Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Liv raised his hands in triumph and whistled as the car he was steering crossed the finish line first. “And who’s the champion? Worship me!”
Knox rolled his eyes but smiled. “Yeah, and the ground you walk on,” he mocked, but it wasn’t far from the truth.
Liv was his whole world, and Knox would work his ass off to keep it that way. It had been over a year since they’d gotten together, and he’d learned about a much softer side of Liv, one that needed a lot of doting and compliments. So Knox spared him none. Every Sunday morning featured pancakes, usually topped off with a blowjob, because why not, and Liv was still his Little Spoon who after even the roughest, dirtiest fucks liked to be held and cuddled.
Bliss.
A sharp knock on the door made them both look away from the screen.
“Come in!” Liv yelled, and the door opened, revealing a cluster of people, who seemed eager to enter at the same time. In the end, Ezra stalled and let Dex walk in first with a big bag in his hand.
“Sorry I couldn’t be here earlier. Club business,” he said with a wide smile before placing the bag on the table. “But I made you a get well ramen!”
“Is it any different than the Thanksgiving one?” Ros asked and placed a bundle of flowers in an empty vase.
“Well, duh, that one had turkey in it, this one has pork. Just the thing you need to get well,” Dex reassured Knox with a wide grin.
While Knox got along best with Shane and Frank, he’d learned to also appreciate softer men, like Ros and Ezra. He’d just never known anyone like them before. Maybe because he’d scared them off with his crude behavior. Well, not anymore. It was important to him to get along with everyone. Even if Jag was still sometimes a bit of a wild card.
“Thanks, you really didn’t have to,” Knox said with a smile, stroking the flowers. How silly was it that he’d been taught flowers were girly when it was so nice to receive a get-well bouquet he’d be able to take home. It would remind him someone cared until it wilted.
Last month, he’d even gone to Ros to learn how to make a whole collection of flowers made out of scrap metal for Liv’s birthday. So maybe it was sappy, but yes, he did tell Liv they would last forever, just like his love. Liv didn’t laugh at him and not only placed the bouquet on their kitchen table but remembered to dust it from time to time.
“I wanted to bring your dog over—” Dex started, but Ezra cut in with a shake of his head.
“A hospital isn’t a place for animals.”
“There are hospitals for animals.”
“Yes, and this isn’t one,” Ezra said, meeting Knox’s gaze with an exasperated sigh. “He tried to smuggle him in under his jacket.”
Liv snorted and accepted the duffel bag of necessities Ezra brought over from their home. “Isn’t he a bit too big of a boy for that?”
Ros’s smile widened. “He’s growing well, and he’s so smart. He picks up things in training so fast. Soon enough, he’ll be the one giving Dex advice.”
Dex rolled his eyes. “But he won’t be making delicious ramen, I can tell you that much.”
“He’d need thumbs for that,” Ezra said with a straight face as Liv kissed Knox behind the ear. The soft touch was pure bliss, and Knox leaned against his man, ready to be healed by the special soup. Who knew, maybe it was magical thanks to the power of friendship?
So maybe life wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, since they did become cogs in Frank’s side business, but they both trusted him enough to believe that the bodies disappearing in barrels, underground, or in the incinerator belonged to people who didn’t deserve much consideration.
Either way, he could not wait to be back home, with all the people who’d become his true family. With people who cared about him enough to visit him at the hospital, to bring him soup and flowers. To lend him money for life-saving surgery.
And most of all, to be home with Liv, the one person who made life worth living.
Epilogue 2
Liv
Some days were better than others. Like Christmas. Thanksgiving. Birthdays.
Why not make them even better? Liv had been asking himself for the past week, as the little velvet box in his pocket became ever heavier. If Knox agreed to marry him—ha, the old him would have laughed at the ridiculousness of the very idea—it would make his birthday even more special, and be something to celebrate each year to come.
It only dawned on him earlier today that Knox might say no.
He didn’t know what he’d do then. Take it on the chin? Get mad and sulk?
He couldn’t actually pretend he’d been joking, because he’d scattered rose petals on their bed all romantic-like. He couldn’t help himself. When Knox smiled at him, Liv’s insides turned into cotton candy.