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“I’ll see you when I get home,” I tell her and press my lips to her cheek.

She doesn’t say a word as I walk out the door and toward the parking lot.

I hope I gave her enough just now to ease the pain I saw in her eyes. Fuck.

“Guys, I really think I should stay.”

Gavin tosses his hands up. “I’m telling him.”

“No! It’ll ruin the surprise,” Linc quips.

“He doesn’t even want to go,” Gavin argues.

“Tell me what?”

All three of them stop and share glances before Dutton nods.

“We are throwing you a surprise bachelor-ish party,” Gavin says.

“Fuck, so the article about us getting married next week is already out?”

“You’re getting married next week?” Dutton practically yells.

All right, so maybe it’s not out yet.

I nod.

“Shit. We just wanted to do this here low-key because we assumed there would be a big one later.”

“And all the guys are free tonight,” Linc adds. “Miles, Luca, Declan, and Hudson are all at the bar waiting. We closed it for the night.”

Shit. Staying now would make me an asshole.

Things with Grace are going to be fine. You can’t have what we have and not end up where we’re meant to be.

Going out with the guys is the last thing I need, but honestly, in a way, maybe it’s exactly what I need.

They’re going to be my family after all, right?

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

GRACE

I wake to a loud bang in my living room but immediately calm my racing heart when I hear my brothers failing miserably to whisper.

“Shh, fuck, Dutton, don’t break her door,” Gavin says.

This remark is followed by a chuckle that I know all too well from Preston.

I pause in my bedroom doorway to listen to them. Tonight has been a whirl of emotions, but something about what he said to me before he left helped ease some of the worry that filled my day.

“I can walk, you know,” Preston slurs.

“Barely,” Linc adds. “I’ve never seen anyone trip as much as you in the last five minutes.”

“Well, you’re all walking soooooooo fasty fast.”