“Smithie’s got an issue and you’re dancin’ for him,” he stated matter-of-factly.

I blinked against his skin.

Then I pulled my face out of his neck and stared at him.

He didn’t look happy. He didn’t look pissed, but he didn’t look happy.

“You’re on that case and you come home from work, baby, I don’t wanna know,” he stated.

Was this Ren?

Or was there another dimension, and the Ren from that dimension slid through?

“Do you feel okay?” I asked and he grinned.

Then he said, “I shouldn’t. I got shit sleep. And last night, I also got calls from both your brothers, up in my shit.”

Uh.

Say what?

Ren kept going.

“Then I got a call from Daisy, up in my shit. This means I got a call from Marcus, also up in my shit. And this morning I got a call from Shirleen, again, up in my shit. And last I got a call from Smithie, tellin’ me you’re workin’ a case for him and he would not be happy if I got up in his shit. Then I hauled my ass over here to sort our shit. Now, you gotta call and let whoever know I’m gonna be at the rehearsal dinner tonight, because I missed dinner with my woman last night and that shit isn’t happening two days in a row.”

Our first semi-official date was going to Luke and Ava’s rehearsal dinner.

How freaking cool was that?

I didn’t tell him I thought that.

I muttered, “I best call Tod.”

“And don’t bother calling Daisy. She already sent your bags back to my place.”

God.

Totally loved Daisy.

“Last,” he went on, “you gotta be a badass and call me Zano, that’s cute. I like it. But if things are deep with us, shit’s raw, emotional or important, I’m Ren. I’ve asked a lot from you Ally, and you from me. But you’re not a badass with me. You’ve let me into that place in you that you don’t give anybody. So you don’t put up that shield to hold me back when shit’s important. You’re you. You’re Ally. And I’m Ren.”

This kind of weirded me out how much he’d figured out about me.

I also didn’t share this.

I whispered, “Okay.”

“Okay,” he replied.

“Can I ask what my brothers said to you?”

“No,” he answered. “Just know those two men love you. They’d break important alliances to take your back. And they’d likely lay their lives down for you.”

Those must have been intense conversations.

Nevertheless, I already knew all that.

So, my insides so warm they were melty, I smiled.

“Uh, sorry,” a voice said from our side, and we both looked that way to see a thin woman wearing a brightly colored tunic and jeans and lots of jewelry standing there. Her eyes were on me. “I know you work here. Where can I find Eat, Pray, Love?”

“Are you shitting me?” Ren asked low, which meant dangerous.

Her eyes went from Ren to me and she lifted her brows.

Clearly a regular.

“Have you looked in the G’s?” I asked her.

“The G’s? It’s called Eat, Pray, Love. I looked in the E’s,” she answered.

“It’s written by Elizabeth Gilbert, and books are shelved by author in biography. So try the G’s. But, heads up, we’re a used bookstore and that’s a popular title. Odds are we’ve had about fifty of them and sold that same fifty, unless you’re lucky.”

She nodded. “I’ll look in the G’s.”

“Do that now,” Ren ordered.

She gave him a look, rolled her eyes at me, and sauntered away.

Definitely a regular.

“Fuck me,” Ren muttered, and I looked at him to see he was staring at the space the woman used to occupy.

“Ren,” I called softly, and he immediately looked at me.

And thus I got his eyes.

Jeez, those eyes.

“Are you gonna kiss me, or what?” I asked.

That was when I got his smile.

A second later, I got his kiss.

“Uh… just to say…” We heard, and Ren growled into my mouth before he broke the kiss and we both looked to the side to see Indy standing there.

She looked to Ren then to me.

And she smiled huge.

“I approve,” she declared and disappeared.

She’d so totally been listening.

Before I could process this, Ren’s hand was again at my jaw. He turned my head back to him and then his mouth was again on mine, his tongue again in my mouth, and I wasn’t up for processing anything.

* * * * *

“You good?” Ren asked.

Oh yeah.

I was good.

So good.

My plethora of shopping bags were in Ren’s bedroom.

And I was in Ren’s arms in his bed after he gave me two orgasms.

So. Totally. Good.

“Yeah, honey,” I muttered sleepily.

“No, baby,” he replied, pulling my back deeper into his front and nuzzling his face in my neck where he went on, “Ava and Luke’s thing. You and me. That history. You seemed okay tonight at dinner. I just wanna make sure that’s where you are, not what you want people to see.”

I closed my eyes.

Seriously.

So.

Totally.

Loved this man.

Then I opened them and turned my head to look at him.

“That’s done, Ren. I don’t even think about it anymore.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing buried that will come out and bite either you or me?”

I bought this after burying what was between us for a year.

So I sought to pay up, and fast.

I turned a little in his arms and put my hand to his jaw. “That’s done. Now it’s just you and me. And honestly, cross my heart, I haven’t thought of it once since we had it out in a moderately priced motel in a small Colorado mountain town.”

I heard a deep, short chuckle before, “A moderately priced motel in a small Colorado mountain town?”

“AKA, my favorite place on earth.”

His body went still.

Then his mouth growled, “Ally.”

Right after, that mouth was on mine, I was on my back and Ren was on me.

I guessed we weren’t settling in to sleep.

Righteous.

Chapter Eighteen

Love Was in the Air

I sat on Ren’s kitchen counter, Ren standing between my legs, our happy places touching, my phone ringing in my ear, my eyes on my man.

Mom answered, “Hello?”

“Hey Mom. You got two seconds?” I asked.