Fuck.
“Love you too, Rynnie,” he whispered.
She did a slow blink.
Then she asked, “What?”
He rolled them so he was on top, got in her face, and said, “You made me laugh before I could say it to you in the car. So I’m sayin’ it now.” He dropped his face closer. “I love you, Kathryn Rose Jansen. Best woman I ever met. Best daughter I ever saw. Best sister there could be. Best aunt in the world.” He grinned. “And by far the best fuck I’ve ever had.”
He was damned pleased with himself that he’d returned the favor when he watched her explode with laughter.
He was smiling at her when she sobered and caught his head in both hands.
“I love it. We’re gushy, but we’re edgy gushy,” she declared.
“Something wrong with gushy?” he asked.
“Only if it isn’t edgy gushy. I’m a tough chick. I got a rep to uphold.”
It was him laughing at that.
He kissed her while doing it, and when he lifted his head, he told her, “Best be gettin’ on getting me my plaque.”
She looked confused.
And yeah.
Even that was hot on her.
“Your what?”
“My plaque, sweetheart. Mag and Evie became a thing, she got him a plaque. It’s got his name and says ‘Number One Boyfriend.’ Sits at his station at work next to the new one she got him. ‘Number One Fiancé.’”
She started giggling.
Actually giggling.
It was cute.
And it was hot too.
“Now that is gushy,” she stated.
It totally was.
She got serious and whispered, “What were you and Brian talking about?”
He got serious too. “Baby, don’t ask that.”
“Boone—”
“He had some truths to hand to me, Ryn, and I let him do that. He’ll have some for you and you’re gonna have to let him do that too.”
She was not ready to let that lie, he could tell by the expression on her face as well as her mouth starting to open.
So he gave her more. “If you got any worries left that he and me are past that shit in the hospital, that he’s actually doing the work to repair what means something to him, just to say, you can let them go.”
She shut her mouth.
Boone kept talking.
“And you can also quit asking me if it’s okay we got the kids. Portia and Jethro are great. I like bein’ around them. I like more, watchin’ you around them. Maybe most of all, though, is having them means givin’ your brother one less thing to worry about as he gets his shit together, so it means you having your brother back. So I’ll tell you what I told him. I’m in. I’m in for what he needs from us. I’m in for what you need from me. I’m in for what those kids need so they can have some healthy in their lives. And I’ll finish this by saying, it’s not a sacrifice, because again, I dig Portia and Jethro. They’re great.”
Her eyes got a little dewy, but his Ryn, for whatever reason (and he had to let her be who she was, though only if it wasn’t harming her), unless it got the better of her, she worked to hold back the waterworks.
So she got a handle on it.
Still, when she did, she had a look on her face he couldn’t decipher.
Though he knew he liked it.
But it made him whisper, “What?”
Her expression grew soft and she whispered back, “Nothing.”
Then she lifted her head, pushing off on her foot, taking him to his back, all this while kissing him.
Time to see if he could work that jazzed out of her.
Boone put effort into it.
And in the end, he succeeded.
* * *It was that next Friday when Boone was at his workstation that Elvira, Hawk’s office manager, came out of her office, shouting, “Mail call!”
All the men at their stations (though there were only three, Boone, Zane and Auggie) looked to her as she started up the steps at the side holding something in her hand.
Boone didn’t have to look at the other guys to know all of them were like him, perplexed, seeing as none of them ever got any mail at the office.
But it was when he noticed what she had in her hand, and that she was on her way to him, that he started laughing.
“This keeps happening,” she said, halfway down the row to him, “gonna have to get me my own. One that says ‘Slayer’ or ‘Long Suffering Diva’ or one I can turn around at the appropriate moments that says, ‘Take Your Alpha Self Outta My Office, You’re Doin’ My Head In.’”