Family Ties (Ashby Crime Family)

“Couple days ago. Ma said to wait for you to let Savannah come up for air before reaching out.”

“I said no such thing,” Ma insisted, but the laughter in her voice said she was lying. “I said give them time to get used to each other.”

“You should have come by. You’re always welcome, man. Always.” Damn, the whole family was here, and I was so damn happy, it took me a minute to turn and check on Savannah.

She didn’t need me to, though. She stepped forward and wrapped Jameson in a hug. “You look good. How is it, being a cop?”

Jameson didn’t look bothered by her affection, just nodded. “So far, so good. Sucks being low man on the totem pole, but I’ll be finishing my field training with the Feds, so that should be interesting.”

My brows shot up in surprise. “Wow. Who the hell did you impress?”

“The question is who didn’t I impress, Charlie.”

I laughed and shook my head because no matter how old we got, or where life took us, we would always just be us. Two brothers, giving each other shit.

“You know who you’ll be working with yet?” It wasn’t fair to pump him for information, but if it was Addison Beck, he needed to be warned.

“Don’t know yet.”

“Only a copper for a couple weeks and already he’s lost brain cells.” The plain-spoken feminine voice that entered the kitchen surprised the hell out of me.

“God help us all.” Madison rolled her eyes and set a blue box on the counter before hugging my mom.

“Uhhh…Madison? What’s going on?”

Madison turned to me and shrugged. “What? We’re friends. You got a problem with that?”

“Yeah, no. Maybe.” I didn’t have time to question it though because Ma put us all to work, carrying food out to the table in the backyard where Dad sat with a platter of barbecued ribs.

“Jana, you cooked all this?” Savannah looked at the table, loaded up with fried chicken and mashed potatoes, which was her favorite food, lasagna which was mine, and barbecue to celebrate the return of my baby brother.

“Wow. You didn’t have to do all this,” she said. The awe in her voice made Ma smile and place a hand over her heart.

“Of course I did, honey. And Max helped me. I wanted you to know how happy we are that Charlie finally has a real girlfriend. Someone to come home to. I thought I’d have to meddle before he saw the light.”

“Ma,” I groaned and the whole damn table erupted in laughter.

“It’s true, but you figured it out on your own, so I didn’t have to.”

“Thank fuck,” my dad growled, earning a backhand on the shoulder.

We ate until we were full and happy and just a little bit drunk. It was the perfect night.

Just fucking perfect.

My club was thriving and I was in love with the perfect woman who looked at me like I was someone special. There was only one thing to do next.

Tell her how I felt about her. For real.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Savannah

“Are you sure you don’t want any help, Jana? You did all the cooking, and you shouldn’t have to clean.” Not that I was well versed in the art of doing dishes and cleaning up in general, but she’d gone through so much effort to make me feel welcome, it was the least I could do.

But Jana waved me off, a gleam in her eye. “I’ll do the dishes so I can spy on you two while Charlie shows you his tree house.”

My eyes went round as they followed Jana’s gaze to the treehouse high up in an old oak tree, I was sure provided a massive amount of shade in the daytime. “A treehouse? How adorable!”

“It’s not adorable,” Charlie insisted.

“It was our junior clubhouse,” Jameson added. “And it was manly as fuck.”

“Totally,” Charlie agreed quickly, and I laughed.

“I stand corrected,” I said, barely containing my laughter. “But now I have to see it.”

“It’s not that impressive,” Madison added with a shrug. “But it will provide endless hours of mocking, so I highly recommend the trip.”

She could deny it all she wanted, but there were definite sparks between her and Jameson.

I turned to Charlie. “Well?”

“Fine,” he growled and guided me across the yard and up the surprisingly sturdy steps. “This is a much better view,” he said and gave my ass a good hard squeeze.

I pushed up the door flap and gasped. “It’s just like on TV!” There were magazine cutouts taped to the makeshift walls, a ‘NO GIRLS ALLOWED’ sign still hung over the window, and everything about it was a little boy’s dream.

“This is amazing,” I said as I pulled myself up and into the small space with a grunt. “Junior clubhouse, huh?”

“Jameson and I would come up here and pretend we were already Reckless Bastards, having meetings about the assholes at school and other little kid business.” He laughed as he reflected back on the details with the perspective of a grown man. “We had very overactive imaginations.”