Darius reached in and confiscated Gracie from me. I wanted to protest, but when she smiled up at him, put her hand to his cheek and I watched him turn his head to kiss her palm, I decided against it.
I looked back across the room when I heard Liam and Dorothea laugh, Liam now holding his grandma close to his side with his arm around her shoulders.
Then I felt warmth sweep through me when I felt Darius kiss the side of my hair.
In my ear, he whispered, “Love you, Ally.”
That?
Sheer beauty.
I turned my head, caught his eyes, mine were hot, and replied, “I know.”
*
Ren and I were on one of Indy and Lee’s couches. Katie was crawling on her daddy and doing it with Gus, Sadie and Hector’s youngest.
Alex and Dante, Jet and Eddie’s eldest and middle boys, were sitting next to me, eating cake and ice cream. Or smushing it all over their faces and getting it all over their tees.
But they were little kids. That shit happened.
So, whatever.
I was supposed to be watching Alex and Dante.
What I was doing was scanning the room.
A motley crew of cops and crooks, bounty hunters and baristas, PIs and rock stars, hot guys and Rock Chicks.
My people.
My family.
All together, safe and happy.
I turned to look at my man just in time to see him yank his little girl tight to his chest and set her squealing as he tickled her.
My man.
My girl.
My family.
Katie pretended to try to get away and Ren pretended to let her, going after Gus, probably to tickle him too, when he felt my eyes on him and he looked at me.
“What,” he asked.
“We did it,” I told him.
His head tipped to the side and his eyes grew intent, probably because he was reading the look on my face.
And reading the look on my face, his voice went sweet when he asked quietly, “We did what?”
“That night, after we found out Indy was carrying Callum and we made a pact to work on being that happy for the rest of our lives?” I reminded him.
He got me.
I knew this when his face got the look.
“We did it,” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
He pulled Katie and Gus close so he didn’t lose them when he leaned into me.
His kiss wasn’t long, but it did include a touch of tongues so it was righteous.
Then again, they all were.
“Can I steal her?”
Ren and I broke apart and looked up to see Indy standing there, eyes to Ren.
“Sure,” he replied.
I studied my BFF.
Then I turned to Alex and Dante and said, “Hey, buddies. Do me a favor and scooch closer to Uncle Ren while you eat, yeah?”
They looked up at me, both with big black eyes, chocolate crumbles and vanilla cream all over their faces, and nodded.
I turned to my husband, leaned in and touched lips, then I did the same on my daughter’s wet mouth.
When I was done, she shoved her face in her daddy’s neck and giggled. This was because her daddy was tickling her again.
As for me, I just smiled at her daddy.
Then I followed Indy through the room to the stairs.
She led us to her bedroom. In it were Jet, Roxie, Jules, Ava, Stella, Sadie, Daisy and Shirleen.
Oh man.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Ava answered.
“Oh God, please tell me no one’s pregnant. I can’t keep the birthdays straight already,” Roxie moaned.
Daisy gave me a look.
I ignored it.
Indy went into her walk-in closet saying, “Be right back.”
“Does anybody know what’s happening?” Sadie asked.
“Not me,” Stella answered.
All eyes came to me.
I shrugged.
All eyes grew dubious.
I threw up my hands. “Seriously,” I snapped. “I don’t know.”
Luckily, at this juncture, Indy came out of the bathroom carrying a bubble envelope.
“I hope that isn’t a secret mission we all have to go on because I’m kind of liking this kidnapping-free, stun-gun-free, car-explosion-free lifestyle,” Jules said. “And for a while now, we’ve had a good roll going.”
“That’s because you don’t live in LA,” Stella muttered.
We all looked to Stella and nodded.
We got her.
Suffice it to say, Mace’s men in LA had much the same taste in women as the men in Denver.
But in LA, you could get up to all kinds of crazy.
“Um… just to say, I kinda miss stun gunning,” Jet admitted
That was when we all looked to her and nodded.
We got her.
Though, I didn’t share that I’d stun-gunned someone just last week.
“It’s not a mission,” Indy told Jules and handed the envelope to me, her eyes coming to mine. “It’s from Jane.” She looked through the girls. “She wanted us all together and she wanted Ally to open it.”
I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
Because after pink and through green, lilac, blue, peach, salmon and ice blue, Jane had asked us to do the same thing.
I didn’t know why Jane didn’t participate in the festivities, but I did know that was her way.
With all eyes again on me, I slit open the envelope and slid out what was inside.
It was a berry colored book with a film strip and a white title.
Rock Chick.
Up the side in black, there was a strip that said Revolution.
It was my turn.
Righteous.
One thing I knew.