“Seriously?” I peer intently at Riot and Kelsey as they descend the stairs. He lets go of her hand to move ahead.
“Uh-huh.” Rogue cranes his neck.
“I don’t know if I would call whatever he was doing with Rochelle dating,” I muse. They were close, but they never seemed all that intimate. After what that prick Alec put her through, who could blame her. “It was more like—”
“He was cut up about it when it ended.” Rogue looks at me. “Wasn’t he? I didn’t imagine that. Did I?”
“He’s got a good heart, and she was hurting with the trial and the smear campaign the Hawthornes were running.” It still makes me want to pound my fist into the closest surface. The way they tried to convince the public that she wanted what happened to her was fucking disgusting. “It wouldn’t surprise me if their dating was a way of him sticking close so he could be there for her. Protect her.”
“Makes sense,” he says.
“So could this thing with Kelsey be serious?” I watch them more closely.
At the bottom of the steps Riot exchanges handshakes and a few words with the crew who are handling the luggage and the cartons of bagels Rogue had special ordered for this morning’s brunch. Kelsey falls into place at his side, looking like she belongs there. Which in a way, she always has. They’ve been friends for a long time. The scrappy, stubborn skater girl and the dreamer musician. It wouldn’t be the worst choice either could make.
Riot leans in to say something privately to Kelsey. They share a smile like they have the best secret in the world.
“Don’t be a dad about it,” Rogue warns. “Let them be. We’re long past the point where he needs a reminder about how fucking his best friend could be the worst mistake.”
“Yeah.” My thumb ticks against the steering wheel.
“Maybe they’re meant to be,” Rogue says. “Friends first isn’t a bad way to fall in love.”
“Meant to be? You’re such a romantic.” But I can’t summon the cynicism that would have given that taunt weight once upon a time. It’s hard to be as prickly as a cactus when I have Summer in my corner.
We hated each other once. Not that it was ever real hate. She hated what she’d been told about me, and I hated that she was afraid of me. And she was stubborn. Argumentative. In my business.
But those things ultimately made me fall for her. Those are some of the many things that make her the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
At least my relationship wasn’t Rogue’s. He had to go and fall in love with the enemy’s sister. Create a whole drama that started with him chasing a girl named Uma Cookie and ended with us finding out we weren’t twins, but triplets. “It has to be better than everyone thinking you’re having a mental breakdown and hallucinating.”
“I’m not bitter.” Rogue sits up straighter. “I’m marrying said hallucination, and I can’t fucking wait.” He presses a button on the door, and the window slides down. “Hurry the fuck up, you two. We’ve got an itinerary to follow, and I don’t want to be late for my princess.”
“How was the flight?” I ask once they’ve both climbed in. Heart Ranch isn’t that far from the airstrip. Maybe thirty minutes.
They share a glance I catch in the rearview as we pull out, their security detail following.
Rogue’s side-eye mirrors my thoughts.They’re definitely together.
It seems serious.
Girlfriend serious.Rogue sticks his tongue in his cheek as he feigns interest in the playlist he and Ivy created for their wedding week. He finally settles on a tune. “This was the song I performed with Adira at Mojito Bar when I was in search of my sweet Uma Cookie.”
“How is Love?” Riot asks, rolling the window down a couple of inches and pulling a tin out of his jacket pocket. He takes out athin paper cylinder and sticks it between his lips. Lifting his ass off the seat, he hunts around in another pocket, presumably for his lighter.
“You’re not lighting that in here,” Kelsey says.
“Didn’t think you’d care,” he says.
“It’s a decent fine,” she says, then before I can argue adds, “And a bad look.”
I exchange glances with Riot. She has a point. Well, not about the fine or how bad it looks. But there will be no more smoking in cars now that I’m going to be a father.
He barely shrugs then stows his joint back in the tin. “How is Summer? Have the brothers forgiven you for deflowering and knocking up their only sister?”
“I didn’t deflower anyone,” I gripe. Summer is carrying my babies, though. Twins. Christ. If they’re anything like Rogue and I, we’re in for some divine and karmic retribution.
Summer and I decided it would be our secret until it becomes obvious that she’s carrying more than one. I can’t wait to see Rogue and Riot’s faces when they realize.
