Certainty (RiffRaff Records Book 7)

by L. P. Maxa

  “I really am, man.” He sighed sadly. “It’s all I can think about. I need to go home and rectify this situation, right fucking now.”

  Marley held her phone up, a big smile on her face. “You’re in luck. Halen and Beau’s baby is here and as soon as we go say hi, we can go home.” We all piled out of the booth, and I reached back for Marley’s hand, loving that I could hold it in front of whomever I wanted.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Talon

  After

  Halen and Beau had a little girl, Lennon Lex Cole, the first baby girl in the third generation of Devil’s Share offspring. Dash told Beau it was his karmic payback for breaking Halen’s heart when they were younger. Beau cried because he was feeling super emotional, and then Lexi made Dash hold him until he felt better.

  Jacks said he wasn’t so sure he believed in universal karma anymore, because if anyone deserved daughters, it was his son-in-law. Brody had smirked, wrapping his arm around Landry’s hips and bringing her flush against him. Then he’d looked right at Jacks and said, “Maybe next time I spill my load and knock her up, it’ll be a girl.” After that Jacks made him give back the hundred dollars he’d paid him to not talk about sex and Landry.

  We all took turns holding the tiny baby wrapped in a pale pink blanket. When it was Marley’s turn, I about melted into a damn puddle in the middle of the floor. She’d promised me babies, and I was seriously thinking about starting another countdown on my phone.

  Sure, she was young, but Marley had always been older than the rest of us. She’d always been cooler, been above us. She’d accomplished more in her first eighteen years than most people did in an entire lifetime.

  “You ready to go home?” Jett clapped his hand on my back, gesturing to Devin and Marley standing by the door. Devin’s eyes were closed and she was leaning her head on Marley’s shoulder.

  I nodded, suddenly feeling a little emotional myself. “Yeah, let’s get the girls to bed.” It was late. The sun should be coming up any moment.

  We said our good-byes, promised to come over as soon as Beau and Halen made it back to the compound. And then I took Marley’s hand in mine, pulling her against my side.

  Clashing Swell wouldn’t be touring for a long time. Brody wasn’t going to leave again anytime soon. He had two sons and a wife he couldn’t seem to get enough of. I wasn’t about to leave Marley to head back on the road. We were finally free to be together, all our secrets were laid to rest. I didn’t want to be anywhere but by her side. I’d been a surfer, I’d been a rock star, and now I wanted to be nothing else but her man..

  Dane and Brax didn’t mind. Touring wasn’t their favorite either. Dane missed the beach, the ocean. So it worked out pretty well that Luke and Lo had asked him to move to Florida and run the Seaside studio last week. Brax was going with him. He had plans to open a bar. Which was incredibly fitting, because alcohol and scantily clad chicks were two of his specialties.

  Everything was changing, for all of us. But I got to end up exactly where I wanted to be. I was in love with a girl I’d worshipped since she was sixteen years old. I was living with music idols, hanging out with my best friend every day. We’d get to raise our kids together. They’d get to be close, and they’d get to look out for each other.

  Obviously we’d pay closer attention to the things they did than the Devil’s Share had with their children. I wasn’t about to let my daughter get felt up by a guy seven years older than her.

  The Devil’s Share had made a lot of mistakes when it came to their kids. They’d trusted them when they hadn’t earned it. They assumed that as long as they were together and away from the public, they’d be safe. And that wasn’t the case. Like Marley had said, the world got in no matter how much distance you put between it and yourself.

  But these kids had lived.

  They’d made mistakes, but they worked hard to fix them. They fell in and out of love, and along the way they’d all saved each other. There wasn’t anyone or anything that could come between them, and that was something their parents had inadvertently done right.

  I felt lucky that I got to be part of it.

  Forever.

  Epilogue

  Talon

  Six months later

  “Jett, stop being such a baby.” Marley rolled her eyes, snatching the remote from his hand and pressing play on the movie he’d paused a few moments ago. “It’s my night to pick the movie. We had to watch your damn Indiana Jones marathon last week.”

  Jett’s disgust was valid. Marley had selected the grossest horror flick I’d ever seen. If I didn’t know that she was a compassionate healer, I’d have been incredibly worried about her.

  “This movie is going to give turtle nightmares.” Jett pointed to the screen as someone’s head got punched clean off their body.

  “Oh don’t lie, Joan, we both know who is going to have the nightmares.” Devin patted his thigh. “Come here, close your eyes and I’ll tell you when it’s over.” She put her arm around him, letting him hide his face in her cleavage. That should make him feel better.

  His words were muffled when he spoke again. “There is something seriously wrong with your girlfriend, man.”

  I smiled down at my girl, her head resting in my lap. “Fiancée.”

  “What?” His face was still buried in Devin’s chest.

  I threaded my fingers through Marley’s, spinning her ring around and angling her hand in the light, making the diamond I’d given her as the sun rose that morning sparkle. “I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.”

  “What?” Devin stood up, the movement making Jett tumble off the couch and onto the floor. “Are you freaking kidding me? Why didn’t you say anything?” She was jumping around, excited for her best friend.

  Marley sighed, shooting me a glare with little weight behind it. “I was going to tell you guys after the movie.” My girl still liked to live in our own little bubble. It wasn’t that she wanted to hide us, or that she was ashamed. She was more reserved than the rest of her family. Hell, a football team was more reserved than the rest of her family.

  Marley liked to keep the things and people she loved close to her chest. Keep them safe.

  We’d spent last night down by the tank. I’d broken out the tent and the string lights. I’d worshipped her body all night, asking her to marry me when the sun started to come up over the red barn in the distance.

  She’d said yes.

  And then I’d worshipped her some more.

  After that, in true Marley fashion, she worked all day, immediately caking her new ring in dirt. I’d laughed when she said she was christening it.

  “You wanted to announce your engagement after you made us watch people die gruesome deaths?” Jett climbed to his feet, coming over to the loveseat and pulling her up into his arms. “You’re so fucking weird.”

  I no longer got jealous when Jett touched my girl. Living with them, being around Marley and Jett all the time had made me finally understand their relationship. They really were like twins, like opposites that fit together to make the perfect team.

  “You sure you want to marry her?” Jett shot his arms out, bringing both me and Devin into their hug.

  “More than I’ve ever wanted anything else in my entire life.” I found Marley’s lips in the tangle of limbs, and kissed her.

  “Wait.” Jett pulled back, a frown on his usually smirking face. “Does that mean you guys are going to move out?”

  Devin had officially moved in a couple months ago, even though she’d been here all the time anyway. Don’t get me wrong, the barn was large. But four adults living in it was getting a bit crowded. Not to mention the fact that we all worked together too.

  All in all, a bit too much togetherness.

  Devin had changed her minor, deciding to work toward a degree that would make her an asset to MJ Botanicals. I figured I might as well do the same. I was helping Jett with the sales and distribution end of things, learning all I could before he graduated w
ith his marketing degree and took over that branch of the business.

  “Not right away.” Marley ruffled Jett’s hair, reassuring him that she wasn’t leaving any time soon. “We’ll need to build a house, and that takes time.”

  “You’re building a house?” Jett’s frown deepened. “Here on the compound?”

  “God no.” Marley snorted. “We were thinking of building across the street, on some of the land we purchased for MJ Botanicals.” I held in my laugh. As if moving across the street was far away and would make a difference. That damn tunnel connected the properties anyway.

  When I’d brought up building us a new place, Marley immediately insisted that it not be on the Devil’s Share compound. She said she loved her family, and she wanted to be close. But not too close. I didn’t care if we built here or across the street, we’d still be able to come for family dinners. I’d still get to see Brody and the kids whenever I wanted.

  “Oh. Uh, okay.” Jett nodded, looking a lot like Marley had told him Santa Claus wasn’t real.

  “Jett?” Marley grabbed his cheeks, squeezing them together playfully. “There is plenty of acreage across the street.”

  He smiled, his face getting even more squished. “Weeeelly?”

  Marley laughed, letting him go. “Yes, really.”

  “What do you guys say? You want to take this dysfunction across the street?” I pulled M into my lap, wrapping my arms around her waist. “Avory is living at home still. Maybe she’ll want to use this place until she graduates?”

  I knew that if we moved, Jett would end up moving as well.

  Marley really was his phantom limb, and he was an extension of her. They wouldn’t be who they were without each other. She was tough and he was soft, she was quiet and he was boisterous. She was science and he was heart. They balanced each other perfectly.

  Their parents were so absent, always so content to let them take care of each other. And the result was two people who loved hard and worked harder.

  They were going to save the world one day. I had no doubt.

  “Okay, so we’ll all move to the other side of the street. Start our own compound.” Jett pointed a finger in Marley’s face. “But let’s all agree to wait a while before we let it become overrun with babies and dogs. Okay?”

  I smirked. “I can’t agree to that.”

  “Are you guys getting a dog?” Jett wrinkled his nose like he didn’t like the idea all that much.

  When I shook my head, Devin’s jaw dropped open. “Holy shit. Is this going to be a shotgun wedding situation?”

  “Hopefully.” I waggled my brows, making Jett’s eyes narrow. I didn’t care how pissed off he got, I wanted to start a family with my girl. She’d stopped taking the pill a few weeks ago, and I’d marry her tomorrow if she’d let me.

  “It’s because he’s old as fuck, isn’t it?” Jett nodded, like he had it all figured out. “He’s basically middle-aged and he needs to knock you up while his dick still works.”

  “Harsh, man.” I wished Devin would pick now to do one of her famous dick flicks. “I’m twenty-six, and my dick works real fucking well.”

  “We know.” Devin snorted. “We sleep next door.”

  I raised my brows, chuckling loudly. “Oh really? We gonna get into who makes the most noise?”

  Devin turned red, but flipped me the bird all the same.

  Marley sighed, leaned back against the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table. “Your dick works too well, to be honest. I really thought we’d have a little more time.”

  My head jerked around so I could look her in the eye.

  Marley just smirked.

  Turn the page for a sneak peek at Emmie and Kason.

  Chapter One

  Kasen

  My parents had been married for a thousand years. At least, it felt that way to me. In my mind they’d been in love since the beginning of time, and I understood how rare that was. The type of love they had was admirable…to people like my sister. Katie had always aspired to find a love like our folks, Mason and Peyton Cadence. She wanted a partner in life, someone to hold her hand through the ups and downs. And she’d found it. She’d found her soul mate. Her better half, the one for which her heart beats.

  She was marrying the poor asshole this weekend.

  Marriage wasn’t for me. Happily ever after wasn’t really my cup of tea. I fucking adored my parents, and I felt lucky to have been raised in a happy, cohesive home. But that shit was for the birds. I was taking a page out of my Uncle Pax’s book. I was going to see the world and live every moment. I was going to take chances and stay up to see the sunrise. I wanted to have fun, nonstop, up until the day I died.

  What was that famous quote? I hope to arrive to my death late, in love, and a little drunk. Well, mine would go like this: I hope to arrive at my death late, a little drunk, and on top of some banging hot chick in the middle of a Balinese jungle.

  And speaking of the Balinese jungle, that was where I was headed on assignment as soon as this three-day wedding extravaganza was over. Yeah, you heard correctly, three days. I was expected to attend the welcome lunch, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding day brunch, the grooms’ pre-game, the wedding, the reception, and the morning-after breakfast. I put my Tom Ford-clad boot down at the morning-after breakfast.

  I was not about to sit across from my sister and the dude who’d had sex with her all night. I had to draw the line somewhere, and awkward jokes about consummating a marriage was where I did it. Plus I had a flight to Bali to catch. It was work. There was nothing I could do to get out of it. Insert conspiratorial wink.

  “Sir, we’re here.”

  I picked my head up off the back of the seat at my driver’s announcement. I’d been dozing on and off since I was picked up from the Austin airport. I’d flown in from South America and jet lag was going to be a bit of a bitch.

  “Thank you.” I opened my own door. I wasn’t that spoiled. I also got my own bags out of the trunk, because my driver was pushing eighty and it seemed rude to have him take them up to my sister-in-law’s front door. I shook his hand, slipping a fifty in there for karma.

  He drove away and I climbed the low-profile concrete steps, sighing. Katie insisted that I stay at Luke and Harlow’s house, her soon to be mother and father-in-law. I was a groomsman and all of us were staying here tonight. My parents and uncles got to stay in what was reported to be a lavish pool house.

  I hadn’t seen my family in months and I’d much rather be spending the extra time with them. But this was important to Katie, and Katie was important to me. So, here I was, staying with her soon-to-be husband’s ’rents. I was a damn good brother.

  Katie met Cash Matthews a few summers ago, when she’d been banished to the Devil’s Share compound for safekeeping after our dad lost his shit because he caught a guy almost kissing Katie. Our dad had just started a new tour—yeah, rock star parent—and he couldn’t handle the thought of what might happen to his eighteen-year-old baby if she stayed on the road with him. You heard me: eighteen and baby in the same sentence.

  Ultimately, that’d been a parental fail on my dad’s part. While she was here she lost her virginity to another rock star’s kid. But they were in love—insert eye roll and singsong voice—and they were going to ride off into the sunset tomorrow night.

  “Kasen. Hey, man, glad you made it.” Cash opened the front door before I could knock, a big smile on his face. Cash and his twin looked like Thor from those old Avenger movies. No surprise the guy ended up getting into my sister’s pants. “Come on in.”

  He grabbed one of my bags, holding the door open. “Thanks.” I stepped past him, peering through the house into the backyard through the large floor-to-ceiling windows. “The gang’s all here?”

  Crue, Beau, Jett, Brody, and Talon were all in the backyard, standing around a smoking barbeque pit.

  “Yeah, we’re cooking all the meat for lunch.” He set my bag down in the entryway. “Come on, let’s get you a beer and I�
��ll show you to your room later.”

  I dropped my second bag before following him out onto the patio. I’d met all these guys before. Katie and Cash had been dating for a while now. We’d had some family holidays together, and Jett came to Cali to visit his older brothers while they’d been living with my sister.

  But still, the last thing I wanted was to spend the whole day with a group of men so disgustingly in love I’d get a fucking toothache.

  Love wasn’t for me. No thanks.

  I had better things to do with my time, and my dick.

  PLAYLIST

  You’re the One

  Greta Van Fleet

  Half Awake

  Widowspeak

  Girl is On My Mind

  The Black Keys

  Wicked Games

  Stone Sour

  The Song Remains the Same

  Led Zepplin

  Freaking Me Out

  The Frights

  Numb

  Gary Clark Jr.

  Something in the Way

  Nirvana

  Little One

  Highly Suspect

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  L.P. lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, daughter, three rescue dogs, and one adopted cat. The first group of chickens met with a sad and unexpected death. They have been replaced. The dwarf goats are a story for another day. And now there are ducks.

  Writer, business owner and office manager, L.P. says she loves to read as much as she loves to write. Reading a good book is her reward after writing one. In her spare time—ha!—she fosters puppies for a rescue organization based in Austin.

  Connect with L.P. –

  lpmaxa.wordpress.com

  facebook.com/pages/LP-Maxa/1442560722667127

  twitter.com/lpmaxa

  instagram.com/lpmaxa

  www.BOROUGHSPUBLISHINGGROUP.com

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