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"A wedding?Sure, I’ll go to a wedding." Knox Savage hadn’t planned on attending nuptials today, but he wasn’t mad at the prospect of going as his cousin’s plus one. "I love weddings."
"Youloveweddings?" The doubt in his cousin Keaton’s voice came through loud and clear over the speakers in his Range Rover.
"Promises of forever. Dancing. Drinks. What’s not to love?"
"And single women," Keaton added.
Knox’s cousin knew him well. He did love women, and thankfully, women loved him. Knox had never suffered from false modesty. At six feet four, with brown hair and brown eyes, an athletic build, and a strong jaw line, he was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. And that just scratched the surface. He was also a tattooed, recently retired Navy SEAL who had been blessed with what his grandad referred to as the gift of gab.
His mom maintained that flirting was in his DNA. One of his earliest memories was being in the grocery store with his mom; he had to have been two or three because he was in the cart where toddlers sit. He remembered, clear as day, asking the cashier if she was a princess. She told him no, and he told her she should be because she was as pretty as one. Her face lit up with a megawatt smile, and even at that young age, he remembered feeling a surge of happiness for being the one who put the smile on her face.
He still loved that feeling.
"How close are you?" Keaton asked fortuitously as Knox drove past the sign that read Welcome to Whisper Lake Population 3,476.
"I just passed the city limits."
After driving for the past twenty-plus hours straight from Florida, Knox was definitely going to have to rally to be up for the celebration. But a shower, some coffee, and some food, and he’d be ready to do the Cupid Shuffle, the Macarena, or whatever the wedding DJ threw at him.
"Does he know you’re coming?" Keaton asked.
The ‘he’ that Keaton was referring to was Knox’s older brother Ford, who had no clue that Knox was going to be showing up on his doorstep in just a few minutes.
"Nope."And that’s going to make it even sweeter.
"You know how he feels about surprises," Keaton warned.
"Yes." A wide smile spread on Knox’s face. "Yes, I do."
There were few things in life that brought Knox as much pleasure as fucking with his older brother. Which, to Knox’s great delight, was very easy to do since Ford was basically the real-life version of Oscar the Grouch.
In fairness, Ford hadn’t always been that way. If memory served, Ford used to be a lot more fun. But when his older brother was ten, Knox was six, and their youngest brother Sebastian was four, their dad died suddenly. After that, their mom had to work two, sometimes three, jobs. The brunt of caring for Knox and their younger brother, Sebastian, fell on Ford’s shoulders. And to add more to his plate, their cousin Keaton, who was the same age as Knox, had moved in just a few years later.
As much as Knox appreciated his big brother stepping up and making sure that none of the younger Savages ended up in jail or six feet under, he loved getting a rise out of him so much more.
"Well, you know you can stay with me if Ford tosses your ass out on the street," Keaton offered.
"Thanks, but I’m good. I got a short-term rental. I get the keys tomorrow."
"Are you going to tell Ford you’re only staying at his house for one night?"
"Where would the fun be in that?" Knox planned on letting his brother sweat, thinking that he was going to have a houseguest for an undetermined amount of time. Which Knox knew would be his brother’s version of hell.
Keaton chuckled over the phone. "How long are you planning on staying in town?"
"The summer. I got the rental for three months."
"Where do you think you’ll head after that?"
"Wherever I want to."
As much pride as Knox took in serving his country as a SEAL for the past twenty years, he was happy to finally have no one to answer to. He planned on taking full advantage of his newfound freedom. He’d been out for nearly a month now. The first person he’d gone to see, after a quick tropical trip to the Bahamas with an Instagram model named Bianca, was his mom down in Florida. He’d hung out with her for a few weeks before she sent him on this mission.
Knox had a special delivery to give to his brother. Their mother’s wedding ring. She wanted his oldest brother to have it because, apparently, Ford’s grumpy ass had found someone worthy to wear it.
Elaine Savage didn’t trust the postal service to transport the ring that had been in the family for generations, so Knox agreed to deliver the ring in person. His cross-country trip served two purposes. One, gaining brownie points with their mom to solidify his standing as her favorite son. And two, he was going to stick around for a little bit and make sure that his brother wasn’t getting played…again.
