“Will come too, of course.”
This time he scooped his sister up in his arms, Lette yelping with surprise, and Garrett’s and Eddie’s combined “Coasties!”from across the room had him laughing out loud.Better than the tears that were threatening at the corners of his eyes.From no family to more than Nic knew what to do with.It was a problem he was happy to have—an argument he was thrilled to lose, especially now that the threats had been eliminated—and there was one person responsible for making his life whole again, who’d brought him into the fold with their friends, with his family, and then helped save Nic’s too.
He found the cluster of dark heads across the room and caught Keith’s eye.He tilted his head toward the bar, then started making his way there himself, trusting Keith, Quinn, and Bobby to herd their brother that direction too.
Sneaking behind the bar, Nic pulled two pints of stout from their newest tap and held one glass out of sight, below the bar top.He fished the special delivery from Lauren out of his pocket and dropped it in, waiting for it to hit the bottom with aplunk.Assured it was settled and relatively hidden in the dark beer, he set the glass next to the other on the bar top, circled back around to the front, and tapped a metal thief against a tap, the pinging noise echoing through the cavernous event center as the music lowered.
“If I can interrupt for a minute,” he said.“I’d like to say a few words.”
Danny started a chant of “Speech!Speech!”that lasted long enough for the Byrne brothers to deposit their charge at the front before moving off to stand with Aidan and Jamie.
Eyes dancing, Cam sidled up to Nic, coasting a hand across Nic’s lower back and resting it on his opposite hip.Nic found it there on his left hip a lot these days, Cam touching the new tattoo every chance he got.He’d never forget the look in Cam’s eyes the night he’d revealed the finished design.Wonder and appreciation, lust and love, swirled together in deep pools of molten heat.He’d wanted to live there, in that moment, in Cam’s warm dark eyes, for the rest of his life.Until he’d remembered how much he’d wanted this one and all the others to follow.
“What are you up to?”Cam asked.
“Thanking our guests.”
And more.
He gave Cam’s runaway brow a quick peck before turning back to their gathered friends, family, and colleagues.“I wanted to thank you all for coming out today to the swearing-in and for joining us here to celebrate.When Cam and I first got together?—”
“Without telling any of us,” Mel quipped from where she stood next to Danny.
Nic laughed with the crowd.“Says the woman who knew all along.”
She blew him a kiss.
He shot her the middle finger, smiling.“Okay, what was I say?—”
“When you two started to bone,” Eddie shouted.
More laughter.More than Nic had ever heard here at Gravity, which only made the moment more special.
“Right,” he said.“When Cam and I first got together, he made me see we don’t celebrate the victories enough.I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s been the wildest year of my life.Nor am I exaggerating when I say it’s been the best.So I wanted you all here to celebrate with us, and I wanted you all here for the official unveiling of Gravity’s newest brew, Fighting Boston Irish Stout, a special imperial brewed and named for the man without whom none of this year’s victories would be possible.”
Cam’s face turned bright red, not expecting to be the center of attention, but it was split by the biggest grin Nic had ever seen on his handsome face.Handing Cam his pint glass, Nic picked up the other and clinked their rims together.“For you, Boston.”
Cam’s arm tightened around his waist.“I like how you celebrate.”He raised the glass and took a sip.His eyes fluttered closed and his features went slack with bliss, a look Nic was more accustomed to seeing from him in bed.
He lowered the glass after another sip, opening his hooded eyes and teasing Nic with a flick of his tongue across his lips.“Baby, it’s wonderful.”Then he gave Nic a taste of the flavor he craved the most—his beer on Cam’s lips—in a searing kiss that lasted until Eddie and the rest of the soldiers assembled began shouting “Chug, chug, chug.”
As Nic had told them to do.
“Drink up,” he encouraged Cam, and struggled not to appear too eager as Cam tilted his pint back for more.Nor too knowingly excited when Cam startled at the object inside the glass bumping his lips.
Brow furrowed, Cam lowered the glass and tipped it over.Into his palm fell a black titanium ring with an electric blue band around the middle.The same color highlights from Cam’s hair on that undercover gig last April, the one during which Nic had fallen in love with him.
Cam gasped out a “Dominic.”
Nic snagged the ring from his palm, then went down on one knee to thunderous shouts and applause.He was asking, officially, in front of all their friends and family.
“Boston, will you marry me?”
Cam’s dark eyes were a mix of fire and water, heated to burning and on the brink of tears.“I thought we already went over this.”
Nic smirked.“I don’t remember you saying?—”
“Yes!”
