Page 34 of Lush Curves

“They both told me, asked if I minded, and if I thought that you’d mind.”

“Weird,” Jax mused. “You know, man, I had a feeling they’d ask each other. They’ve always had that sarcastic, snarky, sense of humor connection.”

“Right? I knew it too.”

“So.” Jax shrugged a bit. “Listen… seems a bit time-consuming for us to have, like, what? Six bachelor parties?”

King counted in his head. “Yeah. Six. Fuck me. How’dthishappen?”

“Damn amazing women.”

Jax laughed, though about just how much he loved Sarah, thought how he’d never give her up for anything or change a single goddamn thing about her, not a single freckle on her glorious, curvy, astonishing body. “Ain’tthatthe truth.”

“So – what? You think we should have one massive party for all of us? All together?”

“Yeah,” Jax said. “A fuckingblow-outparty, man, the party toendall parties. The best party of our lives, before we all go trooping down the aisle to the best women we’ve ever known, and ever will know.”

“Sounds good to me,” King said. “On one condition.”

“Name it.”

“We do it in Vegas.”

“Jesus, man,” Jax said, stunned. “You reading my mind?”

“Nope,” King said, taking a sip of his almost-forgotten beer. “I just watched too many damn movies about stag parties in Vegas, and amdyingto see if we can lose someone up on a hotel roof. I’m kinda secretly hoping that it’s Mac, for no reason that I can totally pin down.”

Jax threw back his head and roared. “You and me? We are sick and twisted, in theexactsame ways.”

“You want to lose Mac on a roof, too?”

“Hell, yeah.” Jax grinned, now totally confident in King as his choice of best man. “Just for an hour, though, ‘cause if we came back without him, I for one wouldn’t want to have to explain to Mirrie where her man is. I’d rather take on a goddamn wildtigerthan tangle withthatwoman when she’s pissed.”

“Amen, brother,” King agreed, thinking that even his years of military training and hand-to-hand combat experience wouldn’t save him from Mirrie, if she got it into her head to take his ass down. “So we lose Mac for an hour, then we carry on bringing Sin City to its knees.”

“So, speaking of happy couples… did you hear about Noah and Callie?”

King looked up, every nerve tingling and jangling. Callie was his niece, and as much as he loved Noah, and as happy as he was that they had found each other – despite both being autistic, and struggling with connection and emotion – King was notat allready to hear that they were engaged too. “No.”

“Noah wants Callie to move in with him.”

“What?” King almost shouted. “Like – them alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Ohhhhh, man. How’d I not hear about this until just now?”

“Noah mentioned it to Sarah and Annie for the first time today. He hasn’t actually said anything to Callie yet.”

“You talked to him?” King asked, knowing that Noah and Jax had a close bond, for reasons that were both inexplicable and numerous. It was always touching and beautiful to see Jax with Sarah’s brother: Jax’s gentle soul, his kind nature, his shining good heart, all just come to the fore, and it was always a joy to see. “I know he’ll be turning to you for advice. He always does, when it comes to Calllie.”

“Yeah, he does,” Jax said, remembering when Noah asked him for kissing lessons.Thathad been one hell of an awkward afternoon. “I don’t know what to tell him, though. I mean, he’s almost thirty years old, man, and Callie’s twenty-six now. They’re financially independent, they’re learning life skills at the speed of light. If he wants to ask his girlfriend to move in with him, and she wants to do it, who are we to get involved? They really care about each other, and I know that Sarah never thought that Noah would ever be able to feel that way about anyone else.”

“I know. We thought the same thing about Callie.” King sighed. “Goddammit.”

“Well, Sarah and Annie are talking to him now,” Jax said. “Then I guess we’ll see what’s what.”

“Hmmmmm.” King said, with a slight tone of thoughtfulness in his voice. “Hey, you know what? Maybe Noah can come with to Vegas with us. He’d like that, right?”

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