Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,91

first.”

Cade nodded wisely. “She wouldn’t even frisk me properly. The woman was made out of restraint. I think if I hadn’t had a kid up my sleeve, I would’ve been doomed.”

“Speaking of your kid, where is he, exactly?” I asked.

“Taking advantage of the free day care, thank you very much.”

Rich cleared his throat. “Kira tried pretty hard to throw me off too.”

“Gee, thanks, Rich,” she said with a sideways smile. “You make me sound really tough.”

He shrugged. “I knew you wanted me from the get-go. I just had to be patient enough for you to admit it to yourself.”

“Liar,” Kira said, laughing.

After a few minutes, Cade, Rich, Kira, and Iris were all laughing about something that happened at a King family barbecue a few weeks back.

Miranda leaned her head into my shoulder and smiled. “I really am happy.”

“Because you’re winning?” I asked.

“There’s that. Yes. But I’m happy I got you. And you’re the first guy I’ve ever been with who encourages my ambition. You don’t get intimidated or weird about it. I really appreciate that.”

I kissed the top of her head. “As long as your ambitions also include a side of wanting to get into my pants, I’ll always be there to help push you along.”

She laughed. “I was thinking it would be easier to take them off instead of trying to fit inside them.”

“You’re the boss.”

She didn’t answer right away, but when she did, her tone was slow and thoughtful. “I am, and I finally found something that matters to me more than that.”

“Chili cheese fries?” Cade asked. He picked one out of her tray and popped it into his mouth. “You should really free both your hands before you give sappy speeches. I mean, wouldn’t setting that tray down kind of kill the mood before you go in for a romantic kiss?”

I thrust the tray into his chest, and he happily took it.

“Hey, weird question,” I said suddenly.

“Is it about snails?”

I grinned. “No. It’s just that you said you never understood people who had kids before they got what they wanted out of their careers. So now that you seem to have done the whole career thing . . .”

She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, eyes darting across my face like she was waiting for a punch line. “If you don’t mean what I think you mean, I will literally murder you. I won’t even wait until you’re asleep. I’ll make sure it’s painful and messy.”

“I mean it all. But you can bet I’d haunt your ass. And you can also bet I’d be a perverted ghost.”

She grinned. “A baby?”

“Sure, we could start with just one if that’s what you wanted.”

She laughed, hopping up on my lap and hugging me tightly. I ran my hands through her hair, holding her like I was afraid she’d slip away if I didn’t squeeze her tight. I knew one thing. I’d never let her go. Not again. Not ever.

Five Years Later

Even if the view of West Valley had changed quite a bit since our high school days, Overlook Point was still the same. There were more stores and more houses in West Valley than there had been. If you squinted, you could even see the massive, glinting building Sion called headquarters past the trees outside town. But for all the ways it had grown and changed as we had, West Valley still felt like home.

More and more, the time my brothers and I had spent out in California was starting to feel like a footnote. Everything that mattered had happened here.

I’d met Miranda, let her slip away, found her again, and started a family. Every last one of those things had happened in this same scenic little valley.

We’d come out here with my brothers, their wives, and their kids and brought enough fireworks, picnic blankets, food, and camping gear to keep us until morning. Cade and Iris had pumped out kids so fast over the past few years that I was almost certain they weren’t respecting the whole “no sex for six weeks” after pregnancy rule. The two of them had a small, terrifying little army of Cade and Iris clones now. God help the world if any of their kids were even half as wild as their parents.

Rich found me looking out over the town and nudged me with his shoulder. We were all finally starting to age out of that near-stasis period in our twenties when it felt like time couldn’t touch us. The only signs that