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“Sarge?” Kyle laughed.

I giggled. “Yeah. No good?”

“No, it’s perfect!” he laughed. “And Briggs loves dogs!” His gaze shifted teasingly toward Jason. “Right buddy?”

Almost as if Sarge knew, he ran straight at Jason. He smirked down at him for a while, letting him scramble up one leg, before finally picking him up.

“Yeah, sure. He can stay for now.”

I’d been worried most about Ryan, but all that concern disappeared later on. I found the two of them passed out on the couch together, Sarge curled up happily on his big chest. The little puppy raised his head as I tiptoed past them, and I patted him gently until he lowered his chin.

Everything was right again, everything good. Almost, anyway.

It wasn’t until the end of the week that we all had some time together. I walked into the gallery to find the guys talking together, all four of them turning toward me at once.

“Friday night,” said Kyle, speaking for all of them. “Us.”

I nodded happily. It was the one missing piece. The only thing that would make it feel like we were truly home again: spending time as a group.

I honestly couldn’t wait.

Friday came, and the boys insisted on taking me out that night, despite me offering to cook up a big family dinner. They each swore off whatever they were doing long enough to make time for the five of us, and anyone not home by sundown would apparently have hell to pay.

But everyone was.

On their orders I came down the staircase dressed to kill, in an outfit with a plunging neckline and my least-uncomfortable spiked heels. My red dress was slit up the side, just elegantly enough to still be sexy. But the guys…

My breathing stopped for a second the moment I saw them.

All four of them were suited up and buttoned-down, looking both casual and cool. Their sports jackets and slacks were crisp and sharp. Jason even wore a tie!

I made the bottom step, somehow without falling, as one of them let out a low whistle. By the time I strutted over, hands and arms were already slipping around me. Someone’s lips brushed my neck, sniffing me as if I were delicious.

“This is appreciated…” I said, slowly removing Jason’s tie, “but it isn’t necessary.”

He smiled as I slid the satiny strip of fabric from around his neck and tossed it to the floor. With nimble fingers I unbuttoned his top button, smirked mischievously, then unbuttoned the next two as well.

“There. Much better.”

Kyle drove. He was still on a vigorous round of antibiotics for his leg, so he’d be drinking water all night anyway. The rest of us piled in and relaxed during the drive into town, laughing and talking and basically bullshitting about nothing. That part felt the best to me, not having an agenda. Not focusing on anything that happened, or was going to happen, but rather just — for this one night, at least — enjoying the present.

Dinner was amazing — Italian, as per Jason’s request. He was still eating like a horse, and had already begun putting some of the weight back on. He was also doing double-duty in the old Victorian mansion’s tea room, which Dakota had long ago turned into our home gym.

One by one the courses came. We downed them slowly, but not so much the wine and beer. The evening was filled with flirting and touching and kissing, so much that we drew the attention of patrons in every direction. Yet even with all the sexual tension, and knowing where the night would ultimately lead? Not one of us was in a hurry to get there.

“What you did was amazing, in case no one told you,” said Ryan. “Going all the way out to get Markus Ladrone… that was a longshot.”

“A dangerous longshot,” warned Jason, stuffing linguine into his mouth.

I felt myself flush red, even as I shook my head. “The whole thing was Dakota’s doing, not mine.”

“To heck with that,” Dakota said flatly. “It was all your idea. Your plan. And damn, you were the who walked up alone to those— Ow!”

I kicked him under the table. But the others were already giving me the side-eye.

“Oh don’t think we don’t already know,” said Ryan. I flashed Dakota a dirty look.

“And not just from him,” said Jason. “From Markus, too.”