Catch
Page 25
“Ugh! Screw it, I’ll just bring a little bit of everything.” She starts pulling jeans, slacks, dresses, blouses, and T-shirts off the hangers.
“Whoa there, slow down. I don’t want to spend the first day of our week in Lookout unloading your luggage.” I take a hold of her shoulders and spin her around so she’s facing me. “It’s a family get together. Gracie Carmichael doesn’t give a good shit if you show up in a robe and slippers, just so long as you’re there.” I rub my hands up and down her shoulders feeling the muscles relax under my touch.
“But your sister is going to be there, and your aunts and uncles…I just want to make a good first impression.” She tries to turn back to the rack of clothes, so I scoop her up and toss her over my shoulder. “Dammit, Sage, put me down.” She slaps my ass hard, and I chuckle as I toss her onto our bed.
I lower myself on top of her and kiss her forehead. Her red hair is fanned out around her and she’s wearing that awful bikini shirt I gave her to wear that first night here. I dig my fingers into her side sending her into a fit of screaming giggles. These last eight months have been the best I can ever remember my life being. She’s what I wake up to in the morning and the last thing I see when I go to sleep at night.
Timer has kept his word and seems to have forgotten that either of us exists. I keep up with Snitch, because over the twelve years I worked as an assassin he has become my best friend. Max still isn’t a fan of his, because of reasons involving June, but she tolerates him the best she can.
With my past resting in the past I’ve been able to overcome some of the issues I was having before Max came along. Slowly over the months I have been able to forgive myself for every life that I took. It has been a process that I couldn’t have gone through without her, and that has only made me love her more.
“What are you thinking about?” She asks as I’m looking down into her mossy green eyes.
“How beautiful you are, and how much I love you. So, that’s all that matters. You wear whatever the hell you want next week. I love you, so they’ll love you.” I press my lips to hers stealing her breath, and inhaling her wonderful lavender scent.
When I pull away she’s panting and her eyes are hooded. “Well, when you put it that way.” She wraps her legs around my waist and starts pulling me to her when her cellphone starts playing June’s song. “Oh, off. I have to take this.” She shoves me off and I fall back onto the bed with a grunt. She picks up the phone and as she’s walking out the room she lifts the back of the shirt and flashes me her thong clad ass. “Are you trying to kill me?” I listen as she laughs before answering the phone.
While I have a few moments I jump up and pull open my sock drawer. I reach to the back and pull out the little velvety box. I flip it open and look at the ring that took me months to find. Max is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, so finding something that would do her beauty justice wasn’t an easy task.
After a countless number of jewelers I finally found an emerald cut, chocolate diamond. The color of the stone reminded me of her hair, and I knew in an instant that this was the one. Set in vanilla gold with a border of little clear diamonds around the stone it’s simple but far from understated.
I hear her end the call with June so I tuck the box into a deep pocket in my carryon luggage. She saunters back into the room and rips the tacky shirt over her head.
She taps her chin with her finger. “Hmm, so where exactly were we before June called me with her drama?”
All I can do is watch as she slowly lays herself back down on the bed and fans her hair out above her head.
Screw it. I was going to wait till we got to Lookout, but that ring is eating a hole in my bag. I want it on her finger right now.
I pull the box out of the bag and put it behind my back. I kneel on the bed straddling her hips, and drag a finger from her bottom lip down her neck, between her breasts, and stop at her bellybutton. Her head tilts back and her eyes close. At that moment I replace my finger with the little box.
Her eyes snap open and she props herself up on her elbows. I watch as her eyes flick from the box and then up to me. She swallows and looks at the box again.
“Is that what I think it is?” her voice shakes. I shrug. “Oh don’t you start that shrugging shit with me, Sage. Open the damn box.”
I smile feeling a little more relaxed with my decision and pick up the box. I flip open the lid. “Max Nora Brady will you marry me?”
Her hand goes up over her mouth. “Shut the fuck up…Oh…” She throws herself back on the bed and starts squealing like a teenage girl. I’ve never gotten this reaction out of her before, and it kind of freaks me out.
“Um, is that a ‘yes’?”
Max repositions herself so she can sit up straighter and take my face in her hands. “Hell yeah, that’s a ‘yes’.” She presses a deep kiss to my lips as I slip the ring on her finger. When she pulls away she looks down at the ring and smiles. Then she pushes me aside. “I have to call June!”
I laugh and fall back on the bed feeling happier and more at peace with myself than I’ve ever felt my entire life. When Max had gotten herself into trouble I always thought that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve now learned that sometimes that place can actually be exactly where you need to be for everything else in your life to fall into place.
The End
Be sure to keep an eye out for the next book in the Assassin series featuring June and Snitch.
For more information on S. Poirier you can visit her Facebook and Goodreads pages.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5035208.Solange_Poirier?from_search=true
https://www.facebook.com/blueiriswriter
Acknowledgments
My husband and children, who put up with a dirty house, dirty clothes, and mediocre meals. I love you.
My amazing proofreaders: Mandie Boudreaux, Ashley Holt, Shana Neal, and Author Skye Turner. You ladies rock.
To every blogger who helped me with cover reveals, reviews, and release date announcements. Without the hard work of all of you I don’t know where any of us indie authors would be. A huge thank you for your time and patience with me.