Blacklisted (Loveless, Texas #3) - Jay Crownover Page 0,109

easier than trying to put on a brave face so he, and whoever else popped up at my bedside, wouldn’t worry.

“I owe you everything, Shot. I’ll make good for the rest of my life.”

Epilogue

Presley

Six months later

You look good, Pres. Are you sure you aren’t looking to get yourself into some trouble tonight?” Shot’s tone was teasing, but the look in his dark eyes was serious.

I looked at his reflection as he came up behind me in the mirror. He was always so ridiculously good-looking. Even with the stark white scar that now decorated his temple and made his hairline slightly uneven on one side. Even with the rough stubble shadowing his jaw because he’d been on the road with the club for the last few days and apparently shaving hadn’t been a priority. Even with the flakes of drywall dust and flecks of paint dotting his T-shirt from where he’d been helping me renovate the bathroom in my new house. Since he was a bathroom snob, I’d let him run wild with the design and fixtures. He was leaving his mark on other parts of the house, which I’d bought shortly after being discharged from the hospital. Like the way there were now jeans and T-shirts hanging next to my boring, professional work clothes in the newly expanded walk-in closets. And the way the master bathroom was unequivocally his baby and he wasn’t going to stop tinkering until it was perfect. He loved that damn bathroom almost as much as he loved me. There was also a shiny new outdoor kitchen off the back of the house that was perfect for big barbecues and gatherings. I was sure the stainless steel grill got used more than my top of the line oven inside the actual house since it was what he preferred to cook on.

We didn’t live together, per se. He still spent a good portion of his time out at the clubhouse, but when he didn’t have club business to attend to, or when he’d been gone for an extended period of time, he would show up on my doorstep and camp out at my place until he got called away again. All in all, it wasn’t too different from the way Hill and Kody’s relationship worked, only when Hill was gone Kody knew where he was and that he was trying to save the world. When Shot was gone, all I could do was hope he made it back in one piece and that he hadn’t put events in motion that were going to cause the world to burn. Honestly, I’d come to realize it was better if the club was raising hell as far away from Texas as possible. It meant our personal and professional lives were less likely to intersect. Shot mentioned the same thing and told me he was focusing more on the club’s international pursuits versus the ones closer to home. So while it was never fun to have him gone, welcoming him home had become one of my most favorite things in the whole world. I’d learned to let all the worries I had take a back seat and to appreciate the time we did have together, because it was impossible to guess when those precious moments might be stolen away from us.

Unconsciously, I lifted a hand to touch the scar that slashed across my own temple. It was nearly identical to his, only mine was a little more jagged and didn’t quite reach into my hairline. We’d gone from being so different and seemingly having nothing in common to sharing something permanent and unmissable that was going to tie us together forever. The scars felt more important than a wedding ring and more purposeful than any tattoo. They were a constant reminder of what we’d come so close to losing. They represented a start line and a finish line. They showed us that everything that mattered, everything that should be cherished, began and ended with us. Together we survived. Together we were better than we were apart.

I was no longer alone. I was no longer lonely.

“You know I won’t drink anything. I’m just going to spend time with the girls.” The kidney transplant had been touch and go for the first few months. For a few tense weeks, it seemed like my body might reject the donation. So once I was in the clear, I made sure to do whatever I could to take care of Crew’s generous gift. I wanted to