Page 74 of Knock Knock

Ohmigod.Oh. My. Gawd!I wanted to cry. Or laugh. Or fuck. Or just smile at him forever and not feel weird about it. That timeline stopped, giving the moment the respect it deserved. Nate loved me as his baby, and holy hell, the feeling struck me dumb. I got it. Knew what it felt like. Finally figured out what it meant to be in love. It wasn’t some love at first sight thing. It was a lifelong bond that lived through dips and highs and remained strong despite everything. It was an understanding and a mingling of dreams. It was the soul-deep need to make him mine, protect him, support him, and make him happy for the rest of his life. It was the knowledge that he was my person, and I was his, and the journey that got us here was worth everything.

I placed my palms on his cheeks, my eyes watered, and Nate smiled at me. “I love you, besby. In all the ways. Best friend to baby.”

Nate kept on fucking smiling while his eyes got glassy and his hands didn’t know what to do. “This is happening,” he whispered.

“Fuck yeah it is.” I beamed.

Then I kissed the man who had always been my ride or die. Best friends to friends with benefits to boyfriends. All. Fucking. Mine.

“Outdoor shower sex,” he said. “I don’t trust meth head blood.” Yeah, we were both a bit red, and he had a point. We completely bailed on Fight Night, and I dragged my man across the park.

CHAPTER25

NATE

Sheesh.String was harder than I thought. I had an inch length of a perfect kind of fancy knot, then a few fuck-ups, then another good inch of perfection, and then things went to shit after that.

“I suck at this!” I dropped the bracelet that was safety-pinned to the desk to help me keep it pulled taut. “Xavi will never wear this!”

Karen rolled her pretty eyes at me. “Yes he will. Because you made it.”

“I’m starting over again.” I grabbed more string. Purple and lime green. “I can’t do that fancy one. I’ll just do the braid thing.”

“You give up too easily,” Karen said, snatching the new string from me. “You’ll chase a boy around the park even though he tells you to fuck off, but you can’t have some patience for a bracelet?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. Her green hair had given her an attitude adjustment, and maybe the shower had helped with her confidence. Her big teeth and front gap were still the same, and I hoped she never fixed it. No braces for Karen, please.

I kept going with the fancy knots. Fucked them up every few loops. “When are you gonna come see our new place?” I asked her.

“Whenever you invite me.”

“You don’t need an invitation, sunshine. You’re family.”

Karen laughed to cover her emotions, but they came out anyway. “I am?”

“Fuckin’ right.”

“I’ve never really had a good family,” she said, expertly making a bracelet. “My dad was… and my mom is okay, but I don’t think she knows what to do with me. I like her, but… she’s not really the mom type.”

“You and Xav have that in common.”

“Do you have a mom?” she asked.

“Yep. She’s mentally unstable and in a criminal mental health facility for killing my dad.”

Karen gasped. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, no. She protected us. Killed him to save us. Was so badass.” I smirked at her. “I feel a bit shit because we don’t visit her as much as we should. The staff told us to limit our visits a bit because it confuses Mom and puts her into a bit of a downward spiral. She doesn’t really know who we are all the time.” I shrugged and then cursed at the string. “So we make our own family. Us and our brothers, Xavi’s dad is a good shit now that he’s sober, and you. Like it or not, chickie, you’re one of us now.”

“I like it. I like it a lot.” She said it in the voice ofJim CarreyfromDumb and Dumber, and holy shit. If that didn’t just solidify my love for her, nothing would.

And because it was Karen, and she didn’t give a shit about pesky things like looking weird, I tipped my head back and laughed my ass off. Then I said the line twenty times while she repeated it and we acted like idiots just for the fun of it. Ah, my mood improved immediately.

“Guess what?” I kept working on bracelets instead of actual work.

“What?”

“Xavi said he loves me.”

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