Page 119 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

And so Daisy went to get a makeover.

“So are you ready?” Kendall stuck her head in through the doorway, then looked me up and down with an appreciative hum. “Yeah, you are.” She moved in to twitch at my tie, and because it was her, I permitted that. “Who knew you’d look so hot in a suit. So we won’t have to go to this awards ceremony for long, right?”

I smiled.

“Nope. We’ll just show our face, do a little bit of a meet and greet, then leave.” I held out my arm for her to take. “But we have to make a pit stop first.”

“Ughh…” She rolled her eyes. “Is this to pick up more paperwork? I swear this is why Finn was so keen to offload his quarter of the business on me. Now I’m the one who has to sign stuff all day.”

“Something like that,” I told her as I walked her out the door.

There was no award ceremony. None of the others knew that because Gage and Van had been to enough of them that when I offered to go just with Kendall, they gladly accepted. They were stuffy, boring events no one went to willingly. There was also no paperwork to be signed. We wouldn’t be going to the office, but here.

“What’s this place?” Kendall looked up from her phone and then frowned as she took in the garage door, blinking at the floodlights. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw it. “Daisy?” She grabbed the door handle and wrenched it open. “Is that Daisy? No, it can’t be. It can’t!”

But it was.

Bill, the mechanic whose eyes had lit up at the idea of a full restoration, ambled over as he cleaned his hands on a rag.

“You’re Kendall?” She nodded enthusiastically. “Your husband here has spent a pretty penny doing this car up for you. Full restoration he ordered.” When he opened the driver’s seat door, the hinge didn’t groan, and she gasped when she saw the interior. He’d ripped everything out, electricals, motor, dash, the lot, replacing them all bit by bit. The cracked vinyl seats were now plush, hand-stitched leather, and she let out a little moan as she settled into it. “Stripped it back to the frame, I did, then repainted the lot. Like a brand new car.”

But it wasn’t. It was the same old piece-of-shit car, not even a noteworthy model in automotive history, but Kendall loved it. I could see it in the bright flush of her cheeks as she looked at the centre console, the glove box, and then took in the shiny, new gear-shifter knob. My heart went to my chest when she reached up and flipped the visor down, because that’s when she saw it.

Would she say yes? I fucking hoped with every beat of my heart that she would as a thin chain hooked around the corner bounced free, a ring dangling on the end of it. I’d talked to the others, to Alice and Finn, quizzing them on what Kendall might want in an engagement ring, but no one had been much help. Finn just shrugged and said something with diamonds because chicks love diamonds, but Alice?

“An engagement ring is a promise,” she said. “It says as much about you and what you think about her as it does about your ability to provide for her. I can’t tell you what kind of ring to get because only you know how you feel. Look for a design that best represents that, and I’m sure Kendall will love it.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Bill said with a wink. “The keys for the shop are over by the door. Just make sure you lock up afterwards.”

“Thanks, mate,” I said, shaking his hand and then taking my first step towards her.

She stared at the twists of metal, letting them roll around in her palm. A Russian wedding ring some jewellers had called it, or a rolling ring, they usually were made of three bands of different coloured precious metals, but I’d ordered this one in four. Silver, gold, rose gold and platinum, it glittered against her skin, but as I drew closer, she stared at me wide-eyed.

“You’re right,” I told her. “It would be much easier to throw the car away and get something new, but then where would we be? We’d have lost something beautiful, something precious that just needed some work to get it to a good place. That’s why I got your car restored. I still hate it and want to get you something with at least one airbag, but…” I smiled. “I know that this is what you want. You want to drive this old piece of—”

She pressed a hand to my mouth.

“Don’t diss Daisy. She might’ve had a serious facelift, but she’s still really temperamental.”

“Right. The car has feelings. Got it.” Then she smiled and I almost forgot what I was here for. “I needed a symbol to show you I’m always willing to put in the work, or…” My jaw flexed as I considered this idea more fully. “Pay someone else to do the work. Um—”

Kendall rose to her feet, pressing her mouth against mine, her fingers clutching the chain and ring tightly, but I pulled it free. I kissed her and kissed her, feeling my body start to respond, but it was more than that. My heart ached far more fiercely than my dick because I needed to do this.

“Marry me, Kendall.” I held up the ring. “In whichever way you feel comfortable. Marry me and—”

“Yes.”

I didn’t know how much I needed to hear that until I did. She agreed to marry Gage and Van, so intellectually I felt pretty comfortable assuming she would, but… It was something else to see her, feel her, hear her say yes. My arms went around her and I pulled her tight against me, not even allowing enough room for her to breathe. I felt like she’d slip through my fingers at any moment, right up until I pushed the ring on her finger.

Now she wore a symbol of what she was to us, I felt, as I stared down at the band.

“It fits perfectly.”

“Obviously.” I rolled my eyes. “I stole one of your silver rings and had it sized.”

“So that’s where it went.” Her hand went to her hip. “It didn’t ‘roll down the back of the chest of drawers?’”

“It did when I threw it down there,” I replied.

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