The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(91)

“Yeah,” he said quietly, looking right into her eyes. “I don’t want to scare you even more, but you should know that I’d have followed you anywhere.”

“Right back at you,” she said softly, and smiled. “Maybe it’s time for a new deal.”

“Conditions?”

She shook her head. “No conditions.”

He looked surprised. “That’s a lot to promise.”

“Yes, but I’m good for it. And your conditions?”

“Same as you.” He searched her gaze. “A forever deal, Brynn, yeah?”

Brynn smiled through her tears, everything but Eli fading away. “Yeah.” Going up on tiptoe, she kissed him, while from the car Kinsey yelled out the window, “You two about done yet?”

Eli lifted his head and looked into Brynn’s eyes, his own steely gray gaze no longer stormy, but warm and filled with so much promise, she could hardly believe it. “Never,” he said.

“Never,” she repeated fiercely. “You’re mine now.”

“I am, and right back at you.” He hugged her close. “Now take me home to seal the deal.”

She smiled as her heart swelled. “We should probably seal it twice. You know, just to make sure it sticks.”

“As many times as it takes,” he said, holding her hand in his as they headed to the car.

And to the rest of their lives.





Epilogue


Two years later

Kinsey pulled her phone from her pocket and called Deck. “My sister’s boring me. She’s in the bathroom. Again.”

“Babe, that’s because you insisted on your weekly girls’ night out even though she told you she wasn’t feeling well.”

“Well, she’s gone from not feeling well straight to living in the bar bathroom.”

“I’ll come down.”

“No, you don’t have to, you’re having a you-and-Toby night.”

“That got canceled. He’s got a cold, so he stayed with his mom. I was surfing with Max, we just got done. We’ll come keep you company.”

“Good, because this is her fourth time in there.”

Max came on the line. “Call Eli too.”

“She’ll kill me if I call and worry him.”

“Call him anyway.”

So she called Eli. “Your wife’s being a pain in the ass.” She moved from her high-top table at the Whiskey River Bar and Grill to the hallway so she could hear if Brynn needed her.

“Define ‘pain in the ass,’” Eli said. “Is this like the time last year when you were both still in the hospital after the kidney transplant and you got mad because you thought she stole your red Jell-O?”

“She did steal my Jell-O.”

“Yes, and when you got home, I had a year’s worth of red Jell-O waiting for you.”

“It’s not about the red Jell-O!” Kinsey was fighting back panic and anxiety and worry while Eli wanted to talk about the fucking red Jell-O. She eyed the bathroom door.

The locked bathroom door.

“Look,” she said. “This isn’t about me, okay? We both know I’ll never be able to repay her for what she did for me.”

“She doesn’t want you to.”

Kinsey drew a deep breath, her throat tight. With terror. “I think she’s sick, Eli.”

“Wait, what?” His voice got a whole bunch more serious. “You said ‘pain in the ass,’ not sick. She’s been fine, recovering with no problems at all.”

For which Kinsey had been forever grateful, but now she was afraid she’d jinxed it. “Come get her before she hurts herself.”

“What makes you think she’s sick?”

“She’s thrown up like three times.”

Eli disconnected.

Kinsey shoved her phone away and stood guard right outside the bathroom door, knocking on it. “Hey, let me in.”

Brynn unlocked the door. She was green. She held up a finger and turned back to the commode, sinking down in front of it.

Kinsey’s heart officially stopped working as she moved in close to hold back her sister’s hair. Five minutes later, Eli was rushing through the door, dropping to his knees beside his wife, hugging her.

At the sight of him, Brynn starting sobbing—no, wait, she was laughing. Laughing and sobbing.

Eli looked stunned as, right there on the floor of the bar bathroom, he pulled her into his lap. “Yes?” he asked her.

Brynn nodded, looking equally stunned. “Yes.”

“What the hell is going on?” Kinsey demanded, hand on her heart to keep it from leaping out of her chest. “Is she going to die? Goddammit, if you die, Brynn, I swear, I’ll follow you and strangle you—”

“I’m not dying,” Brynn said, eyes on Eli.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked her incredulously.

“Tell you what?” Kinsey yelled.

No one looked at her.

“I didn’t know what to say!” Brynn said to Eli. “It’s not like we planned it, and then last week . . .”

“What?”

“You don’t even remember? You came to our end-of-the-year classroom party, and little Maxie peed on you and you said something like ‘I never want one. Ever.’”