Chapter 31 Shade
SHADE
“She’s gonna freak out,” Kai says as he pulls on a clean black shirt. He rolls the sleeves up, and I’m such a sucker for his arms that it’s hard to keep my hands off him.
“More or less than you are?” I ask as I pull my cut over my denim shirt. We told Isla to get dressed up because we’re taking her out. She’ll have two options: Option one, we take her out to a restaurant in town. Or two, we take her to the clubhouse to celebrate the club anniversary.
His brow furrows as he stops and looks at me. “I’m not freaking out.”
“Wild, you’re freaking out. You got what you wanted, and now, you’re doing that thing where you imagine a million worst-case scenarios. Yeah, Isla is probably going to freak out. But it won’t be anything we can’t talk her down from or out of, if we explain the reasons why we did it.”
I didn’t want her to overthink. I didn’t want her panicking over what to wear.
I wanted her to decide what she felt good in, first. I also told her to wait over at her place so I could go pick her up like a proper fucking date, seeing as all we’ve done so far is eat the food she’s cooked, fucked her seven ways to Sunday, and helped her with some DIY over at her house.
We’ve never even left the road we live on together.
He shakes his head at me. “You are the master of overthinking.”
I shrug. “Or maybe we can admit we both do it, and in this instance, you need to listen to me because I’m not freaking out.”
The front door slams, and there’s the happy shout of Isla’s “hello!” up the stairs.
Hearing her voice overrides my frustration that she didn’t let me collect her, and we smile at one another. “We’ll be down in a second, Sunbeam,” I shout.
“You’re right,” Kai says. “I feel like I’m gonna puke.”
I laugh at that. “You’re not.”
“What if she says no?”
“The chances of one of us reading this wrong is low. The chances we both are is practically zero.”
Kai tugs his hair back off his face and ties it up in a messy bun at the back of his neck. “You’re not counting right. There’s a fifty-fifty chance of us being wrong individually. Multiply that together, it means there’s a twenty-five percent of us both being wrong.”
I pull on my rings, the large letter X and a skull, wondering how he did the math so quick, then realize that I love him more every single day.
“Marry me,” I say suddenly.
“What?”
I walk over to him, get down on one knee, and take his hand.
“Marry me, Wild. We’re about to give Isla a symbol of what she means to us, but we haven’t given the same thing to each other.
While I’ve never been ashamed of who we are together, I was scared for what the world would do when it found out.
And you and I both know it’s because, in some way, my old man still had power over me.
But it stops right here. Now, I don’t care who knows.
I know I’ve got no fucking chance of you ever wearing a property patch, so let me put a ring on it. Marry me.”
Kai grips the back of my neck firmly and encourages me to stand. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”
He doesn’t let go of my neck right away. Instead, he presses his forehead to mine, breath warm and eyes bright. “I was going to let you get to five years, then ask you if you didn’t ask me, first.”
I swallow hard and pull him into me. We don’t need rings or witnesses in a church to validate our love for one another. I just need Kai…and Isla…and a commitment to be together.
There’s a soft knock on the door, but we hold each other’s gaze for a moment longer. “I’ll love you, always.”
He huffs. “I know. I knew you would before you did.”
“Umm,” Isla says, stepping inside. “I feel like I might be overdressed for this mystery you’ve planned. So, if I am, you need to tell me, so I don’t embarrass myself when I get there.”
She’s wearing a fitted black jacket with, if I’m not mistaken, nothing underneath.
The dark jeans she’s wearing hug her ass as she turns for us, and she’s wearing cute leather boots with a painfully tall heel.
Her hair is loose, falling over one shoulder in waves.
Several chains are layered at her neck, and her makeup is minimal and polished.
Sexy. But not trying-too-hard sexy. Not club-girl sexy. Isla sexy.
In other words, she looks absolutely breathtaking.
I kiss Kai’s temple and smooth down my shirt, like I’ve got my shit together when I absolutely do not. “I told you to wait at your place so I could come pick you up.”
She rubs her palms together nervously. “I couldn’t wait to see you both.”
“You look beautiful,” Kai says, starting with what I probably should have.
Her mouth curves, small and uncertain, like she isn’t quite sure she believes his assessment.
“Pretty as a picture, Sunbeam. And perfect for either option,” I say, reaching for her hand. I lead her to the edge of the bed, and she sits before I crouch in front of her.
“Either option?” she asks.
Kai joins me. “We wanted to talk to you and perhaps tell you a couple of things that might make you mad, but, hopefully, you’ll listen to us, first.”
Her shoulders tense, like she’s bracing for impact, so I take her hand and kiss the back of it.
“We’re taking you out tonight,” Kai says. “There’s a table booked at the Italian restaurant about twenty-five minutes’ drive away. Or we can go to the clubhouse for the club’s anniversary.”
The silence stretches painfully as Isla looks between us. “Why?” she says finally.
My heart trips a little over the words I’m about to say. “Because the club passed a vote on you becoming our old lady.”
“We know you’re not a huge fan of the club, right now,” Kai says. “But we wanted their protection to extend to you, should you need it. And we also wanted to give you the one thing in our world that shows you how much you mean to us.”
Her mouth opens. “This is all so soon.”
I squeeze her thigh, gently. “But is it unwanted?”
Her eyes glisten with tears, and she looks up at the ceiling and blinks furiously.
“Don’t cry, Sunbeam,” I say. “Your makeup is too pretty to ruin over the two of us.”
“I want to be yours,” she manages, then swallows.
“If it helps you decide,” Kai says, “he just asked me to marry him, and I said yes. It’s taken him four and a half years to ask, so you might want to say yes, in case he doesn’t ask you again, for a while.”
The smile on my soon-to-be husband’s face is as captivating as the first time I ever saw it.
“He did?” She turns to me. “You did?”
I nod.
“Oh my God, congratulations.” Isla drops to her knees between us both and throws her arms around us. We fall down like dominoes, and I wince in an agony I bottle down inside.
“Garrett,” Kai says through the laughter. “You okay?”
I lie on my back and look at the ceiling. “Just winded.”
“I’m sorry.” Isla climbs to her knees and hovers over me, holding her hair behind her ear. I can see straight down her blazer and can confirm she’s naked, apart from some little sticking things over her nipples and some tape to stop things from gaping. “And yes.”
I slide my hand to her cheek. “Yes what?”
“Yes, I’ll be your old lady.” She turns to Kai. “And yours, if you want me.”
Kai dives on her, and they laugh as they briefly roll around on the rug. “Of course, I want you, Sunshine. But let’s get our old man up off the floor.”
“Funny,” I say, deadpan. But then, I laugh anyway.
“I feel like we should stay in to celebrate,” Isla says, eyeing the bed.
I shake my head. “No. We’re taking you out.
Your only option is where. There’s no wrong answer and no pressure.
You want the restaurant, we go without question.
You want the clubhouse, we go to the clubhouse.
You want to turn around and leave after a minute, we turn around and leave.
But I promise this, you choose the clubhouse, I won’t leave your side for even a minute. ”
She takes a deep breath. “You’re really letting me choose?”
“Yes,” Kai and I say together.
“It’s not a trick question, like, there’s a right answer I’m supposed to choose?”
I take her hand and place it over my heart. “I promise you, there’s no trick. No test. I love you, Isla. Never thought I’d say it to anyone else in my lifetime, but here we are. I’m proud you’re ours.”
Kai lifts my hand and kisses it. “Well said.”
Isla looks between us again. “Before I say the obvious, can I clarify one thing?”
“Shoot,” I say.
“I should probably have asked sooner, and I’m sorry if this is a curveball question, and—”
“Just ask, Isla,” Kai says.
“There won’t be more people, will there? Because two has been a stretch for me. I know you said a closed triad, and I looked up exactly what that is, but I don’t think I could deal with it if the two of you changed your minds and had relationships with other people while the three of us—”
I look to Kai.
“A closed triad,” he says. “The two of you are more than I dreamed of.”
I don’t need to ask if he means it. I can tell. “Just the three of us.”
“Phew,” Isla says. “I was about to tell the two of you I loved you. It would have been embarrassing if you’d suddenly produced a fourth person named Sheldon.”
Kai’s laughter snaps through the room. “Sheldon?”
I kiss Isla, then. “You love us?”
Isla nods. “More than I thought was possible.”
“So,” Kai asks, “where are we celebrating the fact we all love each other, and Garrett and I just got engaged, and you just became an old lady?”
She studies his face, then glances over to check my expression too. “If you have faith in me, the least I can do is have faith in your judgement and perhaps find a little faith in myself.” Isla takes a breath. “Let’s go to the clubhouse.”