Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(55)
Author: A.L. Jackson

“Give me a half an hour. I know you wanted tonight to only be the two of us, but I want to wish Christopher and Megan a Happy New Year. Then we’re out of here.” She cracked open her door, climbed out, then ducked back inside and wiggled her fingers in front of my face. Her ring glimmered in the glow of the cabin light. “Oh, and I want to show this baby off.”

I chuckled at this girl, crazy good and full of life. As if I didn’t know her showing off that ring was the only reason we were here.

I got out, came around, and dragged her into my arms. My mouth found the shell of her ear.

Aly shivered.

“We’ll stay as long as you want, baby, just not so long you think you want to fall asleep the second I get you home.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

We crossed the street, dodging all the drunken ass**les littering the front yard, half of them barely able to stand.

It wasn’t even funny how many times I’d been that ass**le.

I kept hold of Aly’s hand, leading her through the masses. She stopped to say hi to a couple people she recognized, not spending much time with any of them, her destination clear.

Maybe that’s why being here made me so uncomfortable, all these faces Aly knew. It made me all shifty and ill at ease, this piece of Aly’s life I didn’t know. Guess the best way to get over that obstacle was to jump it head-on.

I swung the front door open without a knock.

A horde of bodies overflowed the small house, all of them gathered in groups or huddled in corners, a mass of them loitering in the center of the room. Music thrummed into the muted light in the hazy room. Loud conversations and raucous laughter filled the air, but there was no chance to hear what a soul was saying with all of it mixed together.

Well, except for one.

“Holy shit . . . look what the cat dragged in,” Christopher shouted as he wove and pushed his way through the crowd with his attention locked on me.

I laughed and pulled Aly in front of me. “Aly Cat,” I teased beneath my breath, wrapping her up in my arms and tugging her back to my chest.

This girl who’d always held me in the palm of her hand.

“You two are such jerks,” Aly mumbled only to me. Still, she melted into me, folding her hands over mine that held her around her front.

I felt her heave a breath of contentment, while I drew one in, all that coconut and good and girl.

This girl I was going to make my wife.

Christopher stumbled out and into the open area at the front of the door where Aly and I stood.

Should have known he wouldn’t be hard to find.

A drunken smile morphed his face into a sloppy welcome. What had to be the tightest pair of black skinny jeans I’d ever seen covered his lanky ass. He wore a black, long-sleeved button-up shirt, wrinkled and untucked, the cuffs rolled up his forearms. Three buttons at the collar were undone, exposing a glimpse of the new tat he’d just had inked on a couple weeks before. Under it, clear color was sprawled out across the entirety of his chest. Fisted in one hand was a half-empty bottle of Patrón. He lifted both arms out to his sides, stretched out like a broken offering.

Dude looked like he just stage-dived into the crowd after playing in a three-hour show.

As Christopher approached, I lifted my chin. “Hey, man, Happy New Year.”

Surprise flitted all over his face. “What are you two doing here?” Tequila sloshed when he lifted the bottle to his mouth. He took a swig as he eyed me with flat-out amusement. “Thought there wasn’t a thing I could say that would make you change your mind.” He mocked an insult through his grin, his throat bobbing as he swallowed hard.

“Right you are, my friend. There wasn’t anything you could say to get me to change my mind.” I squeezed Aly more, enough to just barely lift her off her feet as I buried my face in the soft flesh of her neck, hooking my chin over her shoulder as I pinned him with a frivolous stare. “But it seems your sister here does have the power to sway me.”

Christopher laughed, drove a hand through his unruly hair. “Aly Cat does have a way about her, doesn’t she?”

I could feel her cheeks heat with that bit of shyness I hoped to God Aly always had.

“Yes, she definitely does.”

Christopher smiled. “Guess that power was in my favor, so I can’t complain.”

I sobered a little, watching my oldest friend over my girl’s shoulder. “Aly was actually on a mission, coming here. She has something she wants to tell you.”

I nudged her forward. Nervous laughter stuttered from her, and she tottered toward him, her smile sweet and timid with all that dark hair billowing around her. She fell into her brother’s arms. “Happy New Year, Christopher.”

Christopher wrapped her up, held her tight, the bottle dangling from his fingers at her back. He looked at me, those green eyes keen. He was obviously not as f**ked-up as he had initially appeared to be.

I swear to God, he played that shit up, acting too loud and too appealing, indifferent and unmoved. No one knew how to make sense of him. I was pretty sure that’s exactly the way he wanted it to be.

“Happy New Year, little sister,” he said seriously as he pulled back and looked down at her. His attention jumped between us. “So what is so important that you managed to get this ass**le to come out and celebrate the New Year with me?”

Aly lifted her hand, twisting it out to show Christopher the diamond glinting on her finger.

Then she squealed.

She f**king squealed and bounced and almost screamed, “We’re getting married!”

And damn, if I wasn’t smiling just as big as her, this entirely overwhelming feeling throbbing from every cell in my entire being.

Aly glanced back at me over her shoulder, the same expression I was sure I was wearing evidenced on her face.

God, I loved her.

Shock lanced lines into Christopher’s forehead. But his eyes sparked with something meaningful when he looked over at me. Then he turned back to his sister and hugged her again. “So happy for you, Aly. Honestly.”

She pulled back, holding him by the forearms, her voice filled with emotion. “Thank you.”

A shriek lifted above all the noise in the room. “Aly!” Megan came barreling through the small room, paying no mind to the people she mowed down to get to us.

“I thought I heard you were here!”

Megan wore about the shortest skirt I’d ever seen and a pair of boots that went up past her knees. She threw herself into Aly’s arms. The two of them hugged and rocked each other in this awkward little dance. Tipsy and overzealous, Megan almost tossed Aly from her feet. “Ahh . . . Happy New Year! I missed you!”