Page 113 of Vegas Baby!

“Is it good?”

“I never want to eat anything else,” she said with a laugh before offering a bite to me.

We worked through the dessert, talking quietly while she alternated her own bites with feeding me tastes.

“Thank you for taking me out today.” Ava snuggled at my side as we made our way back to the car.

“You’re more than welcome.”

“Want me to stand in front of you when Luke sees the bumper stickers we ordered for his car?”

I laughed. “Maybe let’s not tell him until his car gets delivered.”

“Spoilsport.”

“You’re going to keep life very interesting, aren’t you?”

Her enormous grin was all the answer I needed. I didn’t care what chaos ever made its way into our lives; Ava was it for me and I could only thank every god I’d ever heard of that she felt the same.

“Do you really like it?” I asked.

“Pretty hard not to like a new Mercedes. Nathan will be so fucking jealous.”

Luke’s new car had arrived a couple of days later, kitted out with the seat covers I’d ordered and completed with the bumper sticker and fuzzy dice. Unfortunately, my brother wasn’t here tobe jealous, having returned to his regular life now that he knew I was safe.

“You really didn’t have to do this,” Luke said to Bryce, but then his face softened before he pulled Bryce into a hug. “Glad you did, though. Thank you.”

“Do you want to take me for a ride?” I asked.

“Like you have to ask. Let’s go get ice cream. Do you guys want anything?” Luke asked.

We collected their orders and I settled into the front seat of Luke’s Mercedes, buckled in, and wiggled to get comfortable. It still had that new car smell, which wasn’t one of my favorites, but the sweet, sharp citrus of Luke quickly filled the space when he joined me.

We took off like a rocket. “Damn, this thing is fucking smooth.”

“It’s so shiny.”

“I would’ve killed to have a car like this as a kid.”

“Probably better you didn’t get one until your frontal lobe developed.” I grinned at him.

“Is that whyyoudon’t have one?”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “I’m living my best passenger princess life. Bryce is getting me something new when I feel like driving again.”

“He’s really good to you, Aves. I’m glad.”

“Does that mean you’re going to have an official truce?”

“He’s a hard man to hate,” Luke conceded. “His bribery game gets an A+.”

“I don’t think it’s quite a bri?—”

“No, I know. I’m just being a dick. He saw something I never got to have and offered it to me just because he could. I’m fully aware of how lucky I am to have him in my pack.” Luke sighed. “What do you think about me going to college?”

I perked up. Luke had never gotten the opportunity for much after high school and I was curious what made him change his mind now. “That sounds like a great idea. What would you study?”

“Fuck if I know. What do you think I’d be good at?”

---