“I was scared when I saw you on the ground,” Mac admitted plainly. “Really scared. I thought you were going to get hurt or worse. And that’s when the realization came over me that you could’ve been hurt or in danger at any time over the last decade or two and I wouldn’t even had known. And that shook me,” Ronnie.
He’d been using my nickname ever since witnessing the fight.
“It made me realize just how much I’d missed over the years,” he continued. “I thought about you and Antonio—a lot. But I always somehow assumed that you were both fine. I don’t know why. Life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. But it was like in my mind, you were both okay. So I think I used that to gloss over, in my mind, the pain I put you through, and I’m sorry for that. More than you can ever know.”
His words didn’t make up for the years of neglect, but I finally felt that he had a better understanding of what he’d put us through. It didn’t change things, but maybe, just maybe, it opened up a path for us in the future.
Now, at long last, I knew what I wanted to do for the next chapter of my life. I wanted to use my muscles, my skill, my training to help make magic on the big screen.
That part of my life was decided. However, another part—maybe even a more important part—was still very undecided.
I wanted to talk to the guys about it, but I didn’t quite know how. And I didn’t know what they were thinking.
When we done eating, no one seemed in a hurry to leave the table. “Should I get the cake?”
“Why don’t we have that later?” Tanner suggested.
“Yeah. Maybe we should take our drinks in the living room,” Aiden said. “We have a lot to discuss.”
Ford picked up his glass. “Is this going to be a naked discussion or a clothed one?”
“Clothed,” Aiden said, shooting me a wink. “For now.”
We assembled in the living room, Ford taking an armchair and Tanner and Aiden sitting on the sofa. I headed toward the other armchair, but Aiden snagged my hand and pulled me down on his lap. He seemed to be making up for the weeks we’d lost bickering.
Aiden snaked his hand around my waist like a seatbelt, and it reminded me of when Tanner had done that when I’d ridden on his lap in the truck. I smiled at Tanner and he smiled back.
“So where do we start?” Ford asked.
“With her,” Aiden said, shifting his hips and jostling me for emphasis. He tended to manhandle me more than the others, but it was hot. He strokes his fingers down my arm. “You don’t really want to go back to Tennessee, do you?”
I shook my head. I would someday, but not now. “I doubt there are a lot of opportunities to learn stunt work back there.”
“But there are a ton in California,” Tanner said. “Do you want to go there with us?”
The tension in my shoulders drained at his last two words. With us. That was what I’d been wondering about for days. Weeks even. Going to California was one thing. Going there with them was another.
“How would that work?” I asked.
Ford was the one who answered. “However you want it to.”
“Is—is there a place I could stay?” I asked tentatively. I didn’t want to put anyone on the spot if I was misreading their intent.
“Aiden’s got a McMansion,” Ford said. “He could probably find room for you.”
“It’s a mansion, not a McMansion,” Aiden said gruffly. I noticed he didn’t say anything about the invitation Ford had extended on his behalf.
“And you guys? Do you live far away from there?”
Tanner cocked his head to the side. “Far? I wouldn’t say it’s far. Maybe a couple of hundred feet?”
“You live with Aiden?”
“Not exactly,” Tanner said. “There’s a house out back beyond the pool. That’s where I live.”
“Except he’s always in my house, raiding my fridge,” Aiden said.
I looked at Ford. “Do you live there, too.”
“Na, I’ve got my own place.” His face was neutral until he snickered. “Of course, I mostly go there to check my mail. Aiden’s place is more fun.”
“Damn straight it is,” Aiden said. “There’s an indoor and outdoor pool, a hot tub, a game room, a few bowling lanes, and more.”
“Don’t forget my gym,” Ford said.
“Your gym? It’s my house.”
“It’s my gym,” Ford assured me, speaking confidentially as if Aiden couldn’t hear him. “It’s got everything we need to train.”
His use of the word we encouraged me.
“So how about it, Princess?” Aiden asked, his mouth near my ear. “Now that you know that we come as a set, do you think you could stand living with us for a while longer?”