Merry pressed my hand harder against his heart.

He said nothing, but I got his gist.

“He asked me out,” I finished.

Merry stared at me, muttering, “Of course he has.”

“Well, until recently, I have been a dickhead magnet,” I explained.

“No, babe. You’re fuckin’ pretty, you dress great, and you got a fantastic body. Pretty much any guy who has a functioning dick would take one look at you and want in your pants. That’s why he asked you out.”

And Merry gives me more.

“That’s a nice thing to say,” I murmured, even though it wasn’t.

It was a bunch of amazing, awesome things to say.

“I take it you said no,” he noted.

“I’m kinda seeing someone.”

His brows shot together. “This was recent?”

I nodded and added, “He hasn’t been living there very long.”

His head tipped slightly to the side. “He hit on you and he’s got a woman?”

“I think they broke up.”

“Mm…” he muttered strangely but said no more.

“Are you gonna go apeshit on me?” I asked, feeling hopeful that, since he hadn’t yet, he wouldn’t.

“No,” he answered.

Good news.

“Are you gonna go apeshit on Ryker?” I went on.

“Absolutely,” he answered.

“Good,” I mumbled, dropping my eyes to my hand on his chest. “I’m pissed he pulled Ryan into whatever he’s got goin’ down. He deserves scary apeshit-Merry.”

“Babe.”

I lifted my eyes back to his.

“We learn a lesson?” he asked.

I was not a big fan of him asking that question with the nuance he thought I was a little girl who needed the big man to educate her.

That said, I’d definitely learned a lesson.

Not to mention, I knew better.

The minute Merry and I became an us, I should have stopped keeping things from him.

“I’ll answer affirmative to that only with the warning that if any future communications hold a nuance of condescension, especially full scale of the same, they will be responded to with knee action requiring hours of ice downs and render our sex life moot for a week,” I declared.

“You got trouble living two doors down,” Merry fired back. “You essentially knew about it. Didn’t tell me about it, even though two seconds after we became an us, the first thing I told you was that you laid that shit on me. And you’re makin’ threats because you think I’m being condescending?”

“Yes.”

He studied me.

Then he grinned as he moved my hand from his heart, curling it around his side as his other arm curled around me, drawing me close.

“It’s good you’re fuckin’ pretty and I’ve been in your pants and liked what I go so want to go back for more or you might get apeshit.”

It seemed like the crisis was averted, which was a relief.

At least for me.

Ryker was another story.

But I figured he could handle himself.

“I need to get back to work,” I told him. “Or to work at all, seeing as I didn’t even start. Ryan showed and I just let ’er rip.”

“Then I best let you go so I can find Ryker and tear him a new asshole.”

“Tear him a bigger one for me.”

He shook his head before he dipped it and touched his mouth to mine.

On the upswing, he muttered, “Came in for a drink with my girl.”

“You’re in luck. I’m a bartender and can see to that,” I replied.

“Can’t have a drink and go out and rip Ryker a new asshole.”

“Do that and then come back and hang with me.”

“She’s bossy even after she fucks up huge.”

I shrugged, being cocky, only because I could.

And again with the happy.

Because I’d fucked up huge; it was true. Merry wasn’t a big fan of me doing that; this was true too.

But it seemed he was big enough to get beyond it.

Or better, he liked me enough to get beyond it.

Or both.

So I could be cocky.

But I also felt happy because this said a lot about Merry, about me, about the relationship we were building. A fuckup like that could have led to a fight that could have torn down some of what we’d built, paving the way for us to tear down more.

Instead, we’d ended it like we’d started it.

Just us.

So yeah, I could be cocky.

And happy.

He studied me as I had these thoughts, ending them with my lips going up in a small smile.

Seeing that, he shook his head again, gave me another mouth touch, then murmured, “Get to work. I’ll be back.”

He started to walk away and I started to follow him, but then he stopped.

I did too.

He twisted to me. “Steer clear of that house, baby.”

Something in his face freaked me.

Shit. Did he already know something was going down at that house?

I didn’t ask. I nodded.

He nodded back, turned around, and kept walking.

Only when he tipped up his chin did I notice Colt leaning against the wall that delineated the pool area from the rest of the bar.

I walked right to Colt, who didn’t move, and stopped.

“Did you call him?” I asked.

“Nope,” he answered. “You barely rounded the corner to get to Ryan when he walked in the front door. I just told him where you were.”

Bad timing.

“Though,” Colt went on, “you plus Ryan equaling disaster, or just Ryan bein’ a dumbass on more than a rare occasion equaling disaster, Merry showin’ saved me from makin’ the call I was just about to make.”

“Traitor,” I muttered, only slightly joking, and made a move to pass him and finally get to work.

“Cher.”

I stopped at his side and looked up at him, raising my brows.

“You mean a lot to me. The pain-in-the-ass little sister I never had,” he announced.

Shit.

More warm and squishy, even with the pain-in-the-ass part.

“Sayin’ that to soften the blow of sayin’ this,” he continued.

Fuck.

“Take your big brother’s advice,” Colt stated. “You’re a tough chick and we all get that. But you hooked your star to a guy who makes a living providing protection. That is not a job. It’s a calling. Do not take that away from him. I don’t give a shit if it’s somethin’ you think is stupid, like fightin’ over who takes out the trash. But definitely shit like this, Cher. You gotta let him have shit like this or you’re not gonna keep him.”

Apparently, Colt had been our audience for a while.

“I thought I was protecting him,” I explained.

“You got that job, babe. Definitely. But when you do that, actually do it. And you aren’t doin’ it, keepin’ anything from him.”

I had noted late in life, after getting Colt in that life, that having a big brother rocked.

Except in times like these when he shared badass wisdom and relationship advice and it compounded the feeling of being an idiot I already felt.

It sucked to admit it was lucky for me he did. I’d already come to this conclusion about how to proceed in a relationship with Merry, but his added wisdom wasn’t entirely unwelcome.

Just mostly unwelcome because it compounded the feeling of me being an idiot.

I powered past that because I had no choice and because the jig was up, and since it was, I had to see to my part of the protection deal with Merry.

“Ryker’s got somethin’ goin’ on with that house, Colt, and I’m not thinkin’ Merry’s gonna be too happy when he finds out what it is.”

“I’ll talk to Mike. I’ll talk to Tanner. We’ll have his back.”

That made me feel better.

“Thanks,” I muttered, again moving to pass him.

“Cher,” he called again.

I stopped on an audible huff and gave him big impatient eyes.

I knew by his dancing he was going to give me shit, but I had no clue how the kind of shit he was going to give me would make me feel.

“You ask anyone else other than me to give you away at your wedding, it’s gonna piss me off.”

All the oxygen evacuated my body. Gone. I couldn’t breathe. And when you can’t breathe, you can’t move. So that’s what happened. I stood there, immobile, not breathing, staring at Colt, thinking of walking down an aisle in a church toward Garrett Merrick.