“She set me up?” I ask in disbelief, watching his body get tight and his jaw tic.
“I hate myself for having brought this shit into your life. For not protecting you from her.”
“She set me up?” I repeat. “I had a gun pointed in my face and was arrested not even an hour after I watched two men carry my dead grandmother out of her room,” I grit out, not noticing his body go still or his scary energy fill the room. “Why? Why would she do that?”
“Your grandmother?” he chokes, and I focus on him. Seeing the look in his eyes, mine close. He didn’t know. Then again, how could he? I didn’t even tell Nat. I was so freaked out about being arrested that I didn’t want to think about Grandma until I had time to process her loss.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.” His voice sounds rough as he gathers me closer against him. “Tell me.”
“Right after you left, Elizabeth called to tell me,” I say, and his arms tighten. “I tried to call you.”
“Fuck, baby, I should have fucking been here.”
“She’s gone,” I whisper, and the tears I have been holding back spill over. “Just like that, she’s gone.”
He pulls me up his body then rolls us so my back is to the back of the couch and his leg and arm are over me, cocooning me and making me feel safe and protected. It’s like the world will never be able to touch me, because he will always be right there, waiting to take on any threat.
“Let it out.” His fingers sift through my hair as I cry and let it all out with my face against his chest.
Holding onto him, I let go of everything until there is nothing left. When my tears have finally dried up, I pull my face out of his chest to look up at him, and he dips his head while his eyes meet mine.
“I wish I could take this all away.” I know he does. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”
Closing my eyes, I press my forehead into his chest. “You’re here now,” I say, and his lips rest against the top of my head and his chest expands. Keeping my eyes closed, I eventually pass out from exhaustion.
“I don’t give a fuck,” I hear Colton say, and I blink my eyes open to find myself alone on the couch with the TV on and the volume low. I pull my hair out of my face and sit up. Looking over the back of the couch, I see Colton is in the kitchen shirtless with his back to me and his phone to his ear. “Yeah, Dad, I get that, but when the woman I love needed me, I wasn’t fucking there for her, she couldn’t even get a hold of me since I left my fucking phone here in a hurry to get to you. Top that shit off with the bullshit Lisa pulled, and you can see why that’s fucking with my head right now.”
Love? He loves me? My heart starts to thunder against my rib cage and my stomach feels funny, like it’s too full.
“We won’t be in tomorrow, and she probably won’t be in for a while unless it’s just to hang out. I want her to look for somewhere else to work.” What? “Yeah, tell Mom I love her too. See you guys tomorrow, and tell her I said thanks for calling Ned and Nina to let them know about Genevria. Yeah, later.” He hangs up and I see his back muscles expand as he takes a deep breath, then his arm muscles flex as he runs a hand through his hair.
“Did you just tell your dad that I won’t be working at the bar anymore?” I ask, instead of asking if he’s in love with me, and he turns around, his worried eyes meeting mine.
“You need to find a job doing what you love.”
“I like working at the bar,” I respond truthfully, and he shakes his head.
“You might like it, but you don’t love it. It’s not what’s going to keep you happy long term,” he states, and I blink at him. “I want you to start a life here with me, in this town, and in order for you to do that, you need to find a job working with kids.”
“You want me to live here with you for good?” I ask stupidly, and his head tips to the side.
“Yeah,”
“I—”
“Either that or I’m moving to Chicago with you,” he inserts, holding my gaze, and that feeling in my stomach expands throughout my entire body.
“What?”
“I’m not going to live my life without you, so you move here, or I move there. Either way, we’ll be together.”
“You’d do that, move to Chicago just to be with me?” I whisper, and he frowns.
“I’m in love with you, and I know that isn’t going to change. I don’t want to be without you, so if you said you wanted to live in Chicago… fuck, if you said you wanted to live in Hell, I’d follow you there and do it happily.”
“You’re in love with me,” I repeat. Yes, I heard him tell his dad he was, but hearing him say it while looking me in the eyes is different. It makes it seem completely impossible.
“With everything I am, baby.” He rests his hand over his heart and my eyes fill with tears.
Shaking my head, I close my eyes briefly. “I don’t want to move to Chicago. I like living on the lake with you and Loki.”
“Then we’ll stay here.”
“Also, I love you, too,” I whisper, and his face softens as he leaves the kitchen and comes toward me.
Bending over the back of the couch, his hand wraps around the back of my skull. “Do you think you can be happy here?” he asks, dropping his face close to mine.
I pull in a breath then answer honestly, “As long as I have you, yes, I know I can be.”
“I love you, Gia. Had no idea what love was until you, but I know now, and I know I’ll always cherish everything you’ve given to me.”
“You’re going to make me cry.”
“Please don’t. I’ve seen enough of your tears today to last me a lifetime,” he says, and my eyes close.
Dropping my forehead forward, I rest it against his abs. “How is one of the worst days of my life also one of the best?” I ask him, and his hand on the back of my head tightens. Then he pulls my head back and touches his mouth to mine. When he pulls away with one final touch of his lips, I look into his eyes and know without a doubt that as long as I have him, I’ll have everything.
~**~
Standing at baggage claim at the bottom of the escalators waiting for Nat, I tighten my hold on Colton’s hand. It’s been four days since Grandma passed away, and in that time, I’ve made funeral arrangements and plans for Grandma to be buried next to Grandpa. I’ve talked to what feels like everyone in town, and grieved the loss of a woman I loved and cared about for the second time in my life. I wouldn’t say it’s any easier to let her go this time around, but it’s different. Long before she was gone, she had faded away with her disease and become someone I didn’t recognize anymore. What has made a world of difference this time is having people to lean on, people who care about me, like Nat, Ned, and Nina, plus Colton and his family. They have all let me cry on their shoulders and lean on them for help when I’ve needed it. I don’t know what I would do without them, and thankfully, I doubt I ever will.
“There she is,” I say when I finally see Nat as she steps onto the escalator. She’s wearing sneakers, jeans, and a sweatshirt with “Kinda Classy, Kinda Hood” on the front of it in bold white lettering. The moment she spots us, her whole face lights up.
Letting Colton’s hand go, I tip my head back, smile up at him, catching his returned smile before I rush toward my friend, who is rushing down the escalator toward me with her arms out. The second Nat and I connect, our arms go around each other and we rock from side-to-side.
“Girl, you did not lie. He is H-O-T with all capital letters,” Nat hisses against my ear while hugging me so tightly that it’s almost painful to breathe. “Now I know why you didn’t want to send me a picture of him. I’d want to keep him all to myself too if he were mine,” she continues, and I laugh, holding her tighter. I missed my best friend. I knew I missed her, but seeing her again, I know I really missed her.
“You’re here,” I say, leaning back to look at her, and she rolls her eyes, pointing at my face.
??
?Do not start to cry. You know that when you cry, I end up crying, and I don’t have waterproof mascara on right now.”
“I’m not going to cry,” I deny, pulling in a breath through my nose so I don’t make a liar out of myself.
“Good.” She smiles then her eyes go over my shoulder. Looking behind me, I hold my hand out toward Colton.
“Colton, my best friend in the whole world, Nat. Nat, Colton,” I introduce, watching them hug then seeing them share a look. Over the last few days, they have spoken quite a bit over the phone about me and about the case against Lisa. They have also spoken quite a few times to the arson investigator, wanting to make sure he added Lisa to his list of suspects to investigate. Especially after what she did to me, trying to frame me for having a stolen weapon, and also breaking into Colton’s parents’ storage. Yes, she broke into their storage unit assuming they would think I had done it and kick me to the curb, which would give her a chance to weasel her way back in with his family.
Only, she wasn’t smart enough to check for cameras when she broke into my Jeep or got rid of the evidence of her crime. She had—like a complete idiot, I might add—taken all the alcohol to her place and hidden it there. And there was a lot of alcohol. I imagine she had help with that, only I don’t know if she will ever admit it.
“I’m starved,” Nat says, bringing me out of my thoughts while dragging me with her by my hand, which in turn forces Colton to be dragged along with us toward one of the luggage claim belts. “I want to eat BBQ at that place you told me about,” she continues, then lets my hand go and rushes off to get her bag that she spots before I can reply.
“Is she always like this?” Colton asks.
I tip my head back to look up at him and smile as I answer, “Yeah.”
“This should be interesting,” he mutters, and I smile bigger while I wrap my arms around his waist and press the side of my head into his chest. When I do this, his arms around me tighten.
“You’ll deal,” I tell him, tipping my head back, and when I do, he captures my chin between his fingers and kisses me.
“I’d do anything for you, even put up with your friend for a few days in our house where we don’t have a bedroom door,” he says, and I bite my lip. I didn’t even think about us being in the loft and not having a door.
Crap
“Am I going to have to deal with watching you two like this for the next few days?” Nat asks, and I release my bottom lip while Colton lets me go to take her bag from her. “I’m thinking that’s a yes,” she answers herself, trying to sound put out. But I can see she is happy for me, happy I found this, even if it means I won’t be going back to Chicago with her.
“Jealous?” I ask her, bumping my shoulder with hers, and her eyes go to Colton, who is heading toward the exit with her bag. I don’t know what she sees, but I know what I do, and all of it is good.
“Have you not seen your man?”
“I have.” I grin, and she wraps her arm around my shoulders and pouts.
“You always did have all the luck.”
“Whatever.”
“Are you two ready, or did you want to hang around the airport a while longer?” Colton rumbles, breaking into our squabble, and we both look at him then roll our eyes at each other before laughing and following behind him out the exit to his Suburban.
~**~
“Are you ready?” Nat asks, and my eyes meet hers. She looks as nervous as I feel, which is really fricking nervous. Yesterday after she landed, we dropped her stuff off at home then took her to eat BBQ, which she loved. I just loved having my two favorite people in the world with me and was more than a little happy to see them getting along. This morning, after Colton left to go into work to take care of some stuff for his mom, I told Nat about the letters that Grandma had written me. And then I told her about an idea I had. Nat, being Nat, jumped on my idea, making it a reality. Which brings us to now.
“I’m ready.” I let out a breath then look at the tattoo artist, giving him a nod and watching him smile, a bright white smile. Hearing the buzz from the tattoo gun, I tense as he starts to apply the tattoo onto my forearm. A tattoo of a butterfly that he drew up to match one of the butterflies etched into the wooden box full of letters. I wanted to have something to remind me of the woman I knew when I was a little girl. The woman who called me butterfly, who taught me how to knit and bake chocolate chip cookies, and who was a wonderful mother to my mom, and loved her family. That’s the woman I want to remember.
“Does Colton know we’re doing this?” Nat questions, and I focus on her and shake my head.
“I told him that we were going to be out today, but I didn’t tell him what we were going to be doing. We can stop by the bar when we’re done here and I can show him.”
“Perfect, I’m going to need a drink after this,” she says, like she’s the one getting the tattoo, and I smile then look down at my arm once more to watch as the tattoo artist works.
“So when are you and Colton planning on coming up to get all your stuff?”
At her question, I look up at her and feel my throat close up when I see sadness written all over her pretty face. “I can come visit, and you can come visit me,” I tell her gently, and her eyes soften as she reaches out, touching my cheek.
“It’s going to suck for me not having you around all the time, but I’m really happy for you. I’m happy you found Colton, and thrilled to see you so happy. You deserve this.”
“I love him,” I tell her honestly.
“I know you do.”
“He told me he’d move to Chicago with me if I wanted to go back.”
“That does not surprise me. I think he’d follow you anywhere.” She smiles. “That said, a man like him would not fit in in Chicago.”
She’s right. He wouldn’t fit in there, but he does fit in here, and so do I. “I love it here. I love living on the lake and having Colton’s family around. It feels good being here. Things feel right here.”
“I know you do, and your place is awesome. I’d move here just to wake up to a view of that lake every day,” she says, and I perk up.
“Really?”
“I don’t know if I’d fit in here. I’m used to the city and the hustle and bustle of life there.”
“You could try it out.”
“You know I never say never, but I’m going to say I probably won’t be moving down here any time soon.”
“I’m happy here. You could be too.”
She shrugs, then continues, “Let’s work on getting you settled first. What’s your plan now that Colton fired you from the bar?”
Rolling my eyes at that, even if it is true, I answer, “After the funeral tomorrow, I’m going to start looking for another job. And I’ll talk to Colton tonight about us driving up to get my stuff.”
“Good,” she states, and then her eyes go unfocused. “Did I tell you I heard from a friend of mine who knows Colleen? She told me your stepmom is getting married next year.”
“What? Who’s the unlucky guy?”
“No clue.” She shrugs.
“I haven’t spoken to her since I moved to Tennessee. I also haven’t even thought about her, unless it’s to think about what a bitch she was for lying to me.”
“Why would you think about her? She might have been your stepmom, but she was never there when you needed her. She was just someone you lived with while you were in high school.”
“I guess you’re right,” I murmur, wishing it wasn’t like that though. We might not have gotten along, but she was my dad’s wife, the last connection I have to him, and it would be nice to be able to talk to her, even if it is just about him.
“I see you need a drink now too,” Nat says, and I laugh. The tattoo artist grunts, making me laugh harder.
“Done.”
I look down at my arm as the last remnants of ink are wiped away and I blink. It’s more beautiful than I thought it would be, and now I will always have a piece of my grandma with me, no matter where I go
or what I do.
“Thank you,” I whisper, keeping my eyes on my arm as he spreads on some cream and covers it with a bandage.
“Anytime.” He rolls his chair back and stands. “Come out when you’re ready.”
“Girl, you better not start crying,” Nat warns, and my eyes go to hers.
Blinking away the tears, I pull in a breath then let it out. “I’m not going to cry.”
“Good.” She grabs my hand and pulls me to stand. “Let’s go. We need a drink.”
So that’s what we do. When we get to the bar, I show Colton my tattoo. The second I tell him why I got it, he gathers me in his arms and kisses me long and hard in front of his brother, his parents, and Nat, and for the first time ever, I don’t stop him from kissing me. I kiss him right back.
CHAPTER 12
The Good Times And The Bad
Colton
GETTING OUT OF THE shower, I wrap a towel around my waist and open the door. As soon as I step into the bedroom, I hear Gia and Nat downstairs giggling like two mad women who were served way too much alcohol. And they were served too much alcohol by my mom, who kept their glasses full all afternoon, which meant when it was time for me to get off work at five, they were both wasted. So wasted I ended up carrying Gia to my Suburban, with Carson following behind me carrying Nat. Thank fuck both of them could obviously hold their alcohol, because neither of them got sick on the way home.
Going to the closet, I find a pair of jeans and a tee and put both on. Then I grab my socks and boots and tug them on before heading downstairs. As soon as I reach the bottom landing, I lock eyes with Gia and stride right to her. “You still drunk?” I ask, taking the kiss she offers up. She grins, which gives me her answer. “Since none of us have eaten, and all you’ve had all day is alcohol I’m going to head into town to pick up a pizza. Are you two good with that?”