“Don’t call me a baby, baby,” he says, uncrossing his arms and walking toward me, looking like a goddamn predator.
“Bryce, hold up,” I say, trying to control my smirk. He smiles mischievously. “Don’t start this.” I slowly start moving around the island.
“Start what?” he asks, tilting his head, but not slowing his steps.
“I don’t feel like playing.”
“Who’s playing?”
I groan as I dart around the corner. He reaches out for me, but I take off running into the living room. I’m caught before I can make it around the couch. The sofa hits my back before I can think, and I laugh out loud because damn him.
“Gotcha,” he says, smiling down at me. I blow my hair out of my face.
“What’s new?”
He smiles before giving me a kiss. Letting go, he holds my hand in his, bringing it to his lips and looking at the ring on my finger. “I love you. I can’t wait until I can call you my wife.”
“Ditto,” I reply.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bryce
We’re seated at Claire and Austin’s table eating as they all make small talk and catch up. I’m bored out of my fucking mind and would rather be lying on the sofa watching an action film with K beside me. But sometimes in a relationship we have to make sacrifices, right?
I pop a spoonful of green beans into my mouth.
“So, how’s the car collection going?” Austin asks.
“Fine,” I reply, reaching for my beer.
He nods, and I can tell the man is trying to come up with something to talk about with me. Kat kicks my foot under the table. I turn and look at her. Her eyes widen. I narrow mine as I take a sip of my drink.
You know what? She wants to talk about something, how about we talk about the fact we’re engaged? How about that? I put my beer down on the table and clear my throat.
Leaning back in my chair, I suck my teeth and hang my arm on the back of K’s chair. She gives me a sideways glance, but I ignore it.
“K and I are engaged.” Her fork makes a loud clank when it hits her plate and Claire chokes over her water.
“Really?” K says, her voice low boiling with anger. I’d implode if looks could kill.
But I don’t regret what I said…not yet anyway.
“It needed to be told,” I say to her.
She shakes her head and exhales before sliding her plate away and putting her face into her hands.
“You’re engaged?” Claire says. Her eyes go to K’s hands, but Kat isn’t wearing her ring, which pisses me off. I took my time picking out that ring. It’s a declaration of my love for her, and the fact she’s hiding it and our engagement from the two people she loves almost as much as me… well, it’s a punch in the gut.
“Yes,” I say.
Claire looks at Austin who raises his brow. “Why haven’t you told us?” she says, looking back at K and me.
K still has her face in her hands, so I speak for her.
“She was worried you wouldn’t be happy about it.”
Claire swallows, fussing with her napkin on the table.
“She was right to assume that then,” I say. I look from her to Austin. “Can I ask why you two have an issue with our relationship?” I hold up my hand. “Wait. No need to explain. I get it. You think I’m bad news. You think I’m going to fuck this up. Well, let me tell you something. I love this girl more than life. I’d never do anything to hurt her. That shit that happened with Cain and Red, that’s all in the past. I’m a different man today.”
“It’s not that we have a problem with y’all being together, Bryce. Hell, I’m cheering for you both. We’re just looking out for Kat,” Austin says.
“There’s no need to do that. I can look out for her.” K still hasn’t said anything. She’s pissed, and it’s obvious as she drops her hands and sits back in her chair. Her face is flushed, and she chews on her bottom lip.
“Kat, how long have you been engaged?” Claire asks.
“Since Amsterdam,” I say.
K looks at me. “I can fucking speak for myself.”
“Well, you aren’t doing a very good job, baby,” I say.
“Don’t patronize me,” she seethes. “You’ve crossed a line.”
I look around. “What line? I don’t see a line.”
“After all this time, you’re still an asshole,” she says, shaking her head.
“I’m an asshole?” I point to myself.
“Yes,” Claire and K say at the same time. My eyes jump to Claire.
“So, you don’t think you’re an asshole for making your best friend feel like she can’t tell you that’s she engaged? It’s the happiest moment of her life, and she can’t tell you…the one who’s supposed to be like a sister to her.”
Claire blanches and K looks down.
“Hey, look, this is all going too far. We didn’t mean to make you feel that way, Kat. Claire just loves you and doesn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“What the fuck is going to happen to her?”
“Bryce, don’t sit there and pretend like you’ve been a great person for the last however many years. You were running an illegal gambling operation underneath your club. You then hired a hit man to kill someone.”
“Someone who raped you!” I throw back.
“Watch it,” Austin says.
My eyes bounce to him. “Don’t tell me to fucking watch it. My girl has scars on her wrists because of the man yours chose to date.”
“Bryce, stop it,” Kat says.
“No. You stop it. This shit is ridiculous. You’re all judging me for my sins, and yet you’re all soaking up the benefits. You don’t have to worry about that psycho ever again, and that’s because of me!” I slap my chest. Claire blinks, running her hand over her stomach. None of them say anything. They know I’m right.
“I know you three have this special bond that I don’t understand. I know K means a lot to y’all, but she does to me, too.” I look over at her, thinking about grabbing her hand, but I’m sure I’ll get rejected. I swallow and look at my plate. “I also know that without your approval this amazing thing between us might not work out.” I slide my chair out and stand up, grabbing my beer. “Let’s get that shit out of Axel’s room, yeah?”
Austin nods, standing up, too. He kisses Claire’s forehead as I head up the stairs to K’s old room.
_____________
Kathrine
I sit, looking down at my half-empty plate, wondering just how much trouble I’m in with my best friend and wishing I could knock Bryce out. I’ve got a strong urge to bolt out of this apartment and run like a serial killer is after me. I dare peek over at her. Her head’s tilted and she looks back at me.
“I’m sorry,” we both say.
“What?” I ask. “Why are you sorry?”
She sighs. “I’m sorry I made you feel like you had to keep something so life-changing important to you a secret. That was not my intention.”
“Oh,” I say softly. I didn’t expect her to say that. I thought there would be yelling and pointing fingers and possibly her telling me to get out of her house.
“I’m sorry, too. I should have told you. I’ve wanted to so many times.”
She nods. “I can imagine. I’ve been talking so much about my life and Axel and everything to do with babies, and here you are with this big news and you couldn’t even tell me.”
I pick at the skin beside my thumb.
She slides her chair out and grabs her dish before walking over and grabbing Austin’s. I stand also to help clean up as the guys come down with the dresser.
“So, when is the wedding?” she asks me as she turns the water on.
I wince. “Next month.”
She drops the plate into the sink. “What? Next month?”
I nod, biting my lip.
“Jesus, Kat. Were you never going to tell me?”
“I was!” I say. “I just didn’t know when.”
I look over at Bryce as he exits the door. He only gives me a sympathetic small smile before he vanishes in the hall.
She picks the plate back up and rinses it off. “How am I going to get sized in that short of time? Look at me. How will I fit in a bridesmaid’s dress?”
My heart flutters because she just assumes she’s going to be a bridesmaid.
That’s family.
When you’re mad at each other, no matter what you’re upset about, they’re still there. They stick.
“You can wear whatever dress you want. You’re going to be the only one.”
She smirks. “I better be.”
I reach over and grab the plate from her hand, turning her to look at me. “I love you.”
She smiles, her eyes beginning to water. “Dude, you can’t say shit like that.”
I laugh. “Me telling you I love you makes you cry?”
“Everything makes me cry! But we both know you aren’t good with that sort of thing…” She shrugs her shoulder. “So, it just means more when you say it.”
“I don’t say it enough.” I grab her and hug her tight, and then I feel a hard thump against my stomach.
I look down with wide eyes. “Holy hell, you’ve got a kicker!”
“Yep. That wasn’t in my rib or anything,” she says sarcastically. The boys walk back in as I laugh.
I hear Austin. “Glad to see all is right in the world again.”
I flick him off. “Don’t be nosy.”
He chuckles as he and Bryce walk back up. I’m still pissed at Bryce, and when we leave here, he will know it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bryce
Kat slams the front door and tosses her purse and phone onto the countertop. I lift my hat and rub my face. “K, I didn’t mean to make you this mad.”
She swirls around to face me, her cheeks red with anger.
“You didn’t mean to make me this mad?”
“No, I didn’t. I honestly thought I was doing you a favor.”
She crosses her arms. “You thought you were doing me,” she points to herself, “a favor?”
“Yes. I knew you were having a hard time telling her, so I thought, why not get it out now? I didn’t think it was going to cause a fight between us.”
“You thought by telling my best friend that we were engaged and have been engaged for months and I chose to keep it from her wasn’t going to start a fight between us?”
“Will you stop asking me questions as an response to what I say?”
“Will I stop asking you questions?” She shakes her head. “I’m asking them because I can’t fathom how you don’t see your fuck-up here, Bryce.” The way she says my name slices me clean in two. Damn, she’s pissed. Earlier, I didn’t regret what I said, but now… Well, now I’m regretting it a whole lot.
“Okay, so I messed up. What’s new? I told you when we first started this, I was going to fuck up. You signed up for me. You knew I was an asshole before we even made it official and yet, here you are.”
“Here I am,” she says as a statement. She drops her arms and looks around. “I hate this apartment. It’s too big and too clean. It needs color and furniture you can sit on without worrying about getting it dirty. It doesn’t match you at all, and I’m not sure why you picked it.”
“I thought you liked it?”
“No. I don’t. And right now, I don’t like you.” Her saying that punches me right in the gut.
“You don’t mean that.”
“Oh yes, I do.” She walks over to the cabinet and grabs the bottle of bourbon.
Reaching for a glass, she slams it down on the counter and opens the bottle.
“Not going to offer me one?” I ask.
“Get it your damn self.”
I lift my brow as she throws back the drink.
“You butted in something that was none of your business. I couldn’t believe it when those words came out of your mouth. And yes, I knew who I agreed to date, but I was hoping,” she looks up, raising her hand, “God, I was hoping that by now you’d have changed.” She pinches her fingers together. “Just a little bit.”
“So, you want me to change now?”
She huffs, “I want you to grow the fuck up.”
“How can you say that’s not my business? Everything about you is my goddamn business. You’re my wife!”
She throws her head back and laughs. “Not yet.”
I narrow my eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I pour my drink and toss it back. My heart is beating a mile a minute, slipping on his boxing gloves after rolling up his sleeves. Ready to fight, because that’s exactly what’s about to happen if she doesn’t choose her next words carefully.
Would I hit her?
Fuck no.
But I will put her in her place and make her remember who put that ring on her finger. Which is still missing. My heart jabs at the punching bag, his eyes tight, his back bunching.
“Where’s your fucking ring?”
She shrugs and grabs the bottle, pouring another.
I clinch my jaw. “What the hell did you mean by ‘not yet’?”
“I meant just what I said.” She tosses her drink back and winces. “I’m not your wife yet, so you can’t call me that.”
“But you’re going to be,” I say, reaching for the bottle. She looks down at it, shrugging again.
“Shrug again, K. Do it again and act like this isn’t as serious as it is.”
“Oh, I’m aware of how serious this is. But I don’t think you do. Claire and Austin are my family. The only people I have…”
“What?” I don’t even think before I toss the fucking bottle at the wall. Glass shatters, satisfying me to the bone.
I move around the counter quickly. She backs up against the fridge and I slam my hands on it beside her ears.
“Do you know how hard this was for me? Do you have any idea how much I have changed for you? This was never supposed to happen. I gave up my way of life for you. Everything.”
“You gave it up, so you didn’t have to sit in prison.”
My heart stops punching and drops his arms.
My eyes bounce around her face. “That’s what you think?” I whisper.
“That’s what I know,” she spits. She pushes me away and I step back. “I’m going to bed. Don’t follow me.”
She runs up the stairs and I stay put. I’m so fucking hurt right now, I don’t know what to do. My face tingles, my heart hangs his head, and before I think more into it, I grab my keys and walk out the door.
_____________
The night air brushes over my skin, cooling me down, but not enough to reach the inside. I’m hurt and pissed. She thinks I gave up Red to stay out of prison. I laugh to myself as I climb inside my car, slamming the door and starting the engine. It’s been months. So many months, and we are still here.
We’re still pushing each other and making the other one crazy. She’s so fucking wrong it’s sick. I change gears, passing through Atlanta traffic, riding around aimlessly. I head through Little Five Points, passing Mugs & Books. I go through Krog Street Tunnel, fleeting by graffiti and people walking on the sides.
I roll past Oakland Cemetery and head back downtown, hitting Decatur Street before I hit SkyView Atlanta. The Ferris wheel glows in the night, spinning. I turn and reach the parking deck I took K to so long ago when I told her about my mom getting jumped on and overdosing. I park the car and head to the elevator.
Pushing the button, I lean back against the wall with my hands in my pockets. I was nervous then, showing her something that meant something to me. I’ve had a lot of shit happen since we met, but she’s always felt like my sky rise, with nothing but views of Atlanta and the stars above. She replaced this place.
I used to come here to think and clear my head. I didn’t have to when I found her, but now here I am. Clearing my head about the one person I thought was my world.
Her saying Claire and Austin were the only family she had—fuck, that c
ut me. The doors open and I step out, looking around and seeing I’m thankfully alone, I head to my old spot and sit down on the red brick. I look up at the sky, happy to see some stars if only a few.
How much my life has changed since the last time I was here. Mary has come so far. She’s doing it, man. She’s being the person I always believed she could be. My brother doesn’t talk to me much. We said our apologies after our big blowup in his apartment, but our relationship has been rocky at best, and that itself fucks with me. I love that kid. I need to try harder.
Pops and Emily are living the life they always wanted but were too afraid and stubborn to grab. Monnie’s restaurant is doing like it always has. Successful because of the man. Lou is closer to Kat now than me, and while I feel left out, I’m also so damn glad my family has accepted her as their own.
She deserves that, but she hurt me tonight.
I think of her as my one and only.
She’s the axle my world spins on, but am I hers?
I sit for a while until I decide to get up and head out. I need a drink and I can’t get that here.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bryce
Once back in my car, I find myself going to Red.
I park on the side of the street, looking over at the line. I climb out in my jeans and T-shirt, but I don’t care how I look. I walk up to the man with a list in his hand. He used to work for me.
He looks up as I come closer. “Mr. Grant,” he greets.
I nod. “Care if I have a drink?”
“I’ve been told you’re always welcome here. Come in.”
I nod and walk through. My heart tilts his head, wondering what we’re doing and questions if I’m asking for trouble. My mind ignores it and steps through the black sliding doors. The base of the music vibrates my bones and I inhale as I look around, my eyes going to the all-glass two-way mirror above where I used to be. I wonder if Danny is in town and if he’s up there now. But I choose to walk to the bar, and luckily, I find a seat.
My phones rings and I see it’s K. I ignore it and order a drink from my old employee. He doesn’t seem happy to see me, and I think back on when I told him to act like K is me. Fuck, I am an asshole. I’ll make sure to tip him well.
Give Me Forever Love (Give Me Series Book 3) Page 13