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“Pork crackling!” Tatum said, smiling at Marilyn. Turning to Dustin, she asked, “Tell me you know how to make good crackling. I will love you forever if you do.”
“I can google that,” he said, and I had to chuckle at his enthusiasm. But then, that was Dustin. Always trying to make others happy. I guessed he took that upon himself when everyone in his family had been so damn unhappy.
I stretched one arm across the back of Tatum’s chair and reached for my beer with the other arm. Whispering in her ear while everyone else was talking and laughing, I said, “Marry me.”
Her head snapped around and she looked at me with shock. “What?”
I grinned. “I said, marry me.”
She stared in silence for a beat. And then my woman let loose on my ass. “That’s a shitty proposal, Nitro. If you want me to commit to you, you’re going to have to do about a hundred times better than that for a proposal.”
My grin grew, and I kissed her before she could push me away. “I was just testing the waters, Vegas.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You are so full of shit it isn’t funny.”
“And that right there is why I’m gonna marry your ass one day. Your fight gets me so fucking hard.” I said it loud enough so that only she could hear.
“God, you are so romantic sometimes,” she grumbled.
I kissed her again. “You wouldn’t know what to do wi
th romance.”
“Maybe you should try it one day and we’ll see just how much further it gets you with me.”
“You’re telling me it’ll get me laid faster or more often?”
She smacked me, but I saw the laughter in her eyes. “I’m telling you that it might just blow your mind. Men have no fucking clue what the smallest romantic gesture is capable of achieving.”
I kept my gaze on her while I sucked back some beer. If she wanted romance, I’d fucking give it to her. But not because I wanted to get laid or because I wanted my ring on her finger. I’d give it to her because it would make her happy and that was all I cared about. A smile on Tatum’s face was like the sun shining on you when all you’d had was rain for weeks. And when she laughed… that shit was everything I lived for these days.
* * *
Tatum handed Devil a glass of Coke and said, “You wanna stay for dinner?”
Devil and I had been out in my shed for hours working on my bike. We were almost finished when Tatum arrived home from a day out shopping with Monroe.
“What you cooking, gorgeous?”
“I’m not cooking tonight. Nitro is.”
He grinned at me. “I like your style, brother. Keeping your woman happy by cooking. Smart move.”
Tatum knew that Devil and I always gave each other shit and clearly she decided she wanted in on that when she leant across and said to him, “It’s not his cooking that keeps me happy. It’s all in the way he uses that tongue of his when he l—”
Devil held up his hand and cut her off. “Nope, don’t need to know any more. But fuck, Tatum, you sure you don’t have a sister? I need a chick with a dirty mouth like yours.”
She laughed, but before she could reply, King entered my backyard and came our way. He had a woman with him. I squinted to get a better look at her and stood there stunned when I realised who it was.
“Is that Jen?” Devil asked just as I worked it out.
“Yeah, brother, that’s Jen.”
“Fuck, I never saw that coming.”
King had his arm around her as if they were together, which surprised me because they’d been apart for six years. The year after he’d become president had been turbulent for them, and she’d walked away to be with another man. It had shattered him.
“King,” I greeted him and then glanced at Jen and lifted my chin at her. “Jen.”
