CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Kyle—

Sunday after closing, I invite my brothers to the restaurant to help me celebrate. We push a bunch of tables together to form one long one.

One prospect scurries around the table, passing out shot glasses to everyone, and another prospect follows behind with a bottle of whiskey.

I stand at the head and lift my shot in the air. "I want to thank each and every one of you for pitching in and making this place a success. Thanks to all of you, it only took six weeks to get the place open. And you all made opening day a huge success. We've had a hell of a first week. I couldn't have done it without you. Truly."

"Yeah, even though Green scared away more people than he wrangled in," Shane ribs.

"Hey, I did a bang-up job, shithead. You want to stand out on the street and sweet talk the girls? Go ahead. Maybe take your shirt off while you're at it."

"Brothers. Everyone contributed." I focus in on Shane. "And you can have a shift next Saturday."

"What?" he barks.

"Shirtless," Cole decrees. "That's an order."

"Goddamn it. So, I'm just a piece of meat?"

"Yes!" they all roar in unison.

Green laughs and points. "I'm gonna film the whole thing, pretty boy. You better brush off your dance moves."

"Dance moves?"

"You don't think you can just stand out there, do ya?" Green snaps. "You gotta dance around like them pizza boys do. I'll get you a sign you can spin."

Cole shakes with laughter. "You were saying, Kyle?"

"I especially want to thank you, Prez. If you hadn't worked your magic and got the landlord down on the price, I never could have afforded this place."

He grins. "It wasn't so much magic as arm-twisting, kid."

"I stand corrected." I lift my glass. "Thank you."

He clinks his glass to mine. "To Kyle. You worked your butt off, and we're all proud of you."

At that, my father stands. "I'd like to make a toast, if I could, son."

I nod. "Sure, Dad."

"Floor's yours, Wolf," Cole says, taking a seat.

"First off, you and Rafe had some rough spots lately, but you worked through them, and now you're both back to the way you were before. I couldn't be prouder of the two of you. And Kyle, you had a dream, and you worked hard to make it happen. A man can't do more than that in this life. You found something you love, and you get to do it. When you enjoy your work, it's not work, it's fun. So, here's hoping you have a lot of fun running this place."

"Here, here," the crowd says, downing their shots.

Wolf walks over and hugs me, slapping my back.

"Thanks, Dad."

There's a tap on the front glass door.

Crystal jumps to her feet. "That'll be the bakery. I ordered a cake."

"A cake?" I protest, but she's already up to answer it.

I pick up the bottle of whiskey. "Who wants another?"

"You gotta ask?" Red Dog replies.

"Everyone, kid," Crash barks. "Hop to it."

"How about some bowls of that chicken chili?" Green asks. "You're feeding us, right?"

I laugh and glance up to see my mother walking toward me with a funny look on her face. Then she steps aside, and Sutton is standing behind her, a bouquet of flowers in her hand.

The room suddenly gets silent.

"Sutton?" I whisper.

She doesn't look anywhere but at me, and it's like we're the only two people in the room.

"Congratulations on your place, Kyle. Really. It's fantastic."

I swallow. "How did you know?"

"I saw Tina's post."

"Ah. I see." I nod to the flowers. "You just stopped by to congratulate me, then?"

Her eyes stray to the long table filled with my brothers and their ol' ladies. "Well, I wanted to talk to you…"

My father folds his arms. "Anything you got to say, you can say in front of all of us."

Her gaze shifts briefly to Rafe, then back to me. "I wanted to tell you… you see, I wanted to ask…"

I wait, my chest squeezed into a tight band. I'm afraid to hope.

"Spit it out, girl," Green says.

"Green, hush," my mother snaps.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is… I've been miserable without you, and I'd like to give us a chance." She looks down at the flowers, then holds them out. "Will you go out with me, Kyle?"

I grin and run to her, lifting her off her feet and twirling her around. Her arms wrap my neck, and she buries her face in my shoulder. When I set her on her feet, I hear my MC brothers' wisecracks.

"Guess that's your answer, girl," Green says.

"I think that's a yes," Red Dog says with a laugh.

"How come you never asked me out on a date?" Reckless says to Harley Jean, who smacks him on the arm.

No matter the conversations around us, my focus is intently on Sutton. I cup her face and pull her mouth to mine for our first kiss. Having it in front of the entire club was not the dream I had in my head, but I'll take it. I'll take her… any way I can get her.

Her lips are soft, and the kiss is sweet and innocent, with the promise of so much more. More that I want to explore and partake of, the sooner the better.

When I break away, I look at the table full of people. "Party's over. Everybody out."

Cole raises a brow at me, daring to give him an order, but he grins and stands. "You heard the man. Out."

Green scrapes his chair across the floor. "We didn't even get chili."

Sara puts her hand over his mouth. "Hush. You can take me out to dinner."

"I thought that's what I was doin' here."

She pushes him toward the door. "Go."

My mother cups Sutton's face, staring into her eyes with a smile. "I'm so glad you came home." Then she hugs her, breaks off and hugs me, then leads my father out with the others.

"Give me a second," I say, kissing Sutton's hand and moving to the door to lock up after everyone files out.

Sutton sets the flowers on the table, and I grin as I walk back to her. "No one's ever brought me flowers before."

"Well, I felt like I messed up when I left town, so I needed to go all-out."

I take her hands in mine. "What made you come back?"

"Besides the fact that I missed you terribly?" She looks around the place. "You named it after me."

"I did."

"Why?"

"I hoped for this. That you'd see it and come back to me."

Her eyes glaze. "I'm sorry I left."

"You're here now." I brush a tear away with my thumb. "That's all that matters." Then I grin. "You want to see the place?"

"Yes, but Kyle, how did you afford all this? You lost all that money."

"That's the best part. God, I've been dying to share this with you. You'll never guess what happened. Not in a million years." I loop my arm around her shoulders, walk her into the kitchen, and tell her all about it.

We end up getting two bowls of chili and eating our first meal together in our restaurant. And it is our restaurant. That's how I've always thought of it.

I find a candle and light it.

"I want you to be a part of this. It's your dream too, right? A family business?" I kiss her hand, and she nods. "I wanted this for both of us."

"It was stupid of me to leave."

"I understood why you did it, but God, it killed me. I wish you'd answered my calls. I tried everything I could think of to get in touch with you. Did your girlfriends tell you that?"

She nods. "I wasn't sure I could see a way for us to be together without it destroying your relationship with Rafe."

"We had a long talk. He's fine with it. He told me you were right, that the two of you just didn't have what you and I have. He wants me to be happy."

"I'm so glad. I've been sick about it."

I hold her hand and rub my thumb absently across hers. "It's been hell these last couple of months. I rode to Santa Cruz I don't know how many times."

"You did?"

"I'd stand on the wharf and search the crowd, hoping somehow I'd find you. It was the only place I knew to go. I guess it sounds idiotic, huh?"

She shakes her head, her eyes filling. "It sounds like a man in love."

"I am in love, Sutton. I love you." I blow out a breath. "Wow. I said it."

She squeezes my hand. "I love you, too, Kyle. All the time we spent together, every day I felt it growing stronger until I didn't know what to do with it. I had all these feelings for you, but I couldn't express them. I wasn't supposed to be feeling them."

I tug her off her chair and into my lap. "That's over now. We don't have to hold back anymore." I rub my hand up her hip. "I've wanted to touch you for so long."

She strokes my face and cups my jaw. "Me, too." She presses her lips to mine. And this kiss is much more than the last one.

There are no prying eyes, and I pull her closer. My tongue chases hers.

Finally, we break apart. I want so much more, but I don't want to rush her.

I press my forehead to hers. "I want to take you out on a date. Someplace nice. Where ever you want. You choose."

"Kyle?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"Right now, I want you to take me home with you."

I search her eyes. "You mean that, Sutton?"

She nods. "I can't wait to be with you, to have you hold me, kiss me, make love to me."

My dick is already hard, but her words send another wave of blood south. "Let's get out of here, then."