23. Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sebastian
“I don’t want to move, but I would leave Vancouver behind to live in the woods.” Em put her arms out and looked up at the sky, the sunlight dappling through the leaves across her face.
“You look good out here.”
“I do?” She smiled and spun around.
“You look good everywhere.” I grabbed a tackle box from a fishing supply shed the camp host showed me when we were done unpacking.
“Then how can I know you’re telling the truth?”
I raised my brow, and Em scowled. “I’m serious. If you say I always look good, I know that’s not true. So how can I know when you’re lying?”
“Because I would never in my life lie to you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Like how you hid your feelings from me—”
“The biggest regret of my life.” I ran my fingers through her hair, tilting her face up to mine. “Do you forgive me?”
She gasped and regained her composure quickly. “I suppose. I’ve thought a lot about that. How we both took so long to tell each other how we felt.”
“And?”
“And I’m glad.”
That surprised me. “You are?”
“Would either of us have noticed Mac if we had been together before he asked me out?”
I laughed, imagining a world where Mac Savage wasn’t noticeable. “He would have weaseled his way in somehow.”
Mac, materializing from thin air, cupped my ass, and rested his chin on my shoulder. “Damn right.”
I groaned, heat rushing to every spot Mac touched. Who was I kidding? He didn’t have to weasel his way anywhere. I would have rearranged my life and begged Em to accept us as a package deal.
“It would have been a complicated situation,” I confessed. “I was wrestling with my feelings for both of you longer than I ever want to admit.”
Em’s face lit up.
“What?”
“That’s like the most vulnerable you’ve ever been with us.”
I shot them both a dirty look that they both knew I didn’t actually mean and scoped out the small lake.
“How’s the lodge?” Em asked.
Mac grinned and played with the lid of the tackle box. “Fun. I wish the two of you were staying in my room, though. I’m bunking with Joe and Sloan.”
“That’s not too bad, right?”
He shook his head. “Just miss you guys is all.”
Em wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. “We’ll be so good while we’re apart—”
Mac cupped her chin and gazed down at her. I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture, not wanting to ever forget how beautiful they looked at that moment.
“Here,” Mac put his hand out and moved over so I could join them.
He held my phone out in front of us and we huddled around Em, each draping an arm over her shoulder and linking hands across her chest.
Mac stared at the picture and grinned. “We look good together.”
Being out here was torture. The two of them felt like heaven pressed against me and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
“I need to focus on fishing,” I muttered, dropping onto the nearest log at the water's edge.
I cast my line out and Em snuggled up next to me, careful to avoid splinters from the rough bark. “You look good out here. Your beard and a fishing pole. Our sexy mountain man.”
I brushed my hand along my chin and frowned. “I’m thinking about shaving it.”
“No.” Mac’s eyes widened as he sat on the other side of me and raked his fingers through my beard.
The touch was orgasmic. Like an itch being scratched before I even knew it needed to be.
I smirked and grabbed his wrist. “You like it, Savage?”
Mac’s nostrils flared, and he nodded, clearly unable to talk with me holding on to him. Em was barely breathing next to me. I reached over and put my hand on her knee.
“No one’s around—”
“The fuck you’re alone,” Lightning said, sauntering up with Sloan and McClanahan.
“We’ll leave you alone.” McClanahan shoved Lightning. “Right?”
Lightning laughed and sat on a log a few feet away. “Yeah, yeah. We’ll leave you alone.”
Mac eyed them and leaned in close. “Did you guys get Harriet’s message?”
“No?”
“She texted while we were driving here, but you guys were sleeping.” He held up his phone. “The canopies are a bust.”
I read the text and groaned.
“It’s just canopies,” Em said.
Mac puffed his cheeks. “Yeah, but it’s everything. Isn’t it? Nothing is going right.”
“Mac’s right.” I reeled in an empty line. “I want to say it’ll all work out, but to be honest, I really don’t know anymore.”
“Me too,” Em muttered. “I wish something would go smoothly—”
“Okay, we lied,” McClanahan yelled over.
I jumped, and the three of them laughed.
“What’s going on?”
“Wedding drama,” Mac called.
Lightning got to his feet and scooted his log over to ours.
“Spill,” Sloan said. “I need something to keep my mind off my own life.”
Twenty minutes later, we had them filled in on all the drama. From the venue change to the canopy glitch, the caterer canceling—who we hadn’t replaced yet—to our families, and everything in between.
Em sighed and shook her head, her curls tumbling over her shoulder. “Ava was the only one who was happy for us—”
“And Grandma Agnes.” Mac added.
“Grandma Agnes?” Lightning asked.
“A total spitfire,” Mac said, laughing. “She’s wilder than probably all of us combined.”
“Ava. That’s a pretty name.” Sloan stared across the water.
“She’s great. She’s a nanny, and it’s the perfect job for her.”
“Yeah, she’s always been so calm. A total saint.”
Sloan said nothing, he just bobbed his head and kept staring off into the distance.
“Everything good, man?” Mac asked.
“What?” Sloan shook his head and plastered on the fakest smile I’d ever seen. “Everything’s great.”