Page 164 of Crushing Clover

“I can handle some temporary discomfort if it means the three of you get some closure.”

“I don’t understand why you always have to meddle,” Saint grumbled.

“It’s because she loves you, dork.” Arabella sighed.

Saint glared at me suspiciously. “Did you two organize this little ‘accidental’ meet-up?”

“No,” Arabella assured him, “but it was probably good for all of us. I was dreading bumping into you.” She got to her feet. “Anyway, Rik is trying to get to the gym, so I’m off to take the kids to the park—we have two now, by the way. If you ever want to chat, unblock me, you cowards.” She gave all of us a cheeky smile. “And don’t take her for granted.”

I rose, too. “Thank you.”

She drew me into a firm hug, surprising me. “You take care of these three. They’re a little rough around the edges, but they deserve to be happy. Make sure they don’t steamroll you.” She winked at me.

Saint heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry I was such a dick when we were together and that I made the break-up so toxic.”

“I’m sorry I called you a spoiled man-child.”

“Well, you weren’t wrong.”

“No, but it was mean.”

He shrugged. “I’ve only gotten worse.”

“Well then, I’m even more glad you’re not my problem anymore.”

They both laughed.

He nodded to me. “I’ll unblock you if Clove is comfortable with that.”

I wasn’t sure if he was blowing her off nicely, or if he really planned to talk to me about it later, but hearing him say he cared about what I thought made me smile.

As soon as she was gone, we grabbed our coffees and headed out, too.

I settled into the backseat of Saint's truck and Lucky grabbed me and kissed me. “Are you ready to start your new life with three homeless surfers who run a food truck?”

“I’m so fucking excited.” It was nothing but the unvarnished truth. They even planned to teach me how to cook.

Thank goodness they'd shipped the food truck ahead of us with most of our belongings. That thing was slow and took corners only when forced. Selling two of the pickup trucks had been sad, but we needed the money.

Rush was watching us in the rearview mirror.

“You can play with her, Luck, but don’t get her off.” Saint’s chuckle as we rolled out of the parking lot was positively evil.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Didn’t Arabella tell you guys to be nice to me?” I grumbled.

“Nice is a relative term.” Rush grinned. “She doesn’t know what you like the way we do.”

If I could get off before Lucky realized I was going to, they’d pull the truck over and punish him for it.

Hot.

I had all sorts of games in mind for this trip, and it was going to be a long fucking drive.

Chapter 34

The lamp above me illuminated my hands—the pool of light letting me see precisely enough to sew even stitches. Beyond the loveseat we’d stolen from Cygnet’s office, the room was so dark I felt like an actor under spotlight in an empty theater. The room still had the biting pine smell of cleaning solution, but that hadn’t been my work.

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