Until Cece (Happily Ever Alpha World)

“Just let me know when,” Talon replies as he rests his arm on the back of Mia’s chair.

“Do you know what you’re planning on pricing it at?” she asks him, and Mia bristles.

“Mom.”

“What?” She frowns at her. “Chaz and I have been talking, and we’re thinking about moving here.”

“What?” Mia gasps, and I feel my own eyes widen at the thought. She’s lived in Montana her whole life, and so has Chaz, so it’s hard to believe they would move. And not only that, but Chaz has a well-established law practice there, and I don’t see him retiring anytime soon, even though he’s almost seventy.

“Chaz is planning on retiring in the next couple of years, and we’ve fallen in love with this area and are talking about finding a place here,” Mom explains.

“Really?” I look at Chaz.

“We want to be closer to all our girls,” he says, his face soft as he looks between me, Mia, Ruby, Lola, and Kate.

“I wouldn’t be upset about that,” Mia tells him.

“Me neither,” I agree, asking the girls, “How happy would you guys be if Grandma and Grandpa moved here?

“So happy.” Lola grins.

“So, so happy,” Kate says, always wanting to one-up her sister however she can.

“Can I go play with the kittens?” Ruby asks, bouncing in her seat and making us all laugh.

“Yeah, go on. Just be gentle with them,” I tell her, and her sisters follow her inside. When the door closes behind them, I look and point at Talon. “Just so you know, I will kill you if you offer my girls one of those kittens.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. You can have two, and that way they will still be able to play with each other,” Mia chirps unhelpfully, and I glare at her. “You have to admit they’re cute, and you haven’t had any kind of allergic reaction to them.” She’s referring to the time we spent the night at our friend’s house when we were little and I broke out in hives. We thought it was their family cat at the time.

“No.” I shake my head. The last thing I need to add to my plate are furbabies.

“You can’t stop me from giving them a gift.” She shrugs, smiling when Talon laughs and kisses the side of her head.

“See? This is what we don’t want to miss,” Mom says, and I look at her. “And just think, honey, if we get a place here, I’ll be around a lot more and will be able to help you plan your wedding.”

“Mom,” Mia groans, covering her face.

“What?”

“Talon and I—”

“Your daughter has to agree to marry me before you two start planning a wedding,” Talon cuts her off, and she turns to glare at him.

“Don’t encourage her.”

“Why? I did ask you,” Talon says, and my brows shoot to my hairline.

“No, you didn’t,” she argues, and then her eyes widen as he grins. “That didn’t count!”

I laugh, kind of catching the drift that it might’ve been in the heat of a very physically pleasurable moment that he popped the question.

“Anyway, we just got together. It’s gonna be awhile before any of that happens.” Mia takes a sip of her iced tea.

“So you’re not going to move in here when Cece gets her apartment?” Chaz asks, putting her on the spot, and I fight a smile, pulling my lips between my teeth.

“Well….” Mia looks around, her eyes landing on me as if to ask for my help. I just shake my head and shrug. Payback for the kittens.

“We’re going to take it one day at a time,” Talon says, giving Mia’s shoulder a squeeze. “Mia knows I want her here with me, but I’m not going to pressure her if she’s not ready.”

“Is Bax single?” Mom blurts, looking at Talon like he hung the moon and stars.

“Mom,” I snap, knowing exactly where she’s going with that question. Heat crawls up my neck, and my gut clenches, acknowledging there’s only one man on this entire planet I want.

“What?” Mom drawls. “He’s very handsome, is obviously a hard worker, and he’s Talon’s brother, so they’re probably a lot alike.”

Just the thought of someone trying to set me up with anyone who isn’t Winston makes me nauseous. At this point, I can’t even fathom being with anyone else, even though I can’t have him. “Just stop, Mom.” I push away from the table to stand and start for the door, saying over my shoulder, “I’m gonna go check on my girls.”

29

Winston

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” I say a week later, gripping the file folder in my hands as I look down at the eight-by-ten black and white photos of Corina getting hot and heavy with a man in a big white truck. The next photo, she’s at dinner with him, somewhere I don’t recognize.

“Had to follow them all the way to Nashville for that one,” Justin, a private investigator referred to me by Asher Mayson, states as I flip to another one of them at dinner. “If they go anywhere in public, it’s out of town, presumably so no one recognizes her. She wouldn’t want it to get back to you, obviously. But the rest are taken at the man’s residence or while he’s on his lunch break, where they go somewhere private—or so they believed.”