Page 12 of Joel (Guardians of the North #6)
JOEL
The J-Squad and their wives host a rehearsal dinner for Kylie and me at The Iceberg .
Mike, the bartender, orders in crab legs from The Sea Shack .
Drinks are on the house tonight. The local bar and grill is lively with celebration.
If this were real, it would be exactly what I want the night before my wedding.
I have no surviving blood family I claim, and the couples sitting around the three pushed-together tables are the closest people to me. They are my family.
And if Kylie were really marrying me tomorrow, they’d be her family too.
The whole thing has me feeling a bit guilty.
Tomorrow, I’ll have to explain to everyone that this was all just a prank.
“You okay?” Kylie asks, nudging me with her shoulder.
“You want to get some air?” I ask, slipping my hand onto her thigh and giving it a squeeze. Her skirt rides up, and I almost forget the guilt.
Almost.
“We’ll be right back,” Kylie announces to the table, her tone thickly suggestive. No one questions her. Hell, why would they? Kylie Robinson fits into our tightly knit group like she was always meant to be a part of it. Would it be so crazy to ask her to marry me for real ?
Or at least to stay.
“What’s up?” she asks when we make our way outside.
“I think this was a bad idea,” I admit, scrubbing a hand over the back of my neck as I follow her to my truck. We round it until we have privacy from the rest of the parking lot.
“Feeling guilty?” she guesses.
I lean back against my truck. “Yeah.”
“You want to know something?” She steps in front of me, her palms flattening against my chest. Though the primal urge to toss her over my shoulder caveman style hasn’t left, there’s a softness with Kylie I never expected.
I never wanted the nice girl . But I wanted the strong, quiet gentleness of a good woman. She exudes those qualities in spades.
Fuck, I do love her.
“What’s that?” I ask as her hands roam my chest.
“I am too. Feeling guilty, that is.”
“I was ninety-percent certain they’d freak out and try to save me from making the biggest mistake of my life. I never thought they’d take it this far. And certainly not this fucking fast. It’s impressive and a little bit scary.”
“But they all fell in love fast, didn’t they?” she asks.
“Yeah, I should have factored that into this reckless decision.”
“Do you want to go back in there and tell them the truth?”
“I’d much rather take you back to my bed,” I admit.
“We can tell them in the morning,” Kylie says, her gaze meeting mine and waiting for confirmation.
I nod. “Tomorrow morning. At the wedding brunch.”
“There’s no reason we can’t still throw one helluva party,” she says, her hand roaming lower.
I watch as it slides past my belt and onto the front of my jeans.
My already half-mast cock hardens all the way to life at her touch.
“Or I could still leave you at the altar, so they never have to know it was a lie.”
“No.”
Kylie startles at my instant and firm declaration. “Joel?—”
“I am not making you the bad guy in this. It was my idea.”
“But—”
Kylie’s phone chimes, effectively silencing her. If I had to guess it was out of habit.
“I don’t need to check that.”
“Maybe you should.”
“That tone is reserved for Todd.”
“Is he still trying to talk you into going back out there alone ?”
“You know, you’re sexy when you’re all protective like this.”
“Kylie?”
“Okay, I’ll check. But for the record, I was fine ignorning him.” She pulls her phone out from her back jeans pocket. Her expression is hard to read, and it’s fucking killing me. Did he back out of our agreement?
“I’m free,” she says, her words barely a whisper as her eyes turn shiny.
“Free?”
“I’m free , Joel.” She shows me the phone. There’s an official legal document on the screen. “It’s a release form.”
“That’s great news,” I say, wrapping my arms around her and tugging her against me. “Maybe you can stick around North Haven a little longer? We still haven’t broken in my hot tub.”
Tears trickle down her face, but the gleam in her eyes promises they’re happy tears. “Why don’t we go break it in right now?”
“Say less, sweetheart. Say less.”