in the slightest by Beau’s rejection—he never was. He simply cast Beau a pretty smile, and then joined the rest of the clubs—or club, now—as they climbed into the bakery to start picking through the wreckage.
I finished signing off on the documents. Beau, a little irritated with a hint of a flush to his cheeks, shook my hand brusquely and walked back to the fire department SUV.
I watched as the club members split up and began to systematically trawl through the wreckage, looking for salvageable equipment or anything else. It was a serious process, but it wasn’t devoid of laughter. I hadn’t gone in yet—and I didn’t know if I was ready. But seeing my family band together to help me with the hardest part made it a little easier.
“You really think this is gonna work?” I asked Heath—not only talking about Stella’s, but—all of it.
He stood close to my side and tucked his small hand into my back pocket. “Yeah, I think so. It won’t always be as easy as this. But I think it’ll work out.”
I nodded. “I definitely won’t miss having to navigate alliances. Easier to just be one big group.”
“Bigger family,” Heath corrected. He bumped his head against my shoulder, and when I looked down, he was smiling up at me. “And a bigger family can never be a bad thing.”
I tilted my head down and kissed him, wrapping my arm around his waist to pull him a little closer.
Stella’s was burned, but it wasn’t gone, and there wasn’t anything I’d lost that couldn’t be recovered, even if it wasn’t the same as it had been. I knew this suddenly, truthfully, as deeply as I knew my own name. With the club’s help, and Heath at my side, we would rebuild. And Stella’s wouldn’t just be mine anymore. It’d be ours.
It wasn’t an ending. It was a beginning. A really fucking beautiful one at that, and one I’d almost missed out on.
Heath pulled away. I brushed his blond hair from those big brown eyes that I’d fallen so hard for.
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m glad we have a bigger family now. And I’m glad that you’re the heart of it.”
“Don’t be so corny, Tru will hear you,” Heath said, but his cheeks burned, and he couldn’t hide how pleased he was.
I kissed him again, this time gently on his cheekbone. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” he murmured. “Now let’s start rebuilding.”
31
Tru
I stretched my arms overhead, feeling my spine lengthen and pop with the motion. I’d been spending a lot of time in the Crew gym these days, working out my frustration and energy on the heavy bag, and the extra workouts were making their presence known in my sore muscles.
“Come on,” Star called. “You’re not getting out of helping.”
“I’m not trying to get out of helping,” I said, but I checked my nails just to watch Star roll her eyes. “I’m seeing where I’m needed.”
“In the dirt with the rest of us,” she said, and climbed into the bakery.
The rest of the Crew and Hell’s Ankhor—well, technically all of us were Hell’s Ankhor now, that’d take some getting used to—were already inside. Or, as inside as one could be in a building without a roof.
Dare and the Kid were about to step inside, too, once they were done canoodling. They were cute together, I couldn’t deny that. I was happy that Dare had found someone who could give back all the love Dare had to give. And thank fuck I wouldn’t have to listen to him whine about Eddy anymore.
So what if maybe I was a little jealous, too? I could really just use a quick lay to get some of this excess stress and energy out. The extra workouts weren’t cutting it, that much was clear.
It also didn’t help that somehow, every time I saw Beau, he’d gotten hotter. How was that possible? Even the first morning I’d met him—when I was dealing with cops and firefighters and the club members and Dante in shock—part of me couldn’t ignore how fucking hot he was. I loved a man who was competent, and commanding, and just got shit done.
And, of course, there was the whole thing of him being a firefighter. Who could blame me for harboring a few firefighter fantasies? That was definitely a conquest I wanted to check off my bucket list of sex.
Plus, the way he kept blowing me off only had me even more curious. Not a whole lot of guys turned down