“I see you had your eyes peeled like a hawk, then. Are you going to have a problem with Halo and me?” he asks Ash.
“Always. Tell Halo she hooks Rita and me up with a date, and we’ll call it even.” I burst out laughing, unable to stay silent any longer.
“I’m thinking she heard you. Having a hard time getting a lady’s attention, Ash?” Warren’s eyebrows arch up. I snuggle closer into his side. His arm is wrapped around my shoulder, and I squeeze his bicep in agreement.
“Fuck off. That woman is wild and unattainable. I didn’t even say two words to her last night. The woman is full of mischievousness, blatantly at that. She asked a question, and I barely responded, and she was marching her sweet ass out of the ballroom.” I can hear the grumble in his voice.
“I’ll talk to her. This could explain why she was worrying about what to wear last night.” I shrug my shoulders.
“I appreciate it, Halo. Have fun, you two love birds. Don’t forget to wrap up, or you’ll have little Warrens walking around.” Ash does this tremble in his voice, like it would be the scariest thing in the world.
“Knock it off, fucker. You’re just jealous because the woman you want doesn’t want you back.” The guys cut a few more jokes, acting like high schoolers instead of the thirty-something-year-olds they are. I tune them out. A Christmas movie is playing on the television that’s hung above the electric fireplace, we’re snuggled up on Warren’s couch, and I don’t have a worry in the world right now. I’m completely content right here with him while a blazing blizzard is whirring outside, it doesn’t even bother us.
CHAPTER 18
Warren
“I didn’t think the snow would ever end,” Halo says on Monday afternoon. The sun is shining, peeking through the mountains in the distance, and we’re standing outside.
“The aftermath is always the best part.” She’s in a pair of my sweatpants, a hoodie, socks, and slippers my mother gave me for my birthday one year. Halo mentioned looking ridiculous, but there was no way I’d let her leave my apartment and likely freeze to death.
“It really is gorgeous. Utah was pretty, don’t get me wrong, but Colorado is on another level,” she tells me before taking a sip of coffee. Apparently, she’s one of those people who live off caffeine and can drink it at ten o’clock at night, then be dead to the world an hour later.
“I can’t say that I’ve been. Might have to make a trip there one day.” I kiss the side of her head, dreading now that I’ve had my woman in my bed the past two nights, she might ask to stay at her own place without me. That’s how much I’m gone for her. I only hope she feels the same way.
“You’d love it and, well, you just so happen to know a local Utah girl who can show you the town she grew up in. Not to mention, my parents would love to meet you.” She lets that last hang between us, and I have a feeling one of us will be in the other’s bed tonight.
“You name the time, and we’ll make it happen.” Her pretty, blue eyes peer up at me in happiness.
“I will. It’ll have to be after New Year’s, though, since I’m not there, and neither is my brother. They decided to go on a cruise to Alaska.” She shrugs her shoulders.
“I know why you’re not in Utah, but where’s your brother?” I ask.
“He’s a Navy Seal. When the government calls, he goes. We get random emails or phone calls, but for the most part when he’s on assignment, it’s silent. All we can do is hope and pray the service doesn’t land on their doorstep.” From our talk last night, I know Halo is twenty-four and her brother is twenty-nine.
“Sucks, sweetness. Wouldn’t mind meeting your parents and your brother. Though I’m thinking they might get hung up on me being ten years older than you.” She rolls her eyes, lets out a small giggle.
“My parents will be fine. There are thirteen years between them. My mom was eighteen years old when my dad swooped in and stole her heart. Now, Cole on the other hand, he might have something to say about it, but I’ve got an ace in the hole if he tries to do something like that.”
“Fuck, remind me not to piss you off. Sisters are damn brutal. Grew up with an older one. Not that she’s that much older, but the woman could hold a mean grudge growing up. You put one frog in her bed, and she never lets you live it down.” I think about the time when I was seven and Keira was nine. I was getting her back for tattling to our parents when I fed my dinner to the dog. Needless to say, she still holds it over my head all these years later.