Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
boston
This place is nice.
Beyond nice, obviously. It reminds me a bit of the farm, just a little smaller and with a more beachy vibe.
The colours are completely different, too, but the architecture is similar.
The ceilings are high, with exposed beams and big windows.
Everything is white, blue, and beige, like the typical lakehouse you’d see on TV.
The rooms on the first floor are enormous and open-concept, blending into one another, with furniture that looks as if it were plucked right out of a magazine.
And what am I focused on? The way Ariana’s eyes light up as she takes in the design.
Everyone is doing tours, finding their rooms, or signing their paperwork—and then there is Ari.
She walks around the house with slow, calculated steps, eyes trailing over every inch and corner, hand gliding over different pieces of furniture and fabrics.
I can practically see the ideas running through her mind. How she would make this place her own.
I force myself to look away. She’s particularly beautiful when that mind is doing its thing and I’m not supposed to notice that.
I eventually find the room that I’ll be sharing with Fork.
It’s a modest size, clean and bright. I don’t really care about sleeping arrangements, I’m just here to spend time with Lowesy.
We have a king-sized bed, too, so the sleep shouldn’t be awful.
Arden and Ari will be sharing the room beside ours.
I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve always having her so close during witching hours, but I’m starting to wonder if this whole week is a fucking test.
When I get back into the kitchen, EJ is already on cocktail duty. He was the first to sign the papers. There wasn’t a moment of hesitancy. The rest of them have moved on from shock and refusal to acceptance to excitement. It’s the tangible kind of happiness that you can feel in the air.
I have a feeling these next three days are going to be a blast.
Lowesy wraps his arms around Penny from behind, watching Avery and Seth look over the documents and sign where they have to. He smiles as his best friend etches his name on the papers, those hazel eyes brimming with pure joy.
There are things in this life that are more important than money.
This is one of those things. He’s giving his friends a place to make memories that will last a lifetime.
He would have paid double for this if he had to.
It’s Lowesy. He’d do anything for his people.
He’d do anything and more for that girl in his arms.
Caulfield stands back, away from the fanfare, his eyes locked on the table. Saltzy is at his side, sipping on a bottle of water as they watch each person take their turn with the pen.
I approach, placing my hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. “You give them your autograph yet?”
His jaw ticks. He offers a curt shake of the head. “No.”
I cock a brow. “No?”
“Not going to.”
“Wyatt,” Saltzy says gently, but Caulfield is already shaking his head.
“They wouldn’t do this if they didn’t want to,” I remind him. I saw that look on Penny’s face. At some point, this became a dream of hers, and it’ll break both of their hearts if this moves forward without every single one of them.
“It doesn’t matter,” he grumbles, arms across his chest. “It’s too much, and who knows where I’ll be in a couple of years, anyway.”
My brow furrows, and Saltzy’s eyes snap to his face—full of unvoiced worry.
“Where the hell are you going?” I ask Wyatt.
He just shrugs. “I live in Pittsburgh now.”
I glance at Saltzy, who is studying his boyfriend’s face so carefully.
Caulfield, Lowesy, and Penny typically come home every Christmas and for a majority of the summer.
The only exception this year was the wedding, where Penny was too busy to spend the entirety of those months here, so they went back and forth instead.
Caulfield stayed in Pittsburgh because… Well, I think it was because he didn’t want to be away from Saltzy for as long as he had been the year before. I never asked, and I’m not going to now. Not my business.
“You won’t be coming back anymore?” I ask.
“What?” he snaps, finally tearing his eyes from the table to glance at me. “No. Of course, I will. But I’d be the one using this place the least, and it doesn’t feel right to take equity away from the rest of them if I’ll barely be a part of it.”
“I don’t think that’s the point, Wy,” Callum murmurs.
“It’s not.”
We whirl toward that voice. Penny strides toward us, eyes locked on Wyatt’s face. His throat bobs, but he maintains a hard and unrelenting stance, as if he isn’t afraid of shooting her down to her face. He is. It’s obvious.
She marches right up to him and grabs his arm.
“Come with me.”
He goes without question, not even a moment of hesitancy.
Saltzy watches them vanish up the stairs and slowly turns to look at me. “He’s bad with handouts.”
“Clearly.”
“I also think he believes he’s doing me a favour by refusing.”
I huff. “You’re probably right.”
“Because I’m robotic, and he thinks I’d hate spending time with his friends.”
I let out a long breath. Fuck Forker for making this a thing. “You’re not robotic. You’ve been boyfriend of the year during this trip.”
He shrugs. “She’ll talk sense into him. She tends to have sway with him.”
Understatement. I think Penny is imprinted on the fabric of Caulfield’s heart.
Seth pushes himself from the table and pulls Dec in for a hug.
Leaving Wyatt as the only one left to sign.
Forker saunters down the stairs in a change of clothes. His eyes find us by the island and he slows, dipping his chin in greeting, and then his gaze skirts across the room—probably looking for Arden. They fall on Saltzy’s disgruntled face instead.
He pauses. “Why does your face look like that?”
“Nothing,” Saltzy says immediately.
“Caulfield won’t sign,” I say at the same time, and Cap shoots me a look.
I can only shrug. I didn’t know it was a secret.
Forker nods with understanding. “Want me to forge his signature? I’m good at that.”
Saltzy shuts his eyes, shaking his head.
“I’ll pay you five bucks,” I say, trying to lighten the mood.
“Sold.” Fork dips his chin, storming toward the table. Cap’s hand shoots out so quickly that when he yanks Forker backward by his shirt, Fork nearly stumbles over his own footing and hits the floor.
“Why do I feel like you three are up to no good?”
Ari slides into the room in a tiny hot pink bikini, and put a bullet in my fucking brain, why don’t you?
I force my gaze away from her faster than can be deemed casual.
All I saw was those eyes, that mouth, and…
I am not going to admit where my attention immediately diverted to.
Had no idea those looked like that. I breathe through my nose, thinking of anything and everything horrid in the world, because my dick noticed her breasts faster than I did.
I am just a man. A stupid, pathetic man.
Carter glances down at her, shrugging. “Debating committing the crime of forgery while on foreign soil.”
Her brows shoot upward. “That’s a new one.”
“And an escalation from assault,” I point out. Legally, anyway.
“Don’t encourage him to commit another crime,” Arden snaps, rounding the corner.
She’s also dressed for the beach. I don’t know what colour her bathing suit is or what it looks like, but I do know she should have let Ariana borrow one of those mesh cover-ups she’s wearing.
For my sake. “He might leave this vacation with a fake wife this time.”
I snort a laugh.
Carter’s brows skyrocket as she slides under his arm. “What about a real wife?”
Saltzy and I exchange a wide-eyed glance. What the fuck?
Arden just rolls her own.
“You can’t talk about proposing even hypothetically at someone else’s wedding!” Ariana whisper-yells at him.
“The wedding isn’t for a few days,” Forker counters, holding up a hand in defense. “And I was making a joke, you guys. Stop looking at me like I sacrificed one of the Lowes’ dogs to the devil.”
“Excuse me?”
Penny’s back.
Awful timing.
Forker’s face goes stark white. He straightens, meeting her cold, lethal glare as she enters the room with Wyatt, whose eyes are hard and whose jaw is set. He books it straight for the documents, signs his name, tosses down the pen, and then storms outside.
Saltzy and Penny exchange a look. Cal follows him without another word.
“I was kidding!” Forker says. “It was a joke, I didn’t—”
“Do not joke about that,” Penny tells him, eyes full of warning.
That was the worst possible thing that she could have overheard.
She doesn’t fuck around when it comes to those dogs.
“I thoroughly believe that voicing those thoughts has the power to make things come true and if anything happens to any of my—”
“Lucky,” Lowesy warns from the kitchen, a grin on his face. “The kids are fine.”
With her parents. Safe.
“I’m sorry,” Forker offers weakly, his cheeks a bit pink. “It was a bad joke.”
“You’re lucky that I love you as much as I do,” she murmurs, and then her eyes flicker to Arden and she smirks. All a joke. All a ploy to make Fork flounder like this, and it was as easy as taking candy from a six-foot-three baby.
He seems to realize he’s been played at the same time as Penny starts to laugh because he shakes his head, cursing under his breath.
“All six signatures,” Declan tells her from across the room. “Round of drinks?”
Penny peers out the screen door to where Wyatt and Saltzy are now sitting on the front step, Saltzy’s hand firmly on Wyatt’s back.
“Give it a minute,” is all she says.