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“Isn’t that why you love me?” I flash him a grin and he shakes his head as he fights back a smile of his own.

“No.”

“Liar.”

He gives me a little shove. “Let’s go before you start in with the foreplay again. I’m fucking starving.”

Laughing, I grab his hand as we walk out into the living room together and a feeling of contentment washes over me. If you take Oliver out of the picture, our life is looking pretty damn good about now. I just hope it lasts.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Noah

“Hey,” I say as I climb out of the truck and close the door. “I’m just calling to check in on you.”

She sighs and I swear I can feel her rolling her eyes at me. “Noah. You left like fifteen minutes ago and you made poor Storm leave his wife and baby to come over here and babysit me. I’m fine.”

“Did he complain about it?”

She sighs again. “Storm, tell Noah that you’re fed up with his shit.”

“Happy to do it, brother!” he yells, his voice muffled and I laugh as Kady growls into the phone.

“Y’all are thick as thieves now, huh?”

I laugh again as I glance down the street and cross it. “Guess so.”

“Whatever. Just get off the phone and run your damn errands. I’ll be here when you get back.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I answer as I reach the sidewalk. “When did you get so damn sassy?”

“Keep it up, LeBlanc. Maybe I’ll decide to spank you this time,” she quips and Storm laughs in the background. I glance up at the jewelry store and sigh.

“All right, fine. I’ll let you go, then.”

“Hurry back to me, baby.”

I smile. “Always.”

We say good-bye and I shove open the door to the store as I hang up and slip the phone back in my pocket. The bell above the door rings and Richard, the shop owner, glances up with a wide smile.

“Mr. LeBlanc! Welcome back.”

I shake his hand. “How are you doing, Richard?”

“Just great,” he says before setting some paperwork down and taking his glasses off. “Just let me go and get your order from the back room.”

I nod and he disappears through one of the doors as I turn to look at the glass cases full of some serious bling. Shit. A guy could spend a whole lot of money in here. It makes me kind of glad I’m not still in the doghouse with Kady because when I was, I contemplated showing her how sorry I was with a diamond or two.

“Here we are,” Richard calls, walking out of the back room with a little square box in his hand. I first contacted Richard a few days after Kady told me the truth about why she never came to see me in jail and asked him to recreate the ring I gave her the first time I proposed to her. Later, I found out that Oliver took the original ring from her when he took her but at the time, I wanted to give her something new that didn’t have all the bad memories associated with it.

Richard sets the box down on the top of the glass case and pulls it open to reveal the ring and I lean down, inspecting it. It is a princess cut three carat diamond ring with intertwining bands lined with smaller diamonds. The first time I gave it to her, she screamed and jumped into my arms so I can only assume that she’s going to lose her shit when I get the chance to show this one to her. I glance back up at him.

“And the engraving?”

He nods, pulling the ring out of the box and showing me the surprise I had written on the inside.

“It’s perfect, Richard. Thank you.”