“I love you, Gage.” And that single statement buried her deeper into my heart.
“Love you too, Buttercup. I’m still handsome, gorgeous even, and your mommy told me that. So, do you know what that means?” I whispered into her ear.
Her little voice croaked, “No?”
“That means that you're breathtaking.” I smiled as she sniffled.
And instead of getting ribbed by my brothers for my shaved head, they all gave me an amount of respect I didn’t even know I lacked from them.
Somehow, even though we were close, the three of us, over the next month, we got even closer.
Then that was how we spent the next month.
Getting to know each other. Never sleeping without the other.
Home-cooked meals.
Snuggles with Collins when Conleigh had to work. Even though I fucking hated that she was working there, I understood it. I was planning on how to broach the topic with her about telling her to quit and that I would take care of them.
Besides, what good was having a lot of zeros in my bank account if I couldn’t spend them. I couldn’t take it with me.
If I thought she wouldn’t get mad as hell if I went behind her back and paid for all the treatments and medicine that Collins would need, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
And I had finally found out why she was working at Carter’s. I had seen her office. A person didn’t need the kind of equipment that she had and worked at Carter’s.
She told me about the programs she created and what happened with the bank.
And I hadn’t told her I had reached out to Greek to see what he could do. And as of three days ago, he told me he was close to finding the trail of money and he would turn everything over to the FBI. Luckily, he had a few contacts there.
However, sadly, the happy routine we have known for a month was brought to an end.
Collins had been put in the hospital once again because of her immune system being so weak with the seasons changing and because of that, she had developed pneumonia.
This poor little girl had been put through the wringer. Literally.
Conleigh was at work. So, I had offered to sit with Collins until she got off. We hadn’t broached the topic of why she worked at Carter’s. I was this close to asking her.
Shaking my head, I looked at Collins. “Anything you want, Buttercup?”
“Can you sing to me?” Grinning, I winked, then placed a call to my brother.
“Yeah?” Cam asked as he answered my call.
“Brother, can you run by my house and grab my guitar? You remember where my hidden key is?”
“On it. Where do you need it?” My brothers already knew that I had claimed Conleigh and Collins. We were taking things slow, so I hadn’t yet told her that in the eyes of my club, she was my ole’ lady.
And they all knew what room number Collins was in because all of them sent presents to her.
“Collins’s room.”
“10-4. Was on my way there, anyway. See you in fifteen.”
“Right.” With that, I hung up. The brothers and ole’ ladies had been in and out of the room, only proving that they weren’t sick to be admitted into her room.
With glee in her voice, she asked, “Who's coming?”
Grinning at her I said, “Cam.”