He laughs as he stands and scoops me up, making it seem effortlessly, and I smile as I stare at my ring. I'm marrying Dane Sterling.
Epilogue
One week later
DANE
"When are you planning the wedding?" Raya asks Rain, sounding excited as Kade comes to rest his arm across her shoulders.
"Next month," Rain answers, her beautiful grin reminding me just how fucking lucky I am.
"Wow, that's soon," Raya says in surprise.
I come to sit down beside Rain, but she crawls into my lap and rests her head on my shoulder before pressing a kiss to my neck. Really can't handle all that. Everyone is still here, and all I want to do is drag her out of here.
"What about you two? When's the big day?" I ask, taking a sip of my beer as Rain gets comfortable in my lap.
"We're thinking in the spring. Raya wants to have the wedding at the vineyard."
She grins as she leans in and kisses him. Now I understand why he went so insane. I also apologized for kicking him out of my club, considering I would have gone just as crazy to talk to Rain. Hell, I flew to Florida.
"This is really pissing me off," Maverick says as he joins us, his eyes on the open book in his hands. "Mr. Harrison's cat was not my fault. Corbin's the one who had the chainsaw."
Raya's eyes go wide as she swings her head toward the brooding man in our living room. "What?"
Rain laughs while shaking her head, but she ignores Raya. "You were the one who had the chainsaw. Corbin had the pole saw. Neither of you idiots should ever work with tools. The chainsaw hit the cat's tail. Not the pole saw."
"We dropped them at the same time. It can't be proven that it was the chainsaw that cut off that cat's tail."
"A cat's tail?" Raya prompts, turning puce.
"The cat lived," Rain says dismissively. "I paid to have it taken to the animal hospital while those fools gave up on cutting down the telephone pole."
"You were cutting down a telephone pole?" Kade asks, his interest clearly piqued.
"We were fifteen and Mr. Harrison threatened to call our parents to tell on us for having a party. He didn't have a cell phone, so we thought we'd cut down the telephone pole," Maverick says, shrugging as though it's not a big deal.
In retrospect, I probably should have intervened during that fiasco.
"Neither of them could work their tools," Kode jokes as he walks in, his pun fully intended.
Maverick glares at him as we all laugh at his expense, and Kode just smirks.
"The point is, you gave me all the blame for the cat. You need to fix that before the movie goes out."
Rain grins teasingly, and Maverick scowls. "I mean it," he growls.
"Uh huh. And if I don't?" she taunts.
"Don't push me. The prank wars ended on a truce. I'd hate to rip up that piece of paper."
"For the love of God, Rain, make it Corbin. Don't let Maverick start that shit again," Kode groans, causing all of us to laugh. "It took me a month to get rid of all the blue dye he put in my hair."
It took Rain longer to get rid of the green dye.
Apparently the same thought crosses her mind, because her adorable scowl forms as she glares at Maverick. "Don't threaten me, Maverick Sterling. I can sneak into your house just as easily as you once snuck into mine."
The silent standoff between Maverick and Rain ends when Kode grows bored and steps in between them on his way to Rain. I tense, still not fully over what he did, but trying my damnedest to get there for the sake of the girl I love.