“Don’t give a shit.”
I raised an eyebrow. “A little overkill, don’t you think?”
“No,” my brother answered for him.
“Glad we’re on the same page,” Rabbit said.
“You’re doing that thing again,” I accused.
He gave my hip a pat. “You can deal with me once we’re married.”
“Zane,” I hissed.
“What? We have some plans to make and you have a dress to order.”
“Ixnay on the eddingway,” I ordered, nodding toward my brother.
Levi chuckled. “You can’t be surprised he’s pushing for this, sis.”
“Don’t you start,” I warned, then narrowed my eyes.
“I’m not starting anything,” Levi said.
“Wait. Why are you not being all brotherly and shit? Protecting me?”
Rabbit and Levi shared a stupid bro-y, guy smile.
“You knew about this,” I accused.
“Yeah, ’course I did,” Levi said. “He’s already cleared it with Dad.”
“Jesus Christ,” I snapped, spinning to face Rabbit. “You did not.”
He shrugged… again. “I did. A while ago.”
“Oh, my god, Zane. You are beyond the pale.” I stalked out of the room and shut myself into my office.
Rabbit
“AREN’T YOU GOING to follow her?” Levi asked.
I grinned. “No. I’m gonna give her a minute to calm down.”
Levi shook his head. “Jesus, you’ve got a pair of stones on you, Rabbit.”
I studied him. “I’ve known your sister for a while now, and one thing I’ve figured out about her is that she needs to come around to my way of thinking on her own. She has to think it’s her idea. I’ve already pushed her as far as I can, so now I’ve gotta let her take a minute to calm down and process.”
“She rarely voices her opinion, Rabbit. But when she does, she roars like a lion.” Levi crossed his arms. “You’re the only one who’s ever figured that out.”
“She’s shy, Levi, not invisible,” I said with a sigh. “That’s the problem. She wouldn’t need to roar like a lion if she was heard the first time.”
Levi smiled slowly. “This is why my parents said yes to your proposal.”
I crossed my arms and studied my soon-to-be brother-in-law. “I honestly don’t give a shit why they okayed it, Levi, just that they did. But I think you know that, even if they hadn’t, we’d still be standing here right now ready to push through anyway.”
“Well, there is that.”
“I’m gonna go check on your sister now. You good?”
Levi’s grin widened. “Yeah, brother, I’m good.”
I nodded, grateful he had my back, and headed down to Parker’s office.
* * *
Parker
I raised my head as Rabbit walked into my office and closed the door again, a stupid, smug smile on his beautiful face.
“I’m not ready for you yet,” I grumbled. I’d left Stevie to watch the front of the shop and she was handling the customers with ease like she always did.
Rabbit cocked his head. “Baby, you’re gonna get to the place where you tell folks it’s your idea eventually, so just get there quicker.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Ah, no.”
He sighed, closing the distance between us and holding his hand out to me. “Up.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”
“Up, baby.”
I slapped my hand in his and rose to my feet. Rabbit shuffled me in front of him where he promptly sat in my chair and pulled me onto his lap. “Zane!”
He grinned, pulling my face to his and kissing me gently. “Talk to me.”
“It’s all so fast.”
“Pebbles, it’s been over four years.”
“Not really.”
“How has it ‘not really’ been over four years?”
I rolled my eyes.
“Parker, you need to talk to me so we can figure this out.”
“We haven’t really had a real relationship,” I explained.
“Are you fuck—?”
I covered his mouth with my fingers. “Do not talk over me.”
He kissed my fingers and nodded, so I lowered my hand.
“You shut me out,” I whispered. “After…”
He sighed. “I know.”
“Why?”
He slid my hair behind my ear, letting his finger linger over my cheek. “Because I heard you.”
“When?”
“When you came to my hospital room that night.”
I scowled. “I poured my heart out to you and you shut me out.”
“I know,” he said. “There was no way in hell I was going to subject you to everything I was gonna have to deal with knowin’ how you felt.”
“You fucking asshole,” I hissed, trying to climb off his lap.
He held firm. “Settle, Parker.”
Tears pricked my eyes. “It wasn’t your place!”
“Baby, it was my place. I wanted to come to you healthy and whole, not fucked up, barely able to walk.”
“So, you let Raquel see you—”
“Stop,” he growled.
“No,” I snapped. “You were mine. Mine to take care of. Mine to love. Not hers.”
“Not hers, Pebbles,” he agreed. “Never hers. And she didn’t take care of me, Parker. Doc did. Liv did. Doom did. Jette did, but no one else. I promise.”
Anjenette, ‘Jette,’ was Rabbit’s foster sister and they were closer than blood. I’d met her a couple of times, but she’d had some trouble and moved a while ago, and Rabbit was really tight-lipped on exactly where she was. If he knew, he wasn’t telling anyone.
Rabbit’s early life had not been a good one. He never knew his father, he’d died of an OD a few months before he was born, and his mother had been a drug addict, who hooked for her fixes, putting Rabbit in situations no child should ever be put in. He’d been removed from her home when he was six, and her parental rights had been terminated four years later. Word was she’d died a few years later.
Unfortunately, he’d never been adopted, living on the streets for a couple of years until Doom took him under his wing and the club became his family. Rabbit was only sixteen at the time.
“Raquel was here,” I countered.
“Not for long, baby. She left two days after the explosion. I asked her to.” He smiled. “I knew what I was doing when I pushed you away. I wasn’t gonna add insult to injury by letting some random woman fuss over me.”
“It was supposed to be me.”
“No,” he argued. “I wasn’t going to subject you to any of that, and we’re done with that subject, Parker, so you need to get off of it.”
“Out.”
“Park—”
“No.” I pointed to the door. “Get out. I’m not marrying you, Zane. Get out of my office…out of my life.”
He chuckled, continuing to anchor me to his lap. “Jesus, you’re gorgeous when your back is up.”