Page 98 of Trusting a Warrior

“Well, of course I do,” she exclaimed. “And congrats on your engagement! Shane’s a lucky guy.”

“Nah, I’m the lucky one.”

Faces animated, hands waving, they were talking about some bar fight Shane had been in when Rhys snuck up behind Lani, finger to his lips. She talked on, oblivious, until Rhys reached out and flicked her on the earlobe.

“Ouch!” She whirled around. “Rhys, you asshole. You know I hate that!”

Cackling, Rhys feinted and dodged the playful punches she threw. “Too slow,” he taunted after each one. “Missed me. Weak.”

It was a game they’d obviously played many times before.

The warmth in Geo’s chest splintered into painful shards of jealousy. He gritted his teeth, not quite sure what to do with it all, just as a pretty brunette walked up to them.

“Now, children,” she said drily, and grinning, Rhys wrapped his arm around her waist and hauled her close.

“Well, hello, gorgeous,” he murmured. “Where have you been all my life?”

Geo immediately tensed, berating himself for putting Lani in the position of having to see Rhys’s new girlfriend. Racking his brain, he was feverishly looking for a way to extricate her from the situation when Lani held her knuckles out to Devon.

He could only gape in shock as Devon returned the fist bump.

“Help me with the food?” Lani asked, and before he knew it, the two of them were headed for the car, chattering, laughing.

His mouth hanging open, he stared in bemusement, dimly aware of a big white dude with a shaved head walking up to elbow Rhys.

“That’s some next-level shit right there, man,” he rumbled, “your ex and your current squeeze gettin’ all chummy like that. Can’t imagine the stories those two tell each other about you.” He gave a dramatic shudder. “Poor bastard.”

Rhys laughed. “More like lucky bastard, Grizz.”

Grizz barked out an incredulous laugh. “If any of my exes dared show their faces around my wife, she’d—” Like the thought was too horrible to contemplate, he shook his head, popped open a beer and gulped down half the can.

After he’d wandered away, Rhys crossed his arms over his chest and turned to Geo. “I didn’t realize you knew Lani.”

Fighting the urge to fidget under his steady gaze, Geo grunted, “We’re friends. Have been for a few months now.”

They both caught sight of Matt struggling to unload a tall ladder from a nearby pickup and jogged over to help him. As they set it up against the side of the house, Geo said quietly, “I’m lucky to have met her when I did. She’s, uh, helped me a lot in dealing with Cade’s death. I don’t know where I’d be without her right now.”

Rhys’s face softened. “Yeah, she’s a good person.”

“The best.”

“She deserves to be happy.” Rhys’s eyes bored into his. “I’d hate to see her hurt.”

“I’d never hurt her.”

I love her.

But Geo didn’t say that, and after a moment, Rhys smiled. “Of course she can take care of herself, but Devon would have my head if I didn’t at least attempt to warn you, so there, consider yourself warned.”

They both chuckled, and with that, Rhys headed to join the group unloading a small cherry-picker from the back of someone’s trailer. Soon the air was filled with the sound of leaf blowers and the whine of a chainsaw. A few of the guys had brought their older kids and put them to work raking and bagging debris.

His heart full, Geo was heading for the ladder to climb up to the roof when Renae called his name. They hugged each other tightly. “God, you don’t know how much I’ve missed this.”

He pulled back to grin down at her. “What, a bunch of assholes invading your home? We used to do that a lot, didn’t we?”

“And I loved every minute of it.” She blinked a few times, her eyelashes spiky with unshed tears. “So did Cade. This all feels like—well, it feels like old times. In the best possible way.”

After a kiss to his cheek, she went to greet some new arrivals.