Page 121 of Wanted
“I wanted to bring your dog over—” Dex started, but Ezra cut in with a shake of his head.
“A hospital isn’t a place for animals.”
“There are hospitals for animals.”
“Yes, and this isn’t one,” Ezra said, meeting Knox’s gaze with an exasperated sigh. “He tried to smuggle him in under his jacket.”
Liv snorted and accepted the duffel bag of necessities Ezra brought over from their home. “Isn’t he a bit too big of a boy for that?”
Ros’s smile widened. “He’s growing well, and he’s so smart. He picks up things in training so fast. Soon enough, he’ll be the one giving Dex advice.”
Dex rolled his eyes. “But he won’t be making delicious ramen, I can tell you that much.”
“He’d need thumbs for that,” Ezra said with a straight face as Liv kissed Knox behind the ear. The soft touch was pure bliss, and Knox leaned against his man, ready to be healed by the special soup. Who knew, maybe it was magical thanks to thepower of friendship?
So maybe life wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, since they did become cogs in Frank’s side business, but they both trusted him enough to believe that the bodies disappearing in barrels, underground, or in the incinerator belonged to people who didn’t deserve much consideration.
Either way, he could not wait to be back home, with all the people who’d become his true family. With people who cared about him enough to visit him at the hospital, to bring him soup and flowers. To lend him money for life-saving surgery.
And most of all, to be home with Liv, the one person who made life worth living.
Epilogue 2
Liv
Some days were betterthan others. Like Christmas. Thanksgiving. Birthdays.
Why not make them even better?Liv had been asking himself for the past week, as the little velvet box in his pocket became ever heavier. If Knox agreed to marry him—ha, the old him would have laughed at the ridiculousness of the very idea—it would make his birthday even more special, and be something to celebrate each year to come.
It only dawned on him earlier today that Knox might say no.
He didn’t know what he’d do then. Take it on the chin? Get mad and sulk?
He couldn’t actually pretend he’d been joking, because he’d scattered rose petals on their bed all romantic-like. He couldn’t help himself. When Knox smiled at him, Liv’s insides turned into cotton candy.
“Thanks for hosting the party,” Knox said to Ezra on the way out of Frank’s home. The beers he’d drank had given his cheeks a healthy flush, and Liv couldn’t wait to kiss him all over.
Oh well, if he chickened out before reaching home, he could always pretend the rose petals were there as a birthday treat. Though he’d be disappointing Frank and Ezra, who both knew about his plans for the afterparty. Frank had even helped Liv make the ring, so it would be personalandnot cost an outrageous amount of money. He couldn’t have afforded anything fancier after all his savings had gone toward Knox’s heart surgery, but neither he nor Knox were into luxury goods.
It should be fine, he thought as he got into the passenger seat of their pickup truck and tried to stretch his tense neck.
“The pasta was so good,” Liv said to fill the silence that for once felt choking.
Knox smiled at him, dispersing some of the tension. His blond hair now reached his collar bones, and the nose ring Liv had put in himself made Knox look edgier, wilder. He was socool, and Liv couldn’t wait to make Knox his. To put a ring on that finger and make sure this man never slipped out of his grasp.
“And Ezra made the cake actually sweet. Just for you.” Knox laughed and leaned in to give Liv a kiss.
It was incredible that within just two years he’d gone from being stuck with Amanda and stewing in homophobic juices, to reaching the place where he was always meant to be—at Liv’s side.
They’d lost touch with their useless parents, they were no longer wanted by the police, and lived a life they maybe didn’t deserve, but which they appreciated. They even had a dog. What was there not to like?
“I suspect Dex might have added more sugar behind his back,” Liv said as Knox drove away from Frank’s place, the truck licking the piles of junk with its headlights.
“I want to show you something,” Knox said and instead of turning right, toward their home, he headed in the opposite direction.
Liv blinked and moved his hand, finding the little ring box in his pocket as his flesh heated. “Oh? We’re going off-plan?”
What the hell was wrong with him? Liver Polk was Mr. Spontaneous. That was the literal reason the two of them had gotten a chance to become an item in the first place, so why was he so nervous now? Everything Liv knew was telling him Knox would say yes, and yet doubts were eating him up.
