The door slamming followed his confession, and when I looked at Ari—expecting to see her looking pissed—she was grinning at me.
“And that’s how you get rid of them.”
I had to hold onto the edge of the counter to stop my ass from slipping when I started laughing. That was one of the smartest things I’d ever seen.
Ari watched me the whole time with a soft smile, and when it left me, she murmured, “I love seeing you laugh.”
“You always find a way, baby.”
The smile widened into a grin as she moved up onto her tiptoes and kissed me gently before moving away to make our coffees.
Free and easy laughter had been rare for me over the years, but finally, it was coming back to me.
And I loved it.
But then, I loved her.TwelveAriana“Why are we out here again?” Beau asked for the tenth time since we’d walked out to wait for Sadie in the parking lot behind the bar.
“Because Sadie said she had something she wanted to show us.”
I’d been slightly later than usual this morning because Parker had asked me to spend the night at his tonight. Of course a lady had to pack stuff for something like that, and it didn’t include old pajamas or ones with Welcome To The Jungle written across the ass.
I was glad for Sadie’s distraction, though, because my brain felt like it was scattered in a million directions. I was thinking about the kid who needed his dad’s liver, I hadn’t gone for a run in two days, and I didn’t know what was going to happen tonight or if I’d shaved properly. Hardly plans of world domination, but they were still stopping me from relaxing.
Just then, the deep growl of an engine even I could hear needed some work rumbled from the other side of the building.
“Ari,” Elijah hissed, appearing next to me. “She was looking at an F250 online last week. I’m hoping like hell she didn’t go ahead and buy it.”
“Leave her alone, you big bully. She can buy whatever vehicle she wants.”
“How would she get into it? She’s the size of a pixie,” Levi added, overhearing what Elijah had said.
This was a good point. I knew it wasn’t easy getting into one if you were shorter than me—although it was amusing to watch my sisters-in-law try—and at Sadie’s height, that would be even worse.
Still, hoes before bros, right?
“She’ll find a way. She’s one of the most determined people I’ve ever met.”
An old Mustang convertible pulled into the parking lot, spitting up gravel and bringing a cloud of smoke with it, and effectively stopping the discussion in its tracks. My family had wanted to be here to celebrate her surprise—all of us assuming it was a good one—so there was a large crowd of us who all lifted our hands, coughing as we waved our hands through the air to clear it.
“What do you think?” she squealed, standing on the driver’s seat to look over the windshield at us all. “Isn’t she a beauty? I got myself a ten second car!”
Hearing the iconic Fast & Furious quote, we all looked at Gramps, who’d attempted to recreate a scene from one of the movies with a safe recently. Spoiler alert: he failed at it and totally fucked up his car, and was still in deep shit with Grams for it.
“She’s… uh, well, she’s gorgeous, honey,” Gramps called back, having the decency to blush as he avoided our smirks at the lie.
“Ten second car?” Elijah hissed. “That wouldn’t be a ten second car if you dropped it off a fucking cliff.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah, I got her for a steal.”
“Uh, did you make sure it wasn’t stolen?” Levi asked as he walked around it.
“Duh! I FaceTime’d Dad while I was there so he could see it and put the fear of God in the guy selling it.”
Apparently her dad hadn’t been scary enough.
Walking over to it, Elijah squatted down and started looking it over with Levi and Tate. Gramps, though, told her to pop the hood so he could check the engine.
I was still standing far enough behind them that I didn’t see what it looked like when the hood went up, but it wasn't good judging from the groans and curses.
“Yeah, she needs a little bit of work…” Sadie admitted, getting incredulous looks from the men, “but I think she’ll be a beaut when it’s all done.”
Out of curiosity, I joined them and looked at where they were staring again. The first thing I asked was, “Isn’t that little pot thingy meant to have a lid on it?” I mean, mine did. I didn’t look at the engine often, but I’d popped the hood a couple of times, and there was always a cap that screwed on and off the container I was pointing to.