Page 130 of Die for You

I’m so excited to start here next semester. Quinn’s eyes glint with mischief. Gaze trained on Ryder. Watching him with even more interest than she showed at the Sigma Chi party.

No-sisters rule, I sign.It’s still in effect when I’m off campus.

She scowls.I’m not afraid to disown you.

Luke and Sienna finally manage to break off from their families, and Juliet and Trey join us. Followed shortly by Knox and Damien, who both hug Aurora.

An unfamiliar, bittersweet feeling coils in my chest. Might be the last time we’re all together. At least for a while.

“Who wants to go back to the house for pizza?” Luke calls.

A few whoops and cheers of agreement. Soon, we’ll all be heading off to different parts of the country for jobs and school. Sienna and Luke will move in together, Trey and Juliet, Aurora and the three of us.

But we’ll always be friends. You don’t have teammates like the Devils without becoming brothers for life.

Aurora takes my hand as we follow our friends back to the hockey house. She smiles up at me and signs, in the language she studied just for me,Let’s go home.

Epilogue

Aurora

Finn holdsthe door to the bookstore open for me, and Damien squeezes my ass as he follows me in.

I yelp and swat at him, but I can’t help but smirk. Even in public, they refuse to behave. I can’t take the Devils anywhere.

“Be good,” I whisper. “We’re going to be on our best behavior for Violet.”

“We’ll listen to her talk for a bit,” Damien offers, “but when she starts reading that first chapter, we’re fucking you against one of these shelves.”

Before I can protest, Knox cuts in, “Don’t worry. We’ll be back in time for the signing.”

I roll my eyes as Finn takes my hand with mischief glinting in his gaze. They’re all ridiculous.

Four years later, and the Devils are still just as insane as they were when we met.

Now that Finn has completed his PhD program, he dresses the part. He’s traded his joggers, trainers, and hoodies for button-ups and slacks. When he rolls his sleeves up to his elbows, I melt every time. There’s even something sexy about the watch he’s started wearing to keep track of his busy schedule.

With both of our studies completed, we’re moving back to Diamond. Damien recently landed a position as the assistant coach for the Diamond Devils team, and Knox has already found a location where he plans to open his own physical therapy practice. The house we found has the perfect closet for a home studio for me, and one of the songs I posted online last week has been gaining hundreds of thousands of views every day.

Even though I’m always home when I’m with the Devils, coming back to Diamond feels like coming back to the place where I grew up. The place where I met my Devils and fell in love. Where my whole life changed for the better. Where I finally found the missing pieces to my puzzle that I’d spent so long searching for.

In an open, spacious corner of the bookstore, Violet sits behind a table full of stacks of her newest book, her first ever to be traditionally published. This one is even juicier, twistier, and sexier than her first. I devoured it in one sitting. The Devils checked on me multiple times throughout the day to make sure I was still alive and kept me fed and hydrated.

Violet looks exactly the part of an author—reading glasses perched on her nose, long brown hair falling down her back, skirt nearly brushing the floor, and a huge grin on her face at her friends, family, and readers arriving for the signing event.

Wes looms at her side, always protective and vigilant. Just like my Devils.

“Aurora!” Violet waves me over when she spots me, and I rush over to hug her and gush my praises about her books. She’s my new favorite author.

When I pull away, I beam down at her stomach. “When are you due?”

She plants a hand on her belly, even though it’s barely protruding. Nothing bigger than my stomach after too much bread. “Five months.”

“Congratulations, Wes,” I call.

He nods his gratitude to me, mouth still serious. He’s on high alert, like anyone who hugs his wife too tightly might hurt her and the baby.

“Have you decided on a name?”