Been You

  (Gabe Sullivan and Molly Jenkins)

  Yours to Lose

  (Jordan Wyles and Jo Evans)

  Not Your Girl

  (Elliot Wyles and Amelia Sullivan)

  Just My Type

  (Noah Wyles and Hannah Evans)

  Play the Game

  (Cooper Wyles and Evan Rhodes)

  Merrily Us

  (Brian Simpson and Olivia Sullivan)

  As always, this is just a suggestion. You can start anywhere and read in any order, and I can promise swoony men, badass women, and happily ever afters all.

  This is a second-generation series, and I have done my best to write an accurate timeline. However, there were places I had to take some liberties with characters’ ages for the good of the story. Let’s just all agree to never, ever math while reading.

  You have no idea how excited I am for this series, for Maddy and Cam, and for all the stories to come. As always, thank you thank you thank you for being here. I am so grateful for all of you.

  Xoxo,

  Sam

  PROLOGUE

  MADDY

  About Last Night

  “Shots all around!”

  My best friend, Maya Casey, sidles up to the high-top table I’m crowded around with the rest of our friends, followed closely by a server balancing a big tray of shots she sets down in the middle of the table.

  “Jesus, Maya, exactly how many shots do you think we need? It’s Tuesday.” My cousin, Caitlin Parker, lawyer, rule follower, introvert in the extreme, eldest daughter personified, looks uneasily at all the liquor.

  And, like, so much same. I feel an anticipatory hangover coming on.

  “So many shots.” Maya hands around the glasses, aiming a wide grin in my direction. “All the shots really. Our girl is officially Dr. Maddy Wright and is starting her big, important new job tomorrow, so we’re celebrating. Besides, Tuesday is the best day for shots. Nothing fun ever happens on a Tuesday, so we’re making our own fun right the fuck now.”

  “Come to mama.” Another one of my cousins, Sophie Sullivan, resident smart girl with the sunshiniest disposition on the planet and all-around girl next door grabs another shot and lifts them both towards me in toast, beaming grin on her face.

  “We’re doing the respiratory system in gross anatomy tomorrow. Do you think it’s a bad idea to dissect lungs while hungover?” Sarah Wyles, Caitlin’s first cousin on her mom’s side and first-year med student at the University of Pittsburgh, looks thoughtfully at the full shot glass Maya pushes in front of her.

  “Well, I can say for sure that it’s a terrible idea to go to court hungover, but I’m sure as shit doing it anyway.” Emerson Wyles, Sarah’s first cousin on her dad’s side and, along with Caitlin, an associate at the law firm Caitlin’s mom owns with my mom, Sophie’s mom, and another of their friends, gives us all a wicked grin and downs a shot.

  “What the fuck, Emmy?” Maya says with a scowl. “We’re toasting our girl. Toast means we all drink together.”

  Emmy shrugs, unrepentant. “I’m getting a head start. Slide another one my way and I’ll go again.”

  I snort out a laugh and pick up my own shot glass, vowing to stop after this one. No way in hell am I starting my very first day as Director of Sports Psychology for the Renegades, Pittsburgh’s NFL team, hungover. I almost didn’t come out tonight. When the choice is between going out and not going out, I pretty much always choose not.

  But then a couple hours ago, all five of my friends burst into my house with Maya leading the charge. She hugged me, then pushed me into my room and stood there while I put on the outfit she shoved into my hands, which included a short black dress so tight I can barely breathe, lacy lingerie, and heels that hurt my toes so badly I want to yank them off and throw them against the wall. Or possibly burn them in effigy.

  But despite being wildly uncomfortable and trying to avoid a hangover, I love my girls madly, which is how I find myself in a dark, downtown bar with more alcohol than food, with most of my favorite people in the world, instead of where I would usually be on the night before starting a new job, which is at home, with a book, stress eating kettle corn with M&M’s and housing a six pack of orange soda.

  “To our girl!” Maya raises a shot glass in one hand and wraps her other arm around my shoulders. “The gorgeous, brilliant, and insanely badass Dr. Maddy Wright, who is going to revolutionize mental health in the football world and make sure our guys have the healthiest brains in the league. Drink up ladies!”

  Everyone tosses back their shot, and Maya wraps me in a hug. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Mads,” she says quietly. “You’re amazing.”

  A well of emotion tightens my throat as I lean into my best friend. Maya and I have been friends since I came to live with my mom as a foster kid when I was seven, right before she started dating my dad. They both eventually adopted me, and since Maya is also adopted, and my parents knew hers, they introduced us right away and we became fast friends. Almost twenty-five years later, we’re still the same unlikely pairing we’ve always been. Maya, the outgoing, girly, pink-wearing wild child, and me, the hockey-playing, no pink ever homebody.

  “Group hug!” Sophie yells, throwing her arms around us. Caitlin, Sarah, and Emmy follow suit until we’re all wrapped together right in the middle of the crowded bar. Glancing around the circle, I get a rush of warmth for these women who put aside whatever else they had going on to come celebrate my PhD graduation and brand-new job. They’re not just friends; they’re my family. Maya and I might be five or so years older than the rest of them, but especially as we’ve gotten older, that’s never seemed to matter.

  I grew up in a big, tight-knit, found family of sorts with my mom—Emma—and her three best friends—Hallie, Julie, and Molly—at its center. Caitlin is Hallie and her husband Ben’s oldest, and Sophie belongs to Molly and her husband, Gabe. Sarah’s parents are Hallie’s younger sister Jo and her husband, my dad and Ben’s best friend, Jordan Wyles, and Emmy’s dad is Jordan’s brother, C
ooper. All four Wyles brothers and their families live in Boston, but because both of Hallie’s sisters married a Wyles brother, we’re all kind of one big family at this point.

  It’s a tangled web, but for a girl like me who didn’t know what a real family was until I was seven years old, I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.

  “I love you guys,” I say, my voice a little thick. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  “Well for sure your life would be way more boring.” Emmy smiles, squeezing my shoulders.

  “And way less pink.” Sarah glances down at her hot pink mini skirt and then over at Maya’s pink dress with a wry grin.

  “You’ll never have to know what you’d do without us.” Caitlin’s tone is serious, her gray eyes focused on me. “Best friends forever. That’s the way we roll.”

  “Sisters,” Sophie says, blue eyes sparkling. “We’re sisters, Mads, and family sticks. Always.”

  “Now you sound like grandma.” Caitlin rolls her eyes, with a smile on her face.

  I smile too, thinking of Caitlin’s grandma, Rachel, who has claimed all of us as her grandchildren, blood related or not. “Well, she’s not wrong. And there’s no one I would rather be in a big, complicated family situation with than you guys.”

  “Us too,” Sophie says, leaning across our little circle to kiss my cheek. She’s stopped mid-motion by the beep of her cell phone. Pulling it out of the pocket of her tight black pants, she glances at the screen, cheeks flushing and lips tipping up in a small smile.

  Maya elbows Sophie with a smirk. “That’s definitely a Tyler Hansley face.”

  Sophie’s cheeks turn a deeper pink as she glances up from her phone. “He sent me a picture of his home opener game-day outfit and asked if I could come over and see it in person.”

  Tyler Hansley is my mom’s best friend, Julie, and her husband Asher’s oldest and the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Renegades. Along with a couple others, he’s part of the male wing of this friendship group of ours. He and Sophie have always been close, but it’s obvious to anyone watching that Sophie wants more. A lot more, I think.

  “You should definitely do exactly that,” Emmy says with a sly grin.

  Sophie shakes her head. “No way. It’s girls’ night.”

  Maya leans over and kisses Sophie’s cheek. “Go, Soph. Hang with Tyler. We did our shots and celebrated Maddy’s brilliance. Sarah has to go to sleep so she doesn’t accidentally puncture a lung tomorrow, and Cait and Emmy have to rest up for court because I may be crazy, but even I know going before a judge hungover is a big no. I hereby bring this girls’ night to a close. Except for you.” She points at me. “You’re staying for one more drink, and we’re planning your outfit for tomorrow because I’ll be damned if you walk into that fancy practice facility in leggings and an old hockey T-shirt.”

  I laugh because that is something I would literally do. I may be about to start working for a football team, but hockey is where my heart is. My dad is a former professional hockey player; my little brother Oliver is a current professional hockey player; and I played hockey for more than a decade. “Deal.”

  After hugging the rest of my friends, Maya and I sit down in the tall stools surrounding the high top, margaritas in front of us as she studies me thoughtfully. “So how do you really feel about starting your new job? Real talk, Mads. Not how grateful you are for the opportunity.”

  I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, finally letting myself feel the nerves I’ve kept shoved down for the night. “Nervous. I’m really fucking nervous. I’m ready. I know I am. But I’m afraid no one is going to take me seriously because of how I got the job.”

  How I got the job is that my dad’s half-brother, my uncle Brian, is the general manager of the Renegades, and my dad is a former athlete and the founder of one of the most famous and influential charitable foundations in sports. I know I’m qualified, even if I’m young for the job. But I also know there are a million qualified candidates out there, and there’s no way my last name and my relationship to Brian didn’t hold any sway.

  “Fuck that,” Maya says flatly. “Fuck that so hard, Mads. You’ve been grinding it out for six years for this PhD. You’ve done internships with all the major Pittsburgh sports teams, and you’ve published article after article arguing for better mental health support in professional sports. You’re brilliant, articulate, and passionate, and there is no one on earth better equipped for this job than you are. So tomorrow morning, you are going to wear the dress I hung in your closet earlier, and you are going to walk into that building like you own the damn place. No one deserves this more than you do.”

  I take a sip of my margarita, relishing in the burn of the tequila and feeling a rush of power at Maya’s words because she’s right. I do deserve this. “Thanks, Maya. That’s exactly what I needed to hear.”

  “Damn straight,” she says, taking a sip of her own margarita and glancing just past me, her eyes lighting up. “Don’t look now, Mads, but there’s a perfect specimen of tall, dark, and handsome over there who just sat down and is currently staring at you like he wants to eat you alive.”

  “What?” I immediately whip my head around because I have absolutely no chill, and I suck in a breath when my gaze snags on a pair of the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. They’re attached to a man wearing dark jeans and a black button-down shirt, the fabric stretched over wide shoulders and the sleeves rolled up to showcase forearms so perfect they should be illegal.

  His dark hair is tousled in an unintentional sort of way, falling across his forehead like he’s spent the night running his fingers through it, and I wonder why. When our eyes lock again, his mouth quirks up in the smallest of smiles and my stomach swoops, because holy shit. He is, undoubtedly, the most attractive man I have ever laid eyes on.

  I turn back around slowly, a little breathless. “Shit,” I murmur.

  “I told you not to look,” Maya says, her voice full of amusement.

  “You’ve been my best friend for twenty-three years. You should know I don’t have that kind of self-control,” I hiss. “He caught me staring at him. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to lick his forearms,” I mutter.

  Maya bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, I love this so much. A scorching hot one-night stand as a pre-first day present to yourself. A guy you meet in a bar, no names exchanged, just hot, dirty sex with a man who looks like he could throw you around the way you deserve. You have to do this.”

  I roll my eyes. “Be so for real right now.”

  “Maddy, honey, I have never been realer. You haven’t had sex in, like, eight months, and that man over there looks like the perfect candidate to sweep the cobwebs right off your vagina.”

  I choke on a sip of my margarita. “Jesus, Maya. Eight months isn’t that long.”

  “Eight months is forever.” Maya grins and rubs her hands together. “I was so smart for booking waxes as part of our spa day yesterday. You’re all polished and shined, and your vagina is perfection. That dress is amazing on you, and Dreamy McSmolder Eyes over there is still staring at you like he wants to devour you whole.” Maya downs the rest of her drink and leans in, kissing my cheek. “I’ve gotta run. First day of school tomorrow and fifth graders can’t teach themselves.”

  “Stop saying vagina and don’t you fucking dare leave me here alone,” I hiss, standing and taking the last sip of my drink before pushing the glass away. As intrigued as I am by the stranger I can still feel staring at me, sitting alone in a bar is so far out of my comfort zone it may as well be on Mars. If Maya is leaving, so am I.

  “Oh, I don’t think you’ll be alone for long,” Maya says slyly, glancing behind me again.

  CAM

  Fuck, she’s leaving.

  I get a shot of uncharacteristic desperation as I watch the redhead at the table across from me push her glass away and stand. I feel like a creeper, but I can’t take my eyes off her. From the second I sat down, it was like the entire bar disappeared and she was all I could see.

  I’m captivated by her.

  Her wide grin.

  The bright red waves tumbling down her back.

  The tight black dress hugging all her curves.