“The brothers Heart are all terribly vexed.” Rogue snorts. “We’ve been here for two days and none of them will talk to him. Well, Burke did but—”
“Shut up.” I glare at him. The whole situation is unreasonable.
“You offended him.” Rogue stares at me like I’m the asshole. “He offered to sell his sister to you for three goats and a fattened pig. You refused. You refuse to put a ring on her finger.”
“How do you think it makes Summer feel to have her brothers treating her like she was born in the eighteenth century? You know she hates that overprotective brother bullshit. Now that redheaded mountain is trying to sell her like she’s property. In front of her face too. The position that put me in... making me look like an ass no matter my answer.”
“It’s an inside joke.” Rogue raises a brow. “Summer understands that.”
“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have an impact on her. I had to fight tooth and nail to get her to be vulnerable with me. I won’t let her go backward because her brothers are being dicks.”
“They probably want to know you plan to marry her, considering she’s going to be your baby momma,” Kelsey chimes in. “We’re all in an industry that doesn’t boast a lot of happily ever forevers.”
I catch her eyes in the rearview mirror in time to see the depth of emotion that passes through them. Interesting. “I’m going to marry her. I just haven’t found the perfect moment to ask yet.”
Because it has to be perfect. Summer deserves something that rivals those old school romantic comedies she watched with her mom before she passed.
She deserves to be the one who gets to make the decision about whether she wants to be Summer Heart-Maddox. Her brothers don’t get a say in her choices beyond what she wants them to have.
My whole world revolves around her, so I didn’t want to ask her when our entire family was up in flames thanks to that bastard, Hawthorne. And I didn’t want to do it when we were celebrating Ivy’s return after she was kidnapped.
And I don’t want to be pushed into doing it this week. Rogue and Ivy’s wedding is not our moment. But soon, when it’s perfect, I’m going to get down on one knee and ask her to let me love her until they put me in the earth.
“We all thought you would propose at Christmas.” Riot leans forward between the seats and flips the lid of the metal lighter on and off.
He’s fidgety as hell which usually means he has something he wants to tell us. But unlike how he and Rogue are pushing tounderstand something that’s none of their business, I’ll let him get his words out when he’s ready.
Kelsey’s stomach growls like a demonic gremlin from the depths of hell. “Sorry, skipped breakfast.”
“And dinner,” Riot says. “It’s been a crazy twenty-four.”
Rogue chuckles. “Didn’t you have time to eat on the plane?”
They were too busy fucking.I use my hand to wipe away my smirk.
One corner of Rogue’s mouth tics.Maybe he doesn’t know you have to feed the one you want to keep. He’s used to those one-night groupies. Do you think they bring their own snacks?
Not in my experience.
Well, there was this one time...Rogue waggles his brows.Should we tell him?
“Has West gotten the hang of your telepathic nonsense yet?” Riot picks up his phone because it’s started to caterwaul. “Am I going to have to deal with all three of you acting like this the whole time?” He glances at the screen, his lip curls. “Forget it, it doesn’t matter. The lady needs some food. Is there a McDonalds or Sonic around here?”
“Around here?” He must be kidding. All we’ve seen for the past fifteen minutes is farmland.
“It’s her again, isn’t it?” Kelsey cranes her neck, peering around his shoulder. “What does she want now?”
Riot rejects the call and pockets the device. “Suspected spam.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Kelsey’s jaw tightens as she shifts her attention to the passing fields.
Her?Rogue side-eyes me.
I side-eye him back.Suspected spam?
Baby brother, what are you getting yourself mixed up in now? It appears I’m going to end up playing the dad card andmaking sure he doesn’t completely screw up his friendship after all.
“About that food,” Riot says.
