Page 253 of Five Brothers

We hold each other, listening.

“Macon!” Trace calls out. “We can’t live like this. We’re going to need another bathroom. Like, yesterday!”

Yeah, we need the addition to the house finished, like, yesterday. We’re at full capacity.

I bury my face in Krisjen’s neck, rethinking my desire to leave the bedroom at all. Ever again.

But she pops up, straddling me. “Oh, can we get a Christmas tree today?”

I shake my head. “I’m not stepping foot in that shithole of a town right now.”

She flashes me a bold smile along with her breasts. “Good things do come from that shithole.” She wiggles her eyebrows. “You know you like to slum.”

I arch up, kissing her chest, her neck. “My little princess from the wrong side of the tracks …”

She circles my neck with her arms, both of us stirring again.

But just when I think I’ve successfully distracted her, she pulls back and looks down at me. “Tonight,” she tells me. “We’ll take everyone out for food, pick out a tree, put the kids to bed, and then we’ll break into Mariette’s for dessert and have sex on one of the tables.”

I chuckle.Fine.“With the skates?” I ask, hopeful.

She smiles wide, but then stops me as I start to kiss her neck again and glances over her shoulder to where they lie on my bedroom floor. “Hey, how did they get in your bedroom, by the way?”

I crash back on the bed, squeezing my eyes shut. “Ah, shit.” Fuck. I totally forgot about that.

“Macon?”

“I can explain,” I rub my eyes. “Just give me a sec …”

But she grabs my throat, her eyes zoning in like bullets. “Explain … what?”

“Nothing happened.”

Her scowl deepens. “Whatdidn’t happen?”

I hold up my hands in surrender, loving everything about having her in my bed with me, and trying to keep the laughter at bay.

She’ll be a handful, indeed.

And I’m here for all of it.

Epilogue

Krisjen

Four Years Later

I think I’ll marry Army next. Or Trace. He’s agreeable and teachable. Why not? It’ll be great.

Or … I could just run the Bay on my own. The newly widowed queen who steps in, becauseshe’s a fucking widow now, because she’s going to kill Macon Jaeger!

“I need a shower,” he says, laughing as he comes through the door with his brothers.

I pull my thumbnail out of my mouth and spin toward him as I stand at the window.

He drifts into the dark house, the grandfather clock chiming 5:00 a.m. “Let me wake up Krisjen first.”

But I grab the framed picture of us, me in his arms, my legs wrapped around him, my happy smile peering over his shoulder as the camera captures only his back.Good times. Better days.