The four men stood together, companionable and comfortable in spite of the closed quarters. From his position in front of the mirror, Rush stole a glance at each of his friends.
Harley sat on the window, adjusting the rose on his lapel in an attempt to cover the splash of paint that he’d accidentally flicked onto it earlier in the morning. Rush shook his head a little at the typical Harley mishap. Who else would think that painting something was a good idea on this particular morning?
Anderson was sitting on top of a desk in the corner. He had an open textbook in his lap, and he was studying intensely. That made Rush smile. Back to school for the teacher’s fiancé. It seemed very fitting.
Brayden stood with his back against the wall. Unsurprisingly, his suit was perfectly pressed, his hair freshly trimmed and his face as clean-shaven as they came. When he shifted a little, though, Rush spied a Frost Family Diner menu in his friend’s pocket, and he had to bite back a laugh as he turned his attention to his own reflection.
He gave his bow tie a tug and a dirty look, then sighed and faced Brayden. “All right. I admit defeat.”
“You?” mocked the other man as he reached up and made the necessary adjustment. “The great and mighty Rush Aaron Atkinson has been bested by a bow tie?”
Harley piped up from his spot, “I don’t think it’s the bow tie, bro. I think it’s looooove.”
“Shut up,” Rush muttered good-naturedly. “What are you...twelve?”
“I know you are, but what am I?” Harley said.
“And there it is,” Rush replied. “Proof that at least one of my groomsmen is a child.”
“This particular groomsman is a full-fledged businessman and a homeowner,” Harley corrected.
“Seriously?” his brother asked. “When were you going to tell us?”
“I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to spoil your big day, but I have a feeling Liz is going to get into the champagne and tell everyone anyway, so why not, right? Consider yourselves the first to know that we’ll be officially reopening Liz’s Lovely Things next week. We bought the building. Strictly opiate-free, of course.”
“Very funny,” Brayden said.
Rush smiled at his friend. “Hell. That doesn’t spoil anything. Congrats, man.”
Anderson cleared his throat. “Well, then. Guess I might as well tell you my news.”
All three men turned his way, and he clapped his book shut, then scrubbed a nervous hand over his head.
“Nadine is expecting,” he announced. “She’s due two weeks after I officially finish the paramedic course.”
“Dammit,” Harley replied.
“What?” said Anderson.
“That’s almost an upstage of my stuff.”
Rush laughed. “Yeah, but are any of you getting married in three minutes?”
“Oh, right,” Brayden said. “We’re supposed to be doing something.”
“That’s right, Captain,” Rush replied. “Something. Unless of course you have an announcement, too?”
“No news on my end. And I keep telling you not to call me that,” Brayden protested. “Whispering Woods PD doesn’t actually have a captain.”
“And we keep telling you it’s close enough,” Harley responded. “Top-ranking official and all that.”
“T minus ninety seconds,” Anderson reminded them.
Chuckling, they started to file toward the door, but Brayden stopped them with a question. “Do you think they’d say we did it right, even with things turning out the way they did?”
Their laughter died off. None of them had to ask what—or who—he meant. Their pact, made as a promise to their fathers more than sixteen years earlier, had been thoroughly derailed by Jesse’s death on the way to the hospital. And it wasn’t even Rush’s bullet that had done it. The cause of death was ruled as sudden cardiac arrest. An inevitability, the coroner had told them, based on the physical state of his heart. So they couldn’t even lay claim to that particular dark victory.
They’d never found out if the murderous crime boss knew who they were or what their purpose in chasing him down was, and they never would find out. It wasn’t exactly the result they’d been looking for. Though they’d managed to arrest and convict the man with whom Garibaldi had made his deal, Jesse himself wasn’t behind bars. Yet Rush hadn’t ever felt robbed by the end result. If anything, he felt like he’d gained more than he’d lost.
“I think...” he said slowly, “that our fathers would be happy for us. They’d tell us that life isn’t cut-and-dried, that Garibaldi got what he deserved, and that everything that happened over the last few years brought us to this moment right here. I’m getting married. Anderson is having a baby. Harley is already married and is a stepfather extraordinaire. And Brayden is basically running a town.”
They all went silent, and then Harley cleared his throat. “So. Like I said. It’s looooove.”
There was another moment of silence, and then they all burst out laughing and started talking over one another. And none of it had to do with the stress and fear and sadness of the last sixteen years. It was time—officially—to move on. They could be the men they’d always been meant to become.
Look out for Melinda Di Lorenzo’s
next heart-pounding romance,
First Responder on Call
available August 2019 from
Harlequin Romantic Suspense!
And don’t miss out on the rest of
the Undercover Justice miniseries:
Captivating Witness
Undercover Protector
Undercover Passion
Available now wherever
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Keep reading for an excerpt from Colton’s Covert Baby by Lara Lacombe.
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