Fever (Breathless #2)(98)

“I’d love to,” Bethany said to Mia.

Mia’s face lit up in delight. “Good! It’s settled then. Night after next, we’ll hit the club. I’ll run by and get you from Jace’s apartment and then we’ll swing by to get the other girls on the way. Gabe’s providing a driver for the evening.”

“Damn right,” Gabe muttered. “Last thing I need is a bunch of drunken girls wobbling all over f**king Manhattan.”

Ash chuckled. “No shit.”

“Our apartment, Mia,” Jace corrected gently. “It’s mine and Bethany’s apartment. Not mine.”

Mia flushed, her eyes growing worried. “Of course! I’m so sorry. I’m so used to calling it your apartment. I’m sorry, Bethany. I wasn’t thinking.”

Bethany looked embarrassed and sent Jace a frown of reprimand that had him grinning. He wasn’t the least bit repentant for reminding the others of Bethany’s place in his life.

“It’s okay, Mia. I knew what you meant,” Bethany said.

“Oh look!” Mia exclaimed. “It’s almost midnight. The countdown is on!”

Their gazes jerked to the television just in time to see the clock wind down to midnight.

“Happy New Year!” Mia cried.

“Happy New Year,” Ash said, raising his glass in toast.

“Happy New Year,” Gabe echoed.

Jace leaned down, touching his lips to Bethany’s. “Happy New Year, baby.”

“You too,” she whispered as she kissed him back.

“Know what I plan to be doing New Year’s Day?” he whispered.

“What?” she whispered back.

“Making love to you. They say whatever you do on New Year’s Day you’ll be doing the entire rest of the year.”

She grinned. “For real?”

“So the saying goes.”

“In that case, I vote we do exactly that,” she said before kissing him again.

“No arguments from me.”

“And they say we’re bad,” Mia grumbled, jerking Jace back before he completely lost himself in Bethany’s kiss and forgot where they were.

He shot his sister a glare. “Oh please. Like anyone is worse than you and Gabe.”

Gabe looked amused but kept his mouth shut.

“Try being me,” Ash muttered. “Jesus, it’s like a couples’ retreat around here.”

“So find you a woman,” Mia said lightly.

Ash rolled his eyes and then drained his wineglass. “No hurry there, sweetheart. Besides, who in their right mind would ever marry into my crazy-ass family?”

Mia gasped. “Did he just insult us?”

Jace smiled, loving her even more in that moment. Ash looked dumbstruck for a moment and then a warm smile lit up his entire face and his eyes gleamed with affection.

Mia had effectively reminded him that they were Ash’s family. Not his father or mother or batshit crazy siblings. Here in this room was Ash’s real family. The ones who supported him unconditionally.

“Never that,” Ash said. “And thanks for the reminder, sweetness.”

Bethany was looking at the others with something akin to wonder. Her smile was achingly filled with longing. For what the others shared. That unbreakable bond. One that extended to her now, even if she hadn’t fully grasped it.

“They’re your family too,” he murmured into her ear.

She turned to him, her eyes bright with happiness for the first time in days. They were clear and not clouded with sadness and worry.

“Yeah,” she breathed. “I guess they are, aren’t they?”

He kissed her lingeringly, hugging her tightly to his chest. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”

“It’s the best,” she said fiercely. “It’s something I never imagined having. I still can’t believe it. I still wake up and have to tell myself this is really happening and not some crazy dream I’ve hatched.”

He smiled gently, his chest aching with the love he felt for her. “Believe it, baby. It’s real and it’s yours.”

Chapter thirty-five

“I feel so guilty,” Bethany said.

Mia glanced over from where she sat beside Bethany in the limo, her brow furrowed in question.

Bethany sighed. “I have no idea where Jack is. If he’s dead or alive, hungry or cold. Nothing. And yet I’m going on about my life, going out with girlfriends clubbing. It seems so . . . cold and heartless.”

Mia reached over and squeezed Bethany’s hand. “Oh honey, you’re anything but cold and heartless. Give yourself a break here. Jack is a grown man. He’s made his decisions, whether they’re good or bad, and you have to accept that. You can’t live his life for him. You can’t make him do the right thing. But what you can do is live your life, be happy and make your own choices free of guilt.”

Bethany blinked at the other woman, astonished by how much sense Mia made.

“I’m an idiot.”

Mia laughed. “First you’re cold and heartless and now you’re an idiot?”

Bethany breathed a deep sigh. “You’re right. I know you’re right. Jace has been telling me the same thing, only I haven’t been listening. And then you say it and suddenly it makes so much more sense.”