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Downy was talking to my dad and Luke by the front door that we were heading toward. Nico was talking to his boys by the bar—both of which had beers in their hands.
Michael, Foster, and Miller were bellied up to the bar reaching for beers.
“Y’all were all worried about drinking tonight, and look where it left you,” Ares said as she walked up to Hayes and pressed herself against him.
Hayes wrapped his arm around Ares’ shoulder and pressed a light kiss on her cheek. Ares pouted at him, but he jerked his head in the direction of her dad. “Yeah, I’m not doing any more of that until I get home.”
I snickered. “Wiener.”
Hayes’ eyes came to me where I was being held bridal style in Louis’ arms.
“So you pick locks?” he asked curiously.
I patted Louis’ arm. As much as I liked being there, and despite being tired as hell still, I didn’t like appearing lazy in front of half the police department.
“Put me down, please,” I whispered.
Louis did but didn’t remove his arm from around my waist.
“I pick locks because these guys said that I couldn’t.” I gestured to Louis, Booth, and Bourne since they were closest.
“Hey,” Booth said upon hearing my comment. “I’ll have you know that it wasn’t me that said you couldn’t. I knew you could.”
“We all knew you could,” Louis rumbled from behind me.
I grinned.
“You really shouldn’t be carrying that lockpick around,” Dad muttered. “One day it’s gonna get you in trouble.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
But what was the point of having a lock kit if you couldn’t carry it around?
“What took y’all so long to get here?” I asked. “I was in that bathroom for what felt like forever.”
“It was an hour,” Louis said with amusement, his arm moving so that I was covering his front a little better.
I knew why when I felt his erection being pressed up against my ass.
Lips twitching, I looked at the destroyed bar around me.
“So who were the men that came in and started all of this?” I asked.
“A couple of men that were drunk off their ass coming from the Longview Lumberjacks game,” Nathan muttered as he came up to stand beside Louis and me. “Apparently, upon seeing me at the bar, they decided that they didn’t much like how I decided to quit playing baseball instead of being traded to the Longview Lumberjacks.”
I looked over at him.
“Why did you do that?” I asked curiously.
He looked down at where I was standing in Louis’ arms, then shrugged. “I was tired of playing.”
My brows rose. Was that all? Or was it that Reggie had come back to Kilgore and was home for good?
Reggie, the girl he loved to hate.
Without actually flat-out asking him about Reggie, though, I decided that I’d deal with his non-answer.
Looking toward my dad, I said, “I’m leaving.”
Dad’s lips twitched. “I assumed.”
“Are we still doing that dinner this weekend?” I asked.
Dad’s eyes filled with laughter. “We do ‘that dinner’ every last Saturday of the month, rain or shine,” he said. “And you know this.”
I sighed.
I did know this.
Which was why I was hoping his answer would change.
But, this month, things would be different.
The ‘dinner’ in question was actually a barbeque and get-together of all the SWAT families. We were highly encouraged to come by our parents, and it’d been something that I dreaded going to since Louis had broken it off with me.
But things would be different this month.
Louis wouldn’t be someone I avoided at all costs, now would he?
Slipping out of Louis’ arms, I walked to my dad and gave him a hard hug that he returned in kind. “Love you.”
He dropped a kiss onto my forehead. “Love you, too, baby girl.”
Before I could talk myself out of it, I walked back to Louis and let him wrap his arm back around me.
Then we walked out of the bar, me leaning heavily into my man.
“That was fun,” Louis joked as he led me to his truck. “Right?”
I snorted and rubbed my nose against his shoulder, relishing in the way he smelled.
Pine and man.
My favorite combination.
He’d smelled like that for as long as I could remember, and the distinct scent that was all Louis made me feel even more calm than I already was.
Which was weird seeing as I should’ve maybe been slightly freaking out due to the fight that’d been happening moments earlier.
“How many people did you arrest?” I asked curiously.
“Twenty-four.” He grinned. “Three got let go because they were just there, not participating. Those two women that tried to start a fight with y’all went, too. They’re going to have some explaining to do. But it’s doubtful they’ll be held.”
Seconds after that last word left his mouth, Louis’ mouth came down on my throat, nuzzling there as if he had every right to do so.
And he did.
