“I hope so,” she said with a long breath.

“I know so,” he promised, kissing her cheek again. “Maybe you can bring that boyfriend with you when you guys come to visit.”

She laughed. “If he lasts.”

He gave her a knowing look and she glared. “I’m going to keep my comment to myself,” he laughed.

“That’s a good idea, asshole,” she muttered as Lacey came over to her to say goodbye.

After another round of goodbyes, they finally left the house and made the flight with only minutes to spare. He blamed his mother completely, but Lacey didn’t seem to mind or care. She sat contently beside him, her head on his shoulder as they flew to Chicago. While she seemed calm, cool, and collected, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. He didn’t trust the Martin men and was dreading seeing them, which he’d known he would. In a perfect world, they would go in and get out without seeing them, but that wasn’t the case. They would fight tooth and nail to keep Lacey there, but it didn’t matter. She was his wife.

They wouldn’t be there long either; she was mainly packing just the things she couldn’t live without. After a long conversation, they’d decided that she would keep her furniture at the apartment since she would need to fly up for work stuff. Plus, she still had nine months left on her lease, something neither of them had thought about when they were tangled in the sheets making plans. But he was okay with it all; they had a plan, a good plan, in his opinion. The only thing he worried about was her flying home alone for work.

What if her family tried to get to her when he wasn’t around? As much as he wanted to believe that she’d stand strong against them, he also couldn’t shake the feeling that she wouldn’t. Nate was a very manipulative person. He had controlled Lacey’s life since she was born, and now that Lacey had taken that power away, Karson didn’t put it past Nate to come at her, guns blazing. Lacey was his prized jewel.

It worried him, but as he looked over at his gorgeous wife, he hoped and prayed that their love would be strong enough this time. He really didn’t want to live without her. He wanted to grow old with her. He had so many plans and really needed her to be beside him. She was the one thing he needed for a life worth living.

After getting their bags, they headed out to where Lacey’s car was parked. When she stopped walking, halting Karson’s progress, he looked back at her to see that she was staring at her phone, chewing on her lip.

“What’s up?” he asked, his own brow furrowing.

She looked up and let out a breath. “My dad is waiting at my apartment with Grady.”

“Well, that’s wonderful,” he muttered. “Okay, well, let’s go get this over with.”

“Maybe I should just go?” she suggested and he shot her a dark look.

“Why the fuck would I be okay with that?”

She met his gaze. “My brother has hit you before. I don’t want this coming to blows, and I know how to deal with them. You don’t.”

“I’m not going to deal with them, Lacey, and neither are you. We aren’t letting them ruin our newlywed period, remember? We’re going to help you pack, and then I’m gonna take you to dinner. And tonight, I’m going to go to bed beside my wife. You aren’t facing this alone. We’ve already established this.”

“I know, but—”

“No ‘but,’ sweetheart. Let’s go, it’s cold and we don’t want to keep them waiting.”

She didn’t come at first, her eyes still locked on his, but he guessed she saw that he wasn’t going to budge because she started toward her car, throwing her things in the trunk. After shutting her door on the passenger side and coming around to get in himself, he started the car and was about to pull out when she said, “You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do,” he said, meeting her gaze. “I love you.”

Her eyes watered a bit as she nodded. “I love you.”

He leaned over, meeting his lips to hers for only a second before running his nose along hers. “Everything is going to be okay.”

“Yeah,” she agreed while he went to put the car in reverse, but as he started to move, she said, “Promise me you won’t fight them.”

Karson found himself swallowing hard. He let Grady get a hit in once because he deserved it. Dating your best friend’s sister is against the guy code, but now, he felt like he hadn’t done anything wrong. So he married their daughter and sister. It wasn’t like he was after her money or out to hurt her. He loved Lacey and planned to make her happy. He wanted a life for them, a good one, and they would just have to accept that. But if not decking Grady and Nate in the face, if letting them hit him first was what she asked for, then maybe he needed to swallow his pride. It wasn’t about just him anymore, it was about Lacey.

About their love.

About their future.

Nodding his head, he said, “I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“Anytime, sweetheart,” he said, putting the car in reverse again.

She smiled nervously at him before saying, “I doubt it will come to that but just in case.”

Letting out a long breath, Karson thought, Yeah, but just in case.

He had felt like he was on top of the world for the last five days, but something inside him made him feel as if he was about to be knocked right off into the unknown.

It wasn’t a good feeling either.