Page 95 of Rescuing Erin

“Tex, king of the dark web. Don’t know how the hell he does what he does, but grateful he’s on our side,” Truck mumbled, throwing his cards onto the pile in the middle of the table.

We fell into a companionable silence as Beatle shuffled and dealt a new hand. The warm Texas breeze blew, and my mouth watered from the smell coming from the smoker. We still had a few hours until the women would be home from shopping, and the food would be ready, a few hours to sit around on the patio and bullshit with Fletch and his team. Ghost returned, set the beers down, and leaned back in his seat.

“Almost like old times,” he mumbled.

“Better than old times,” Blade corrected. “Old times means it was just us sad saps sitting on Fletch’s patio wishing we had what we all have now. I think I speak for all of us when I say I like life better now.”

Fletch looked around his old backyard, then to his teammates, and the pensive looked turned into a grin. “Yeah, you can say that again. Lots of good times in this backyard.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Ghost held up his beer and everyone touched bottle necks. “What about you, Colin?”

“What about me?” Ghost motioned to seven bottles touching in the middle of the table and I lifted mine. “To the future.”

Glass clinked, and brews were chugged.

“Hurry up and finish dealing,” Truck instructed. “We have ninety minutes until the women get back. Let’s see how much more of Coach’s money we can take.”

Sitting around the backyard bullshitting with the guys, giving them a little piece of their history, even if the present and future were better and brighter than the past meant a lot to me. The only thing that would make it better was Erin sitting on my lap. Not only because I loved my wife and hated being away from her, but she was a card shark, and I was losing my ass.

* * *

Two years later- Annapolis, Maryland.

Erin

We pulled up to Linc and Jasmin’s house, and I couldn’t stop the fit of giggles.

“Who would’ve ever thought?” The front of their porch was covered in balloons. “I wonder whose idea it was to decorate the front of the house?” I asked.

In the two years since Colin and I had been married, a lot had changed. Children had been born, the guys had gone on countless missions, and my parents had moved back to Texas. The one constant was my cousin. Sure, in the beginning, after the twins were born, she’d softened a skosh. But the tiny bit she’d changed had taken nothing away from her badass demeanor.

“My guess is Linc. Sometimes I think he’s the more sensitive one in their relationship,” Colin joked.

I found that highly unlikely. Lincoln Parker was all man. Not that I’d say that to my husband, who was all alpha male himself, but there was no questioning Linc’s manhood.

“If you’ll grab Lexi, I’ll get the presents,” he continued.

Careful not to wake our daughter, I took the car seat out of the back and waited for Colin before walking to the house.

“Do you think you got them enough toys?” he asked, carrying a stack of boxes and had gift bags hanging from his fingers. “They’re only two.”

“You mean, we? And yes, we got them enough.”

Colin was still shaking his head when we walked through the door. Thankfully, Lexi was a good sleeper because the house was utter chaos. Kids and toys were strewn about, adults weaved around the little ones, and laughter filled the space.

Nothing better.

“There you two are,” Livie greeted. “Bummer, she’s sleeping,” she added when she peeked at Lexi.

“Sorry we’re late. She went down for her nap early today.”

“Oh.” Liv laughed. “I see.”

“The only thing you see is I was able to take a shower today without a bouncy seat in the bathroom with me.”

Colin deposited our gifts next to the huge pile and was back at my side, taking the car seat from me.

“Where’s Giorgia?” I asked about Leo and Olivia’s first-born daughter.