I wanted that.
“When did you turn into a crotchety old man?” Aly teased, brushing a soft hand down my arm, all flirty and full of this excitement that radiated a glow from her smooth olive skin.
And goddamn, how badly did I want her?
I shoved down the shot of lust that fisted me in the gut and grinned at my girl as I lifted a surly brow, because apparently that kind of grinning was infectious. “Crotchety?” I tossed it out, daring her to say it back as I turned the car around in the middle of the street and wedged it into an open spot on the opposite side of the road.
“Yes, crotchety,” she threw back with a small giggle. “You never even want to leave the house.”
I smirked. For obvious reasons.
“I’m way too excited to go home and sleep,” she said, anxious as she looked at the house lit up across the street.
Apparently she didn’t realize sleeping wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
She chewed at her lip, stole a glance at her ring for about the five millionth time since we climbed down the mountain and into the car.
Green eyes gleamed when they met with mine; then she softened, like she recognized the resistance there.
A small, understanding smile pulled at one side of her mouth, and she cupped my cheek. She leaned forward and placed a swift kiss to my lips, innocent and sweet. Still, it lit a fucking raging fire inside of me.
“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 assholes littering the front yard, half of them barely able to stand.
It wasn’t even funny how many times I’d been that asshole.
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 fucked-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 asshole 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 fucking 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!”
Watching them I chuckled. Obviously, Megan was trashed, her eyes all glazed over and her words slurring. Aly returned the wishes, her face alight as she pulled back and waggled her hand right in front of Megan’s face. “Look what I have,” Aly sang.
Megan grabbed her hand and studied it closely. “Holy shit.” Her jaw dropped and she turned her wide blue eyes on me. “Did you rob a bank or something?”
Self-conscious laughter rolled from my tongue, and I shifted, rubbing at my chin, but I couldn’t stop from smiling at Aly’s best friend.
Okay, so it wasn’t the biggest rock in the world.
It also wasn’t the smallest.
The second I saw it, I knew it belonged on Aly’s finger. The entire platinum band was covered with beveled inset diamonds, four rows of them that wrapped around to create the band. A huge rock sat prominent in the middle, set above the others.
Classic and beautiful.
Just like Aly.
“Only the best for my girl,” I said, watching the reaction take hold on Aly’s face, the way she looked at me as if she somehow saw me the same way I saw her.
Megan’s palms slid to Aly’s belly. Something reverent played out on her face, her words a whispered awe. “I can’t believe my best friend is getting married and having a baby. It’s just… crazy. And I get to be an auntie.” Then her stark blue eyes grew wide, slammed with a thought. “Oh my God, think of all the work we have to do… have you picked a date yet? Before or after the baby?” She rambled on faster than I had time to make sense of her words, asking Aly about all our plans, what our budget was, where we wanted to have it, and a ton of other shit that made my head spin.
But I definitely got the gist.
A tingle of apprehension slithered down my spine and twisted somewhere in my stomach.
We sure as hell hadn’t gotten that far. So what if I thought a quick trip to Vegas and the best fucking suite I could get for my girl sounded like a little piece of heaven? Making her permanently mine, without all the bullshit that normally went along with it?
Sounded like a solid plan to me.
Redness flushed up Aly’s neck and settled as an ethereal glow on her cheeks, all this excitement and a jumble of elation and disquieted nerves playing out on her face.
Abject terror filled Christopher’s eyes when he turned to stare across at me, the two of us frozen by just the thought of all the horrors involved in planning a wedding. Then his mouth twisted up in overt satisfaction and I was pretty damn sure the asshole was picturing me in a suit.
He pointed at me. “Dude, you are screwed. You surrendered your balls the second you put that ring on Aly’s finger.”
“Hey,” Aly shot out. She scowled. “Do you have to be a jerk every second of your life?”
“What?” Christopher’s shoulders rose to his ears, like he was innocent of all the asshole. “Just telling it like it is.”
I scratched my head, fighting the chuckle brewing somewhere deep in my chest, fighting my impulse to agree with Christopher.
Because there was no doubt the girl owned me.
And there was no doubt I was going to be dealing with all the wedding bullshit.
But for Aly…
I looked at her as she beamed up at me from over her shoulder, radiating joy and happiness. She knocked the breath from me every time I stopped to take her in.
Anything.
I would do anything for this girl.
Truth was, I wouldn’t even take the time to consider it bullshit. I’d do it with a grin on my face and a fucking skip in my step because it meant I got to make her mine.
Knowing laughter spilled from Christopher when he caught my expression.
I just shook my head, wrapping Aly back up in my arms.
Aly turned to Megan, all her hair getting up in my face when she rested her head on my shoulder.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Megan.” Aly squeezed my hands splayed protectively across her stomach. “This guy barely got up the nerve to propose an hour ago, so we haven’t had a chance to talk about the details yet.” It whipped from her tongue like a tease, and from behind, I could feel the force of her smile. “You should probably cool it before you send my man running.”
I rocked her, tucked her close, my mouth tracing a path at the hollow under her ear. “Not running anywhere, baby.”
Megan stepped around Aly and hiked up on her toes to throw her arms around my neck. One of my arms released Aly so I could hug her back in an awkward one-sided embrace that the three of us seemed to be partaking in.
She crushed me in her hold. “I’m so glad you came back to her,” she whispered almost urgently, like she was sharing her darkest secret with me as she slanted an eye in Aly’s direction. “You two deserve each other… to be together this way.”
God, I wanted that. To actually deserve her. To be good enough to even stand in her presence.
Guess I was one lucky bastard that she was giving me her all.
Megan staggered back. “I think I need another drink.”
My brow rose. Pretty sure she most definitely did not.
“Can I get either of you anything?” she asked.
Aly shook her head. “No, thanks. I’ll grab us something in a minute. I haven’t really gotten the chance to say hi to anyone else. I’d better make my rounds.”
Megan nodded and backed away. “All right…” She pointed between the two of us. “Don’t you dare leave without finding me and saying good-bye.”
“Of course not,” Aly promised, giving Megan’s hand a quick squeeze before she released her.
Christopher wandered off behind her, and Aly spun around in my arms.
She touched my face. Worry struck across her features when she looked up at me, like our connection was alive, something that existed on another level, and she’d just experienced every single one of the questions that had run through my mind in the last ten minutes. Every fluctuation of my mood and every roil of my spirit.
And God, the girl was just that way, in tune with me, like she knew everything I continued to bury beneath all the shit that would forever plague my life.
That scared me a little bit, too.
She stepped closer to me. She slid her delicate arms around my waist and made herself all comfy against my chest. “Are you okay with all of this?” Her whisper was tinged with fear.
Again, Aly was already ahead of me, and she tipped her head back further to accept the gentle kiss I brushed across her forehead. “I’m fine, baby… don’t mind being here at all.”
And really, I was, because Aly was at my side.
“You know that’s not what I meant. Everything that Megan was asking about.” She chewed at the inside of her lip. Cautiously, she eyed me from where she had her head nestled on my chest. “Don’t think I didn’t feel you cringe when she started talking about wedding plans.” Those eyes narrowed as she searched, waiting for my reaction.
Laughing low, I gathered her hand, twisted it up between us, and brushed the same kind of kiss I’d just adorned her forehead with on her ring. “I don’t question this… not at all. But you have to know all the rest of that shit is going to make me nervous… I’m not exactly a dress-up kinda guy.”
Her bottom lip blanched when she clamped down on it.
Damn, this girl was too much. I tugged her a little closer.
“I was surprised by this,” she said honestly. For a second, she buried her face in my shirt, before she turned her gaze up to me. Trust and devotion and all this love glimmered in her eyes. “But I was hoping. I wanted it so much.”
I exhaled softly. “Ever since I came back, I knew you were my life, Aly.” I cupped her cheek. “You shouldn’t have questioned this was going to happen.”
She rocked up on her toes and pressed her mouth to mine. “I know… but it doesn’t mean I’m not completely thankful for it.” She settled down with a
smile. “Best New Year’s resolution ever.”
Amusement twitched my mouth into a smirk. “Resolution?”
She stepped back, keeping hold of my hand as she pulled us deeper into the party filling up the walls of this tiny house. She glanced back. All the heaviness was gone and a sweet sexy grin that did crazy insane things to my heart was set firmly in its place. “Yep. You and me… It’s going to be difficult but it’s going to be worth it. Only the best resolutions are.”
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