When I looked back to Trouper, it was to see his eyes twinkling with mirth.
I shrugged.
Trouper winked at me.
“Ready?” Easton asked.
Trouper’s eyes went to his brother.
“I’ll be back out here in a bit. Then we can go to the house, okay?” he offered.
He had sweat dripping down his neck, and it took everything that I had not to lean forward and run my tongue along the path that the sweat had taken.
I swallowed hard, my eyes once again flicking up to see Trouper’s eyes on me.
And I knew he knew what he did to me.
“Come on, wife,” Easton said as he hooked his arm around my neck. “We can wait over here for my brother until he’s done. Right, wife?”
I wanted to drop an elbow into Easton’s testicles.
I gritted my teeth, and Trouper could see the anger in my eyes.
That had to be why he smiled at me instead of shooting an annoyed glance Easton’s way.
He winked at me and backed away.
It was only as he got close to the door that he did an about face and walked inside, not looking back.
“You know,” Easton said casually as he allowed his arm to drop. “You are really doing a piss-poor job of selling the ‘I’m your husband’ thing when you’re around him.”
I sighed and turned, crossing my arms over my chest.
“It’s hard because I want to just throw myself into his arms and stay there forever,” I told Easton honestly. “I’ve wanted nothing more than to see him all this time, and now that I’m here, I can’t touch him.”
He snorted.
“We have a big place, with quite a large path leading into the woods in our back yard. I’m fairly sure that I wouldn’t ever notice a man coming in and out of them to spend time with my wife,” Easton drawled.
I rolled my eyes, then sobered.
Taking a seat on the large concrete wall behind me that separated the parking lot from the building, I looked at Easton.
“After this job is done… I’m done,” I told him.
His brows rose. “Really?”
I scrubbed my face lightly.
“I’ve had my resignation letter in my email ready to send for about a year now. But it wasn’t until I saw Trouper that I realized that I needed to just grow a pair and send it. I’ve been a bit lost. I have to admit, it’s been like that for a really long time. And it wasn’t until I saw him that I realized why I was lost.”
“You were lost without him,” Easton guessed. “You didn’t realize that you need him to survive. To flourish.”
I turned so that my back was resting against the chain-link fence.
“He asked me to marry him last night, and I accepted.”
Easton rolled his eyes. “Honestly, I expected this to happen before he even left town. It finally happening now doesn’t surprise me. Just make sure if you get married it’s a couple of towns over. We don’t want your marriage interrupting our op.”
I winked. “Will do.”
“We know a guy two counties over or so,” Kansas said, startling me.
I jumped, turning to realize that they’d never left.
They’d heard all of that.
“Umm,” I said, looking at the two warily.
Toot’s eyes were filled with mirth.
“He’s a judge. He’s very discreet,” Kansas said. “And he knows how to marry people.”
“What makes you think that I don’t want a big wedding?” I challenged.
“Don’t know if you do or don’t,” he said. “What I do know is that the way State acts around you? He won’t allow you to wait very long.”
With that, Toot tapped the chain-link fence twice and slapped Kansas on the shoulder.
“Y’all have a good one.” Kansas waved as the two headed inside.
I turned back to Easton to see him staring at me thoughtfully.
“What?” I asked.
“If you’re in love with him, I don’t think a courthouse wedding is bad,” he said. “You’ve been keeping your entire life secret from your family. What’s a wedding and a marriage at this point?”
I looked away.
He was right.
I was keeping quite a bit from my family.
And, honestly, my dad didn’t even like Trouper.
It was quite possible that Trouper, even a successful fighter pilot in the Air Force, wouldn’t make my father happy. There was always something about Trouper that had set my father off.
Maybe Easton was right…
As I let my mind whirl, I counted the minutes since Troup had gone in the door.
It was taking a really long time.
“Where is he?” I grumbled as I picked at the imaginary lint on my shirt.
“You didn’t see him enough last night?” Easton teased.
I felt my face flush.
“We haven’t seen each other in a really long time, okay?” I defended myself. “It was… necessary. We wouldn’t have functioned well if we’d have had to sit on that.”
Meaning, if we didn’t get it out of the way, scratch that itch, it would be all either one of us could think about until we could actually do it.