Page 31 of Off-Limits Mate

“Not just any dude,” Nolan says. “My best friend.”

I feel a little guilty about that. “I know. I’m sorry. If it helps, I hid my crush on Jasper from you for like… pretty much a decade.”

“Longer, actually, if memory serves,” Jasper chimes in.

Nolan looks between the two of us. “Did you know?”

Jasper shakes his head. “Nope. Not a clue. I’ve never been smart enough to get out of my feelings long enough to see Amara like this, man. And I never wanted our friendship to take this kind of a hit.”

That’s what I’m worried about.

Nolan looks between the two of us. I gently reach down and take Jasper’s hand, and he squeezes mine. We’re fated mates. That’s clear as day. Nolan can sense it, if the legends around fated mates are to be believed.

Finally, he sighs and looks at Jasper. “I guess if it had to be anyone, I’m glad it’s you. I’m pretty lucky to make my best friend into my brother.”

The smile that spreads across my face is contagious. “Damn right you are.”

Nolan gives us a wary look. “No making out in front of me, though. It’s weird.”

“You’re just going to have to get over it, Nolan.”

He huffs. “Fine. Well. You scared the shit out of me, Amara. Please don’t die ever again.”

“Done!” I chime as he walks out of the room. I turn back to Jasper, who is staring at me. I tilt my head. “What?”

“You’re perfect,” he whispers. When he leans in to kiss me again, I know exactly how perfect he thinks I am.

While I’m not perfect, I’m glad Jasper thinks so. Because he’s pretty damn perfect, too.

Epilogue

JASPER

“You don’t think it’s too much house?”

I laugh, leaning down and pressing a kiss against Amara’s lips. “It’s definitely too much house.”

She spins, looking at me with fire in her eyes. “Jasper! Why are you saying that now? We already bought it!”

I shrug. “If you want a different house, I can buy that for you, too.”

“The movers are literally here!”

I look over at where not one, but two large moving trucks are pulled up in front of the beautiful log home that Amara and I just bought. “Yeah. And if we need to, I’ll pay them to move it all out again.”

“It stresses me out how you just throw money at things.”

“But you also like it when I buy you nice houses, right?”

Amara gives me a look and smiles. “I like it when we buy a nice house together. For us.”

It’s the ‘for us’ that makes me smile, too. I like doing things for ‘us.’ I like doing the little stuff, like waking up next to her. Cleaning the gutter. Making sure that our sprinkler system works.

I actually find a whole lot of satisfaction in just… getting things done. Satisfaction that’s a hell of a lot more rewarding than anything I ever did at the record label.

“This house is perfect,” I say, coming up behind Amara and closing my arms around her.

It really is. I’m not going to tell her yet, but I did build it from scratch. It’s on solar, so that it’s off the grid just like the Earthship, but also with modern amenities. Like windows and a door that you can see onto the front porch from.

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