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Until Travis walked up behind us, admonishing me, “Are you serious? You think we wouldn’t want to be here for you?”
I stiffened, then shock spread through me as I saw Vicky, Howard, Lo, Roger, and my eyes began watering because there were so many more behind them.
“Don’t get mad at your man, but Broudou told me what was happening.” Travis shrugged. “I made a few calls.”
“Brett?”
I was already plastered against his side, but at his name, his hand slid around my waist and he pulled me to stand in front of him, his arms firmly holding me in place. His head dipped, and he said next to my ear, “He was your brother, Billie. They’re here for you.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead, brushing some of my hair back.
My family was here. They’d come for me.
Vicky and Lo gave me hugs, and right after, I returned to Brett’s shelter, almost sagging back against him as I took in the entirety of people who now surrounded my mom and brother’s graves.
Olvander and Kayla.
Dusty and Stone Reeves, some younger men that I hadn’t met were also with them.
Jake and Emma Bilson.
Colby Doubard.
These people were here for Brett, which almost had me crying all over again because following the showdown Brett had with his sister, which was more of a showdown between who he is now versus who he was before, and what I had to say all about that, he started letting people in.
As this happened, the biggest surprise was that Colby and Brett were almost inseparable. Everyone had been surprised by that, but I wasn’t. I knew Brett and I was starting to understand Colby behind the mask he showed to everyone else. The two were similar in so many ways.
More people were still joining, more of Brett’s friends.
Channing Monroe and his wife. Mason Kade and his wife. Two other men were also with them, both giving Brett a nod in acknowledgement.
Will and Harmony were the last ones to join, filling in the last spot in the circle everyone had created. I didn’t think it was done on purpose, but as Will’s brother closed it up, somehow, it was perfect.
My hand found Brett’s and squeezed so hard. Grateful.
But a shudder went down my spine because there was one more thing I needed to tell Brett.
EPILOGUE 1: BRETT
THREE YEARS LATER.
“Hey, man.” Channing slapped me on the back after Will and I brought in the last of our things. He held out a beer, holding his own up for a salute after I took it. He handed a non-alcoholic one to Will since we both knew my brother didn’t drink. “Are you all done? How’s it feel?”
I took the beer, and all of us touched our cans together, but I gave him a look before taking a drag. “How’s what feel, Monroe? Me? I’m fucking tired, but I also know we got a lot more shit to do yet.”
Channing hid a grin as I skimmed through the house.
It was ten-thirty at night and the house Billie and I were moving into was riddled with boxes, packing paper, bags, and the furniture was spread out in every room. For the most part, Billie had already walked through the house before our trip with an interior designer. They mapped where they wanted everything put. I wasn’t sure how much Billie was leaning on the designer, but she liked having a partner to go over everything together.
Me? Tell me to put our bed in the living room, and I might’ve given her a funny look, but I would’ve done it. Whatever made Billie happy made me happy, an edict that we’d been living by for the last three years. We’d finished the trip today with Will flying down and doing the drive with us. I drove the bigger truck with the last of our items while either he or Billie drove the other vehicle. If Billie was tired, he switched with her and she rode with me.
We had movers take the bulk in an earlier trip, but this was the last of it.
Vicky and Howard were flying in tomorrow to help unpack everything, but in all honesty, Billie didn’t need the extra hands. She had enough here with Harmony, Stevie, and there were others who were waiting to jump in and help. They were holding off, waiting for the go-ahead. That was Channing’s woman and also Samantha Kade. There were others in their group, and Billie had met them all during a few of our trips here to visit my family. We’d come more during Shannon’s trial, and my sister pleading not guilty was a given, something she’d do no matter the evidence that’d been built up against her. I’d not been shocked. She kept turning down any deals offered to her, and the whole trial had been a shit-show. The Shannon shit-show, though in the end she was found guilty of every charge they threw at her. There’d been things inside their house that the police found, dark things, dreadful things that ensured both Shannon and her boyfriend would be gone a long time.
Everyone felt better knowing she was there and she couldn’t get out.
“I was referring more to your decision about football. You and Mason retired at the same time.” His mouth turned up in a crooked grin. And because Monroe was Monroe, I knew he was baiting me. Seeing if he could get some form of reaction from me, just so he could get a feel on how I was really doing. He’d done it in high school when we were enemies and that habit never went away. Channing liked to rile people up in general. Since Billie got in my face, literally, or technically as I got in her face when I’d almost done something stupid that might’ve put me in prison, I took her words to heart. She wanted me to let people in, so I did. Or I worked at it. It was still a struggle because that’s how I had been all my life. But I trusted Billie and she said she wanted me to have friends, so I had friends. If she said it, I did it.
Channing laughed for five straight minutes the first time I called him and explained what Billie wanted, hooting how ‘adorable’ I was, doing what my woman wanted. I tossed shit right back at him because he was wrapped tight around his own woman’s pinkie and he knew it. Since then there was a friendship between us, but we’d always been on the opposite side of things for most of our lives so that push and pull between us wasn’t going to go away. It helped that I’d been paying him to give me updates on my family, which paved the beginning of our friendship long ago.
