“I’ve been there too. I think it’s charming. Where do they live? They’re still in the city, right?”
“They have a home near Central Park, near Kara’s school.”
Outside of seeing Jude and Joey occasionally, I’d had very little contact with his family. And yet—
“Oh my God.” I clasped my hands over my mouth and pulled to an abrupt stop, gaping at Joey.
“What?”
“I just… I just realized that your family is my family. Which means Katie is my sister-in-law.”
His brows jumped right before a beautiful, slow smile stretched wide. “Shit. Garrett’s actually my brother now.”
I fell into him, hand hitting his chest. “This is weird. So weird.” When would it sink in that we were married, and actually trying to make it work? I had no doubt he wasn’t still with me because of his image. The team’s PR could have smoothed this over somehow. And yet he was still here, fucking me like he needed it, laughing with me, taking me on the adventure of a lifetime…
“This is one hell of a honeymoon,” I said, still laughing, the hits still coming in waves.
“You’re just now realizing all of this?”
“It’s weird,” I repeated, now matching his wide smile and laughing.
“Bad weird or good?”
He swallowed thickly, his hand at mine on his chest, thumb brushing over the back of my hand. The humor diminished.
“Good,” I breathed. “I think it’s a good weird.”
“Me too.”
He leaned down and kissed me. “You’re also right. This is going to be one hell of a honeymoon.”
20
Gabby
“We should get married,” Joey said, as we both watched a newlywed groom and bride traipsing happily down the street, arm in arm, her bouquet in her hand like she’d never let go of it.
“What?” He had to be joking.
“Marry me.” His hand slid into my hair until he was cupping the back of my neck. “I feel more connected to you than I have any woman, ever, including my ex-wife. Marry me.”
“That’s… that’s crazy.” He wasn’t joking. His eyes were steel, unwavering.
I’d had the best time with him I’d ever had with anyone. I understood exactly what he meant. From the moment he saved me at dinner, we’d been on the same page with everything. Kids. Family. What was important in life.
But marriage? Did you get married because you could talk to someone easily?
“It’s the best kind of crazy.”
“I…”
He leaned in, brushed his lips over my cheek and at that first, soft touch of his body against mine, mine responded. Holy shit. A barely there kiss from Joey and my entire body awakened with a desperate need to feel him. But still… marriage?
“We’ll have forever to figure out the rest. But we’ll make it work.”
“I…” I could hardly think clearly. He’d moved us, walked us backward until I was pressed against the stone building outside the Venetian. We hadn’t even been inside yet to see his team and party with them. But this? Marry Joey Taylor? It was insane.
As his body pressed to mine, as he trailed his lips down to my jaw, the soft flesh behind my ear, all hesitations I had fled.
He got me. More than anyone else. We finished each other’s sentences after a few hours of drinking and exploring. Hell, until I realized where we were, I’d totally forgotten we were supposed to go find his team, we’d been so consumed with each other.
“Yes,” I whispered, my hand in his hair and at his side. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
I woke with a start, my heart racing and sweat dripping down the back of my neck. It took a moment, more than several breaths to sit up and realize where I was.
I was sleeping on the bed. I was in the RV. Shit.
I’m in Moab.
I turned to look for Joey and instead I found a present. Joey—sleeping without the sheets on, wearing nothing but his boxer briefs and even in sleep it looked like he was smiling. His hand was settled at his abs, fingers splayed over all those bricks of muscles. The waistband of his briefs were low, showing off the V-muscle I’d spent so much time tracing last night before we fell asleep, before we did so many other things first.
He hadn’t been joking when he’d said there were a lot of positions he wanted to fuck me in and after the last day, it seemed he was in a race to try them all.
I stretched my legs, the pleasant ache at the apex of my thighs reminding me. I’d been on my knees, he’d yanked me so my back was to his chest and while he’d pounded into me with long, hard thrusts, his fingers had worked my clit until I’d almost drawn blood from biting down to contain my screams.
But it wasn’t the memories of our sexcapades that had my heart racing.
“He’d proposed to me,” I said, itching to reach out and touch him. Wake him.
It hadn’t hit me until that dream I hoped to hell was a memory.
“What was that?” Joey grunted. His head shifted on the pillow and one eye slid open. “What’d you just say?”
“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I’m glad you did. You look…” His other eye opened and they both squinted. “You look upset.”
“I’m not.” And I wasn’t. Relieved, maybe? “I dreamed you proposed to me, like a memory.”
A tiny frown marred his sleepy face. “That makes sense since we’re married.”
“I guess.” How did I explain this? I grabbed the hair tie Joey had torn out of my hair last night and thrown to the floor. Wrapping up my hair, I said, “I guess, considering I’m prone to foolish things, I thought this was all my idea. But it wasn’t.”
He propped himself up on his elbow and I had to fight the urge to grab my phone. Take a hundred photos of him posed like this, with all that sexy, sleepy hair messed up, the slow spread of his smile and the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. “I don’t think you’re foolish.”
“Well I’m not,” I teased. “Since this was all your idea.”
“But not a bad one.”
He’d said almost the same thing to me yesterday on our hike. Good weird or bad. Good idea or bad.
I ran my hands through his hair and kissed his forehead. “Not bad, I guess I’m surprised. Getting drunk and thinking it was funny to get married does seem like something I’d do. But you wanted this. You—”
“Don’t.” He reached up and covered my mouth with his hand. “Don’t tell me. I want to remember it on my own.”
“But…” What if he didn’t?
“I will.” How did he do that? He dropped his hand and smirked. “Now, do you want to know what I dreamed of last night, because it was similar to this… us, in a bed—but you were wearing nothing but a smile. I could show you… in fact, yes, I think it’s better if I did.”
He reached for me and I smacked his hand away, shoved his chest so he fell to his back.
“You’re insane.” I laughed and climbed out of the bed. “And we need to get ready for the hike.”