Chapter Four
Zoey
These two guys.
Damn, do I love them.
While it’s tempting to let them drive over to Bill’s and beat the ever-loving snot out of him, I know that can’t happen.
I mean, itcanhappen, but itshouldn’thappen.
I prefer my men remain free.
“What time do we want to go over tomorrow?” I ask.
“Early,” both of them say, before they look at each other and start laughing.
“Jinx,” I say.
This happensallthe time with the three of us.
“Soon as we’re done here,” Arlo says, “I’ll hop online and rent a truck. I don’t want any of us over there alone tomorrow morning. We’ll go get the truck, then drive over together. And we’ll need boxes and tape and stuff.”
After we’re finished with kitchen clean-up, I walk out to the garage. I’ve been meaning to organize it, but it’s one of those tasks that doesn’t have to be done, so I’ve put it off for…well, years, actually.
Guess I can’t do that any longer. We’ll need the space to store Lucas’ things until we can get his room put together here.
I plan on stripping his room there to the bare fricking walls. If Bill doesn’t like that, his happy little ass should have been there while we empty it, shouldn’t he?
Except the guy’s afraid of Nolan, I’m pretty certain. He’s definitely wary of Arlo, and has been for years. Neither let Bill intimidate them, and they’re both taller than Bill, not to mention younger than him, and they’re both in excellent shape, while Bill’s shape is…
Potato’s a shape, isn’t it?
What can I say? My guys are protective of me and Lucas. Isn’t that just more overwhelming proof that the three of us belong together?
I’m still standing there and trying to plan this in my head when I hear the door to the utility room open behind me. Nolan walks in and looks around, his hands on his hips.
“Well,” he says. “The good news is, we don’t need to play games about sharing a bed tonight. The bad news is, I have a feeling we’re going to be too exhausted for any fun tonight or tomorrow night. And I still need a shower.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t youdareapologize, babe.” He walks over and pulls me into his arms. “I don’t want to hear a single apology out of you for this. Now we finally know the truth.” He stares into my eyes. “Can you finally accept what Ar and I have been telling you all along? That you’re not a horrible mother, and you didn’t do a damn thing wrong?”
“Yeah.” I lay my head against his chest and just…breathe.
Twelve more years.
That’s my mantra, the countdown until he’s completely free of Jerilyn. Right now, because Katie is on a week-to-week schedule similar to what we used to have for Lucas, neither of them pay any child support. If Katie needs something extra, like school uniforms, they split the cost. Katie’s on Nolan’s health insurance, and he pays that, even though Jerilyn’s supposed to chip in half for it. That’s something else he could use against her, but talk about being too fricking nice. He definitely doesn’t fight hard enough for himself sometimes.
He nuzzles the top of my head. “Sure you won’t get tired of having both of us around all the time?”
I smile. “You kidding? Arlo’s going to be glad to have you as backup.”
He chuckles. “This is really going to happen.” He sounds like he’s still trying to absorb that. “After all these years.”
“Yeah.” I tip my head back to look up into his sweet brown eyes. “How long to get the house built?”
“Not right away. We’re probably looking at six months. We need to get the permit, hire a contractor, all of that. We’ll need to get this place ready to sell, but we’ll have to time it right so we’re not living out of a hotel while the house is being built.”
