“Me too, you, biker boy.”
She hurried toward the stairs, and Bear hauled her against him with a serious expression. “Babe, you know I love everything about you. Not just the sex. Right?”
Oh, this man! He treated her like gold, had changed his whole life to spend more time with her, and he was worrying over their spontaneous sexy times? She bit back the playful response on the tip of her tongue. They’d come so far, she didn’t want to make light of what was clearly worrying him. “I never doubted it for a minute.”
He kissed her slow and tender. Then he slapped her ass, startling her out of her lustful state, and they hurried downstairs.
Bullet looked up from the sex-pit sofa—another bucket-list item they’d taken care of. Quite a few times. He pushed to his feet, shaking his head. “Get that look off your faces. I haven’t gotten any in three days and you’re pissing me off.”
“Three whole days?” Crystal teased. “You poor thing.”
Bullet pulled her into a hug. “Got any good-looking friends, sweetheart?”
“Tegan,” she said on the way outside. They’d already received thirty orders for costumes, and Tegan had begun working part-time for the boutique. Crystal loved her, but she definitely wasn’t Bullet’s type. “You know I love you, but I think you’d probably scare the heck out of her. She’s more Bones’s type.”
“She is not Bones’s type.” Bear unlocked the truck and helped Crystal in. Bullet climbed into the passenger side. “You think he’s so clean-cut, but Bones has a definite dark side.”
“Bro,” Bullet scolded. Then to Crystal he said, “Chicks dig the dirty doctor.”
Bear headed down the mountain. “You just chastised me for saying he had a dark side.”
Bullet shrugged.
Crystal listened to their banter the whole way to Jed’s friend’s house, where he was staying in a basement apartment. It was only a few blocks from their mother’s, and she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, which remained with her while they packed up the trucks.
“You okay, sis?” Jed asked as he carried a box to the back of his truck. Thankfully, the attorney had not only been able to get the points dropped on his last ticket, but he had also proven that McCarthy had been targeting Jed. Jed’s driver’s license had been reinstated, and McCarthy was to be reprimanded. Jed was finally getting a chance to be the man he wanted to be, and Crystal could already see a difference in him.
“Yeah. I was just thinking about Mom. Is it weird that I feel guilty for not seeing her? I don’t want to see her, but I kept hoping that one day I’d show up and she’d be the same person she’d been when we were younger.”
“It’s not weird, shrimp.” Jed ran a hand through his hair and looked up toward the sky.
Crystal took a moment to study her brother, seeing even more of their father in him. She knew it was because he was no longer stealing or skirting the law.
“I think that’s why Dad gave her so long to straighten out,” Jed said. “I think he hoped for the same thing.”
“Dad would be proud of you, Jed.”
He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You can’t imagine how much it means to me to hear that.”
Thinking of her father committing to taking her and Jed away from their mother brought a wave of sadness. It must have been so hard for him to make that decision. She wondered if he’d given her the worry dolls because of the person her mother had become, and not, as she’d thought, because he’d known she’d need them for the traumatic years ahead.
She watched Jed, and focused on the here and now, which was too damn good to be set aside for questions she’d never have answers to.
Bear blew her a kiss as he and Bullet carried a dresser to his truck. She couldn’t have been happier than when she’d heard that Bullet and Bones had finally backed Bear in his confrontation with their father. He deserved everyone’s support for all he’d done for his family over the years.
“I’m glad you’re coming back to Peaceful Harbor,” she said to Jed.
“Me too. It’ll be like coming home. I owe Bear a lot, between hiring me thirty hours a week at the garage and ten at the bar and hooking me up with Quincy for the apartment.” He stepped closer, his eyes warm and brotherly. She’d missed that look so much a lump rose in her throat. “But mostly I owe him for making you so happy. You deserve to be happy.”
Bear winked as he headed back inside, full of badass swagger.
“I do love my biker boy.”
She and Jed walked inside together to get another load of his belongings.
“I wish I could have been there for you when you left school. I know I said it before, but I can’t stop thinking about it. I went back and gave Mom hell for what she said to you.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” She grabbed a box from the counter. “What’s in the past is in the past.”
“I know.” He hoisted a box into his arms. “I just wanted you to know that I may not have been there to have your back, but I do now, and I always will.”
“Thanks, Jed.”
“Hey, sugar,” Bear said as he passed, carrying one end of a desk. “We’re thinking of hitting a café for lunch on the way out of town. Sound good?”
“You know I’m always hungry.”
“Some things never change,” Jed teased.
An hour later they drove the loaded trucks to a café at the edge of town. Tucked against Bear’s side, with Jed beside her and Bullet walking behind them like a bodyguard scanning the crowd, Crystal stifled her amusement. Going anywhere with Bullet, Bear, and Bones was like having three bodyguards. But she’d had no idea Jed had that much of a protective side. What else would she learn about him? She couldn’t wait to find out.
The line was eight people deep, and her bladder was full of coffee. “I’m going to run to the ladies’ room,” Crystal said to Bear. “Would you mind getting me a turkey sandwich with lettuce?”
Bear scanned the café, his eyes landing on the sign for the ladies’ room across the room. “Sure, babe.”
He gave her a chaste kiss. She felt the heat of his gaze as she walked away, and she swore she felt Bullet and Jed’s eyes on her, too. After using the bathroom, she read a text from Gemma as she headed back to the men.
Finlay just called. The catering is all set! Four more weeks!! How long until you get back with Jed?
They’d picked up their dresses and met with Finlay, the caterer, last week to go over the final menu for the wedding. Crystal wondered what syrupy-sweet Finlay might think of the tatted-up groomsmen. She stepped aside to let someone pass and sent Gemma a quick text.