“I wish I could take credit for that.” Danny said. “But I had help. A lot of help.”
Sarah braced herself for him mentioning some devastatingly gorgeous ex who’d hand-picked everything. It was a hot, primal stab of jealousy that came out of nowhere to pierce her heart. He’d had so many lovers before her—a staggering number—she’d have to come to terms with them.
“I picked it out, honey,” said a voice echoing from within the cavernous living room. Sarah recognized it as belonging to Pretty Brandon, one of Danny’s pack. She walked deeper into the living room and saw him, dressed to the nines in a bespoke slate gray suit, sitting on a sofa long enough for twelve people to stretch out on. Beside him, the heavily tattooed and silent Rhett and ever-well-meaning Good Boy perched, playing video games.
Without glancing up, Rhett grunted something that sounded almost like “Congrats,” and Good Boy turned a big warm-hearted grin her direction. “It’s a good thing you found your mates. With each other,” he said before turning his attention to the game.
“Hey guys,” Danny said. “We’re going to throw a party. A giant party. Tonight.”
The magnificent house Danny had built—it was hers now. It was all hers. No more roommates in the Mission. No more staircases that wobbled as you walked on them. No more rats and roaches and street noise and stepping over plates of nachos that her neighbors inexplicably left on her doorstep at night. She had a home. A real home. And someone she loved to share it with.
Pretty Brandon leapt to action, whipping out his smartphone. “What kind of party?”
“Our engagement party,” Danny said. He walked past Sarah into the den and the scent of him made her knees tremble. This beautiful, handsome man was her mate. It was unreal. She watched as he removed his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, stripping down to a tank top. The low light in the den cast glowing shadows across his broad shoulders and she sighed audibly. Showing him off to her family would be fun. Her mom would freak.
Danny touched his forehead to each of his pack in turn, bumping noses with them for the space of a breath. Their demeanor changed as he did it, as if they became more calm, more focused. Rhett and Good Boy didn’t even mind that Danny interrupted their game.
Sarah sat down with Brandon and made a guest list while Danny sent Rhett and Good Boy out for supplies. “Please make sure you pay for everything,” he said in a careful tone. “I don’t want to hear any stories on the news tomorrow about bears stealing kegs from liquor stores.”
At one point, in the not so distant past, Danny and his pack had been bank robbers. He’d given it up to go straight, but the other three hadn’t managed to entirely give up their love of crime.
“I’ll pay for what we need,” Rhett rasped. “Consider it an anniversary present.”
Good Boy laughed loudly, but agreed to nothing. With a shopping list in hand, they went off.
Sarah and Danny and Brandon worked the phones, calling and texting and Facebook messaging everyone they could.
The party would happen that night.
The world would know that Sarah and Danny were together, for real.
And her life would be forever altered.
* * *
CHAPTER THREE
Sarah didn’t know whose friends were more in shock, hers or Danny’s.
They filed into the party at his house—their house—in a state of bemused wonder. None of them had seen his home before. Unlike many architects who had created something wonderful for themselves, he hadn’t shared it with the world until now. For reasons that were obvious to Sarah, Danny was a private person. He was warm and charming and generous to a fault, but also private. She didn’t know what sharing his world with their friends was costing him on a psychic level, but it likely wasn’t easy.
Many of their shared friends shot her a knowing look as they entered. Sly grins all around. Danny was right when he suggested their friends had seen the spark between them, even though they hadn’t. Claire Dee whispered, “It’s about time,” when she hugged Sarah in the foyer, which was the prevailing sentiment.
The buzz amongst their co-workers and Danny’s guy friends was that he must finally be opening his own firm. It was a secret launch party for an architecture start-up. They took one look at Sarah standing slightly too close to Danny and saw her as his business partner, not as his mate. That was fine. They’d see her in a new light soon enough.