Page 25 of Right Side of Paradise

Forever Kind of Thing

I entwined my fingers through Christian’s, saying nothing as he wrapped up his conversation with the man in front of him.

Well, I didn’t really know if the conversation was nearing its end.

But if I had it my way…

I’d been looking for Chris for the last fifteen minutes, since I left my parents’ tent, only to spot him near the edge of the parking lot, talking to Simeon Kane.

There was nothing wrong with Simeon, per se. If you liked men built like a brick wall who had skin like midnight and locs that reached the middle of their back.

He was attractive. Nobody was denying that. The problem was he’d flirt with a damn door if the wind was right. I’d seen him in action enough to know what those shoulder touches he kept giving Christian meant.

He was trying to set a trap. Not that Christian was interested, but that had never been an obstacle for him. The man loved a challenge.

That was Simeon Kane in a nutshell.

The same Simeon Kane who’d gone from hanging on to Christian’s every word to studying our interlocked fingers.

His brow climbed with interest. “Hey, Soul.”

I nodded. If I said something, I’d ruin my facade. I might not have known how to harden my voice like Rico and Christian, but damn it, I could stand here and glare.

Christian looked at me from his peripheral before turning to face me head on. He met my eyes like he’d just realized I was here and the smirk on his lips made mine lift on reflex.

“You ready to go?” he asked, his tone more intimate than I expected.

“Yes.”

Simeon cleared his throat, but I didn’t look at him. “I can see you’re busy. I’ll catch up with you later, Christian.”

He smiled when Christian dapped him up. Then he shifted his body to study me. “Good seeing you, Soul.”

When he was gone, Christian gave me his full attention.

“What was that?”

“He was flirting with you.”

Disbelief widened his eyes until I could see every speck of gold hidden in his cocoa-colored irises.

“Soul, he wasn’t flirting. We were talking about his new personal training business.”

“That’s how it starts,” I followed up. What did he think would happen when Simeon got him alone in a gym?

Christian didn’t say anything, he just let me have it.

And I was glad because he was ours . And I didn’t like people touching what was mine.

That groove appeared on his forehead. The one that showed up when he was intrigued but hadn’t yet found the words to articulate it.

Then his eyes turned smiling, amusement sparking in them even as his face remained impassive.

“Didn’t realize you could be possessive, Soul.” He squeezed my hand and that’s when I realized I was still holding his.

There was no point denying what he said.

I was possessive. Even though I preferred the word protective.

Protective as hell of our family and I didn’t want anyone to come in between that.

Call me delusional, but I believed this thing with the four of us could last past summer. We just needed a fighting chance.

I frowned when Christian tugged at my hair. Until I realized what he was doing.

“This fucking hairnet,” he grumbled, snatching it off my head with another pull.

My face fell. My mom had put it on me as soon as we got going this morning. I’d been too busy slanging BBQ sandwiches all day to remember it was there.

“Come on, Prince Charming. Let’s go find Rico and Harlow.”

He didn’t pull his hand away from mine as we weaved through the thinning crowd.

There was no reason for me to still be holding onto him, but I didn’t untangle our fingers.

He was one step in front of me, pulling me behind him and a secret smile stretched across my face.

It stayed in place for the entire walk and stretched wider when I saw Rico and Harley standing off to the side with their backs to us.

But my smile dipped into a frown when Harlow turned towards me.

She looked like she’d been crying.

Her hair was all over the place.

Was that sand on her knees?

What the hell happened to her?

That mascara smudged around her eyes had seen better days, but she was smiling. Maybe she hadn’t been crying. Maybe it was just sweat?

Rico’s smile matched hers and when he immediately wrapped his hand around my neck and kissed the fuck out of me, all my thoughts melted together into a pool of lust. My jealousy over Christian and worry about Harlow took a momentary backseat.

“Been looking all over for you,” he admitted, dropping his forehead to mine. “Your parents okay? They need our help packing up?”

This was why I loved this man. He’d been here hours before the event started, helping with whatever was needed. He had to be fucking exhausted and yet, he was still ready to help.

“No. Rain and Kenzo got it.” My brothers could do the heavy lifting after skipping out on everything else all day.

Rico kissed me again, softly, and quickly enough that I didn’t get sucked in.

I lifted my head and peeped Christian and Harley over his shoulder. Both his hands held her face as she looked up at him with a dreamy smile. “Why did Harley look like she was crying when we walked up?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you later.” He grabbed my hand and started walking us toward the Jeep.

Christian and Harlow fell in step behind us.

The event wouldn’t be over for another hour, but we had all silently agreed the time had come for us to leave.

I climbed into the backseat with Harlow while Christian and Rico sat up front.

All of us had been eating all day, but we still stopped at the ice cream stand set up at the end of our street. Everybody got a cone before we finally headed home.

As soon as Rico pulled in the driveway, Harley hopped down from the truck.

“Come on. Everybody grab a bag.”

I should have known something was up from that cheery ass tone. But then I got to the back of the truck as Rico pulled open the door and cast her a sideways glance.

“Damn, Harley. How much did you buy?”

She ducked her head, hiding a sheepish smile. “I was supporting local businesses.”

Rico kissed his teeth, and Christian came around the back, licking up the sides of his ice cream cone before it melted.

We all used our free hands to grab a bag and followed Harlow up the stairs to the front door.

This was my family. My whole heart in three different forms.

I didn’t know what I did to deserve this summer with them all in one place, but I wasn’t doing anything to fuck it up.