Barrick
The front door opened, and Mia walked in, tossing her bag onto the coffee table and kicking off her shoes before cuddling up beside me on the couch. I turned down the TV, holding her against me, and savored the moment.
Lyla had started giving Mia a ride home from work every Tuesday since she was picking up Josie anyway, but I’d still been on edge all evening while she was at the dance studio. It was like that whenever she wasn’t with me. This burning in my chest and gut only ever eased when she was close enough for me to touch.
“How was work?” I asked, kissing her forehead.
She melted against me, closing her eyes. “Good. Recital practice is going better than I anticipated with all those littles so easily distracted. And Josie is becoming my little star.”
“That’s good, babe. Glad you’re enjoying your job so much.”
“Me too,” she said, fighting back a yawn.
“Ready for bed?”
She shook her head, complaining it was too early. I hid a grin, knowing she would be asleep on me within ten minutes. I settled back, getting comfortable, because I wasn’t about to move her once she did.
Before the end of the show I was watching, she was already out for the count, and I kissed the top of her head before texting Braxton to bring me her throw off the chair in our room. A minute later, he walked into the living room and draped the soft blanket over her before sitting on the other end of the couch to watch the basketball game with me that came on after the show.
“Next week is Thanksgiving,” he commented during a commercial.
“I’m aware,” I said quietly, trying not to disturb Mia.
“Is she going home to spend it with her family?” he asked, and I gritted my teeth.
“This is her home,” I muttered, trying my best not to growl and wake her up.
“You know what I mean,” Braxton said with a sigh. “Is she going to California for the holiday or not?”
“Not,” Mia surprised us both by answering him. Lifting her head, she yawned and stretched. “And before you ask, yes, I’m going home for a few days for Christmas, but I was hoping you two bozos would come home with me for that. Unless you already have plans.”
“I’m coming,” I told her without hesitation. “Where you go, I follow.”
She gave me that happy little smile I always wanted to grace those lips.
“I’d rather be with you guys than deal with my parents anyway,” Braxton told her casually, but he wasn’t fooling me.
I knew he’d rather be with Mia than anyone. It should have made me jealous as fuck, and there were times it did. But mostly, I was just happy that my cousin had someone he could rely on and wanted to spend time with, rather than locked in his room brooding about the loss of his leg and letting the memories torture him.
“Yay! I’ll let Momma know to get an extra room ready.” She kissed my cheek then hugged Braxton.
With a growl, I scooped her up and dropped her into my lap. Laughing, she stroked her fingers through my beard, pausing only long enough to poke at my dimples. “Be good,” she gently scolded me.
Braxton’s phone rang, and he picked it up off the arm of the couch. Whoever it was had him standing, calling a goodnight over his shoulder before lifting the phone to his ear.
Mia watched him go, then sighed. “I bet that was Nevaeh.”
“Probably,” I agreed, stroking my fingers down her back and cupping her ass. “Looks like she might be his new best friend. Does that make you jealous?”
Rolling her eyes, she moved so she was straddling my thighs. “No, Beast. I like that he has more than one friend. It’s just…”
“Just?” I murmured, bending my head to kiss her throat.
“Nothing,” she said with a needy little sigh. “I don’t even remember what I was saying.”
Smirking, I looked up at her. “You ready for bed now?”
“Definitely.”
--
After our econ class the next day, we had lunch with Lyla on campus before I drove Mia to work. Once she was inside, I headed for the gym.
This week, I was refereeing at an Underground fight, and since it was two of the meanest fighters I’d ever seen, I needed to be on top of my game.
Walking in, I tossed my hand up at the guy behind the front desk. After scanning my membership badge, I went to the locker room. I had a locker full of workout gear and even a change of clothes in case I ever needed it.
Pulling out my running shoes and a pair of workout shorts, I changed and was just tying my shoe when my phone went off. Seeing Mia’s dad’s name on the screen, I frowned and picked it up.
“Sir?” I greeted.
“Barrick, how are you, son?”
“I’m good, sir. How are you?”
There was a pause on his end, as if he didn’t know how to answer me. Releasing a pent-up breath, he muttered, “I feel like shit. This whole thing with Mia is still driving me crazy. We used to talk all the time. Now I’m lucky if she picks up the phone when I call her. How the fuck did you get her to forgive you so easily?”
“It wasn’t easy,” I told him truthfully. “That week she wouldn’t even talk to me was the worst in my life.”
“But she did forgive you.”
“Yeah, she did.” I grabbed a hair tie out of my locker and pulled my hair into a knot at the back of my head. “Just give her time, sir. She will forgive you too.”
“I hope so.” With a grunt, he changed the subject. “My wife said this morning that you and your cousin will be joining us for Christmas. She also informed me that I needed to ask you what you were getting our girl so we didn’t happen to get the same thing by mistake.”
“I doubt you would get her the same thing,” I told him evasively.
“I still have to tell Emmie something, or she’s going to make me call you until I get an answer, boy.”
“Jewelry.”
He muttered a curse. “That tells me nothing, Barrick. I just saw a pair of earrings I know Mia would like yesterday, so I need specifics.”
“A ring. I’m getting her a goddamn ring,” I bit out and waited for his explosion.
I’d been searching for the perfect ring since Mia and I got back together. From the moment she said she loved me out loud, I knew I had to make her mine in every sense of the word. Before I met her, just the thought of marriage made me break out in a cold sweat. Now, just thinking of never getting to call Mia my wife terrified me.
A charged silence followed, but when he spoke again, it wasn’t to scream obscenities at me as I would have expected. “Right, so I can buy her those earrings I saw after all.”
“You’re…okay with me giving her a ring?” I asked hesitantly. “You don’t think it’s too soon or that she’s too young?”
“You make her happy. And I know she loves you. When I do get her to talk to me, she can’t shut up about you. Time and age mean nothing. But if I can make a suggestion?”
My brows lifted. “Of course.”
“Give it to her at the party we have every Christmas Eve. Everyone who loves her will be there, and I know it would make it more special for her.”
“If you think that will make her happy, then I’ll do it.” I scratched at my jaw, feeling unsure all of a sudden. I fucking hated that feeling. “Sir…I’m sorry I didn’t ask your permission. It’s just, I thought maybe you already gave it when—”
“I did,” he assured me, his voice suddenly sounding choked. “I gave you permission a long time ago, Barrick.”
--
I thought I’d been to crazy parties in the past, but nothing prepared me for a Demon’s Wings family Christmas Eve party.
It wasn’t that it was wild, with drugs and booze flowing freely. It was the amount of love I felt envelop me as soon as the house started filling up with guests. Everyone was family, no matter if they were blood-related or not. I was with Mia, so automatically, I was everyone’s son. Braxton was her friend, so that meant he was their son too.
The two of us couldn’t really understand that kind of family acceptance, but we welcomed it.
Kids of various ages ran around the gigantic Malibu beach house, screaming and playing without a care in the world. Parents watched over them, even as they drank virgin eggnog and warm apple cider and carried on their own conversations. It was loud and crazy, and I wanted to do this every year with Mia right beside me.
I wiped my sweaty palms on my dress pants. Mia told me no one ever really dressed up for her parents’ party, but I wanted to look good for her tonight. Jeans and a T-shirt just weren’t going to do it for the moment when our lives changed.
At least, I hoped they changed.
She could so easily say no to me when I asked her to marry me, and that was why I was sweating through my black button-up, even though it wasn’t hot in the house. All day, I’d been agonizing over what she would say when I popped the question, and my stomach had been tied in knots because of it.
Mia’s dad slapped me on the back as he passed me, giving me a wink on his way to talk to one of Mia’s many honorary uncles from OtherWorld. In the two days since we’d arrived for the holidays, Nik Armstrong had encouraged me and given me all the advice he could think of on how to make this proposal as perfect as possible.
But the truth was, I was still winging it.
Braxton leaned up against the wall beside me, his eyes watching the crowd around us. But no matter how hard he tried, his gaze always went back to the girl across the room. Nevaeh was dressed in jeans and an ugly Christmas sweater, her glasses making her eyes look like those of an adorable owl the way she kept blinking at my cousin every time she caught him looking at her.
I was getting all kinds of mixed vibes from Braxton where she was concerned, but I trusted him not to touch her with anything but care. At least, for now. She’d just turned sixteen and there were a few years before she was no longer jailbait, but my younger cousin had a hell of a lot of patience.
“Your anxiety is making me edgy,” he finally growled, looking at me for the first time. “Just do it and stop being a pussy.”
Muttering a curse, I pushed away from the wall and crossed the room purposefully. Mia stood talking to her cousin Lucy and a few other women, but when she saw me coming, she turned her back to them, giving me that smile that had my knees going weak.
If she said no, would she ever smile like that at me again?
Fuck.
“Hi,” she greeted, her voice dropping as she stared up at me through her lashes. “I missed you.”
“Baby.” I pulled her into my arms and bent to kiss her forehead. Feeling her soft gasp, my cock went rock hard, but I ignored the pressure in my balls and, with my next inhale, took a step back.
“Don’t go,” she begged, then let out a soft whimper when I dropped to one knee in before her then and there, in front of over a hundred people. “Barrick?”
I swallowed the lump that was suddenly trying to suffocate me and pulled the ring box out of my pocket. I hadn’t been able to find the perfect ring, and in the end, had customized one for her. The three-carat princess cut stone was surrounded by little pink diamonds. Inside the band, I’d had it engraved with the date we’d met—the day she’d turned my world upside down.
Or maybe right-side up.
“I know this is sudden. It’s only been a few months since we met, but the day I set eyes on you, firecracker, that was the day my life truly began. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life knowing that we belong to each other in every way. Will you marry me?”
Her chin began to tremble, and my heart stopped when twin tears fell from her beautiful green eyes. Around us, the entire house was so quiet, I could hear the waves hitting the beach outside. Even the littlest kids were no longer running around, but focused on the two of us.
Each second that ticked by with her just standing there crying was like a hundred years. Then she was throwing her arms around my neck. “Yes,” she sobbed. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Barrick.”
I locked my arms around her, holding her in place as I pressed my face to her stomach and sucked in a deep breath, fighting my own tears. “Baby,” I choked out. “Ah fuck. I love you.”