Page 101 of Live for Me

“Hey, boss lady.”

I turned to the door while my phone fell straight to the floor.

“Jersey Boy?”

I wasn’t sure why my first thought was to wonder if someone had drugged me and if I was hallucinating as a result.

“Missed you, lovebug.”

The sob that exploded out of me brought him the rest of the way into the room to try to squeeze me to death.

“Don’t ever call me that again,” I choked out around all the crying while he managed to tighten his hold even more. Triss squealed from somewhere behind him until he released me, and she moved right into his place to hug me as soon as he was out of her way. Through the ridiculous flurry of her hair nearly swallowing me whole while she bounced up and down in that hug, I spotted Utah leaning against the doorframe smiling at me.

“You called him?” I squeaked.

“God, no,” he chuckled. “I called Trista.”

“They managed to not even speak to each other the whole drive from the airport,” Trista laughed. “Turns out they’re both children.”

“He was pouting about having to ride in the truck,” Utah said, shrugging his shoulders.

“And he was pouting that the size of that pumpkin truck still hasn’t improved the size of his dick,” Jersey said in an instant. They glared at one another for a painfully silent few seconds.

“See,” Triss added with another laugh. “Children.”

“I’m going to get the rest of our stuff carried in,” Jersey said and kissed Triss on top of the head when he walked by her toward the door. I very much expected Utah and him to just stand there and stare at each other until one of them died, but Utah simply stepped aside to let him through.

“You just get bored without all the tension that he brings to the place?” Triss asked Utah and laughed at herself while she followed Jersey. “Decided you needed the chaos back around here?”

“Good to have you back, Retirement,” Utah said to her over his shoulder once she was gone, too.

“Why?” was all I managed to get out when it was just us again.

“What?” he asked and laughed.

“You can’t stand him,” I said and went the rest of the way to him. “Why? Why would you have him come back here? You don’t even like him, Utah.”

“I likeyou, angel,” he said, and his hand went to my cheek. “That’s why.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“I didn’t tell him anything,” he laughed. “I told Triss that you missed him, sugar. I don’t have to like him to be able to see that you care about him.”

My mind moved quickly into what this could mean about the things we’d be able to achieve now with both of these men back here. Utah was capable of just about anything. He’d proven that more than once now, but something in me was way more hesitant about sending him into the obviously dangerous jobs than I’d ever been about Jersey.

Then I pressed pause on my own brain, wondering for a split second what this might mean about the depth of my feelings for Utah.

“I canseeyou overthinking,” Utah laughed. “Like, I’m actually watching it happen this very moment.”

“I didn’t realize I needed both of you to be able to —,” I said before he interrupted.

“Memphis,” he said and sighed. “What I want you to realize is that you don’t actuallyneedme. You sure as fuck don’t need Jersey. Or even Triss or Indy. You can count on yourself, angel. I want you towantme, but you don’t need me.”

“That’s sweet of you, but I can’t imagine I’ll be taking apart a human trafficking operation single-handedly.”

“I’m not talking about work, Memphis. I asked Triss to bring him back here just because you missed him. Just because I want you to be happy. Not because he’s a crutch that gets to decide who you are or how you live. I want you to be able to smile again when you think about him. I don’t like having to see your heart break at the same time every single day when that alarm on your phone goes off.”

I stepped the rest of the way into him just to put my arms around his waist. “Thank you, Utah.”

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