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“There was no reason you would have, love.” I cupped the side of his face as he leaned into my touch. “It just comes with the territory. It would be like inviting your boss to hang out. But when I moved out here twelve years ago, I hit the ground running. Building this team from the ground up became my life. Finding the right coach and supporting my players helped me cope with all the ways I’d failed you. And when Alex Hayes told me he was in love with a man, I was so proud of him for standing up for who he was. It broke my heart that I’d been such a fool for letting things stand in our way. But I’m so damn proud of them for being who they are.”
Austin squeezed me to make his point. “You should tell them.”
I raised my brows. “Tell them I was lonely until a week ago?”
“No,” he smiled. “Tell them how proud you are of them.”
That was something to think about.
“You’re never going to be lonely again. Nothing will ever come between us. I promise.”
My heart ached as he pulled me in for a kiss that I felt all the way to my toes. I believed every word he said as he patched up the broken heart I’d hidden from everyone, always wearing a smile, no matter how much it hurt.
“I wanna take you to bed and stay there the rest of the day,” he said, kissing my lips, then my forehead.
I nodded, needing to feel his touch and his body all over me. But as we turned to go, a knock sounded on the front door. We both looked at it, then back at each other.
“Did you order takeout?” he asked, heading for the door.
My gut churned, because there was exactly one person who had clearance to come up without the doorman calling. “No. It’s Carter.”
Austin looked at me over his shoulder with a confused expression on his face, then opened the door.
I stood frozen as my best friend’s usually happy expression slipped a bit as he looked at his brother, then at me. Both of us had kiss-swollen lips and a bit of beard burn to accompany the hard-ons now deflating in our pants.
“What are you doing here?” Austin asked him, looking from him to me.
“I could ask you the same thing, little brother.”
Carter walked in, took in the boxes in the foyer, and looked at me. “What’s going on?”
I watched Austin close the door and make his way to my side. Snapping out of the temporary shock, I smiled at Carter. “Good to see you. Come in. Want a beer?”
Heading for the kitchen, I needed a moment to figure out how to tell him our news. But Carter ended my moment. Austin was quiet since we’d decided I was going to tell Carter, since he’d told Katherine. He was letting me have my moment.
“What’s going on Greer?”
I stopped and turned to look at him. Carter’s expression was one of concern, not anger. At least not yet. “Nothing. As you can see,” I motioned toward the boxes. “We were just moving Austin’s things in here. With me.”
He frowned. “Are you okay? Why do you need a live-in bodyguard?”
I sighed out a breath and looked at Austin. His tense expression had softened some, expecting this to go better than I had. “Let’s have a beer, and I’ll explain.”
“No. Tell me now. What kind of danger are you in? Austin has half a SEAL team that can protect you.”
The stress became too much, and I couldn’t allow him to go off on another tangent. So, I turned and took out three beers, then walked to the living room. Placing two on one side, and the lone beer on the other, I waited. I needed to see if he could put it together.
“Have a seat, Carter.”
He looked at the bottle arrangement, then watched as Austin took the seat beside me. His face contorted as he sat down and stared at me. Was he putting it together?
“Carter,” I said. “Austin and I got married in Costa Rica. He’s my husband.”
Sensing I needed his support, Austin reached over and took my hand.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
I kept my voice calm as my heart tried to pound out of my chest. His reaction wasn’t much different from Katherine’s, so I should have been prepared. But I wasn’t. I truly thought I was getting the better end of the telling the family deal.
