Page 46 of His Relentless Angel

“Sit on my dick! Need you again.” I try to push her forward, as hard now as I was before, but there’s an urgent knock on the bathroom door. I curse under my breath and tap her thighs. “Time to go, baby,” I say with disappointment.

Bailey laughs at my grumpy expression, and tugs me by my shirt, rolling up on her tiptoes to kiss me after we get out of the bath. “We’ve got plenty of years ahead of us to use this tub.”

Wrapping my arms around her waist, I hold her tighter. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

Bailey giggles at the ticklish feeling of me helping to clean her thighs, and we walk hand in hand to the front door, a blush blooming on her face when she sees the inspector waiting just inside the door.

He clears his throat as he puts the key back in the lock box after we step out on the front porch. It’s a credit to him that he doesn’t look at Bailey when she’s freshly fucked, her cheeks now blazing red. He does, however, shoot me a wink before waving and getting into his older model white work van.

“Oh god, Isaiah, he totally knew what we were doing, didn’t he?”

“I’d say so. Bet you fifty bucks he’s late to his next appointment, on the way home to see his missus.”

“Why do you think that?”

“He was thumbing his wedding ring and had his phone pressed to his ear before he even backed out of the driveway. It’s what I would do if I were him.” I snap my fingers and turn to face her fully. “Speaking of…” I kneel before Bailey and unhook one of the two slim gold necklaces around my neck, pulling the chain and the square-cut diamond gold engagement ring hanging on it out from under my shirt.

“Isaiah,” she gasps, leaning down to place her hand softly on my cheek. “You had that this whole time?”

I slide the ring off the chain and onto her left ring finger. “Been wearing it all day, trying to figure out when and how I wanted to propose.” I kiss the diamond on her hand, then place both of hers over my heart. “We might have done things a little backward, but I was waiting for this to arrive. I had it engraved with the date we met.”

She sucks in a breath, looking back and forth between my eyes, a silent question that she’s not sure if she wants to ask.

“That date…it was the start of our journey. I thought I wished I hadn’t met you until after your birthday, but…I don’t know if we would be here now if we had met at any other time. I know you might not want to hear this, but I’m glad we waited for the right time. I don’t know if I could have lived with myself if we’d started up right when you turned eighteen. I’m just sorry I caused so much heartbreak between then and now.”

Bailey sinks to her knees and circles my neck. I take the opportunity to clasp the necklace around her, settling the three-D gold bumblebee pendant I don’t think she’s noticed yet in the middle of her chest—the same one I have hanging on my necklace under my shirt. Rising to my feet, I sit on the wicker bench and pull her down sideways on my lap. I stroke her back when she starts crying and don’t try to rush her.

When her tears turn to sniffles, I ask, “Are you ok?”

She leans back and holds my face, our noses close enough to brush against each other’s. “Perfect. The happiest I’ve ever been in my life. Although…you still haven’t technically proposed…”

Well, shit, I guess she’s right. I clear my throat. “Bailey, will—”

“Yes!” She beams at me. “You didn’t even need to ask.”

Chapter 19

Bailey

Tuesday night, the whole family is back in town, and Dad has decided to host a game night. It was disappointing, to say the least, when Isaiah asked him not to play host at our house when I was a teenager. I would linger at the living room window on nights when everyone was at James’s house, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, aching at the fact that he didn’t want to see me.

Tonight’s the night. After they’re done with their game, when Dad is in a good mood, the plan is to sit him and Mom down on the couch and explain in a calm manner how we’ve fallen in love after reuniting in Austin. With Mom’s support, we hope he’ll give us his blessing instead of flying off the handle. I’ve been a nervous wreck about it all day, but it’s either we do it, or one of the kids accidentally does it for us, and we’d rather he find out from us.

Isaiah and I drive separately, and he arrives fifteen minutes ahead of me, yet when I walk into my parents’ house to say hi to Dad, he keeps giving me this look that I still don’t understand. His attention swings between me and the kitchen, where Isaiah is helping Mom open all the snacks he’d brought, and I have to leave fast before he catches us mooning over each other.

At Shayla’s house, I linger at the living room window with my eyes toward my parents’ open garage where the guys, plus their friends Mara and Ezra, are playing, though I can’t see them with all the cars in the driveway. Mom, who came with me, coos and sways behind me with Clara in her arms. Eden and Shayla are busy cleaning up dinner after kicking me out of the kitchen when I kept sighing, counting down the minutes ‘til I can see Isaiah again. The only person we’re missing is Autumn, and I have no idea where she’s slunk off to.

Grayson is grumpy since Lainey and Eden’s oldest daughter, Ivy, kicked him out of Lainey’s room so they could spend one-on-one time together. Ivy is Lainey’s biological half-sister after their dad pulled the same trick on Eden, accidentally getting her pregnant within a year of Shayla giving birth to Lainey. You’d think Shayla and Eden might not want anything to do with each other, but they easily became best friends after spending so much time together so the girls could form their sisterly bond. It worked out perfectly that she and Martin fell in love and now have two more kids together.

My phone rings, and my shoulders slump when I see it’s Dad calling, though I quickly brighten at his request. I haul a variety pack of Shiner beers from Shayla’s second fridge in her garage across the street, smiling in anticipation of locking eyes with my love.

When I set the pack of beers down at the head of the long white folding table, Brady says, “Hey, Aunt BeeBee. I mean, BeeBee. I mean, Bailey.”

Sometimes Brady forgets I’m his sister since he’s closer in age to his nieces and nephews. It’s cute, if not a little weird. His shaggy blonde hair sticks up every which way, like James’s, since he thinks it’s cool, and he’s pleased as punch at having been invited to join the adults at their game. In truth, all of us except the youngest kids were invited, but he’s the only one who was interested.

“Hit me.” Brady makes a gimme gesture when I open the pack of beers, then sticks his tongue out at me when I skip over him as I pass them out to everyone else.

Martin laughs in his almost preternaturally deep voice, which no one would expect from the freckled, red-headed man a few inches shorter than me. His side gig as an audiobook narrator, which Shayla kept urging him to do after they met, has earned him quite a following online, much to his eternal embarrassment since he’s such an introvert. His voice even makes me blush, which amuses James, but makes Isaiah huff.

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