“Yes. Okay.” She nodded. “You’re right.”
“Iamright.”
“Thank you for reminding me what I’m worth.”
With a hand cupping her ass, he hauled her into him, lifting her right off her feet as he kissed her deep. My eyes went wide as I watched because, yeah, things were definitely heating up, considering this was a supposedly family-friendly event. If Mabel couldn’t have lube on display, I was thinking foreplay was probably also discouraged.
Beck cleared his throat loudly. “All right. I’d appreciate it if I didn’t have to watch my brother make out anymore. Jesus Christ.”
Luna laughed and pulled away, tapping Brady on the shoulder until he put her back on her feet. “Hey, guys. Sorry about all that. I’m happy to see you out here, Everly.”
“Thanks, I’m glad I could come. The clinic’s usually open on Saturday mornings, so I haven’t had a chance to yet.”
Luna’s eyes softened. “How are you doing? Getting settled okay?”
“Yeah. I’m staying with Beck. There have been a couple of close calls, but he hasn’t kicked us to the curb yet.”
Beck tightened his hold on me, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by Brady if the twitch of his eyebrow was any indication.
Luna laughed. “The McKenzie boys’ barks are worse than their bites—all of them. Well, except for Ford. I don’t know if that guy has an ounce of bark in him.”
“Then you haven’t seen him around Quinn yet,” Beck said.
Luna’s brows lifted. “Noted.” To me, she said, “Hey, if you ever want to get away or need some rejuvenation time, swing by the main inn. Yoga class or a massage on me.”
It was an amazing offer, and one I normally would’ve jumped at. Luna was seriously a magician with her hands, and her yoga classes were some of the best ones I’d ever taken. But what stopped me in my tracks wasn’t the offer but the fact that I didn’t feel like I needed it. Except for the night the chief had been by to see me, things were going…fairly well. I still didn’t know what was going to happen or what I was going to do, but I wasn’t focusing on that. Right now, I was focusing on the present. On being with Beck and enjoying this life all my own that I’d carved out in Starlight Cove.
CHAPTERTWENTY
BECK
On Monday,my family—minus that lucky shit, Levi—gathered in the diner for a meeting. I told Addison and Aiden that the only way I was showing up was if it was here, so they finally relented. I wasn’t an early riser under normal circumstances, but especially not now. Not when I spent hours worshipping Everly’s body each night and then again before she could slip out for her run in the mornings.
She’d been living with me, for all intents and purposes, for nearly a week, and things were going far better than I expected. Though that didn’t take much since most of my thoughts circled around fire and brimstone. It was in my nature to wait for the other shoe to drop, but I was finally putting that out of my mind when it came to her. To us. Besides, considering how we got together, I figured all the shoes had already dropped.
“Okay, so just a quick update,” Addison said. “Bookings are still steadily coming in, and we’re full into August now. We also have our first wedding scheduled, and I’m thinking about contacting Harper and pitching an article to her. Maybe Dream Weddings on the Coast or something like that.”
“You clear that with Levi?” I asked.
Addison rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to clear it with Levi. If he wants a say in this kind of thing, he needs to get his ass to these meetings. Otherwise, he’s just going to have to pull up his big-boy pants and deal with whatever history he and Harper have together like a grown-ass man. Good?” Addison waited half a second before continuing. “Good. Aiden and I have been handling the increased volume, but we may want to look into hiring some staff—at least for cleaning. Probably only part time to start.”
My brows lifted. “Like…someone outside the family?”
“Yes.”
“Who we’ll pay?” Ford clarified.
“Yes,” Addison answered, her loss of patience obvious in her tone.
“With…actual money?” I asked.
“Oh my God,yes,” she snapped.
“Uh…” Ford glanced around at all of us. “Arewegoing to start getting paid with actual money?”
“You do get paid with actual money,” she said.
“Oh, sorry, when I asked that, I thought it was clear I meant enough money so we could do more than buy a pack of gum once every two weeks.”
