Page 6 of One Night with Number Nineteen

“Go inside, Lanes. I’ll grab this.”

“Should we be eating right now?” Gray asks, coming out for another load. “We’re not even halfway.”

“Many hands make short work,” Sawyer says, starting for the house, “but many hands with empty bellies and the smell of yummy food in the air make for even faster work.” He winks at me.

Relief has the tension between my shoulder blades loosening, the breath I was unconsciously holding release.

This isn’t going to be weird.

We’ll go back to being friends.

We’re fine.

I grab another box—and this time avoid Smitty’s attempt at stealing it from me—then follow Sawyer inside.

Anyway, he’s not wrong about faster.

The scent of pizza and garlicky breadsticks jumpstarts everyone into motion, and it’s barely twenty minutes later before all of the boxes and furniture are in the house.

Of course, there’s loads of things to put together and loads of boxes to unpack.

But I can do what’s necessary for the first tonight, and the latter can happen slowly over the next few weeks.

Plus, my laptop and desk are now in the office, so I’m set if any midnight ideas strike me.

We take the pizza and breadsticks, the box with the plates and napkins out back and eat in the cool winter air and something settles in me.

This is why I moved here.

To be close to Faye. To give Ollie a life that’s full of laughter and inside jokes and men who don’t blink at playing hide-and-seek or tag or red light, green light with him. To have stability and a fresh start and nibble on a slice of pizza without worrying about⁠—

Anything.

To just be at peace for the first time in a long, long time.

I exhale and smile when Ollie and Sawyer pair up to take Smitty—the last man remaining in Red Rover—down. Sawyer hoists Ollie onto his shoulders and moves with a speed that probably shouldn’t surprise me but does anyway because it’s so flipping fast. Gray grabs an arm, Ryan Smitty’s other, slowing the big man down enough for Sawyer to get close.

Smitty roars in protest but “lets” Ollie tackle him to the grass.

My son and Sawyer do a little victory dance that has my heart rolling over in my chest.

This is it.

What I’ve always wanted.

Not the man part, but Ollie and me happy and part of a family that’s bigger than just the two of us.

Faye giggles from beside me, and I glance at her, waiting until those gorgeous brown eyes of hers hit mine.

“Thank you,” I murmur.

Her expression softens and she bumps her shoulder against mine. “I should be thanking you.”

“For what?”

She gave me a killer price on her newly rebuilt house, invited me into her life, the family she’s building.

Her lips twitch and her eyes dance.