“You shower her in gifts. Fuck off, Arch, and listen.”
I stared wide-eyed up at Coop, and he rounded his eyes in return, so we both looked at Jake. Those pale blue eyes were anything but cool as he locked his gaze on mine.
“I thought…” Ian began, then held up his hands when Jake glared at him.
Yeah, okay. I squirmed to sit forward, and Coop helped because my limbs were still on the floaty side. I cupped Jake’s face to bring his attention back to me. “You ordered this for me?”
I hadn’t really looked at the ring, but it was hard to miss with my hand against Jake’s cheek.
“Yep. See the four stones on the corners?”
There were four stones there, one big one in the center and four stones on the edges, smaller but definitely there. Our graduation year was etched on one side, and on the other, it had my name. Below our year was a rose, and below my name were hearts intertwined.
“Those are our birthstones. Green for Bubba. Pink for Coop and Archie. Blue for me.”
Coop chuckled. “The only pink I like.”
And I couldn’t help flashing a grin back at him before focusing on Jake again.
“The diamond is you,” he said. “Right in the center where you belong.” He covered my hand with his. “That is how we make it work. We make it what we want it to be. Not promising easy. Not even promising I won’t beat the crap out of these idiots if they get stupid with you. But what I do promise is that I’m in. All the way. Whatever shape it takes, however we make it.”
“Me too,” Archie said. “Even if I could have lived without the pink. I’m in. For all of it.”
“And me,” Ian repeated. “I meant it, I’m here. Whatever shape this relationship takes. I’m here.”
“You heard my answer on the mountain,” Coop said against my ear, but my gaze remained locked on Jake’s. “They’re right though. We will figure this out. We’re not perfect. Any of us, but we want to make this work. For you. For us.”
“The question,” Jake continued softly, tracing a finger over the ring, “is do you want this to work with all of us? Because I think we can do it. And I don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone says about it. I’ll take out anyone who tries to make you feel bad about it.”
Flushing, I took a deep breath and then looked at each of the guys. Was I a little drunk? Oh yeah. Was I feeling floaty? Definitely. But they were all stone-cold serious and sober. They wanted me. “I want it to work,” I said slowly, then licked my lips before finishing, “I want us to work. Whatever that looks like.”
Jake’s smile lit me up, and he cupped my face and dragged me down for a kiss. The only one not touching me at the moment was Archie, but I could feel the weight of his gaze, and when Jake let up for a breath, I exhaled.
Okay.
We were doing this.
I glanced at my ring. “You know I should yell at you for spending money on me. I should yell at all of you.”
“But you’re not going to,” Coop said. “Because spoiling our girlfriend is our prerogative.”
I laughed. “Only if I get to spoil my boyfriends.”
“You can spoil me, or despoil me, anytime you want,” Archie said. “I totally volunteer as tribute.”
Jake snorted. “Yeah, but it’s my birthday here shortly, and the birthday boy…”
I grinned at him. “Gets whatever he wants.”
“I can’t wait for it to be my birthday again,” Ian said idly.
“Speaking from experience,” Coop said. “I’m pretty sure we can’t wait for it to be all our birthdays, though at the moment, I’m thinking about Frankie’s.”
And just like that, I flushed, and I was pretty sure it hit my toes with how hot my body went as all four of them focused on me.
Their soft chuckles promised they hadn’t missed it, but they also let up on it, and some of the ragged emotion eased as Ian went to grab his guitar and Archie cleaned up the shots.
“I think it’s time for terrible action movies.”
I could do terrible action movies.
I could do just about anything.
I glanced down at the ring on my finger. Coop thumbed a tear away from my cheek before I even realized it had fallen. “Happy tears, right?” he asked against my ear.
“I’m kind of an emotional drunk,” I admitted, and he pressed a