Of course she knew. I was sure he’d walked in and charmed her before coming back here to see me. She might be in her fifties, but Kye was eye candy for all ages.

  I followed him out the back door and realized his bike was parked outside. He went over and secured the food, then picked up the helmet and turned to me. His eyes scanned over my outfit. It was one of my designs that I’d made a few sizes of and put out in the storefront. It was hot pink and lime green. The bottoms were shorts, and the middle made a crisscross over my stomach, leaving my sides bare and showing a small portion around my belly button before wrapping around my neck in a halter style.

  “That’s a fucking awesome outfit, Baby Doll,” he said when his eyes came back to mine.

  That was the reaction I’d been hoping to get from Bowie this morning, but he’d said nothing about it. He wasn’t much into fashion, so I didn’t get my feelings hurt when he didn’t mention my designs.

  “Thank you,” I replied. “It’s a Genesis original.”

  The proud look in Kye’s gaze made my chest get tight.

  “That explains it then,” he said as I took the helmet from him and put it on my head.

  Kye went to buckle it, and I let him. He had a thing about making sure it was done right. When he was satisfied, he threw his leg over and got on the back, then looked back at me as I climbed on behind him.

  Kye squeezed my leg, then cranked up the bike. As he pulled out onto the main street, I wrapped my arms around his stomach. I loved this feeling. It reminded me of a simpler time. When we had been younger and life hadn’t gotten complicated. On the back of Kye’s bike felt like summertime in my youth even though it was now fall. Thoughts of Dad and the future seemed to ease. My chest didn’t feel so heavy.

  He drove up to the parking lot of the park and held my hand as I climbed off before following me. There was a breeze, thankfully, and plenty of shade. We walked over to an area with plush green grass and a view of the pond. Kye tossed down the blanket he’d taken out of his saddlebag, and I spread it out.

  I sat down first and watched as he took the spot beside me, which I’d left for him because I knew he preferred to lean up against the tree. Opening the bags, I squealed at the sight of the familiar paper wrapped around the burgers.

  Looking up at him, I beamed. “You are forgiven.”

  He chuckled. “For what exactly? Seeing your ass or pussy lips or jerking off to the image of both in the shower?”

  Heat flooded my body as my eyes widened.

  Kye leaned over and grabbed the second bag from me, still grinning. He was teasing me. The man had no filter. He hadn’t been born with one. Besides, he didn’t jerk off. He was too sexually active to pleasure himself. Pulling out a box that I knew was cheese-smothered fries, he handed it to me.

  I took it and prepared my lunch in my lap.

  “You gonna ignore that question? Or were the cheese fries enough to get me forgiven for all three?”

  I lifted my eyes and looked at him, trying not to react to this. “All three,” I replied before picking up my burger to take a bite.

  “What if I jerked off more than once?”

  Do not blush. Do not let him get the better of you. He is trying to. This is what Kye does, I mentally coached myself while chewing the burger.

  When I finally swallowed, I licked the mustard from my lips, then returned his gaze. “You have too much sex to jerk off. I’m not naive. You are just trying to get to me.”

  Kye smirked and took his burger from its wrapper. “Is that what you think?”

  I ignored that. Instead, I picked up a fry from heaven and put it in my mouth

  “When does Bowie leave?” he asked me.

  “He left this morning,” I replied with a heavy sigh. I wished he could have stayed longer.

  “Short visit. You sound upset about that.”

  I lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “We just don’t get much time together. It’s only a five-hour drive to Charleston. I just wish he managed to carve out more time to see me.” I sounded whiny. But I needed to get it out, and Kye was the one person I could be real with. Just say what I was thinking and not be judged or lectured. “Mom was hoping he’d come to family dinner tomorrow night. We haven’t had one since Dad had a stroke. It seems silly to have one with just the two of us. Not to mention, it would be depressing. But Mom loves to cook. It’s therapy for her. I think she misses having someone to cook for.”

  “I’ll go to dinner. It’s been a while, and I miss Mom and Pops.”

  I stared at him. He was serious. I could tell by the look in his eyes.

  “Really? Don’t you have better things to do?” Like go to Devil’s and screw a stripper.

  He leaned forward and took one of my fries. “Nope. You know I’d rather be with you than anyone else. Plus, I’d do anything to give Alice a reason to smile. If she wants to cook, then I’ll gladly be her person to feed.”

  A smile tugged at my lips. My parents loved Kye. They didn’t approve of his wild living, but they did love him.

  “Mom would like that,” I replied honestly.

  Kye always made them laugh, and Mom enjoyed feeding him because he ate so much and praised her cooking. With him, she wouldn’t have to stress over making vegan food. That would have been a struggle for her.

  “It’s a date,” he said, leaning back with his burger.

  I took a few more bites and enjoyed the peacefulness.

  “So, how many seconds did you get to keep that man-slayer thing on last night once he got home? I’m guessing you didn’t make it out of the kitchen. You sure as fuck had better not have done anything in my bed. You promised not to fuck him in my bed.”

  My face felt warm. Not because Kye was bringing up sex. He did that often. It was just part of his vocabulary. However, the fact that even Kye thought the nightie would end in kitchen sex made me feel like I was doing something wrong. It had not ended in the way I’d hoped. Sure, Bowie had said I was beautiful in it. We’d had our wine, and he’d made love to me. Nice and slow on Chloe’s former bed.

  I glanced at him before getting another fry. “We didn’t do anything in your bed. The other is not your business.”

  He didn’t seem upset about me not giving him details. “Fair enough. Not sure I want to know anyway. My imagination has already taunted me plenty.

  “Tell me about the designs you’re putting in Mom’s shops. She’s real excited about them. Couldn’t get her to shut up about them when she called yesterday.”

  It was a relief to know Chloe liked my designs. Talking about clothing was easy, and no longer being in school with other fashion majors, I didn’t get to discuss it much. I started going into detail about what I had made and my ideas. Kye even gave me feedback. He was listening to me, which gave me a release I hadn’t known I needed.

  Once we finished, Kye took our trash to the garbage can while I folded up the blanket. I handed it to Kye when he returned. He took it and held out his elbow for me to take his arm. Laughing, I slipped my hand through the opening, and we walked back to his bike. He had always been able to do this—make a bad situation better. When I was sad, he found a way to make me happy.

  Even from the first day I’d met him. I’d fallen out of a tree and broken my arm in two places. I also had a concussion. The next day, while I sat in my bed, watching the television and hurting, he showed up at my house. My mom let him in, and he came in my bedroom with a bag full of candy, movies, a board game, and a pack of markers.

  He decorated my cast with colorful doodles, telling me outrageous stories that went along with his drawings to make me laugh. Then, Bowie arrived, and both of them watched movies with me. We played Monopoly until I fell asleep from the pain meds my mom had brought me. That had been the real beginning of a friendship that became the center of my world. Even when I had fallen in love with Bowie, it was Kye who would keep me from falling apart when things got hard.

  I wrapped my arms tighter around him as he revved the engine on his bike. He turned his head to the side to look back at me.

  “Thank you. For listening,” I said.

  “Always, Baby Doll.”

  I laid my cheek against his back, thankful for the day I’d moved next door to the blond boy with a wild streak and a vocabulary full of curse words.

  Nine

  Genesis

  October 30

  Bowie had been nervous all through dinner. It felt as if he needed to tell me something, but wasn’t sure how to. When he didn’t, my head immediately went to him breaking up with me or needing space or maybe he’d met someone else. Once we reached his car, he stopped and asked me if I was in the mood to go to the springs. Not to swim, just to sit and talk. I hadn’t been to the springs since I had been in high school.

  I said yes, wondering if it was there that he was going to tell me whatever it was that had him acting odd. Mentally, I tried to prepare myself for Bowie not being able to do long-distance. Although I did feel like we had been doing good at talking on the phone and texting. I thought things with us were good. He’d told me he loved me just last night before we ended the call and went to bed.

  When I’d opened the door this afternoon to him, he’d said he missed me and how he had needed to see my face. I hadn’t been expecting him, and it was a great surprise. One I needed. Kye had been busy with his underworld life this week, and I’d thrown myself into working when I wasn’t at the hospital. My only friends growing up here had been Bowie and Kye. It had taken me moving to Savannah for college to meet my first female friend. Quinn had claimed me the first day we met. Thinking of her made me smile.

  Being a Monday night, the springs weren’t packed. There wasn’t another car here. Relieved that we would have privacy, I stepped out of the truck as Bowie walked around the front to meet me. His grin didn’t look like one of a guy about to break things off. That was some relief. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

  “We got lucky. No one else is here,” he said to me, taking my hand.

  “It is a school night,” I reminded him.

  We made our way over to the spot we knew well and sat down. The moon was bright tonight, and the way it danced over the water was peaceful.

  “I think this is the first time I’ve ever been here without the place being packed,” I said.

  “Yeah, me too,” he agreed. “We’ve got a lot of memories here.”

  I laughed, thinking about the times we’d been here over the years. “Yes, we do.”

  I left out that all those memories had Kye in them too. Bowie already knew that. I’d come here the first time with Kye and Bowie. Chloe had brought us the summer Kye turned nine.

  “I’ve made mistakes with you. Ones I can’t go back and fix. If I had only known then what I know now,” he said to me, his hand tightening over mine, “I would have done it differently. I’d have listened to you about the kiss. I wouldn’t have shut you out. There wouldn’t be this weirdness between Kye and me.” He chuckled, then shook his head. “No. That’s a lie. I wouldn’t have ever been able to think of Kye as my best friend after that day. But I’d have stayed around for you.”

  I really hoped we weren’t out here to rehash the past. I wanted to leave it there. Not go back and think about it.

  “You and Kye were always opposites. That would have probably made the two of you grow apart over time anyway. Here you are, a software programmer, and Kye is a …” I trailed off.

  “Lord of the Underworld,” Bowie finished for me with amusement in his tone.

  I smirked. “Yeah, that. He also works on motorcycles,” I added.

  Why I felt like I had to defend him when Kye chose to be a part of the Mafia life, I didn’t know. But it just always happened.

  “Sure, I know,” Bowie said, and then he lifted our joined hands and placed a kiss on mine. “You’re right. We aren’t anything alike. Growing up, we were boys, and that didn’t matter as much. But as men, we don’t enjoy the same things. For example, there is no way in hell I’d go to a strip club. I don’t like guns, so I sure as heck wouldn’t walk around with one always on my body, and a motorcycle is a death trap.”

  A smile touched my face as I thought of what Kye would say to all that. I was thankful that Bowie didn’t feel the need to go watch women dance naked and that he didn’t like guns. I hated them. The motorcycle thing I might not agree with. Somehow, when I was on the back of Kye’s, I felt safe. But I understood Bowie’s feelings about it. I’d never want him driving one. That would be dangerous.

  “Kye lives a life neither of us will ever understand,” I replied, wanting to get the topic off him.

  It felt wrong to talk about Kye with Bowie. I didn’t want to say or hear anything that made Kye sound bad.

  “Yeah. And I should have seen that at seventeen,” he said. “I love you, Gen. I’m going to love you forever. There isn’t a woman out there who will ever be able to make me feel the way you do.”

  I turned to look at him. Bowie only talked sweet like this when we were making up. We weren’t fighting tonight.

  “I love you too,” I replied.

  He studied me for a moment, then let go of my hand and stood up. Confused by why my saying I loved him would make him move away from me, I started to ask him where he was going when he moved in front of me and started going down on one knee while pulling something out of his pocket. The moment this happened was not something a girl could be prepared for. Had I imagined it in my head? Yes. But it had been years. Back when I had been a young teenager with dreams that were never going to come true.

  This, however, was real. It was right there in front of me.

  Bowie looked up at me, and on the tip of his finger was a diamond ring. My eyes went from the ring to his face. I was sure my mouth was hanging open.

  “Genesis Stoll, I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. It didn’t matter when we were apart. I loved you then too. I hated that I loved you, but I loved you just the same. I was born to love you. Forever, for me, is and will always be you. Will you marry me?”

  This was happening. Oh my God. Not in a million years had I expected this from him. At least not now. I was living back in Ocala while his life was in Charleston. It had only been two hours from me in Savannah, but it was five hours from Ocala. I stared into his eyes and saw the fear. This was why he’d been nervous all night.

  “I want to say yes,” I told him. “But I have so many questions. I can’t promise you I will be able to return to Savannah anytime soon. I don’t know when my dad will be better.”

  He smiled. “I intend to finish this semester, and then the rest will be online. I’ve been offered a job out of Atlanta, but I don’t have to live there. It’s a great opportunity. One I hadn’t expected to get so soon. I’m going to buy us a house here in Ocala. You don’t have to leave your parents.”

  Oh, wow. A house. He was going to buy a house. Here.

  “You want to do that? Live in Ocala?”

  I had always thought he couldn’t wait to get out. He’d always talked about the day we’d move off to a big city up north.

  “I want you, Genesis. Just you.”

  He loved me. Wasn’t that what every girl wanted? Yes. This was the man who loved me enough. I was what he needed. Nothing more. That was what my parents had. I wanted it too.

  “Yes,” I said, surprising myself.

  Bowie’s grin could have lit up the night sky without the moon. He took my finger and slipped the ring onto it. I barely paid attention to the solitaire. My head was spinning. I was engaged. I’d said yes. It was the right thing to do. With Bowie, I’d grow old beside him. He would be faithful and cherish me.

  If only my heart wasn’t breaking a little for the young girl who had always had another groom in mind. A man who would never get on one knee for anyone.

  It was time I grew up and let that dream go.

  Ten

  Kye

  November 2

  I stared at the ceiling fan as it went around and around. The half-empty bottle of Jack in my hand hung off the side of my bed. I wasn’t sure what day it was, and I didn’t fucking care. What I did care about was that I’d need more whiskey soon.

  The only thing that was keeping me sane was my good friend Jack. I was afraid to part with him. If I did, then I’d care. My chest would hurt like a motherfucker again. I wasn’t ready for that. Nope. I was not ready. Numbing this was the only way to make it.

  I’d taunted Sax for sulking after we had Haisley Slate shut him out. It wasn’t like I wanted to do it. But I was just following orders, making sure she stayed away from Sax. He didn’t know it though. He was still struggling with it. We could all tell. But it seemed he had been better lately, but then he’d only known the girl two fucking weeks.

  Genesis had been in my life for thirteen years. We had real history together. What I had with her was deeper than the love shit that Sax thought he had felt.

  Eventually, it wouldn’t hurt so bad, right? I mean, I had to get used to the fact that my Baby Doll was engaged.

  My hand gripped the bottle tighter as I thought about the diamond ring on her finger. Fucking Bowie taking her away from me again. Asking to marry her. Making her his when she was mine. She’d always been mine. Except now, it didn’t feel like it. She had another man’s claim shining on her pretty, slim finger. She had let him put it there. She had said YES to him. Didn’t she understand that saying yes to him was saying goodbye to me?

  I sat up and took another long swig from the bottle. Four other empty bottles sat on the dresser across from me. Levi had said this was the last one he was getting for me when he brought it this morning. He’d said I needed to snap out of it and deal with shit. Well, he didn’t know what this felt like. He could kiss my ass. I’d call someone else to get me more.

  How could she do this to me? To us? This would mess everything up. Change us. Fuck, I hated Bowie. If it was some dickhead I didn’t know, making him disappear would be tempting. But, no, she’d had to go and get back with our childhood best friend. Then get all engaged and shit. Why was he hell-bent on ruining my life? He knew I needed her. He’d left her! Broken up with her! I was the one who had stayed by her side. Not him!