“You didn’t know how she felt about you? I thought it was fucking obvious.”
I tried to get my head around this revelation. “But then, why did you think we weren’t together?”
“Because I thought you weren’t into it. I thought you saw her like I do, an annoying, wonderful sibling. But you creeper wanted her the whole time and fucking made her wait for you. For fifteen years.”
“So, wait, did you hit me because I love your sister, or because of making her wait.”
“Making her wait for long, motherfucker, when you wanted her all along. I should have beaten your ass for every year of it.”
I was stunned by that and didn’t know really where to go from it. “So, you don’t care that I love her, or that I’m going to marry her?”
Bennet raised an eyebrow at me. “You might not want to get ahead of yourself. Ask her first, at least. But, am I going to be angry that two people I love, also love each other? No, I’m not mad. I’m fucking relieved,” he confessed.
A raw laugh left me that was so full of happiness, I had to clench my fists tightly to ride out the wave of pure emotion. “Relived?”
“Yeah, I’m relieved. A happy ending for two loved ones at the same time. I don’t trust anyone with Emily but you. She gets what she wants, right? You’re preaching to the choir,” he muttered, and then landed a heavy hand on my shoulder. His knuckles were all scraped up from hitting me. “Let’s get back to work and let the women berate us for fighting while patching us up.” He sighed, heaving himself off the ground. He stood before me, and with barely a pause, he held his hand down for me. The number of times he’d kept me up, carried me, saved me, none of them had felt like this. I took his hand, and he pulled me up.
Groaning at the feeling in my ribs, I hobbled beside him, until he slung an arm under my shoulders and tutted.
“Stop being a baby about it,” he muttered. “Anyone who can stand in front of a gun for someone like you just did can take a few hits.”
“Oh, you saw that?”
“I saw, you crazy motherfucker. You need to be careful. Once Emily gets used to you, I can’t have you dying on her.”
We made it back to the office, and Laura buzzed us up.
“There was one more thing.” I sighed, as we got into the elevator.
“Hmm.”
“That whole wedding thing might need to happen sooner than later. I’d like the baby to come to after we’ve tied the knot—” I started but didn’t get to finish, as Bennet dropped the arm around me and fixed me with a menacing look.
“You motherfucker—” he started.
I clutched my ribs as laughter bubbled up and overflowed my chest. I’d never felt like this. Free and painfully hopeful about the future. The elevator pinged open, and Emily stood right outside, her concerned eyes fixing on me immediately. They widened as she took in my injuries. She turned an accusing look at Bennet.
“Laura, get me my taser,” she called over her shoulder to Bennet’s wife.
“On it!” Laura tossed back immediately, making me only laugh more, as Bennet held his hands up in a placating gesture.
“Ladies, let’s talk about this,” he started.
“Oh, we’ll talk, big brother,” Emily said, taking the taser from Laura and pressing the button so electricity crackled between the prongs. “After.”
Epilogue
EMILY
Iwas a ball of nervous energy all day long. Gripping my bag tightly, I followed Laura into the hospital and straight toward the elevator.
“Diesel’s going to be upset about missing this,” Laura said, for the tenth time.
“I know, but it’s just a routine scan, and besides, he blows off enough stuff to stay at home with me all the time. We can hardly schedule jury duty when we want it,” I muttered, going down the hallway. After giving my name to the receptionist, we sat and waited. Laura pulled a few magazines out her bag and handed me one.
“Thanks,” I muttered, totally distracted.
“Oh, that reminds me… I have your letters. I digitized them for you. Thank god they didn’t get damaged in the water thing at Diesel’s.” Laura handed me a bound stack of papers. The letters that I’d written him while he was in the Marines. It was a window into our past, and looking at them didn’t even hurt anymore. I loved every step of our journey, because it had made us into the people we were now and brought us here now. I’d never regret a moment of it. I had an elaborate Valentine’s day gift planned for him to give him the letters, but now, as I looked at them, I wondered if it was mean to keep them a secret for so long.