“Like, out in public?” she asked, her blue eyes widening.
Van shrugged, his arm tightening around her waist. “I’m not ashamed of what we are. I don’t think I’d like anything more than to shout it from the rooftops that you’re ours.”
“Okay,” she said quietly, nodding. “No hiding.”
Grant nodded, too, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. “No hiding. You belong to us, and we belong to you.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Well look what the cat dragged in,” Jade muttered sourly from the couch, Bruno’s head in her lap. Hope grimaced as she shut the front door. “Bruno, I think there’s a stranger in our house.”
“I’msooorrrry,” Hope mumbled, flopping into the empty corner of the couch and scratching Bruno’s fluffy butt.
Jade sniffed disdainfully, but the dimple on her cheek from trying to suppress a smile was enough to tell Hope she’d already been forgiven. “The sex better befan-freaking-tastic. You abandoned me for dick.”
“But really,really gooddick,” Hope whispered, throwing her head back to rest on the back cushion of the couch with a sigh. “Like. Jade… I’m ruined for anyone else.”
“Well, yeah, because you’re getting it two at a time!” Jade laughed, throwing a throw pillow at her head. “I’d be fucking ruined, too!”
Hope wheezed with laughter and tucked the pillow into her lap, crossing her arms over it. An old habit of hiding her bodythat had never really gone away. Though Grant and Van more than made sure she knew how much they liked her body. Every inch of her.
“So just what brings you over here to my lowly apartment? Did you get amnesia and forget where you were living?” Jade asked with a smirk. She hauled herself up off the couch and padded into the kitchen, returning with their favorite two mismatched wine glasses and a bottle of Riesling, which she poured into the glasses and then handed one to Hope. “Poor Bruno thought you hated him.”
Setting her wine down, she snuggled the old golden, smushing his white face between her hands as he licked her chin. “Oh,Bruno, I could never hate my best boy. Never ever ever.”
“So, how are things, really?” Jade asked, settling back into her corner of the couch again. She sipped her wine and angled her body toward Hope, who did the same.
“Wonderful,” Hope breathed, smiling. She shook her head and took a drink of her wine. “Jade, I can’t even explain it. It’s like… it’s exactly how it was in Chicago. Only a million times better. God, they are so funny, Jade. So funny and kind and good lord, Van can cook. And Grant is so sweet, just like my giant teddy bear from that weekend…”
“No more grumpypants?” Jade asked seriously, pinning Hope with a levelling stare. “No more tears?”
“No more tears, no more mean grumpypants,” Hope assured her earnestly. “He’s quite good at groveling.”
Jade harumphed cynically, eyeing her sister shrewdly over the top of her wine glass. “He better be. I meant it when I said if he ever makes you cry like that again—”
“I don’t see that ever happening, Jade,” Hope murmured with a smile. “It’s like magic when we’re together. I can’t explain it. I knew it in Chicago and I ran because I was scared… I know you don’t believe in all that soul mate mumbo jumbo, but…”
“When you know, you know, kind of thing?” Jade finished softly. Hope nodded.
“They feel like home,” Hope whispered, running her finger around the edge of her wine glass. Tears pricked her eyes, but they were happy tears. “They feel like home to me, Jade.”
Jade’s eyes were suspiciously wet when Hope glanced up and she laughed sadly, dropping her eyes to her wine again. “You’re leaving me, aren’t you.”
“Of course I’m not leaving you, you’re my sister,” Hope laughed, reaching out her hand to take Jade’s.
“I just got you back. I thought we would have more time, the Mackenzie sisters back together and all,” Jade murmured, shrugging.
“I’m literally just across town,” Hope said softly, squeezing her sisters’ hand. “And you’re welcome to come over anytime, most nights they’ll be gone at the restaurant and I’m home by myself—”
Jade squeezed her hand back and smiled at her. “You’re moving in with them, though, huh. You called it home.”
Hope sagged where she sat. “I did, didn’t I?” Jade nodded, but smiled. “They asked me today. I don’t have to—”
“If you think I’m going to stand between my sister and true love, you’re crazy,” she laughed, shaking her head. “You said it yourself; they’re your home now. I can’t be sad or unhappy for my little sister finding the kind of love most people spend their whole lives wishing for.”
She was unsuccessful at stemming the tears that filled her eyes this time, and they slid down her cheeks. She swiped at them, laughing. “This is crazy, though, right? How insanely fast this all happened?”
“Is it?” Jade asked quietly, then wrinkled her nose and shook her head just slightly. “I don’t believe that fate wouldbring people together like you three have if it wasn’t meant for something big, Hope. You said it feels like magic; maybe it is?”
