“I’ll bring cashews,” Indy said.

“I’ll bring the chips and it’ll only take a minute for me to mix up the guac,” Jet put in.

“I’ll bring turkey, swiss and rye. We’ll make sandwiches,” Roxie offered.

“Fucking hell,” Hank muttered

More offers were called as Luke curled me into his body. I looked up at him and his face was soft.

“You goin’ to the party?” he asked.

“How’s Noah?” I queried instead of answering.

He hesitated, pulled his lip between his teeth then let it go and shook his head.

I did not take this as a good sign. I sucked in air then breathed, “Is he dead?”

Luke shook his head again. “Broken neck. Bone pierced the spinal column. He’ll be paralyzed from the neck down for life.”

I shut my eyes tight. I really hated Noah, he conned me, stole from me, beat me up and worse. Still, even after all that, being paralyzed was a high price to pay. This hit me hard and even though he was a jerk, I felt bad for him, bad enough for my throat to get tight.

“Look at me, babe.”

I opened my eyes, caught his and told him, “I don’t feel like partying.”

His other arm went around me and got tight. “I didn’t think so.”

“That sucks for Noah,” I whispered.

“It sucks for Noah,” Luke agreed.

“Why do I care?” I asked.

“Because you’re a good person,” he answered.

“Do you care?”

As usual, brutally honest, he replied, “Nope.”

I rested my forehead on his shoulder. His fingers slid up and curled around my neck.

“It’s over,” I murmured.

“Yeah,” he said.

My arms went around his waist and I pressed in close. His fingers started kneading the muscles at my neck.

“What do you want to do, beautiful?” he asked.

I thought about it, an idea came to me and I tilted my head back to look at him.

“Do you have a bike?” I asked.

He watched my face. “Got three.”

Of course, he had three.

“Can we ride?” I requested.

Luke grinned. “Absolutely.”

Chapter Thirty

Bliss

The elevator doors opened and I flew through them.

“Late!” I shouted, running to the dining room table. “I’m late!” I repeated unnecessarily.

I threw the shopping bags I was carrying on the table and scanned the loft.

Luke was sitting in the recliner. He was tipped back, footrest up, hands behind his head, watching the Rockies on the flat screen (even though if you stopped to listen you could hear the damn game through the windows we were that close to Coors Stadium). The new blinds were mostly closed all around so as not to let the glare of the sun hit the TV.

Mace and Matt were sitting on the couch with their feet up on the coffee table and hands curled around bottles of beer. Big Bobby, now fully recovered and back at work, had one of the new dining room table chairs (black lacquer, gray suede upholstered seat and back, sweeping lines, kick f**king ass) turned backwards and he was straddling it. Hank was sitting on the kitchen counter and he was holding a beer by its neck. Eddie’s head was in the fridge.

All the men had turned, eyes on me, as I ran across the loft to the dresser.

“Olivia came by, we got to talking and got behind on the decorating. Then Olivia, as she always does, invited herself to the party. Then Tod and Stevie decided everyone needed new outfits so, even though we had no time at all, we took a trip to the mall.” I stopped at the dresser, babbling on, like they were actually listening to me (which they probably were not) and I looked over my shoulder at Luke. “I think I spent too much money.”

I heard a phone ringing and Hank moved to answer it as Luke’s eyes cut to the dining room table, he took in the bags then his eyes moved back to me.

“An outfit takes six bags?” he asked.

“I also bought shoes,” I told him as I heard another cell phone ring.

“An outfit and shoes take six bags?” Luke slightly amended his question.

I turned back to the dresser and started digging through it, half in a panic. “I might have bought some other stuff.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen,” I heard Hank say to his phone.

“I’ll pick it up on my way home,” I heard Eddie say to his.

I found what I was looking for and snatched them out of the drawer with too much hurried energy. I managed to keep hold of the bra but my lavender satin panties with black lace flew through the air, landing on the floor five feet behind the couch.

All the men’s eyes went to the panties. My eyes went to the panties.

I thought perhaps that was the perfect time for me to learn how to become invisible just as I heard Luke chuckle.

“Time to go,” Big Bobby jumped up from his chair, swung it around and carried it back to the table.

I saw Mace and Matt make a move to get up as I ran to the undies and snatched them off the floor, balling them up in my fist and hiding them and the bra with my arms.

“No, it’s okay, I’ll get ready in the bathroom,” I told them, pretty sure I was blushing considering my face was on fire. “Finish the game.”

“Gotta go anyway,” Eddie put in. “Jet needs me to pick up some ice and drop it by Fortnum’s.”

“Apparently Roxie’s new dress has a back zip that she can’t reach,” Hank sounded partly amused, partly like he wasn’t intent on getting home to zip up the dress, but rather the other way around. Little did he know that I knew her dress didn’t even have a zip so someone was about to get lucky.

On that thought, I smiled to myself, ran to the bags, grabbed the ones I needed then ran to the bathroom.

“See you all there,” I called over my shoulder and slammed the door to the bathroom.

I pulled off my clothes and jumped in the shower.

* * * * *

The six weeks since my troubles finished hadn’t exactly been uneventful.

First up, we had the family meeting. Uncle Vito surprisingly stayed quiet while Dom tried to talk Sissy into giving him another chance. Ren and I kept quiet too even though I really, really didn’t want to and I could see Ren felt the same way. In the end, we didn’t have to say anything. Sissy told Dom to go jump in a lake and walked out of the room. I looked at the Zanos then gave out hugs (yes, even one to Dom, mainly because he looked like his world just came to an end) and followed her.

It wasn’t over. Not by half.