Epilogue

Fifteen years later…

Irun my hand down my face and check my watch again. "It's been two minutes," Jonas chuckles.

I narrow my normally easy-going gaze on him and he lifts his hands in a bullshit apology. He's poking me on purpose. He's bored or he's hoping I crack first because his wife is with mine. All of our wives are out together for a girls' night while we're supposed to be having a guys' night. Instead we're sitting around a poker table in my basement, not playing poker.

"Isn"t retirement supposed to make you more laid back?" Jonas says it with a half-smile.

I get it. It's fucking hilarious that I'm worked up to go get my wife and bring her back home. People said the crazy need I have for her would fade over the years, but people are stupid. If anything I've gotten worse.

Before she came into my life I didn't know what I was missing. Now that she's mine I know I couldn't exist without her. That woman is my everything and gave me my family. She gave birth to our son and three little girls.

"I'm enjoying retirement. I'll just enjoy it more when my wife"s under me."

"Jesus, Dad." My eyes snap over to my son Grayson. He stands up from the sofa and drops the Xbox controller.

Track is silently laughing in his spot on the sofa next to him.

"Shit. Forgot you were over there."

Grayson shakes his head. The boy is fifteen and he knows how I am with Jules. I'm sure one day he'll find a woman of his own and be the same. The kid is like me in every way and sometimes it's fucking scary.

"Going to go check on the girls," he says as he walks out of the room.

It's my turn to smile. Thank God I had my son first. He helps me keep an eye on the women in our lives. All three of our little girls are beautiful just like their mom.

I walk over to the refrigerator that's filled with beer and open and close the door without getting one. I might have to go at any moment to get Jules. They rented some party bus thing to take them out, but I'm picking my wife up and that's that.

"Relax. We know everyone in the bar they're at," Jonas reminds me.

We do because it's the only bar that's down in the middle of the warehouse district. The only people that go to it are people who work around there. It's the only way to know the place exists. It was pretty smart on Pattie's part when she opened the place. It's surrounded on all sides by warehouses and she has her pick of thirsty warehouse workers.

"I'm guessing you didn't see how they were dressed." I turn to look at Jonas.

"I brought my wife over here," he reminds me. Yeah, his wife showed up in jeans and a sweater. I think. I wasn"t paying close attention. I just know when they left they were all in dresses.

"Yeah, then they went upstairs and got ready before they took off."

"What?" Now Jonas is standing up and he's not finding this shit so funny anymore.

Track holds up his phone. "You think I don't have eyes on them?" All of us move to the sofa and with a few flicks Track takes the feed from his phone and puts it on the large TV. The screen fills with images from the bar I've been in a few times over the years.

The place is packed and right there in the center of the bar are our women, all sharing a giant table together. I watch as Mags hands Jules a shot glass and she takes it from her and throws it back. I can't take my eyes off her.

"It looks like no one is bothering them," Walsh says with a deep exhale.

I look at the people around them and I recognize most of them. My eyes zero in on some guy who looks barely old enough to be in the bar. Grayson looks more like a man than this kid, but his face seems familiar.

"Who's that?" I point to the boy watching my wife too closely.

"That's Dean and Kim's boy, Sam," Levi says and it clicks.

I'd forgotten about the kid. I thought he was off at college or something. They only had one child since both of them worked in my warehouse.

"Jules babysat him a few times," I recall.

She was always good with kids. Sometimes some of the workers would get in a bind and have to bring their children with them to work. Jules always let them come up to the office and hang with her. The warehouse wasn"t a safe place for kids to be running around in and my wife always had a soft spot for little ones. And an even bigger one for moms who were actually trying, which was so unlike her own. Still, even knowing who the kid is, I don't like the way he's looking at my Jules.

"Think Sam has a thing for the babysitter?" Jonas jokes, and I grit my teeth.

"Didn't you sleep with your babysitter?" Levi looks over at Walsh, and I'm going to fucking lose my mind in a second.

"I'll punch you right in the mouth," Walsh says to him, pointing a finger.

I reach out and grab Walsh's shoulder so he doesn"t hurt Levi.

Walsh's babysitter did try and sleep with him when he was about fifteen. She was there to watch Walsh's sister and that shit did not end well because Walsh has only ever been with one girl and will only ever be with one girl. The two of them have been going strong since the third grade when she moved to town and he declared he was going to marry her. Which he did as soon as they were both old enough.

I watch on the video as Sam gets up from his seat and heads for my wife.

"I'm done," I say, heading for the stairs.

"Thank fuck I wasn"t the first to cave this time," I hear Track say from behind me.

I know they're all following me, and when we walk outside everyone jumps into their own trucks and we head to the bar. I curse myself for getting a house a little ways out because it takes almost fifteen minutes before I'm pulling up to the bar. I take no time getting in there once I'm parked.

I swear she can sense me. I haven"t even gotten to her yet and she's turning from Sam to lock eyes with mine. A smile spreads across her face and I clear the distance between us in two long strides. I pull my wife up from her seat and she wraps her arms around me. I give Sam a hard stare and he books it out of here.

"That Sam just cost me fifty bucks, didn"t he?" she asks against my neck where she's burying her face. She gives me a small kiss there before pulling back to look up at me. "You broke first. Damn it, I was sure I was going to win."

"Kiss me and tell me what you're talking about." She starts to open her mouth to speak. "In that order."

She fights a smile and I bury my hands in her soft hair and press my lips to hers. When I pull back, her lips are swollen and her eyes are filled with lust.

"Now tell me." I loosen my hold on her so I can sit down on the stool and pull her onto my lap. I might have shown up on girls' night, but that doesn"t mean the night has to end. I'll sit here all night if that's what she wants to do.

"I bet Mags that Track would break first," she admits. "It was worth the fifty though. I've been missing you all night."

Neither of us like being apart—never have. We know how scary it is to be separated.

"Love you, buttercup."

"I love you, too, Cooper." She brings her mouth to my ear. "When we get home I wanna be your hostage," she says, and my cock jerks under her ass.

I fight not to slide my hand up her dress because there are too many people watching and I don't want anyone seeing those sweet, sexy faces she makes when I play with her pussy.

"Anything you want, buttercup."

She might have started out as my hostage, but I made sure she never wanted to leave.

THE END