Page 97 of Force At Third

“Sugar …” he begins.

“Let’s not bring that back.”

“Never went away. Your lips and pussy still taste sweet like sugar to me.” He turns his hat around and grabs his phone, holding it up. “Turn the other way?”

“Are you for real?” I laugh, knowing he is, but damn.

“You know I am.” He winks, presses his lips to my cheek, and holds my hand up. Then he dips down and kisses me. He brings the phone around in front of us so I can see it. “You wanna hate it.”

He’s not wrong—I do—but it’s actually perfect.

“I guess it’s okay.”

“I can’t wait to see the shit I get for giving you a ring like that.”

“You better defend Mama June’s ring.”

“You know I will.”

Sunrise

18

After we watched the sunrise, we were ready to go back to bed, but the moms—all three of them—Larry and Marks had been whipping breakfast up.

For over an hour, we heard memories they’d had of us, and even tears were shed when they talked about our breakup. I never considered how it affected our parents, but it did. They shared pictures of us they’d taken from the deck, and Leland posted the selfie.

Last night’s grand slam doesn’t have shit on this morning’s play. #Biggestplayofmylife #Forceatthird #threetimesisacharm #shesaidyes #beenhersforever #shesmineforlife #wifeingit #thekingandqueenareback #classcouple

Then he set his phone to do not disturb.

We went back to bed with full bellies and exhausted from the previous day’s events. I fell asleep wrapped in his arms, pretending I didn’t know his big paw of a hand was sprawled across my belly protectively.

When Leland left for the game, he made me promise not to move, to get some rest, and I did just that until the ‘rents left to go to the game.

Showered, shaved, and dressed, I grab my laptop and head to the dining room table. I open it and set out to find out more about William Center and Janice.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Ass a good foot off my chair, I glare at him. “Scare me again like that, and I’ll be kicking your ass.”

“Sorry, York,” he says, glancing at my sling as he sits in the chair beside me. “You really should be in bed.”

“I want updates.” I continue to scroll as I add, “And to make sure my partner is okay, because …” I throw a hand in the air. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“For a second, I was thinking exactly what you suspected I was.”

“That’s not how we work, Marks.”

He nods, leans back, and gives me an oh yeah look.

“Fine, I fucked up, too. I?—”

He leans forward. “You fucked up in a way you almost died. I fucked up in a way that I could have done some time.”

He’s not wrong.

“But as I said, yeah, I wanted to kill him for what he did to you, to Chloe, CeCe, and would have done to Cora, but I was also buying some time for the reward to be posted to make sure we could collect.”

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