Page 147 of The One for Me
“Well, thank God you’re not my wife,” Connor’s voice comes from the door.
I look over. “Do you mind?”
“Considering you’re in my house, on my floor? Yeah, I kinda do mind.”
Devney’s cheeks redden, and she pushes me off her and then I help her to her feet. “Sorry, Duckie.”
He rolls his eyes. “It’s fine, Shrimpy.”
And then she does the same. “I hate that name.”
“Yeah, I’m not too fond of mine either,” he quips.
“I love mine.”
They both turn to me, faces showing their displeasure as if I were the one who handed out the nicknames instead of Declan. I’m the only one my asshole brother spared. I don’t know why, and I’ve never been stupid enough to ask.
“Which is why no one uses it,” Connor says with his arms over his chest.
“Say it.”
“No.”
I smirk at my brother. “Come on, you know you want to.”
He flips me off.
“Dev?”
“Not a chance.”
I sigh dramatically. “It’s fine. I’ll say it myself . . . Stud. I’m the stud. I’m studly, manly, and the guy that all girls just can’t help falling for.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake. He meant it like you’re a block of wood in the wall.”
I shrug. “If it makes you feel better to think that . . .”
“Either way, you want to make out with Devney, do it somewhere my kids won’t walk in and see it.”
I pull her to my side and kiss her temple. “Fine by me.”
Her head shakes before she lays it on my shoulder. “He’s stupid.”
“Yeah, like wood.”
“Do you think you could watch Austin for me?” Devney asks Connor. “Just a few hours.”
“Sure . . . is everything okay?”
She looks up at me, a mischievous smile on her lips. “Yeah, I just have some wood I need to tend to.”
And this is why I love her. Well, this and many other reasons.
* * *
“So you’re moving in here? Where the fuck am I going to stay? Back in that damn shack?” Jacob asks as he rubs his hands together over the bonfire.
All four of us are together again. We are all living in the same town, at the same time, after we swore it would never happen.
