Page 89 of Red Hunt

I narrowed my eyebrows and glared at him. “We are not getting rid of the cat.”

Max chuckled, got up from the couch, took my hand, and led me outside onto the deck. He ushered me to the wooden box in the corner he’d made for Spittle sometime in the week of silence.

“That’s a very nice box, Max.”

He shook his head, kissed me on the nose, and opened the lid.

Kittens. Lots of them. Crawling all over each other, their eyes still closed. “Oh, my God.”

I sank down, touched one of them. “They are the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Then Spittle came back and meowed, clearly not amused about our intrusion.

I got back up, and Max closed the lid once again.

“We have a lot more than one cat now. And we’re not getting rid of them,” Max said, then kissed me, and the calmness mixed with joy deep inside of me was unlike anything I’d ever felt. I was safe; I was home. I was loved.

EPILOGUE

MAX

Where was my amazing woman? I leaned against the railing of the front deck and looked down at all the people mingling on my front lawn, trying to find Milli.

I thought all I needed was peace and quiet, a life away from people and their drama. And now? I had more people and more drama in my life than I’d ever imagined. No peace in sight, not even in my own home.

And I loved every single fucking minute of it.

I loved having Milli’s friends around. My friends…all mixed together. It almost felt like family—loud, disorganized—oh, who was I kidding? They were family. Our family.

I’d watched them defending Milli all week, being there for her, loving her unconditionally. Throwing dirty looks in my direction for her sake.

The guys had held me accountable. Enforcing a standard to live up to. So apparently, until Carter’s plans for our new outfit in Three Oaks would come to fruition, my home was our base camp. For work and apparently also for social functions.

Like the small gathering happening right now.

“Hey, are you not joining us?”

I turned my head around and there she was. The most beautiful woman I’d ever had the privilege to lay my eyes on, and I could feel my chest squeeze. I was damn lucky. I grinned at her without saying anything, and she moved forward until she was pressed against my back.

“This has always been my favorite spot before you came here,” Milli said, her voice slightly muffled because of her lips pressed against my back.

“I know,” I said before I slipped her around my body and squeezed her in between the railing and me. “I know.”

She looked up at me with a smile, a special smile reserved only for me.

“I love you, dove.”

Her smile deepened, made her eyes twinkle. “I love you, too, Max.”

“There’s a proposition I have to make.”

“Okay.”

“See the spot on the far end of the lawn. Where Lucas and George are standing?”

I gave her a couple of inches, and she turned around and pressed her ass against me. Hot damn. I’d always been an ass man, and by the way she reacted yesterday, I was a very lucky man indeed. I couldn’t resist, so I snuggled against her, slung my hands around her torso, and laid my head on her shoulder.

“You mean where Jeremy has his arm slung around Dorothy’s sister as if it’s glued onto her?”

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