Page 74 of Illicit

He kisses her forehead before taking one more look at her and shakes his head. “Missed you more than you know. Can’t wait to have you home, even if it’s just for a few weeks before you break my heart and move to Mars.”

Teagan rolls her eyes. “I was born in New York. You worked in New York.” She turns to Micah. “You worked there too and had no desire to go to Miami.”

Evie wraps her arms around her husband’s middle and looks up to Micah. “Best move ever. You’d be lost without me.”

He leans down and presses his lips to the top of her dark hair. “I’d be wandering around lost and a poor excuse for a human. Thank you for saving me, Evie.”

Evie bites back a laugh as Micah reaches around his wife to shake my hand.

“What’s up, big man?” I say.

“Your initiation, that’s what. Wait until you see what we have in store for you. You’re scheduled on call for the hotline every weekend for the first six months. We’ve already agreed that if we run across a hoarder, it’s your case. And consider yourself on coffee duty everyday but Monday.”

There’s no way I’m doing half that shit.

“Fuck that,” I mutter.

“I agree with Rocco,” Tim says, coming to my rescue. “Fuck that. I’m expecting high level cases from him. What he’s not doing is running for coffee.”

Micah pushes me in the shoulder. “You know I’m fucking with you. We can’t wait. Brax even broke up with me. I’m teaming up with King for a while so you two can work together. Personally, I think it’s because Mama Landyn wants him to keep an eye on you.”

“He could do worse than have Brax Cruz as a partner, right?” Annette chimes in.

“As much as I appreciate everyone planning my career for me,” I say as I reach over and give Teagan’s graduation robe a tug and don’t look away from her. More than anything, I want to pull her to me, take her mouth, and tell her how proud I am. Graduations are boring as hell, and I’m more than anxious to get this one over with. That means everyone can get back on Evie’s private jet to fly home, and I can have Teagan to myself again. “Teagan needs to walk across the stage. She said she’s going to miss school. She’s a freak.”

Teagan smirks up at me through her thick, dark lashes before she hits me with her square graduation hat. “I’m not a freak. I like to learn new things.”

“It’s because you’re so smart,” Annette announces proudly.

My thoughts go back to her bed where we woke up this morning. I wonder what I could teach her…

As if Tim can read my mind, he makes me feel like a dirty old man at my ripe age of twenty-nine. “It feels like yesterday you graduated from kindergarten. In case anyone is curious, between this and becoming a grandpa, I’m not doing well.”

“And just when we thought King was old,” Micah says with a loud clap. “Let’s get this party started. Teagan, if you don’t do something completely offensive and off the wall when you walk across the stage, I’ve failed as an uncle. Do not disappoint me, girl.”

Evie gapes at her bear of a husband. “This is a private university, Micah. Teagan would never do anything like that.”

“You’d be surprised,” I mutter thinking about her having the balls to meet up with Robichaux by herself.

“That’s it. I’m going to be late to my own graduation because you people never stop talking.” Teagan leans in to kiss her mom’s cheek then her dad’s. She turns to me and the rest of the group, finally giving us an awkward wave. “I’ll see you on the other side!”

“We’ll be the annoying, loud ones!” Micah calls after her. “Wave to us!”

We’re standing outside the main hall where commencement will soon bore us to tears. I’m about to turn for the front doors so we find a good seat, when Annette steps in front of me and grips my hands. “When did you get here, and have you talked her out of moving to New York yet?”

Damn.

I ignore the first question and focus on the second. “Give me a minute, Annette. I’m working on it, but it’s going to take some convincing. Your daughter is savage.”

Annette’s shoulders droop like I just crushed every hope and dream she has in life, which probably isn’t far from the truth. I prepare myself for an onslaught of guilt trips until her gaze catches the butterfly strips on my arm.

“What happened to your arm?” she exclaims. I try to twist my hands out of hers, but like the mother she’s proven to be since the day I met her, there are just some things that can’t be stopped in life. Annette is at the top of the list.

“Just a cut,” I say and look over at Micah. “If we don’t get some seats soon, we’ll miss our chance at being obnoxious.”

Micah starts to move, but it’s the doctor, Evie, who zeroes in on my wound like a laser. “That’s more than a cut, Roc. You’re barely holding it together with those bandages. What happened?”

I take a step back from the doctor and the only real mother figure I’ve ever had. “I got in a scuffle at work the other night. It’s nothing. It’s already starting to heal.”

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