Chapter 15 #2
You know I can see all of these texts, right? You’re not in the side group chat.
Sydney:
Of course. This way you are forced to listen to us. We like Isabella. Don’t let her go. We don’t care if we have to move to Denver and all live in a tiny little apartment with you because you’ve decided to change your entire life. We’re in.
Lance:
Way to just put it right out there, sister.
Sam:
I don’t know if a tiny apartment would be good. I’m sure we can pool our resources for something a little bigger. But we’re in. Don’t let her go. Or the Cages. I really like the Cages. And not just the shoes and this house.
Lance:
Same, big brother.
Me:
Get out of my love life.
Sydney:
He said love!
Sam:
Love, love, love, love, love.
Lance:
See what you did? Just tell her you love her already and then we’ll make plans. We’ve got you, bro. It’s your time.
And with that, they quit texting, and I knew they had gone off to their own side chat.
I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. It was easy for them to say.
They were so willing to uproot their lives and tell me I was allowed to live mine.
And maybe it wasn’t too much of an uproot since they were all starting over in new phases, but what was I supposed to do?
I was a fucking mechanic. Sure, I could maybe start up my own business like I was planning to before everything changed.
But it was different now. Everything was different now.
And while Isabella kept mentioning things in the future. Like dinners and weddings. We weren’t talking about us.
And she was so damn special. She had this entire life with her family up here.
With so many changes between the wedding and the new Cages.
Her time in Cage Lake was temporary. So when would she wake up and realize that it was time for her to move on and leave me behind like I had been forced to do the first time?
The shower went off, and I made sure my phone wasn’t on so she couldn’t read the texts. Not that Bella would, but I didn’t want her to inadvertently realize that the kids were planning my future.
I paused, that startlingly crisp reality hitting. Because graduation was coming up in a week. They weren’t kids anymore. They were adults.
Making new decisions and growing up and moving on.
And I was stuck in the same place I had been my entire life.
And I hated the fact that I had just used the word stuck to talk about a town that I actually liked. And loved.
“The bathroom’s all yours. You could have come in when I was in the shower. We do know how to restrain ourselves.”
I got out of bed and walked naked toward the bathroom. She stood there in a towel, and her gaze went straight to my very hard cock.
“We both know that I can’t handle myself when I’m around you.”
“And I don’t have time to handle that.” She pointed to my dick. “But later?”
“Are you telling me I’m getting wedding sex?”
“Maybe. If you’re good.”
“You don’t have to be good. I’ll still take you.
” I leaned forward and took her lips, my dick pressing against her towel.
But with Herculean restraint, I pulled away so that way she could get ready, and I started my day knowing I was about to go to a wedding for the sister of the woman that I loved.
And I had no idea how the hell I was going to make it throughout the day without her brothers realizing that I loved her.
“That’s how all weddings need to be. Short and to the point and right to the party,” Dorian said as he lifted his drink to his lips.
I had somehow found myself with every single Cage brother.
Before this moment I hadn’t even met them all, let alone at once.
My siblings were on the dance floor, as were the Cage women, Cale, and a few other guests I didn’t know.
And all the Cage men had decided to sprawl on the side tables, enjoying their drinks.
“The wedding was pretty nice though.”
I looked over at Aston, as Hudson just grunted at my other side.
“Thinking about going next?” Dorian asked.
Aston looked at us but didn’t say anything. However, the sly smile on his face told me all that I needed to know.
“Well then,” Flynn said after he whistled through his teeth. “Are you going to go simple or big? Knowing Mom, she’s going to want you to go big.”
Aston just scowled. “You’ll notice she wasn’t invited to this.”
“Because she’s not Sophia’s mom,” James muttered.
“No, Mom has nothing to do with the wedding that may or may not happen,” Aston said casually.
“Either way, you’re going to have to do a rotation on best men. I mean, Ford’s was a little different since it was a poly marriage and they stood for each other, but maybe we can pick a name out of a hat and take turns.”
Kyler snorted. “Wait, am I included on your list or should I have been included in my sister’s list?” he asked.
“Oh, you’re one of us. Sorry,” Theo said but paused. “And Luke would be my best man.”
James threw a napkin at him. “Seriously?”
“Luke’s my best friend. He gets to be my best man. You know, when somebody finally tackles me down to marry me.”
I rolled my eyes, enjoying the way the Cages interacted.
Kyler hadn’t grown up with them, but they had easily taken him under their wing.
I knew he was one of the younger ones, and the most famous person in this room.
But nobody seemed to pay that much mind.
If anything, people treated him as the younger brother they needed to care for. I wasn’t sure that Kyler liked it.
Dorian frowned. “Wait. That means Joshua’s my best man. Sorry, everybody.”
“You and Amy then?” I asked, and Dorian just shrugged.
“I really like her. But I don’t know if we’re there yet.” Then he gave me a hard look and I winced. “So should we ask you what your intentions are with our little sister?”
“Hey, that’s my line, except she’s my older sister and we don’t use the word old in our family,” Kyler said as he used his fingers to use air quotes on the word old.
“Seriously though, I have questions,” Flynn said as he narrowed his gaze at me.
I opened my mouth to say something, and realized I had no idea what I was supposed to say.
Because I fucking loved her, but because I didn’t have answers for the most analytical woman that I knew, I wasn’t about to talk to her brothers about it.
“Why don’t you step off his nuts for a second?
” Hudson said, surprising me. “Because if we fuck this up for Isabella, she’s going to kick our ass.
And then one of the Caldwell twins is going to kick our ass because those girls are feisty, and it’s going to be a whole thing.
Just let them figure it out. And if he fucks up, then we can kick his ass. ”
I stared at my friend, grateful and a little concerned. “Do you think Sam or Sydney would be the one to kick your ass?” I asked, grateful for the intervention.
“Honestly, you would think it would be Sydney at first, but Sam is a lot more sly,” Hudson said with a grin that surprised me because it actually reached his eyes.
“Oh, she’s been like that since birth. And when I had to be the one to figure out how to braid their hair and get them braces and all that? Sam might look like the quiet, gentle one sometimes, but then she would scare the hell out of you.”
“I do not know how you raised three of them on your own,” Aston said with a shake of his head.
“Lance was an adult, sort of, and I wasn’t really on my own. I had the town.”
“Well, I’m glad to see that the town that we own and lord over like the oligarchs that we are helped,” Dorian said, breaking the odd tension that had settled in.
I snorted. “Oh yes, you guys lorded over us. None of you are the mayor.”
“Like we would allow anything to harm Ms. Patty’s position as Ms. Mayor,” Aston said dryly, and I snorted into my drink as I watched Sophia dance with the love of her life, and Bella dance with Lance.
I loved that woman.
And I wanted this.
And that meant I was going to have to make a change to ensure it happened. And maybe that wasn’t expected, but it was everything.