She laughs, grabbing a slice of bacon before heading toward the door. “That’s my hint to disappear for a while. I’ll be right next door if you need me. Heather promised to help me write some letters to our congressman.”
Of course she did. Heather was so proud of Fred for being clever enough to send that video that she would have agreed to anything.
I like Heather.
Diane is…growing on me.
“I’m dying,” Miller groans loudly from the couch. “This is why I don’t drink.”
I step into the living room, a glass of juice and some Advil in my hand. “I don’t think you’re dying, but I honestly can’t be sure. I can’t say I’ve ever had wine from a box before.”
Miller goes so still, I wondered for a second if he’s fallen back to sleep.
“You’re here?” he asks, his eyes still tightly closed.
I sit down on the coffee table across from the couch. “Where the hell else would I be, Millie?”
He looks at me now, his golden eyes uncertain. “I thought you were—”
“I wasn’t. I was seeing Royal and Austen off.” I lift the glass. “Sit up and drink this for me.”
He obeys gingerly, holding his head as if it might dislodge itself. “The dog tripped me, otherwise I would have shown up at the airport and done something seriously embarrassing.”
“Like what?” I ask innocently as he takes the pills with his juice.
Miller laughs and then winces at the noise. “I’ll never tell. And if my friends ever want to set foot in this house again, neither will they.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I say, taking the glass from his hand before he drops it.
“You mean today?” he asks uncertainly.
“I mean I’m not leaving you. Period. If I go somewhere from now on, you’re coming with me. That’s the only way this is going to work.”
Miller shakes his head. “I can’t fly away every time you do. I have to work. I have Fred. Well, I hope I have Fred. That’s not official yet.”
I shrug. “And thanks to my father being a rich asshole, I now have more money than either of us could spend in a lifetime. I’m looking into getting my own plane. Might make vacations more fun. And we could bring the dog. What do you think?”
Miller leans back on the couch. “First, I think I need to get a new couch—this one sucks and my neck is hurting.”
I feel a sympathetic twinge. “What else?”
“I think I’m still asleep. You can’t quit your job. You love your job. You love traveling. You even love your uniform.”
“I love you,” I correct him quietly. “And you happen to be worth sticking around for and making a home with. The job wasn’t what I loved, anyway. Just the flying. Though I do think I looked pretty good in that uniform.”
“You do.”
“I can wear it for you later.” I waggle my eyebrows and he laugh-winces again. “Come on. Let’s get you in the shower and then you can eat my delicious, mostly cold bacon.”
“Brendan.” He stops me at the foot of the stairs and lays his hands on my shoulders. “I need to tell you something.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Trust me, Miller.”
He glares at me. “You don’t know what I’m going to say.”
I lean forward, stopping with my lips pressed against his temple. “The first time,” I croon, humming a few bars.
He elbows me in the stomach and then stomps up the stairs. “Oh my God, I hate everyone.”
“You love me,” I call up to him in a teasing sing-song, before following in his wake. “You know you do.”
And here I thought I finally had a handle on romance.
6 months later
“Fred is not going to learn to fly before she learns to drive.”
I slap Miller’s ass as I pass him on the tarmac, making Fred laugh. “Fred’s known how to drive since she was thirteen. She just hasn’t had a license.”
“That’s true.” Fred untangles Dix from his leash before joining us beside the plane.
My plane.
“I want to fly, Miller,” she tells him. “Think of the possibilities. Skywriting, banners…”
I wink at my new husband. “Think of it, Millie. Just think of it.”
“Believe me, I’m thinking things,” he grumbles.
That feeling when you finally convince your best friend to marry you in a cheesy double ceremony with a big bear of a Samoan and the woman of his dreams? Yeah, I’m finally there.
To say the reception was crowded would be an understatement. The Wayne family, Royal’s family—and yes, I’m talking all nine brothers plus one—as well as every member of the Finn clan, since we held it at their pub. It was a lot for Miller to take in, realizing his family was so much bigger than it used to be.
Don’t let him fool you, though. He’s starting to love the attention.
Austen joked about holding the wedding in an escape room. Thankfully Royal talked her out of it by asking if the marriage would still be legal if they didn’t escape in the allotted time.