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"Are you serious right now?" Austin was breathing heavily against Cam's neck. "I can'tbelieve—you just…"

"Yeah," he rasped. His shoulders tensed up, and he was ready to get defensive. It was what he did. He braced himself. "You got a problem with that?"

Austin exhaled a shaky laugh and lifted his head. His eyes shone with…something. Cam was too high-strung and anxious to read into it, but it reminded him of the time last year when he'd added Austin's and Riley's birthdates to his collection of tattoos.

Just the day after, Austin had made an appointment for his very first tattoo, which now sat on his shoulder blade. It was Riley's handprint from when she was little to represent his daughter, and the words, "To hell and back with you," underneath it to represent Cam.

"Check my left pocket, baby," Austin whispered, bringing Cam's hand to the pocket in question.

Still tense, Cam avoided eye contact, fixating on a point behind Austin's shoulder, and acted on autopilot. He dug his hand down into the pocket, only to brush his fingers against two metal objects. Circular ones.

Austin smiled carefully and touched their foreheads together. "I was going to ask you tonight when everyone had left."

"Oh," Cam uttered dumbly. "I came unprepared." He slowly pulled away his hand again. "I can buy the rings when we get hitched, though." He needed to shut the fuck up.Christ.

His dad also wore two rings, and he liked the idea of having one for engagement and one for marriage. So…now he wanted to get that first one on his finger.

"All I want is your yes," Austin murmured. Sticking his hand into his pocket, he retrieved the two gold bands that lay in his open palm.

"You have it. Of course." Cam nodded. "Yeah." His gaze remained on the rings, finding eye contact difficult right now. He watched as Austin slid the ring on his left ring finger, then swallowed hard against the emotions when a matching ring ended up on Austin's. "I love you," he muttered, only lifting his gaze to Austin's mouth.

"I love you, too." Austin tilted his head down a couple inches and pressed his warm lips to Cam's.

Austin's tattoo said it all. They'd been to hell and back together; they'd waded through feelings and obstacles in the aftermath, never leaving the other's side. Maybe things weren’t perfect. Cam still needed to sleep with the bedroom door open, and Austin kept tempering his anger issues by pushing his physical limits on a punching bag, in a pool, or while running. Cam enjoyed having family over these days, as long as he wasn’t too crowded. Riley wasn’t allowed to wake up Cam in the mornings, for fear of startling him. Austin still tended to downplay his own struggles, but he was working on it. Gale would be in their lives for years to come, and some scars would never fade.

But Cam and Austin stuck together, gun or no gun, and created their own little piece of fucking awesome in that house in Bakersfield.

As friends, lovers, partners, brothers-in-arms, and with Riley, as a family.