Speaking of…Kate—who was married to Mike, the head of the Powertools company, and pretty damn pregnant—was right inside the door when they entered. She turned and spied the gift in his hands. Her eyes went wide. Hands splayed on her rounded belly, she made her way to them and exchanged hellos before taking a closer look.
“Oh my God. If I hadn’t seen this thing before you transformed it, I wouldn’t have believed what it started out as.” Kate ran her fingertip over the distressed details. “You have a great eye. I was ready to toss it, and what a mistake that would have been. This will be perfect to organize the million sets of keys they have. They can hang it right here by the door. It looks like it was made for this space.”
“Thanks.” Laurel seemed a bit reluctant receiving the compliment. “I guess I have a lot of practice turning junk into useful stuff. Giving it another life. Pretty much everything Jace and I have ever owned came off a curb somewhere.”
“Well, if this is something you enjoy doing, I’ve been thinking of hiring help for my business. Especially with our baby on the way—I’m going to need someone I can trust to take care of things when I’m out on maternity leave. Just saying…”
“Are you trying to steal our best server?” Kate’s best friend, Morgan, edged into the conversation with Devra right behind. They were grinning, not pissed.
“I mean…I probably pay better.” Kate winked.
Laurel flushed. She seemed torn between loyalty and what she obviously enjoyed doing most. Nolan’s pulse sped up as he wondered if this was the start of a very tentative, very delicate root. Between this and Jace’s work with Kason, maybe they wouldn’t be in such a hurry to skip out of Middletown after Draven had been eliminated.
“I hope you know we’re teasing.” Devra slung an arm around Laurel’s shoulders and she didn’t even flinch. She was comfortable here. With him and with the extended circle he’d been fortunate to join as well. “If you want to spend your days dumpster diving with Kate, have at it.”
Laurel snorted. “Since you make it sound so appealing, I’ll think about it.”
She peeked up at Jace, who was beaming. The other guy squeezed her hand and she smiled back. Every time Nolan witnessed the link between them and their unspoken conversations, he had to wonder when they were going to realize they didn’t need a bodyguard to keep them safe from each other and kick him out.
So it surprised him when Laurel reached for him too. Fuck it, he wasn’t going to discourage her when he wanted nothing more than for them to have a reason to stay, even if it wasn’t him right at first…or ever. “I think it sounds smart. You’re really good at this.”
“Thank you,” Laurel flashed him a wide, genuine smile. The sort he hadn’t seen from her very often until lately. She was morphing right in front of his eyes, exactly like the key holder. Reborn. Refreshed. Ready for a new phase of her life.
Nolan set the gift on the metal table, big enough for an army, which Wren had welded and given to their Hot Rods cousins as a final touch on the new home.
Laurel was distracted from their heavy discussion by the appearance of her brother.
“Hey, big sis.”
She rushed to James and crushed him in a hug as if she would never get used to having him in her life again. It got Nolan every time. And Jace too. The other guy shuffled until he stood shoulder to shoulder with Nolan. Jace leaned in and murmured, “You literally have no idea how amazing that is. We owe you guys everything.”
Nolan wished he could have kissed Jace then and told him exactly how much more he’d like to give the other guy and his soulmate too, since he hadn’t even scratched the surface, but it didn’t seem like the right time or place for those sorts of confessions. Later, he promised himself.
Behind James, a woman with straight black hair and an impressive array of facial piercings carried a baby swaddled in a flame-covered blanket. Eli, the Hot Rods garage owner, and his husband, Alanso, hovered over her shoulders. “Congratulations, you three! First the baby and now a new place with plenty of room to spread out.”
“We’re lucky bastards and we know it.” Alanso’s Cuban accent grew thicker as he studied Sally, Eli, and their baby boy, Maceo. “Want a tour? Maybe it’ll give you some ideas for your own apartment. I heard James is coming out of retirement to hook up the Shields.”
“I am. I am.” James clapped his hands, then rubbed them together. “I know I said I didn’t want to be a foreman, but I’m not trusting anyone else with a place I have to work in every damn day. It doesn’t make sense for us to be trekking up to Kason, Jordan, and Wren’s place in the ass end of the forest every time we have a meeting. I could be spending that time at home, with my family.”
“Getting laid, you mean.” Eli chuckled and so did Nolan.
Laurel scrunched her eyes closed. “Not my baby brother.”
“Hey, I’m not the only one getting plenty, by the looks of it.” James whipped his stare between Laurel and the two obviously satisfied men flanking her. It still twisted something inside Nolan that everyone seemed cool with it. Like maybe if it worked for them, that was all that mattered. Huh.
Nolan couldn’t help himself. He fell back on his bad, jokester tendencies to get a single jab in. “I promised you I’d take care of your sister. Isn’t that what you had in mind?”
“And….there’s the line.” James shot him the finger before addressing the larger group. “Okay, truce. But yeah, I am working on the new building going up in Middletown. Shields business on the ground floor and plenty of apartments for our expanding team and any witnesses or temporary peeps we need to find shelter for, who require plenty of protection, all in one place. I even talked Jordan into an indoor pool and hot tub adjoining the gym facilities. It’s going to be epic. I’ve never worked on a multi-story commercial building like this before. Especially not one that will become the tallest in Middletown. Not going to lie, it’s kind of fun, but only this once.”
“If you don’t mind talking shop later, I’d like to make a few tweaks to the plan we’d discussed before everything is finalized,” Nolan blurted before he second guessed why he suddenly wanted to turn his apartment from a bachelor pad into something a little more trio-friendly.
“Of course you do.” James rolled his eyes, but the effect was less harsh when he grinned. Was Nolan that obvious? “That’s fine. There’s someone I wanted to introduce to you guys anyway. Well, Nolan already met him under less than ideal circumstances, but Laurel and Jace…”
Nolan already knew who James was referring to. The kid had been glued to James’s hip since they’d rescued him from the hellhole not substantially different from the ones Laurel and Jace had grown up in. Eli, Alanso, and Sally wandered off, swallowed by the milling friends surrounding them, promising to show them around when they were ready.
James weaved through the crowd until he found a teenager with an unruly mop of brown hair and brought the kid back with him. Nolan imagined James probably hadn’t looked so different at that age. “Mark, this is my sister, Laurel, her friend, Jace, and you remember that big guy, Nolan, I’m sure. Meet my apprentice, Mark.”