Dom had worked hard and had the help of a very skilled physical therapist that had become instrumental in more ways than one when he had returned to the force. Surprisingly, Royal had asked him if it was okay with him if she stayed partnered with Barrett upon his return. She felt like she had been leaning on Dom too hard thus far in her career, and with a different partner she was really forced to be the cop she was always meant to be. Plus, she told him there was no way her heart could handle seeing him with a gun pointed at him again, and Dom, being the outstanding friend and man that he was, took all of that in stride. All he had ever wanted was for Royal to reach her full potential and she was doing exactly that.
I tossed my keys in the fancy ceramic bowl she had picked out to set by the front door. Even with a designated place for all the keys to live I was still running across town intermittently to let her into her car because she was still locking herself out of things and places on a regular basis. It was cute and the way she said thank you always left me with a smile on my face. My sexy cop was a handful and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tonight I was the one getting home late. I had so many irons in the fire sometimes it was hard to keep track of things anymore. The business that Rome was spearheading was going like gangbusters. Our initial investment had doubled in just a few months. I honestly took pride in taking businesses that needed a helping hand and breathing new life into them. I was still working a shift a week at the Bar, mostly because I just couldn’t let it go. The place was like home to me when I really needed a place to feel welcome and I didn’t have it in me to just walk away from that completely. Generally I worked a Wednesday or Thursday night mostly so I could watch the way Dixie and Church were still dancing around each other. It was like a reality TV show live and in color, only far more entertaining. Dixie had recently started Internet dating and Church had all kinds of grumbly and growly opinions about the fact. I couldn’t figure out why he just didn’t take her to bed and put them both out of their misery, but he wasn’t explaining himself.
I had also found a tiny hole in the wall in LoDo that I was dying to turn into an old-fashioned cigar bar. The place sat maybe fifty people max and it was tucked away and hidden enough that I knew I could transform it into an exclusive spot that the trenderati would be dying to get into. Because he had been so good to me from the very start, I asked Rome if he wanted to buy in with me and was stunned when he told me no. When I told Royal his response she just smiled at me and told me the place was mine. Rome wanted me to have something all my own to either sink or swim with just in case the rest of it fell apart. He was trying to take care of me in his own gruff way. So tonight I had been talking with Zeb because I finally signed a lease on the place and wanted him to get in there to remodel the interior. The planning had gone longer than I expected, so I was quiet as I walked through the house just in case Royal was already in bed.
The lights in the house were off as I made my way through to that incredible kitchen and poured myself a scotch from my own private stash. The sliding glass door that led to the deck off the back of the house was cracked open and Tom Petty was playing softly from somewhere outside. Royal still liked her bubblegum pop, but when she was in a mellow mood and just needed to unwind after a long day, she tended to fall back on the classics, which I had to admit, I much preferred.
I took my drink and pulled the door open, my eyes automatically going to the set of Adirondack chairs that occupied the far corner of the deck opposite the hot tub. She was sitting in the dark outside in the cold; it was the first part of February, so there was still snow on the ground, and I wasn’t at all surprised that all she had on was one of my long flannel shirts and a pair of Uggs. I swear she was antipants as soon as she hit the front door. Not that I would ever be stupid enough to complain about it. She had a beer in her hand and a soft smile on her face, which reminded me every time I saw her here that this house and these moments of making it a home meant nothing without her in them.
“Did you wait up for me?” I walked over to the chair she was curled up in and pulled her up to her feet so I could kiss her. She tasted like the outside and cold beer. She tasted like heaven and hell all mixed together. I snagged the seat she had been sitting in and pulled her back down so that she was sitting in my lap with her back pressed up against my chest.
She lifted the beer to her lips and snuggled into me. I sighed in pure contentment and wrapped an arm around her trim waist.
“Yeah. I didn’t want to go to bed alone.”
I rubbed my nose in her soft hair and told her, “You should’ve called me. I would have come home.”
She put one of her hands over mine and I set my glass down on the ground because she was far more interesting to hold on to.
“I was actually talking to Ayden and lost track of time. I knew you couldn’t be much longer, so I thought I would just sit out here and wait for you.”
“Half naked.”
She laughed and lifted an arm up to curl around my neck. “Of course.”
“How’s the drive from Austin going?” Ayden refused to get on a plane this far along into her pregnancy even if her doctor had informed her it was perfectly safe. She insisted she wasn’t taking any unnecessary chances with her little girl, so she and Jet were driving in the unpredictable weather so they could be here next week for Rome and Cora’s wedding.
“She sounds fine. Jet was the one suffering. He’s doing that guy thing where he wants to drive straight through, and with a wife that’s six months pregnant with a baby sitting on her bladder that just isn’t happening. She told me he looks like he’s going to shoot an embolism every time she tells him she needs to stop and use the bathroom. Knowing your sister, she’s doing it on purpose every fifty miles or so just to aggravate him.”
“Probably. I’m excited for them to get here.” I had Skyped with Ayden a few times, so I could see the way being an expectant mom was changing my little sister physically. I wanted to see how she was handling it up close and personal, with my own two eyes. And I wanted to put my hands on the baby bump that held my niece.