Chapter Thirty #3
He nodded. “Yeah. That’s Brooke. With everything that went down, I never got around to giving her your address. So she brought the thank you card in person.”
Bea laughed, even as fresh tears filled her eyes.
Blane tightened his arm around her. “And I meant what I said, Bea. I don’t want separate pieces anymore. I want one life—yours and mine, all mixed up together.”
Before she could answer, Meg was through the gate and hurrying toward her.
“Congratulations, my love.”
Bea laughed and cried at the same time as Meg wrapped her in a hug. “What on earth are you doing here? How did you even get here?”
Meg stepped back, grinning. “You’ll have to ask Blane about that.”
After that, the introductions seemed to come all at once.
Cash was every bit as charming as Bea had imagined.
Mav was as gruff as Blane had described him, and rather more handsome than he'd let on, and she suspected there was considerably more going on behind those watchful eyes than he let people see.
Emmett was quieter than the others, but it took only a few minutes to understand why Blane considered him his closest friend, and Harper was a hoot. Bea liked her immediately.
Then there was Brooke. Bea was struck first by how young she seemed. She was a beautiful young woman, but there was something almost shy in the way she stepped forward. “Hi, Bea.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Bea opened her arms, and Brooke came straight into them. When the younger woman held on tightly, Bea remembered that she’d lost her parents when she was still only a little mite and held her a little closer, hoping very much that they would become close.
Tanya and Alana were delightful, and before long the terrace seemed full of people talking and laughing, glasses of champagne appearing from somewhere while food and bags and goodness knew what else materialized around them.
At some point Blane slipped a glass of red wine into Bea’s hand, and she sipped it between hugs and congratulations while watching Tanya race around the terrace with Sifis, who seemed completely unconcerned by the sudden arrival of several enormous men in cowboy hats.
Apparently, if they belonged to Blane, that was good enough for him.
Blane came to stand beside her and slung an arm around her shoulders. “What do you think of them?”
Bea leaned into him. “I think they’re wonderful. And thank you. Thank you for doing this.” Her throat tightened and she had to swallow before she could continue. “They’ve already made me feel as though I’m going to be part of their lives.”
“Course they have. Because you are.”
She nodded, looking around at them all again. “Simon’s friends always saw me as his admin assistant. Not really as…” She shook her head. “Never mind.”
Blane’s eyebrows drew together, and she slapped lightly at his chest. “No more scowling today. We’re supposed to be celebrating.”
“I’m not scowling.”
“You are.”
He looked down at her for a moment, then his expression softened. “Being part of my life doesn’t mean disappearing into it, darlin’. You’re still you. You still have this place, your friends, your life. I’ve got mine too.” His mouth twitched. “We just get both now.”
Her eyes filled again. “Oh, darling.”
“Yeah.”
She rested her head against his shoulder and looked around the terrace at Meg laughing with Brooke, Cash talking with David, Emmett and Harper together while the girls chased Sifis around the table, and Mav standing slightly apart, pretending not to smile at any of it.
His people and her people were already becoming their people.
Then Sifis began barking, and Blane groaned. Pericles had appeared at the wall.
She laughed and slapped Blane’s arm. “Don’t say it.”
Oh, how she loved the sound of his laughter.
“Never said a word, darlin’. Don’t know what you mean.”
“I know exactly what you were thinking—that… goat!”
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Nope. I was thinking I’m getting exactly what I asked for. Little dog and neighbor goat included.”
She smiled up at him. “More things you never wanted?”
“Yeah.” He pulled her closer. “Turns out I didn’t know what the hell I wanted.”
Pericles bleated loudly from the wall.
Blane closed his eyes.
And Bea laughed;
;