Page 18 of Euphoria

“We’ll be outside, guys,” Zane said, following Crew through the back door.

“I was so worried about you, babe,” Colter admitted. The little break in his voice nearly did Hugh in. He could hear all the love and worry in Colter’s voice, and he felt the same way about his guy.

“I was worried that they were going to come after you next,” Hugh admitted. “I swear that I had no idea that my ex was batshit crazy,” he promised. “I thought that he was an ass, but never psycho enough to kidnap me or anyone else.”

Colter covered his hand over Hugh’s mouth, effectively stopping him from talking. “How about we don’t talk about your crazy ex or any of this mess? I want to put it behind us, well, after you give your statement.” Colter linked their fingers together and gently kissed Hugh’s lips.

“I like that idea,” Hugh admitted. If he never had to say Luke’s name again, that would be fine with him.

“Good, because I only want to talk about our future,” Colter said.

“Our future?” Hugh almost choked. They had only been together for months, and until today, neither of them brought up having a future together.

“Yeah, I think it’s time that we start planning a few things,” Colter whispered.

“Like what kind of things?” Hugh asked. His damn heart felt as though it was going to beat out of his chest waiting Colter out.

“Well, like our wedding,” he breathed. “I want you to marry me, Hugh.”

“But we haven’t been together that long. Don’t you think that it’s too soon?” Hugh asked. He wasn’t sure why he was pretesting the idea of marrying the man that he loved. Everything was just moving so quickly; he was finding it hard to keep up.

“If you don’t want to get married, we don’t have to. I don’t want to rush you into anything that you aren’t ready for, babe. But almost losing you showed me that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you, Hugh,” he said.

“I see,” Hugh whispered. “Well, I guess that’s good because I love you too, Colter. I have since the day you hired me to manage the bar. I’m not sure how it happened, but it did, and I’d love to marry you.” Colter pulled Hugh against his body and kissed him, and Hugh felt like he had finally found his home.

Colter broke their kiss and smiled. “Let’s go home then. We have a lot of planning to do, babe.”

“And kittens to feed,” Hugh added.

Colter chuckled, “And kittens to feed.” They had already become a little family and that sounded like heaven to Hugh. He had found the man that he had been waiting his whole life for and never thought he’d find, but he had. Colter was his future and now he could see everything that they were going to be to each other, laid out before him.

Colter

Prologue

Colter met with Crew earlier that day because he said that he had some news about Jace. He just never imagined that it would be that the guy had shown up dead in an alley downtown. Apparently, when Jace went out to get him and Luke some lunch, he stumbled across some old buddies who weren’t so happy to see him. That was why he never went back to the warehouse.

Telling Hugh about Jace was going to be his belated wedding present to him—well, that and the fact that the adoption agency that they were working with had called that morning to tell them that they had been picked by an expectant mother. If everything went well with their meeting, they’d be parents in a few short months, which meant that they had even more planning to do.

Hugh had been putting in extra hours at the bar, revamping the menu with the chef, and Colter was grateful to have him not only as his husband but as a partner at work. Hugh was really good at running the bar and even better with the town’s people. Most of the time, Colter wanted to tell them to either mind their business or go fuck themselves, when they asked too many pushy questions about his and Hugh’s relationship. But Hughalways knew exactly what to say to them, and it usually didn’t have to tell them to fuck off. Tonight, Colter picked up dinner at the diner and was going to surprise Hugh at work. A romantic dinner in his office followed by some hot sex was just what they both needed.

Hugh smiled up at him as he walked through the front door, holding up a bag of food. “You do know that bringing the competition’s food into the bar is a big red flag. What if our new chef sees that?” he asked, nodding to the bag of food.

“Well, if you don’t want this meatloaf, I’ll just toss it into the trash,” Colter offered.

“I never said that I didn’t want it. I’m just telling you to keep it out of sight. Let’s go back to the office and I can tell you all about the menu changes. I think that you’re going to like them,” Hugh insisted.

“I’m sure that I will, but first, I have some news for you,” Colter said. He grabbed Hugh’s hand and tugged him back to the office with him.

“Wow,” Hugh breathed, “you’re in a hurry. What’s the news?”

“Crew called me this morning, and they found Jace,” he said, leaving out the best part.

“Is he in jail?” Hugh asked.

“Nope,” Colter admitted. He pulled the to-go boxes out of the bag and handed Hugh his meatloaf.

“What do you mean, by nope?” he growled. “Did they honestly let him go after he kidnapped me?”

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