Page 225 of Lodestar

Conor raised a hand to stall her. “Okay, you two. I get it. But I’m the one who decides when I forgive Star for what she’s done, and I’ll have you know she’s well on her way to earning it.”

“I didn’t know you were that good in bed, Star,” Cin muttered.

I elbowed her in the side as Conor snapped, “It has nothing to do with sex. It’s just who she is as a person. She’s letting me in.”

Cin pulled a face. “Is he always this mushy?”

Biting my lip to hide a smile, I reached for his hand and knotted our fingers together. “I like him. I’m keeping him.” He narrowed his eyes at that, but I saw he was mostly amusedandperplexed by this conversation, not upset.

Cin sighed. “He’s making you mushy too.”

“He isn’t.”

“How are you supposed to unalive people if you start—” She gaped at me. “That’s why you didn’t crack those nuts this year! He’s making you have a conscience!”

She made it sound like an STI.

“He’s not exactly a saint himself,” I retorted. “And that wasn’t why I couldn’t do it.”

“All this sounds like he’s asking you to change.” Cin sniffed. “I like her as she is.”

Conor frowned. “So do I. But why would she want to be in a relationship with me if she isn’t willing to bring me on board?”

Those words hit me something fierce.

He hadn’t given me a working solution to earning his forgiveness, but there was no denying that he was right.

I could stay on my own. Remain independent. Maintain this unforgiving lifestyle and bealone.

Or I could let him in and have him.

Christ, there was no comparison.

I wantedhim.

Always.

Forever.

“We have an audience,” Cin muttered, pointing at the side window where five women were staring around the folds of a set of curtains at us.

Conor, turning to see what I was talking about, took note of his sisters-in-law and waved at them. “In a clockwise direction: Aoife, Inessa, Camille, Savannah, and Aela.”

“Ooh, Aela’s the one with green hair?” Cin asked.

“Yeah.”

“And Aoife’s the redhead?”

“She is. You’ll like her, Cin,” Conor enthused. “She’s a great baker. She went viral last year over?—”

That was D, outta there. She’d already headed to the door and was banging on it as if the brownies I knew Aoife was famous for were fresh out of the oven and waiting for her to devour them.

Me?

I was just focused on Savannah.

Her eyes were narrowed upon me, lips pursed in irritation. That glare took me back to the many times, too many to count in total honesty, where I’d forced my way into her bunk on the tour bus, sobbing my eyes out because of something my dad had done. She’d glaredforme then. This was justatme.

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