“And hot!” Katie said.
I tittered again, and Katie wrapped her arms around me. “You’re my best friend. Yeah, you work for me, but you’re my friend first. You don’t need to be afraid of telling me things. Ever.”
I hugged her back. We stood there wrapped around each other when Hayden and Declan came down the hall with our bags.
“Let’s roll, ladies,” Declan said, smacking my butt as he walked by.
I jumped out of Katie’s arms, my hand finding my abused bottom with an “eep!” only to have another pop land on the other cheek. My eyes widened, and my face burned, but Katie only laughed.
“Hey!” I yelled, and they both spun around to look at me, arms held aloft as they yelled back, “What?”
“You know what!”
“Don’t blame us, pequeña. That ass begged for a spank or two.”
Katie doubled over, holding her belly, gasping for air.
“Oh yeah, Declan is as bad as Jackson, and it looks like Hayden’s no better. Soft fabric and cushy seats. That’s all I got, cause I dunno about you, but I’m not giving that up.”
Katie and I followed Declan and Hayden out to the SUVs we’d be taking to the airport. Priest, Cameron, and the twins would pick them up later and bring them back to the house.
Much to Declan’s exasperation, Hayden made sure Declan and I were in the second SUV with Heidi, Celeste, and Scott before sliding into the driver’s seat of the front SUV. I caught a glimpse of him, his aviator sunglasses on, his hair pulled back, and I sighed. Heidi and Celeste chuckled.
“Shut up,” I grumbled with embarrassment at being caught ogling the man.
Celeste laughingly called me out.
“It’s just funny. Y’all thought you were being sneaky little shits when I can’t count on both hands the number of times I’ve caught you looking at one or both of them like you just did.”
“And how’s that?”
“Like they’re a popsicle and it’s hotter than Texas in August,” Heidi answered.
Declan, in a pair of aviator sunglasses of his own, said, “It’s alright, sweetness, you can lick me anytime!”
I buried my face in my hands. “Someone kill me now. Dying of embarrassment is a long, painful process.”
Everyone in the car cracked up, and I really wanted to evaporate into thin air.
46
HAYDEN
Sliding behind the wheel of the SUV, I marveled at the changes in my life over the last couple of months. From estranged and yearning for my husband, who I swore would never forgive my bullshit, to reunited and fully recommitted to him and forging a relationship with the woman we’d dreamed about before things went to hell in a dumpster fire. Life was fucking fantastic.
Which had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.
Every bad moment in my life had been preceded by that thought or a similar one. My mom dying, Jackson finding Mara and me, Mara leaving me at the altar, Lucia and our pseudo relationship, then the blow up with Declan, the shit at the hospital, and later in Vegas. Every one of those moments had been foreshadowed by the thought that life was going well.
Catching Marcie watching me through the side mirror, I smirked. Damn, she was gorgeous.
“The pilot says they’re on the ground,” Foster said from the passenger seat.
I bobbed my head, tucking my feelings and the dread away to worry about another time. I needed to focus. There was still a job to do.
Putting the car in gear, I drove down the driveway toward the security gate. Declan was behind the wheel of the vehicle trailing me with Priest and Cameron bringing up the ass end. At the road in front of the house, I turned toward the private airstrip. Declan followed closely, but Priest and Cameron turned in the opposite direction toward town to run the errands assigned to them and then check in on Marcie’s dad.
A little way down the road, Declan made a sharp turn. The plan was to split up, each SUV taking a different route to the airstrip to throw off anyone who may be watching, and to be less conspicuous. It didn’t take us long to arrive at the airstrip. It wasn’t anything fancy. It didn’t need to be. We needed the plane off the ground and in the air without a lot of fanfare. This place was perfect for that.
