Page 152 of Golden Ruin

He frowns, standing shirtless beside the bed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I smile, feeling my heart thunder against my ribs. “I’m not leaving,” I tell him. “I told the apartment manager that I’m–”

I don’t even get the words out all the way before he’s on me, kissing me all over my face. I laugh so hard I can hardly catch my breath, and I can’t think of a better reaction, knowing he wants this, wants me and Jax with him always.

“I can’t believe you just did that shit,” he says against my neck as I smile. “I thought you were about to… I don’t know what I thought, but it sure as hell wasn’t this.”

He pulls away just enough to stare down on me, pushing strands of hair away from my face.

“You won’t regret this,” he says, but I already came to that realization weeks ago. “You’ll never need anyplace else to run. Our home is, and will always be, safe for you.”

I sit with that… our home.

I arch forward to kiss him, and as he kisses be back, I’m convinced. Life doesn’t get any sweeter than this.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Epilogue

Lexi

Two months later…

The whole crew came out tonight, and it feels like old times. This is our last chance to get together before training camp in the morning, before football steals our guys away for the season.

Per usual, Dusty shut the diner down without us even having to ask. All so we could get together without onlookers, without interruptions from the outside world.

It’s just us.

Laid back and happy, living the lives we fought so damn hard for.

Sterling’s arm slips around my shoulders as he laughs with his brothers. I stare across the booth at Dez as she steals a bite of Ricky’s sandwich. He pretends to be upset, only for the stern look he aims Dez’s way to melt into a smile.

Blue drops the straw for her milkshake to the tile, and before she even thinks about bending to grab it, West plants a kiss right on top of her gigantic stomach, then gets up to grab a new straw from the counter.

Joss sits on Dane’s lap while he tells a story that has her equally up in arms and laughing, correcting the parts he has wrong. Because that’s what happens when you’ve been in someone’s life as long as they’ve been in each other’s. All your stories are also his stories. It’s like your lives become one and there’s no separating the time you were just you from the time you became his.

Love.

All around me.

Everywhere.

And I can’t stop smiling.

Jax is at a booth with Dez and Ricky’s girls, coloring, trading crayons as they share a plate of French Fries. My heart feels so full as I think about them growing up together, forming bonds like we’ve all formed. They’re all family by blood, yes, but I like to think they’d have love for each other even if that weren’t the case.

Like all of us for instance.

Blue, Joss, Jules, Dez, and Scar are like actual sisters to me, women I’d trust with my life.

I rest my head against Sterling’s shoulder, and he squeezes me tighter without stopping his conversation. Like he’s simply aware of me, in tune with what I need even when he seems distracted.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about how scared I was to love him again. Then, it got to the point that having my own place seemed more performative than anything. Because every time I imagined fixing dinner, helping Jax with his homework, settling down for the evening… Sterling was there. It seemed like a no-brainer to stop pretending like I needed time or space to figure things out.

He is, and will always be… the absolute love of my life.

Things have only deepened between us now that I’ve officially claimed his address as my own. He continues to show me he’s committed to being present even when things aren’t ideal, and I make it a point to show him that I’m all in. There’s no reason to hold anything back where loving him is concerned, because despite what I felt in the past, the safest place in the world that I can be is here.