Page 84 of An Unexpected Everything
Ignoring how the others laughed at our sentimental expense, I tilted my head to kiss Bella again.
“You guys are ridiculous,” Sophia replied primly before she kissed Cale, and everybody threw rolls at the four of us.
I pulled Bella into my lap, ignoring the way her brothers groaned, and held up my glass.
“To the Cages. All twenty of you. May you forever be annoying in that small town, take over everything in your limits, and remind me that it’s okay to take a chance every once in a while.”
“When did you get so sappy?” Hudson grumbled before we each clinked our glasses, and I took a sip of my beer.
Bella wiggled off my lap, and I was grateful she did that since having a hard on in front of her family wasn’t the greatest idea. “You’re ridiculous, but I love you anyway. Now, we need to look at the spreadsheet for the next few dinners because I knowthere’s some traveling going on, and I feel like we don’t have the color-coding set.”
“Well, I see that Bella’s back to herself,” Aston said dryly.
I glared at the man before my lips twitched, and Bella just shrugged.
“I am who I am. It’s not like it’s unexpected.”
But she was. In everything that she did, she constantly surprised me. And I would forever be grateful for the moment the ground fell beneath us, and we fell into each other.
Because I had fallen in love with a Cage. Twice in my life. And I would continue to do so every day until our last breaths.
And I couldn’t wait to finally do something that I’d yet to do.
Surprise her.
Because the ring I had picked out would look damn fine on her finger. As soon as she expected the unexpected.
Chapter Twenty
DORIAN
“It kind of worries methat I’m so easily persuaded to get in this thing.”
My best friend just beamed at me as we looked over at the Cessna Skyhawk. “Isn’t she gorgeous? I realize she’s not mine, however, my boss lets me borrow her.”
“When you say borrow, do you meanborrow, or are you stealing this from your boss?” With Joshua, one never knew. It wasn’t that Joshua was reckless, far from it. But we had been in our fair share of scrapes throughout the years.
I had many friends throughout my life. Some that I worked with now, some that I had gone to school with. Joshua was the only one I had met on a summer vacation that had turned into a full semester vacation when my father hadn’t wanted me to come back to town. That wasn’t a time in my life that I liked to think of, but throughout all the pain and rejection, including neglect, I found my best friend.
Joshua worked with me sometimes at the various clubs and businesses that I owned, but he also worked with a billionaire who liked to have his hands in every single pot he could find.
When I had been shipped off to Cage Lake to stay with my mother in one of the various houses that the family owned, dearold mother had been too busy to pay attention to me for many hours of the day, so I had strolled the small-town streets and found my best friend. Seriously, we had clicked just like that and got in enough scrapes together that the local sheriff and deputy probably still had our pictures as teenagers up somewhere.
We’d grown up, of course, and quit doing stupid things that could get us sent to jail, however, I needed to be a little clear on this.
“Who do you take me for? Of course I’m not stealing a damn plane. Adam wants me to fly it, because he just got his new baby, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to sell this or not. So I get to take it out after they work on maintenance, just to make sure she’s doing good.”
“That still doesn’t fill me with confidence,” I said dryly.
“I’ve had enough flying hours solo that I could be a pilot if I wanted to. You know this is what I’ve always wanted to do.”
“Why weren’t you a pilot?” I asked, interested. He met my gaze, and I got it. “Harper.”
“Yes and no. When Mom and Dad died, flying didn’t feel like an option. We were spiraling trying to deal with custody and what I’d do for school. Then when the grandparents died and Harper was getting out of school, I didn’t want to leave my baby sister alone all the time flying back and forth. You know that pilots don’t get to spend as much time with their families as they’d like. And I couldn’t do that to Harper. Plus, I liked working with you and Adam. And a business degree isn’t anything to laugh at. Hell, I’m making more money now than I would have as a pilot. Which means I can have a hobby now, instead of having to fly from one place to another.”
“I guess the glass is half full in your case.”
“Damn straight.”
