I don’t feel like grinning. “Should I be?” I toss back. I motion for her to follow me to the back of the shop. She lets me help her to her feet and follows me.

“Are you done for the day?” she asks as I clean up my supplies.

I nod. “What happened after I left?”

She sobers. Her gaze skitters around. Fuck. That’s not good. “Not much,” she hedges, wincing.

I tip her chin up with my finger and force her to look at me. “I won’t let you trade yourself for Matt’s treatment again.”

She waves a breezy hand in the air. “Don’t worry about that. My mother told him she would pay for it herself if it came down to it. She loves you already.” She grins at me. “Something about those tall, tatted white boys. Older women love them.”

A laugh bursts out of my throat. Emily grins, but then she winces again.

“Tell me,” I coax. “It can’t be worse than what I’ve been imagining all day.”

“Trip’s going to stay at my place while he looks for an apartment of his own.” She waits for me to react. I draw in a deep breath, trying not to. “Are you angry?”

I set her back from me. “Are you f**king kidding me?” I ask. I’m so angry that I can barely see straight. She takes a step back from me, and I realize she’s never really seen me angry. She saw me irritated at the diner when she asked me about f**king someone else. She’s seen me cry. She’s seen me hurt, like when we thought Matt was going to die. But she’s never really seen me angry. I work to soften my stance. “I’m angry at them. And if I ever have to see Trip again I’ll probably flatten him.”

“Can I watch?” she asks. But she’s grinning. “See, here’s the thing,” she says hesitantly. “While Trip’s looking for a place to stay, I was hoping maybe you would let me stay at your apartment.” She holds her breath, waiting for my response.

“Are you f**king kidding me?” I ask again. But this time I wrap my arms around her while I do it and spin her around. She giggles against me, and I can feel the movement of it in her belly. She doesn’t try to push me away the way she did with Trip earlier when he tried this move on her. Of course, he wasn’t the happiest man in the whole f**king world when he did it. I guess that matters.

“Of course you can stay with me.” I tweak her nose. “Silly woman.”

I want her with me every minute of every day.

“Your brothers won’t mind?” she asks.

“They’ll be ecstatic,” I say. I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “They’ve missed you.”

“Does your apartment smell like sweat socks and stale pizza?” she asks.

I grimace. It probably does. I hold my finger and thumb an inch apart. “Maybe a little bit.”

She cuddles into me, wrapping her arms around my waist. She says something against my chest, but I can’t see her lips. I tip her face up. “What?” I ask.

“I love you,” she says. Then she says it again and again and again, and my heart swells. I kiss her like there’s no tomorrow, until we’re both breathless. The lights turn off.

“I think that’s our cue to leave,” I say. I shove the curtain back, and Friday glares at us, her purse over her shoulder.

“Did you just have sex back there?” Friday asks, deadpan.

“Oh my God, no,” I say.

I shove Friday’s shoulder gently, kind of like I would one of my sisters if I had any.

“That’s so unsanitary,” she warns.

Emily covers her mouth, trying not to laugh.

“If you did, go spray something back there, will you? Some antiseptic or something.” She scrunches up her nose.

“We didn’t,” I say, growling as I reach for Friday. She hates it when I give her noogies. She screams and ducks outside my reach.

“Well, when you do, don’t get germs all over the place. Put down some paper or something.” She’s serious about this, but it still makes me laugh. Now I won’t be able to get the idea of ha**g s*x with Emily out of my head when I’m at work.

“I’ll be sure he sanitizes,” Emily says. I wrap my arm around her, pulling her into my side. I kiss her, and if we don’t get out of here soon, I’ll have no choice but to take her back behind the curtain and then sanitize.

We follow Friday out the door, and she turns and locks it. “Good night,” she calls to us. It’s still early on a Saturday evening, so I don’t offer to walk her home. She turns away but then spins toward us again. “I’m glad you’re back, Emily,” she says, cupping her hands around her mouth as she yells. Then she walks away.

“She’s something, isn’t she?” Emily asks.

She’s definitely something. We just don’t know what.

“Do you want to go and get something to eat?” she asks. I realize she has her black canvas bag over her shoulder. I take it from her and put it over my own.

“You came prepared, huh?” I ask.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t send me away.” She grins up at me. I couldn’t send her away even if I wanted to.

“Let’s go home and order a pizza,” I suggest. I look down at my watch. “Hayley will still be up. I’m sure she wants to see you.”

“Take me home,” she says. So I do.

Emily

We step through the door of the apartment Logan shares with his four brothers, and I jump back when they all yell, “Surprise!”

I look up at Logan who shakes his head and signs the word sorry. Then he pulls me to him, wrapping his arms tightly around me, but it’s not for more than a moment. His brothers rush at me. Sam and Pete, the youngest brothers in the family, get to me first. The twins attack me from both sides, squishing me between them like I’m the filling of a sandwich. They squeeze me, and they press their lips against each of my cheeks.

“If you lick me,” I warn. Sam already has his tongue out, but he sucks it back in really quickly and grins at me.

“Welcome home,” Sam says. He steps back, and Pete’s arms fall around me. He squeezes me tightly, clutching my head against his chest as his hands tumble through my hair.

“Would you cut it out?” I grouse, trying to flatten my hair back down. Pete laughs and steps to the side.

“Welcome home,” Paul says before wrapping me up in his arms. He really is a big guy, even bigger than Logan, and I think he could wrap around me twice.

“Thanks,” I murmur against his chest. I can barely breathe, but it’s worth it.

Then there’s Matt. He leans against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He doesn’t smile. His eyes are wet, and he blinks really quickly.

“Come here, big guy,” I say, making a come hither motion with my fingers. He pushes off the counter and starts toward me.

“I’m going to kiss your girl, Logan,” he warns. Logan’s eyebrows shoot up, but he doesn’t complain. He smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

Matt stops in front of me and tips my face up to his. He looks directly into my eyes and holds my gaze. “Thank you,” he says.

I gulp past the lump that’s suddenly in my throat and try to sound flippant. “For what?” I ask with a breezy wave. He won’t let me look away though. He holds my face between his palms and stares into my eyes.

“For saving my f**king life,” he says. “Thank you.”

He leans down and kisses me on the cheek with a loud smack.

“Oh, I didn’t do anything,” I start.

He looks down at me, and his gaze is so serious that my insides quiver. “Yes, you did,”

he says. “I’ll never forget it.” He looks over at Logan. “I’m not the only one you saved,” he whispers to me. That lump in my throat grows ten times its size. “You ever need anything at all, you come to me, all right? I’d do anything for you.”

“Could you kill a guy for me?” I ask. He could at least bust Trip’s kneecaps.

His eyebrows scrunch together. “There’s probably a story there. I hope you’ll tell it to me later.”

I nod. “You’re better, right?” I ask. I hold my breath while I wait for the answer.

He smiles. “I’m not dead.”

“Well, there’s a start,” Paul says, jumping in. “We should have written that on the cake.” He takes the top off a small cake box and Welcome Home is written across the icing. “For the guest of honor,” he says with a flourish.

“Can we eat the pizza now?” Sam whines. “Or do we have to keep doing the reunion thing?”

Paul smacks the back of his little brother’s head. “She saved his f**king life, dickwad.”

Pete mimics Sam’s whine. “Can we eat the pizza now?”

I laugh and pick up a piece, shoving it into my mouth.

“Thank God,” Paul moans as he reaches for a piece for himself. He smacks at Sam’s hands as he gets in his way. “I was starving.”

I’m so touched by their impromptu party that I can’t stop smiling. I have this stupid perma-grin on my face, but I’m just so happy to be here. Logan pulls out a chair at the table and motions for me to sit. But I suddenly feel little fingers tugging on the legs of my jeans. I look down at Hayley, who blinks her pretty blue eyes at me. Hayley is three, and we spent some time together when I was here before.

“Welcome home,” she says. I set my pizza on the counter and reach for her. “Oh my goodness,” I breathe as I bend down and pick her up. She wraps herself around me and holds me close. She lets me go and whispers in my ear. “Are you staying for good?” She chews on her finger as she waits.

“I’m staying forever and ever.” I am. I’m never leaving again, no matter what. Anything else we need, we can work out as a family. This ragtag bunch of boys and Hayley are as much a family to me as my parents are right now—they’re home.

I set Hayley on the edge of the counter and cut a piece of cake for her. Her eyes gleam, and she smiles sheepishly at her father.

“Food first,” Paul warns. I stick a fork in the cake and take a big bite, and then hold a smaller forkful out for her. Paul scrunches his brow and says, “Fine. One bite.” He holds up a finger in warning.

Hayley grins, and I feed her the cake.

“This is really good,” I murmur around my cake.

Pete smacks Sam on the shoulder. “See, told you she would love it,” he says.

Sam blushes and says, “It’s just a cake.”

I point to the cake. “You did not make this.”

More pink creeps up Sam’s neck. “Sometimes I bake.” He puts his hands on his h*ps and balks at me. “Real men bake cakes. And pies. And cookies. And other shit.” He waves a hand through the air as he scolds me. I had no idea Sam could bake. It’s really some of the best cake I have ever eaten.

“Real men with really small dicks,” Pete says, holding his fingers about an inch apart. Sam punches his shoulder.

“Ask your girlfriend about my dick,” Sam tosses back. “She seemed to like it a lot last night.”

“Knock it off,” Paul scolds as he takes Hayley off the counter and sets her on the floor. “There are girls in the house.”

“They don’t count as girls,” Sam says around a mouthful of pizza.

“Well, thanks,” I complain.

“You know what I mean.” Sam is still talking with his mouth full.

Logan wraps his arms around my waist and places his chin on my shoulder. “Feels like a girl to me,” he says. He growls and nibbles on the side of my neck.

God, I love being here with them. I missed a lot while I was away, and I want to find out everything all at once.

Can we sneak out of here and into the bedroom yet? Logan signs to me after he turns me to face him.

That would be rude. I shake my head. We just got here. Did you know they were going to do this?

He shrugs his shoulders and grins. I knew there was cake. The pizza is just dinner, I think. They didn’t know when you’d come by.

You could have warned me.

Where would be the fun in that? He jerks a thumb toward the bedroom. Can we go to bed yet? He waggles his eyebrows at me.

Where would be the fun in that? I ask. My pocket vibrates, and I reach for my phone. It’s my mom, I tell Logan. “Hello,” I say quietly. I walk toward Logan’s bedroom so I can hear my mom talk.

“Are you all right?” my mom asks.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” I step into Logan’s room.

“I just wanted to be sure. Trip called your father and said you weren’t at your apartment.”

“Mom,” I start.

“I know, I know,” she interjects. I can almost imagine her holding her hands out in surrender. “Are you at Logan’s?” Her voice is almost singsong.

A grin tugs at my lips. “Yes, they had a party for me,” I admit. “It was really nice.”

“And Logan?” she asks. “How is he?”

What she really wants to know is how angry he is at my father. “He’s fine.”

“Your father will get used to him,” she says.

“He’ll have to.” That sounds flippant, but it’s not. It’s the truth.

“Emily,” she warns. She takes a deep breath. “Even you have to admit he’s not what your father envisioned for you.”

He’s not what I envisioned for myself, either. I never even hoped to find someone as kind and generous as Logan. “I know. Isn’t it great?”