Page 91 of Paradise & Vodka

"What are you saying then?" He furrowed his brow.

"How do you feel about me recruiting for you?"

He balked. "Really?"

"Saddles & Racks is literally all I know. You don't want to lose your best guy, so I could recruit and train for you."

He thought for a moment. "Well, shit. If that's the only way to keep you, then let's do it."

Eight weekslater

My phone startedto buzz on the nightstand, and I untangled myself from Ashleigh's warm body to see who was calling. It was Paul.

"This better be good," I snapped into the phone.

"I wouldn't call you at three in the morning if it wasn't."

When Ashleigh groaned and turned over to face me, the streetlights outside cast enough glow through the blinds for me to see her beautiful face. "Who is it?"

"Paul," I replied, and brushed a piece of her hair out of her face. "Spit it out, dude."

"Cat's in labor."

I quickly sat up. "No shit?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"Heading to the hospital now." I hung up.

"Cat?" Ashleigh asked as she got out of bed.

"Yep," I replied, and slid out as well.

"I'm so excited," she stated as we both started to put our clothes on. "I love babies."

"Yeah?" I slipped on my T-shirt. "You want me to knock you up?" I never thought I'd want kids, but I wanted them with Ashleigh if that was what she wanted.

"Not until you put a ring on it."

I grinned. "Noted."

Cat delivered a healthy baby girl named Abigail Rose McKenna. That meant there were two boys and two girls in our circle of friends. Gabe and Autumn had Liam, who was almost two, and one more on the way, Vinny and Tessa had Colton, who was at least seven, and Riley, who was a little more than a year old, and now Seth and Cat had Abigail. It was crazy to think that only three years ago, we—except Seth—were all in the game and had no desire ever to settle down. The guys were right, though. It only took one woman to change everything.

I was thinking about proposing and babies because I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Ashleigh. I didn't even care that we'd only been dating for a little more than two months. I was ready for forever. What started out as any other client booking had turned into more, so much more, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

But I had to put a ring on it, as Ashleigh had said, because I knew that was what she wanted. She wanted to come home each night and cook dinner together. She wanted to have that forever love only found in fairy tales. She wanted that with me, and I wanted that with her. It honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I wasn't sure why I had been scared to settle down. Maybe it just needed to be the right woman.

I pulled up to the jewelry store where Cassie worked. It was where Brad had gotten shot and where Cassie worked before shit went down. She’d ended up getting her job back, and lucky for me, she was going to help me out because I had no clue what I was doing.

When I walked in, I spotted her right away. "Hey, Nick," she greeted. "I pulled some rings that I think you might like."

"Cool." I walked closer to the case she was standing behind.

"If none of these work, we have more."

I nodded and peered down at the rings sitting on the case. I took a few minutes to compare each one, and then held up the one I wanted. "This one."

"Oh, I love that one," Cassie replied.