Juliet busted up laughing, and I realized they were still talking about Madoc’s plans to knock up his wife ASAP. Fallon still had two years of graduate school at Northwestern, though, so I knew she’d rather wait.

“Is this your mom?” Pasha called out.

I looked up to see her leaning over a workbench, regarding a frame on the wall. I knew the picture that hung there. My mom, dad, and me at Disneyland when I was five.

“Yeah,” I answered, fastening the last cap under my hood.

“How did she pass away?” she asked.

I shot my eyes over to her, confused. “How did you know my mom died?”

Her mouth fell open slightly, and she hesitated.

“Um . . . I,” she stammered, her eyebrows doing a nosedive as she searched for words. “Well, I . . .”

And then she huffed out a breath, looking at me with an apology in her eyes.

“He kind of has me send flowers to her grave every year on April fourteenth,” she admitted, wincing.

I stood frozen, my hand on the cap while I gaped at Pasha. “What?” I whispered, in too much shock.

“Tate.” Juliet’s mouth hung open, and I saw her eyes tear up.

I darted my eyes over to Jared, seeing him let the hood drop closed and smile at his brother, a joke passing between them.

“Please don’t tell him I told you,” Pasha grumbled. “He’ll bitch, and then I’ll have to listen to it.”

Flowers. He sent my mother flowers.

How had I not known that?

I guess I still would’ve been at college every April, but my father should’ve known. Wouldn’t he have told me?

“What are they doing?” Fallon spoke up, and I looked to see her confused expression focusing over at the guys all slipping on their shirts and hopping in the Mustang with Jared in the driver’s seat.

“Jax?” Juliet called, standing up.

He stuck his top half out the passenger side window, looking at her over the hood. “We’re just taking the car for a test drive!” he shouted over the deep rumble of the engine. “Be right back!”

Jared slipped on his black sunglasses and gripped the wheel, the tight cords of his forearm visible from here. He shot me a quick glance, the hint of a smile on his lips, before jacking up the music and backing out of the driveway.

And, as if the thunder had only been waiting for the lightning, he roared down the street like a tempest that could not be contained.

My heart fluttered, wanting to be a part of the storm.

I smiled at my friends. “Get in the car.”

“What?” Juliet’s back straightened, and Fallon started rubbing her hands together.

“Aw, yeah,” she teased, standing up.

“What are we doing?” Juliet asked, looking nervous as Pasha stepped forward.

I ignored the question and simply waggled my eyebrows, ready for some mischief, as all three of them piled into my G8.

Chapter 12

Jared

“So . . .” Madoc rested his arm on the passenger side door, tapping his fingers as I drove. “Two days. You still haven’t lost your touch, huh?”

I held the steering wheel with my left hand, my arm steel-rod straight as I pressed my back into the seat. “What do you mean?”

“She just broke up with Ben,” he pointed out, talking about Tate. “You know that’s what that was about just now.”

I pulled down into fourth, picking up speed. “I don’t know shit.”

“Don’t give me that,” he retorted. “You’re already planning how you’re going to get in her bed tonight.”

I exhaled a laugh, glancing out the window. Fuckin’ Madoc.

When I saw Ben show up, I’d immediately tensed, hating how he looked at her. Knowing what he wanted from her. I had no idea if they were sleeping together, and I didn’t care. As far as I was concerned, she was done killing time.

Madoc was wrong. I didn’t want in her bed. I mean, I wanted that, but most of all, I just wanted her back.

“I’ve got an idea,” Jax piped up from the backseat.

I met his eyes in the rearview mirror, seeing his fingers locked on top of his head as he slouched down in the seat.

“What’s that, little brother?” Madoc inquired.

Jax smirked at me as he spoke to Madoc. “Well, he could just get over it and ask her to marry him already.”

I instantly froze, staring out the front windshield.

Marry. My fist tightened around the steering wheel, wondering how my brother thought that either of us was ready for that. Or was he just tossing any crazy idea out there?

I never thought I wouldn’t marry Tate. But it still seemed far off.

Madoc was looking at me, and I knew Jax was waiting for a reaction, but this was none of their business. I wanted Tate forever, but first I needed to get her back. Why the hell would she say yes now?

Jax cleared his throat. “You two have loved each other the longest,” he said softly. “Doesn’t seem right that you’ll be the last to get married.”

My eyes shot up, locking with his in the mirror. “What?” I blurted out.

“You little shit.” Madoc twisted his head, regarding Jax with shock.

The last to get married? Meaning . . .

Jax’s eyes dropped to his lap, and I’d never seen him so vulnerable. “I can’t sleep without her next to me,” he almost whispered about Juliet. “I love coming home and smelling her cooking. Seeing how warm she makes the house.” He still wasn’t looking at either of us, and my chest felt tight.

“She gives me everything,” he continued, looking up at both of us. “I want to give her my name. I’m going to ask her.”

“When?” Madoc asked, and I was surprised he could talk, because I was still trying to wrap my head around it.

Jax was going to ask Juliet to marry him.

“After Zack’s bachelor party on Friday,” he answered. “I’m guessing that after she becomes my fiancée, going to strip clubs will probably be on my list of don’ts.”

Shit. The bachelor party. The one I wasn’t planning on attending, since I didn’t think I’d be in town.

I’d forgotten about that.

Zack, Jax’s partner at the Loop, who helped run races, had been engaged for as long as I’d known him. Finally ready to take the leap, he’d sent out a mass e-mail, inviting every guy in town over the age of twenty-one to Wicked, a high-end club about a half hour away.

I was surprised Fallon and Juliet were letting them go at all. Well, not Fallon, actually. She never struck me as the jealous type.

I gave a casual glance behind me, trying to hide the doubt I was feeling. Not that my brother wouldn’t make a good husband or Juliet a good wife, but he was still only twenty-one.

“Jax,” I started. “Are you sure—”

“Hey,” Madoc cut in. “What the hell?” He peered out through my open driver’s side window.

I followed his gaze, my eyebrows instantly pinching together.

What the . . . ?

Tate pulled up on my side in her G8, with Fallon riding shotgun, and Juliet and Pasha in the back.

She sat in her seat, looking comfortable and casual, and I shook my head at her, because she was in the oncoming lane.

“You’re in the wrong lane!” I shouted to Fallon’s closed window.

She stuck her hand behind her ear, mouthing, What? and then turned to Tate, both of them smiling.

“What the hell are they doing?” Jax sat up, resting his arms over the front seat.

I glanced ahead, noticing the stop sign, and shot out my foot, coming to a screeching halt.

Shit.

Tate stopped, too, and she and Fallon bounced forward with the sudden movement.

I darted my head out. “Roll down your window!” I shouted, shifting my gaze past the stop sign to watch for oncoming cars.

Was she trying to get them all hurt?

Tate’s mouth curled in amusement, but Fallon was full-on smiling as she rolled down the window.

“Where are you guys going?” Madoc shouted before I had a chance.