The Boy I Grew Up With

I couldn’t—I swear, there were two rings now.

“I’m drunk!” I blurted. “You’re proposing now?!”

He shrugged. “It seems appropriate somehow.”

“Oh God.” I groaned, but holy shit.

He leaned forward and pressed a loving kiss to my stomach. He whispered against my skin, “I’ll do it all over again in the morning.”

All over again? I didn’t know if I could handle the emotions. They were crashing through me, in a good way and holy shit!

I fell down, wrapping my arms around him, and I hugged him so tight.

I didn’t even know what I was saying, but all I could think was YES!

I pushed back, framing his face with my hands. I knew those tears were still on my face, but I didn’t care. “Yes. I’ll marry you.”

“Yeah? You sure? I can ask tomorrow again. You can tell me tomorrow.”

It wouldn’t matter. I loved him. He was mine. I was his, but I still nodded, choked up and crying, and not giving a shit.

He kissed me, folding his arms around me, and he stood with me in his arms.

He turned off the oven.

We kept kissing.

He walked us upstairs.

So much kissing.

We showed each other how much we loved the other.

And he asked me in the morning, and my answer was the same.

A whole fucking resounding yes.

* * *

CHANNING

* * *

Heather trailed her finger down my arm. Manny’s had closed long ago, and we spent the entire time in bed. We’d been at it the whole night, only pausing to finally eat that pizza. Heather had insisted.

“Tell me again.”

I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her on top of me, and leaned back against her headboard. She trailed her hands down my chest.

Her hair fell down over her shoulders, framing her face and hiding just the tops of her breasts. She was so fierce, so loving, so mine.

I was such a sap.

I caught her waist. “Tell you what again?”

“Everything.”

I nodded, knowing what she wanted.

I told her how Lincoln had decked me when I announced I was leaving the crew.

I told her how Congo had started crying.

I told her how Chad had exploded, and once he started, he couldn’t stop.

I told her how Moose had wiped a tear from his eye but was the first to hug me. He was the first to congratulate me too.

And I told her how they’d all lined up, all saying congratulations, and all hating it at the same time.

I told her how I’d talked to Brandon and told him what I’d done so he knew not to buy her part of Manny’s, no matter what she said.

I told her how I’d called her dad and gotten his approval, though it was a reluctant approval.

I told her how I’d called and thanked her brother, Brad, and also gotten his approval.

I caught her hand in mine, lacing our fingers as I shared the last bit for the first time. “I asked for Bren’s approval too.”

She stilled, her eyes holding mine. “Yeah?” she breathed.

“Bren’s happy for us. She grunted, literally, and said, ‘about fucking time.’”

Heather started laughing. “Good. That’s good.”

“This is it for us.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re going to grow old together and get boring.” I raised an eyebrow. “You ready for that?”

She let out another breath of air and melted into me. I raked my hand through her long hair. Her breath warmed my shoulder and she reached out to hug me.

Then I felt her lips move against my skin. “I’ve been ready for forever.”

I grinned, nuzzling her hair and tightening my arms around her.

She pinched me. “And I don’t think we’ll ever get boring. It’s not in our DNA.”

I squirmed away from her fingers. She smiled against me again, and I replied, “Yeah. Maybe not.”

Then I told her about the next business venture I wanted to take.

59

Channing

Three months later

The doorbell chimed.

I was unloading a crate in the back storage room when I heard it. Walking up to the front section of the empty store—or what was now my new office—I saw Bren standing there. It wasn’t seeing her that made me pause. It was that she was alone.

No best friend with her, no crew members.

For a moment, it wasn’t her that I was seeing. It was Heather—a flashback to another time when Heather had walked into Manny’s. The place had been empty. She was taking over officially, and her hand had gripped mine. She didn’t know she’d been squeezing it almost to the point of breaking a bone, and I never said a word.

For a split second, Bren and my imagined Heather stood in the exact same position—in front of me, just stepping through the door. Turned sideways, head down, their hair slid over their shoulders.

They both stood as if the weight of the world was on them, but then Bren looked up, and the resemblance was gone.

The memory faded.

“Hey,” I murmured.

“Hey,” she murmured back. She scanned the office, taking in the large main room, the two smaller offices in the back. There was a short hallway that led to a bathroom and the back door. We’d just finished installing another door, which connected Tuesday Tits to this place.

“I thought you were getting this as a place for the crews to hang out.”

I grinned at her. “Yeah, right. Like you guys would chill at a place I own with the rest of the other crews.”

I caught the twitch of her lip. I was right, and she knew it.

Their crew would stick to their own, only mingling with the other crews at parties—parties her big brother wasn’t attending.

“This is the place, then? Where you’re starting that new business?”

This was my second business now. Tuesday Tits was still going full-force ahead. The expanded clientele was bringing new life to it, but we made sure to keep the regulars happy as well.

I nodded. “Yeah. This is it. New Kings Bounties.”

She snorted. “You’re naming it after your crew? Are you kidding yourself about the whole leaving thing?”

I frowned. “No. I did leave.”

At that moment, the door opened and in walked Moose, Congo, Lincoln, and Chad, each carrying a box. They greeted Bren with a nod, then began unpacking.

They didn’t ask where to put things. I gave them no directions.

Chad took his box to the front window and began unloading signs.

Congo and Moose took their boxes to one of the offices in the back.

Lincoln set his box down in the main room and began unloading what would eventually be his desk.

Bren watched all of it and shook her head. “Left the crew, my ass.”

None of the guys responded, but Lincoln was hiding a smile. Which said a lot from him.

She gestured around the place. “So this is what you’re doing? Opening a bounty agency?”

“Pretty much.”

“And let me guess, your co-workers are all your old crew members?”

Lincoln paused, looking up.

Chad looked over.

Congo and Moose came in from the back office. They paused in the doorway.

I nodded. “Yep. I mean, we all have to take the test and get registered, but I have a feeling we’ll pass just fine. We already have our first client.”

“And Heather’s okay with this?”

“Oh yeah.” All the guys were smirking. I was trying hard not to. “She was ecstatic.”