Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Phoebe
I slid my hand into Kane’s as we left the restaurant, my arm still bandaged underneath my blouse, Kane’s shoulders sore from tackling my attacker. He landed on the same place that he had been grazed with a bullet after the shooting that began this entire adventure. While we were both sore, I was happy that we were on our own two feet, making our way out of a family meal.
“I’m stuffed,” I said, leaning into Kane, feeling normal for the first time in a few days.
After we had left the hospital, I slept for a full sixteen hours, Kane by my side. He hadn’t slept the entire time, but I didn’t expect him to. The man rarely slept when he was on an adrenaline high, trying to keep me safe. And while that overprotectiveness might’ve bothered me in the past, now I understood it for what it was—love and trust. Trust in me, himself, and the situation.
Bad things happened, and we were figuring them out together, so of course I wasn’t going to push him away.
Pushing him away like I had before might’ve been needed, but it was also pretty stupid.
“Me too. I can’t believe how many nachos I ate. So many nachos.”
We had been to a local sports bar because there was a game on, and the playoffs were soon.
A nice cold chill was in the air, and I knew Christmas would be here before we knew it.
I was excited for that, excited for presents and traditions, and making new traditions.
Kane and I didn’t have holiday traditions yet, but we would find them.
Speaking of…
“So, are we picking up a tree from the store?” I asked.
“Considering both of us are allergic to real pine, yes. And they come pre-lit. Because while I can put up a security system where nobody can see it, I cannot string lights on a tree.”
“And then we can use it year around. I’m okay with that. Real trees are great in theory, but all they do is create more work and break my skin out into hives.”
“I’ve never had a tree before. I just usually go over to my parents’ house,” he said with a shrug.
“Claire and I have a small tree,” I said, my voice slightly hollow. “It’s in storage right now, but I’m still going to set it up at the apartment.”
Kane met my gaze, and I knew he was thinking what I was. I didn’t know if Claire and I were ever going back to that apartment. It was nice to think that I could be strong and overcome seeing my best friend’s blood all over the floor and not have that burned into my memory for days and years. But the problem was, I did. I couldn’t not think about it.
I wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to do. Kane and I hadn’t truly discussed it, I just brought things over to his house, and now I was there all the time. We would talk about it soon, I knew. But if I moved in with Kane, that meant not living with Claire. Which I also wasn’t sure if I was ready to do. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to leave my best friend alone.
She was invited to dinner with us tonight, but had wanted to stay in the hotel room, still recovering from surgery.
I shivered as I got into the car, then Kane pushed my hair back from my face. He stood in my open door and leaned down and brushed his lips against mine.
I loved this man with everything that I was. I loved him so much it was hard to breathe sometimes. We’d almost lost each other, and I didn’t want to think about that. Didn’t want to think about the fact that his job was dangerous and it could happen again. But we were stronger. And I just had to believe in that.
“You know I have an extra room, if she wants to move in too.”
I blinked. “Were you reading my mind? Or did I talk out loud?”
“No, but I had a feeling I knew where your thoughts went. I don’t know if I want you going back to that apartment either. And I realize it’s not my place to say anything, but I want you with me. Call me a caveman.”
“I don’t know if I want to go back either. And I like being by your side. Plus, I can keep an eye on you.”
He raised a brow and I tickled his ribs. When he shimmied away, I laughed. “I could take care of you. I’m a little protective now.”
“Yeah. You are.” He kissed me again, and I sighed into him.
“Claire’s not going to want to live with us.” I bit my lip. “But I want to live with you. I do. I can’t think of anything else that I want. Other than not wanting to leave my best friend behind.”
Kane nodded. “Then we’ll find someplace for Claire. But it’s taking everything within me now not to shout to the rooftops that you want to live with me. Because I’m really fucking excited about that, Phoebe.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “I’m excited too. It’s a big step. But I’m ready.”
“You better be. Because I fucking love you.”
“I fucking love you too,” I repeated, using his same cadence so we both laughed.
“We have the meeting with the lawyer tomorrow,” I said, knowing that bringing that up in the parking lot probably wasn’t the best idea, but I felt safe with him standing next to me, liked that I could touch him while trying to sort through my thoughts.
“I’ll be there. Just to annoy Ford.”
“You love Ford.”
“That’s true. But you’re going to need someone to lean on, and Ford’s going to, too. If you guys are going to be the bridge for whatever’s going to happen, I’ll be one as well. I’m pretty good at it.”
I smiled, hooking my finger in his belt loop so I could tug him closer. He gave me a Cheshire cat smile and kissed me softly on the mouth.
“We’re going to figure it out. All twelve or thirteen of us. Or fifteen, if you include the moms?” I asked, shuddering. “That’s too many people.”
“Too many, but we’ll all be there anyway. No matter what happens. Maybe something good will come out of it.”
“Maybe. But I am relieved that we can even think about this and Claire without this huge weight on our shoulders. I still can’t believe it was Tim who did all of that.”
Kane scowled. “I can’t either. But it makes sense in a way. He was trying to take everything from us, and we hadn’t even realized he was a player on the field because he was so insignificant to us. Just goes to show you that we don’t know what other people are thinking. We thought he was just a rival when it came to our business, and we worked hard to showcase who we were. And he lost his damn mind. If I keep thinking about it, I’ll get angry, and we still have one more event tonight.”
I raised a brow, my cheeks heating.
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, two events. I will totally make sweet, sweet love to you, or fuck you hard against the couch, whatever you’d like, but first we have dessert over at my parents’ house.”
“Please stop talking to my baby sister like that,” Kyler said as he walked by, getting into his fancy sports car.
“I cannot believe you’re driving that when it could snow tonight,” I called out. “Drive carefully.”
“I’m heading to the house, and I’ll get into my nice SUV with my fancy tires from there. Don’t worry, Mom.”
“Oh, stop it. I’m allowed to worry.”
My big brother glared at me. “We’re all allowed to worry for each other. That’s what we do. But do not ever say that sentence, the whole thing about what you’re doing when you get back to Kane’s house, because I don’t want to know.”
“Kyler!” I called out and he laughed while Kane just shook his head.
“I can’t blame him. If anyone ever said that about my sister, I’d have to kill them, and that would be a whole thing.”
“Again, with the overprotectiveness.”
“You’re not going to stop that part of me. Sorry. It’s just who I am.”
I loved that part of him. Even though it took me far too long to realize I could.
“So, dessert with the Montgomerys?”
“Is there going to be cheese?”
“Probably, though we do hold back for some meals.”
And when he kissed me again, I wrapped my arms around his waist and ignored my brother honking his horn as he drove away.
“So, tonight dessert, tomorrow meetings with lawyers, but then the day after, what do you say we go for a hike?”
Kane blinked at me. “You want to go for a hike?”
“Okay, a walk. It’s too cold to do anything else. But it’s how we met. It makes me feel all warm and gooey to think about.”
He leaned down and kissed me again, and I wanted to pull him into the car so we could figure out exactly how much of a contortionist I could be, but we were still in public.
“Later,” he mumbled, seeing the look in my eye and I blushed hard.
“Anything you want, Phoebe. Anything. But first, cheese.”
“I thought you said there might not be cheese.”
“I’m a Montgomery and a Carr. I lied.”
And with another kiss, he closed the door behind him, and went to get in the driver’s side door.
Soon we were driving west, the dark outline of the mountains underneath moonlight filling our vision.
While things weren’t completely settled, and we had a long way to go in terms of healing and figuring out next steps, we had each other.
We had family.
Maybe a little bigger than we expected, but we were all still there.
And I knew that what happened next, no matter who we had to fight, metaphorically or physically, we wouldn’t do it alone.
Because I fell in love with Kane Montgomery Carr long ago, and now I never had to let go.
And there was no way I even wanted to.