Page 132 of Bottles & Blades

She smiles in agreement, though. “Exactly, Dad,” she murmurs, lifting on tiptoe and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Now I’m going to gather up the crew and head out.”

“You don’t have to go,” I blurt.

I like her. I like Rory and Rome and King.

Do I want to be alone so I can experience all of Jean-Mi’s naked plans?

Yes.

But I don’t want her to feel like she has to rush off.

“I think we do.” Her eyes flick down to her father’s arm, an arm that’s currently wrapped around my middle then up to where his chest is pressed to my back. “Plus, I’ll see you at the game tomorrow, right?”

The Eagles’ final home game of the regular season.

A game that’s against the Gold.

Yeah, I’m not missing that for the world.

“I have class and then Roxie for a couple of hours,” I say. “But after I get her settled with Stefan, I’ll come over to your dad’s box.”

“Awesome,” she says. “Then we can drool over the players below, eat all the bad snacks, and drive my dad crazy.”

“I…um…”

His arm tightens, his lips press to my temple. “Tiff is too sweet to drive me crazy.”

I glare up at him.

Chrissy grins. “Well, we’ll fix that.”

“No, you won’t.”

Rory comes up and laces her arm through Chrissy’s, winking at me. “Yes, we will,” she stage whispers.

Jean-Mi sighs.

And I decide to move this along, slipping from his hold, dropping to my knees by the carrier and helping Rome load up the kittens.

He grins at me.

“Anxious to get us out of here?” he teases.

I grin back. “When the three of them get going…”

“They don’t stop,” he finishes.

“Exactly.”

We share another grin and then go back to packing up the kittens.

Luckily, they’ve been entertained well for the last few hours and are sleepy, so they don’t give us any trouble as we tuck them carefully into the carrier, snuggle them up with blankets, and then close the door. Rome hefts it carefully then goes and snags his woman’s hand. “Time to go, kitten.”

My heart squeezes when she leans into him, glancing up, her face filled with love.

His mouth brushes over hers, and his free hand gently tucks a lock of hair behind her ear.

He’s adorable.

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