EPILOGUE

SIX MONTHS LATER

Brandon

God, she was so damn beautiful.

I couldn’t look at her and not think that. I couldn’t look at her and not want to touch every inch of her.

But now wasn’t the time.

We would have plenty of time for that later.

Right now, I had to focus on not getting our asses handed to us. Because if watching Charlie play laser tag was any indication then this was going to be a disaster.

Lasers didn’t hurt.

But paintballs sure as hell did.

I lied to Charlie about that. It was a little white lie, and I was praying that she didn’t actually get hit. Mason, Parker, and I had all agreed that we would not shoot any of the girls above the stomach. There was no reining in Livy or Staci though. Hopefully, they aimed for me though.

Three separate teams.

Three couples.

You know, because Charlie and I were a couple. It was still weird to say out loud, but God, it felt good. Better than I could have ever imagined.

Six months. That’s how long it had been since Charlie stopped being stubborn. If you heard her tell the story, she would say that was the moment I quit being an asshole. But she usually called me an asshole at least once a week, so her point was mute.

Either way, it had been the happiest six months of my life.

Charlie was always at my place. It was ridiculous that she was still paying for her apartment, but she wasn’t ready for that step. It didn’t matter that she spent almost every night with me or that she had claimed my dog as her own, she wasn’t the kind of woman who could just be pushed. I had to let her think that it was her own idea. I would too. As long as she didn’t take forever.

“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Charlie was practically waddling with all of the layers she had put on. There was no chance she was going to be running through the paintball field taking out our opponents. She was going to be a sitting duck.

“It will be fine. I promise.” I pulled the goggles down over her eyes and tucked some stray curls behind the strap.

The whistle blew, and I pulled her down in a crouch beside me. I didn’t need her to be taken out within the first second of play.

“We’re going to move from barrier to barrier to get closer. Our goal is to take out Livy and Staci first. They are the weak links.”

“That’s rude, Brandon.” She put her free hand down on the ground to keep herself from falling over. Her other hand held her paintball gun limply at her side. “I guess I’m the weak link on our team simply because I’m a woman.”

I raised my eyebrows at her. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was a woman. The fact that her fingers were shaking around her gun, that wasn’t helping us.

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes but looked out toward the next barrier.

“Behind me,” I whispered, and she nodded her head and began following me.

We moved to the first barrier without anyone else noticing. I didn’t hear any shots being fired which meant the others hadn’t found each other either. We were about to move to the next barrier when I saw Livy’s head quickly poke out behind a barrier across from us before she tucked it back behind it.

I pressed my fingers against my lips, and Charlie moved farther behind the barrier. I lifted my paintball gun and set the very tip against the edge of the barrier. It only took about five seconds before Livy’s impatient ass poked out again. She was curving around the barrier trying to look around it, and I narrowed my eyes and aimed for her left thigh.

The blue paintball splattered against her dark pants, and she looked down at it like she was in shock. Her eyes shot up to find where it came from, but I was already hidden again.

“Brandon, you’re an asshole,” she yelled loud enough to give everyone their location, and it was echoed by Parker’s shushing.

“Did you hit her?” Charlie asked from beside me.

“One down. Three to go.” I wiggled my fingers at her, and she smiled. “Next barrier. Before they figure out where that shot came from.”

We started to move from behind the barrier, and a paintball whirled by my head. I ducked down, but both Parker and Mason had already spotted me. I shot at them. Paintballs flying everywhere. I felt one hit my stomach at the exact same time my blue paintball hit Mason directly in the shoulder.

I pressed my gloved hand against the paint on my stomach. Red. It was Parker’s ass who took me out then.

I looked back for Charlie to warn her that I was out of the game, but she wasn’t where I had left her. She was gone, and I didn’t see her around any of the barriers that surrounded me.

She could probably survive a while by hiding, but Parker would find her. I had no doubt about that. He better be easy on her when he did. I would kick his ass otherwise.

I walked off the field and took a seat on a bench where Livy and Mason were both sitting with defeated looks on their faces.

“At least I didn’t go out first. Right, Livy?” I smiled at her and bumped her shoulder.

“Fuck you, Brandon. You couldn’t have waited for Staci or Mason.” She crossed her arms over her shoulders.

“Thanks, Livy.” Mason looked down at his sister.

The three of us all looked up at the same time as we saw Staci take off running for another barrier. It was a bad move. One that made her completely vulnerable.

She didn’t even reach the barrier before Parker hit her in the ass with three different shots. She flopped down on the ground like she had actually been shot before she rolled over to look at the sky. “Damn it.”

“Don’t be sour, Staci.” Parker laughed from his position behind the barrier he had been behind since the very beginning.

But his laughter stopped as soon as about thirty shots rang out from behind him. He stepped out from behind the barrier, and his back was covered in bright pink paint.

“Holy shit.” I bent over grabbing my stomach as I laughed.

Parker looked like he couldn’t believe what had just happened. He searched behind him, but none of us could see her.

“Charlie,” I called out through my laughter. “Come out. You’ve won.”

Her redhead poked out from the barrier directly behind Parker. She had managed to move all the way around the field, from barrier to barrier, without being noticed.

“I won?” she asked as she pulled her goggles from her face.

“I can’t believe this,” Parker said as he pulled on the back of his shirt to get a better look.

I patted his shoulder as I walked past him to make my way to Charlie. “Believe it.” I smiled.

“I can’t believe I won.” Charlie grinned before she started dancing in place. Charlie’s dance moves came straight out of the eighties, but they were the hottest things I had ever seen. She started doing finger guns, but her right hand was still holding the paintball gun.

It took her a minute to realize it too. A minute that gave her plenty of time to accidentally hit the trigger on her gun and rain paintballs down on Parker and myself.

I could barely hear over Livy and Staci’s laughter behind us. But Lord knew I could feel, I felt every one of those paintballs as they hit my chest, my arm, and my thighs.

Charlie dropped the gun on the ground like it was on fire and another paintball shot off somewhere in the distance.

“I’m so sorry.” She covered her mouth, but a tiny snort came out of her.

“Did you just snort?” I rubbed at my chest.

She shook her head as if that would somehow convince me that I didn’t just hear it.

I lunged at her and grabbed her in my arms before she could get away. “Say you’re sorry,” I said as she laughed hysterically in my arms.

“No!” she screamed and tried to wiggle out of my grip.

I swatted her on the ass which only made her giggle harder. “Say you’re sorry.”

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.” She squirmed as I started tickling her hips. It was a spot that was ticklish no matter the situation.

“Then what do you have to say for yourself.” I set her down on her feet, and I smiled at the pink paint that had gotten all over her clothes.

She looked up at me with a smile that was probably hurting her freckled cheeks. “Can we get Jughead a friend?” She laughed.

“What?” I shook my head. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now. Buying another dog?”

She just shrugged her shoulders. “He’s lonely when we leave home.”

Hearing her call my house home made my chest ache. It didn’t matter that she still had her apartment.

“Okay. We can get another dog.” I nodded my head.

“There’s one problem.” She looked anywhere but at me.

“What’s that, Freckles?” I tucked a curl behind her ear.

“My apartment doesn’t allow pets.”

“Oh yeah?” I grinned down at her. “So, this dog will have to stay at my place?”

“Unless you don’t want that,” she quickly answered, and I loved how her blush rose up her cheeks.

“I want that, Freckles.”

“You do?” She looked up at me and narrowed her eyes.

“Absolutely.” I tugged her closer to me and wrapped her arms around her back.

“Are we talking about me or the dog?” She cocked her head to the side, and I couldn’t resist kissing the corner of her mouth.

“Both.” I shrugged my shoulders. “But, Freckles?”

“Yeah?” She looked up at me.

“We don’t have to get a dog. You could just tell me that you want to move in with me.”

“It’s for the dogs.” She rolled her eyes before a small smile formed on her lips.

“Do you even care that I’ll be there?”

She reached up and ran her fingers along my jaw. “Considering I’ve ruined you for all other girls, I guess you’ll do.”

Then she kissed me, and I knew she was right. I was ruined.