Chapter Twenty-Three #3
Oliver set his bottle on the counter and stepped closer. There were people everywhere. Voices carried through the clubhouse. Someone laughed near the bar, and Alice was loudly insisting that she had won more rounds than everyone else combined.
Oliver didn’t care.
He slid one arm around my waist and pulled me against him.
I went willingly, my hands settling against his chest as naturally as if they belonged there.
His shirt smelled faintly like soap, motor oil, and him. I tipped my head back, and he looked down at me with that quiet intensity that always made my stomach turn over.
“You’re getting bold, Ollie,” I whispered.
His mouth twitched. “I kissed you in front of everyone last week.”
“You did.”
“Then this shouldn’t surprise you.”
“It doesn’t.” That was the truth.
Nothing about Oliver touching me felt surprising anymore.
It felt right.
He brushed his thumb along my side, slow and absentminded, while the clubhouse carried on around us. No one stopped talking. No one whistled or yelled anything. We weren’t a spectacle.
We were simply part of the room now.
Part of the family.
Pipe walked past us on his way toward the refrigerator. His gaze dropped briefly to Oliver’s arm around me, then lifted to his face.
He smiled.
It wasn’t big. Just warm. Proud. Then he opened the refrigerator and started searching through it.
I looked up at Oliver. “I think your dad approves.”
Oliver didn’t hesitate. “He does.”
The words came easily.
So easily I knew he hadn’t thought about them before saying them.
My heart squeezed.
Across the kitchen, Pipe went still for half a second. His back remained toward us, one hand still resting on the refrigerator door. Then he continued searching as though he hadn’t heard anything.
But I saw the way his shoulders shifted, but Oliver didn’t. He was still looking at me.
I smiled. “Good.”
“Good?” he repeated.
“Yeah.” I slid my hands higher on his chest. “Looks good on you.”
His brow furrowed slightly. “What does?”
“Knowing exactly where you belong.”
For a moment, he didn’t say anything.
The noise of the clubhouse swirled around us. Alice yelled at Penny for stealing cookies even though she’d watched her do it. Drew laughed at something Demi whispered. Jude and Arlo started arguing louder, which meant neither one of them had any idea what they were talking about.
Oliver’s gaze stayed locked on mine. Then his arm tightened around my waist—not enough to hurt, just enough to bring me closer.
“I know where I belong,” he said quietly.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Do you?”
His eyes dropped to my mouth. “Yeah.”
“Where?”
“Right here.”
My teasing smile disappeared.
Oliver leaned down and kissed me.
It wasn’t a heated kiss. There was no desperation or rush behind it. His mouth moved slowly over mine, warm and sure, while his hand held me against him.
It was intimate in a way that had nothing to do with how deep the kiss became.
He kissed me like he didn’t care who saw. Like he wasn’t questioning whether he had a right to be here.
Like he had finally stopped waiting for someone to tell him he didn’t belong.
I curled my fingers into the front of his shirt and kissed him back.
Someone cleared their throat loudly.
Oliver didn’t move.
A second throat joined the first.
He slowly lifted his head and looked over my shoulder.
Arlo stood next to Pipe, both smiling like idiots.
“I was going to ask if you two needed a room,” he said. “Then I remembered we have lots of rooms.”
“You both actually have your own room,” Pipe laughed.
Oliver stared at him.
Arlo’s grin faltered. “I’m going back to the garage.”
Pipe laughed and headed back over to Nikki.
“Good idea,” Oliver growled.
Arlo turned around, and Jude clapped him on the shoulder as he passed. “You flew too close to the sun.”
“I thought he was getting soft,” Arlo argued.
“He is. For her,” Jude replied.
Ever smacked Jude’s arm.
“What?” he asked. “That was romantic.”
“It sounded like you were talking about bread.”
Oliver looked back down at me.
I was trying not to laugh.
“You find this funny?” he asked.
“A little.”
His arm remained around my waist. “I can leave you here.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m your favorite too.”
He studied me for a second. Then he kissed the tip of my nose. “You’re not wrong.”
I grinned and tucked myself against his chest.
Around us, the clubhouse stayed loud.
Alice argued that she should be allowed to keep the game at the clubhouse permanently.
Wrecker informed her he would throw it in the fire.
Penny and Demi divided stolen cookies beneath the coffee table while Drew pretended not to see them.
Pipe stood beside Nikki near the refrigerator, and when I glanced in their direction, Nikki was smiling at Oliver.
Pipe was too.
The smile disappeared when he caught me looking.
I didn’t call him out.
I simply rested my cheek against Oliver’s chest and listened to the steady beat of his heart beneath my ear.
For one night, there was no stolen van.
No Northbound Reapers.
No one watching us from the dark.
There was only food, laughter, terrible cards, and the man holding me as if he had finally accepted that he was allowed to have something good.
Everything felt normal.
Better than normal.
It felt like home.