Ty returns to his grill work, and Wells smirks at me.
He leans in close as he forages for more reds and yellows, his voice intentionally lower now. “Ty is the best of us. He’s the gold in a pile of coal. But he can’t see it. He’s stuck in the soot. I have a hunch you’ll change that.”
My chest inflates with ambitious expectations. “You think?”
“I know,” he assures me with a grimace at his candy bag.
“How do you know?” I ask in skepticism, still worried this will all be dismantled as quickly as it was assembled. “Is that merely the conclusion you drew after he woke me in the middle of the night to force me into a wedding ceremony that was only a formality because he’d already forged all the paperwork?”
He chuckles, still shaking his Skittles with a furrowed brow. “People do crazy things when the stakes are high.”
Trading his bag for mine, I laugh at his perplexed squint. “I like the purples and greens.”
A grin hikes up his cheeks. “See? You’re the missing piece.”
“Not exactly,” I argue, spilling some into my palm. “There are five colors in Sour Skittles. We still need to find someone for the orange. Maybe Felicity will assume the role when she’s a little older.”
“No,” he states adamantly. “This shit will kill ya. I don’t want to pass the bad habit on to her.”
“It is an odd habit for someone so health-conscious,” I observe.
Content with his new bag, he meets my eyes. “You might remember, I used to smoke. That was worse.”
I hum in thought, recalling his smoking days and intrigued about the switch. “Candy is a coping mechanism for me too. What made you switch from smoking to Skittles?”
A puff of adoration flows from his lips as his focus swings to his wife. “A fiery redhead. My Little Storm hates the smell of cigarettes.”
My chest squeezes from both his words and the love written in his glowing gaze. “You quit for Ivy?”
He glances back at me with a nod. “Before we even met. I knew I wanted her and that she detested the smell. So, I did the work.”
I roll my bag up to save some for later. “How did you know you wanted her before you ever met?”
“I’d been a friend of her father’s for some time, so I was acquainted with her from afar. And I just knew. Felt it. She was mine. And I loved her before we were even together.” He pauses there, waiting with a stare that’s boring into my cheek until I grant him my attention. “Sound familiar?”
The implication makes me blush. It would seem I wasn’t so sly about my crush on Ty. “Yeah,” I whisper.
Eyes still planted on mine, he palms my head. “It would to Ty too. You were his long before that spur-of-the-moment ceremony, Rena. You’ve always belonged with us.”
Choking down the emotion that’s knotted in my throat, I smile as he rises to join the others. Acceptance astheirsfeels far more gratifying than I would have expected. But I guess it’s the same for me; they’ve always been mine.
Now that the house is abuzz with chaos and banter, everything feels a little more real. I’ve been around them all like this countless times,but I was never Ty’s on those occasions. I was Ivy’s and Celeste’s. And I was the Noires’ little sister that Wells looked after, Liam joked with, and Gage protected.
Now, I’m Ty’s. His wife. His family. His future.
It’s mind-boggling.
After dinner is done, I volunteer to put Felicity to bed since that is a rarity for me. The quiet moments rocking her are good for my soul, a glimpse of someday. Once she’s drifted off, I lay her down and saunter out, running into Celeste and Ivy as I round the corner.
They drag me to the balcony off the game room and shove a glass of wine into my hand with beaming smiles beneath the speckled navy sky and distant lights of the Strip. We dish about the main events of the last few days, and my chest swells that I have these Ty tidbits to share with them. That this fantasy is my reality.
“So, he’s attentive,” Celeste concludes with a suggestive eyebrow waggle since I spilled some of Ty’s impressive bedroom skills. “And not opposed to public indecency. That’s a win in my book.”
Ivy giggles. “Totally opposite of Wells, who would shudder if anyone was even in earshot. He’d have to soundproof the city.”
“That’s true,” Celeste chimes. “Just wait, Rena. You’ll get texts at all hours of the day and night with entire wings of the house off-limits.”
“It’s so ridiculous.” Ivy shakes her head and rakes her teeth over her lip, but she’s clearly pleased that he’s so over-the-top possessive of her.
