Even though he was painfully shy, Isaac was the belle of the ball. Everyone adored him, obviously. Evie practically attacked him with hugs and squeals over his “grand gesture” as she called it. I caught Willow swiping away a few tears while Gillian seemed to have to fan herself when she caught eyes with my boyfriend. So much for being the cute one in the relationship.
My boyfriend.
Every time I used the term to introduce him to someone, his lips turned up in a tiny smile. Throughout the night, he never strayed far from my side. In fact, his hand held mine in a death grip most of the time which was about the most endearing thing ever. It was clear he was nervous as hell and felt completely out of his comfort zone, but he was here. For me. He’d shown up to prove to me that this was worth fighting for. We were worth fighting for.
“That man can handle my wood any damn time he wants,” Van slurred into my ear. “You didn’t tell me your lumberjack was even hotter in person.”
I glanced over at my old roommate, who was staring dazedly at my new roommate. “You should see him naked,” I said back to him. “It’s even better.”
Van’s jaw dropped and his eyes stayed locked on Nine as if he was undressing the poor man with his imagination. Nine was too busy talking to Gillian to notice.
“Does he have any brothers?” Van asked. “Someone who might want to plow my field and so forth. Give me a good ride on their tractor, so to speak.”
Nine’s hand tightened around mine, indicating he’d heard every bit of Van’s drunken hopes.
“Oh yeah,” I said. “He actually has five brothers. And they all know how to plant a seed if you know what I mean.”
Nine choked on the beer he’d been nursing, but he somehow managed to continue his conversation with the singer on his other side.
I looked around at the LA family I’d gathered in such a short time. They were an amazing group of people, but I knew I didn’t need to live here in LA to continue having them in my life. No, we wouldn’t make nearly the amount of money with a YouTube gig as we would with actual film work, but we would still make enough to come back for visits. And when we did, I could show Nine all of the things I loved about Southern California.
But then we could return to our little RV in the woods wherever it happened to be parked at the time and enjoy our quiet alone time with Nacho curled around our feet and Nine’s cheesy music playing on the Bluetooth speaker. Just the thought of it calmed me down and helped me breathe easier.
I blew out a breath.
Isaac leaned over and kissed the shell of my ear. “You okay, baby? Getting tired? Is it your hip? Are you hurting?”
I leaned over and slid my arms around his neck, pulling him in for a hug. “I’m better than I’ve ever been in my entire life. Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
Nine - December
I almost got away with it. But when you join two lives together, including two bank accounts, nosy boyfriends tended to poke around where they didn’t belong.
“Nine!” Cooper shouted from the RV loud enough to make me jump and knock my head into the garbage disposal and sink pipes.
“What?”
“Get your ass out here!”
I sighed and scooted out from the kitchen cabinet where I’d just finished installing the dishwasher. “Coming.”
After wiping my hands with a nearby rag, I made my way through the small one-bedroom ski chalet and out into the fresh snow. I could just see the colorful ski parkas on the Vail lifts through the trees in the distance. I still didn’t know how Cooper had managed to get us a gig so close to home over the holidays, but I was looking forward to my mom’s big turkey dinner at the end of the week. Coop’s mom was coming with us to Wheatland since Jacks was spending the holiday with Marchie’s family.
I stomped through the snow to the door of the new RV. This one was a fifth wheel that we towed behind the truck which allowed us to travel together from place to place without needing to drive two vehicles. We’d bought it ourselves… well, we’d financed it ourselves… and it was set up much better for the two of us and our business. We even had a big-screen television that we could watch movies on from our comfy leather couch. The bathroom had a shower big enough for both of us. Okay, barely big enough, but still. We could shower together when the mood struck us, and it struck us more often than I’d expected. The absolute best thing about our new home was that it was ours. Cooper had decorated it with his new love of interior shit, and he’d hung up some framed photos from our social media feed.