Chapter Six

 

 

“Perfect. Tell him tonight. I know your lives will never be the same when you do.”

Levi stepped away from the kitchen and returned to the living room where Kevin was finishing up a call with his supervisor while simultaneously changing Levia’s diaper. Levi stood just inside of the room with admiration rushing through his body. He could remember a time when Kevin could barely be bothered to clean up his room, and yet, there he was. A father, an agent, a husband with a very successful wife, and he was not only cleaning up after himself, but after his five children as well.

“Dude, why the fuck are you standing there leering at me like you want to do me or something?” Kevin asked without looking up at him.

“Do me! Do me! Do me!” Kevin’s four-year-old son, Devon, chanted as he bounced around the room. Kevin groaned and rubbed his forehead with the hand that held the baby wipe. Levi gagged, but reached down and scooped Devon up into his arms.

“Hey Little Man, don’t say that, okay?” he instructed the little caramel-skinned toned boy, with the bright almost golden eyes, with tiny flecks of blue inside of them. Devon’s hair was a mixture of dark brown and golden highlights due to the sunlight. All of Kevin and Cassie’s children had curly, dirty blond hair, with various shades of brown and blond throughout, but Devon was the only one who looked as if his hair had been dyed that way.

“Why not?” Devon pouted, folding his tiny, thin arms across his chest.

“Because your mother will kill me if she hears you saying that,” Kevin muttered as he grabbed another baby wipe—this one clean and wiped his face, before finishing up with Levia and his supervisor, whom he’d put on hold.

Devon gasped and looked at Levi as if seeking confirmation, trying not to laugh at the expression of pure horror and fear that covered the toddler’s face, Levi nodded. “That’s right, buddy. You don’t want to get Daddy in trouble do you?” he asked.

Devon shook his head quickly and firmly, causing his entire body to move with the motion. Levi held on a little tighter to the squirming little boy and hummed in agreement.

“Exactly. So, you have to make sure you don’t say that any more okay?” Levi pointed out.

“Make sure he doesn’t say what?” Cassie’s voice coming from behind him caused Levi to freeze in place. He shared a glance with Kevin who put on the very smile he’d used to disarm Cassie the first time they met.

“Oh, please Kev. You can stop it with the smile. It stopped working on me after the twins,” she said with a chuckle.

“Are you sure about that?” Kevin asked, as he stood up and walked over to Cassie with a swagger.

Levi rolled his eyes and looked down at Devon who was staring at his parents and smiling.

“Yuck!” Levi said to the little boy.

Devon looked up at him with wide eyes, then giggling he pointed at his parents who were now standing with their arms around each other. “Yuck!” he echoed Levi.

“Levi, don’t teach my son that kissing his mother, or his woman is gross. Just because you can’t get one of your own,” Kevin teased as he stepped back over to them, Cassie returning to the kitchen to grab lunch.

Once it was only the two of them with the kids, the others having gone to play with Bruce in his designated room, Kevin lifted his chin and indicated that they go out onto the balcony to talk. Already knowing what it was about, Levi didn’t protest or ask any questions, he simply nodded and turned, with Devon in his arms, and headed in that direction.

Once he and Kevin were standing outside, the kids playing in the corner with the toys that Katie kept out there, they leaned against the balcony railing. Levi sighed and kept his gaze focused on the buildings in the distance as he waited for Kevin to speak first.

“So… what’d she say, man?” Kevin finally asked after a minute.

“She said she didn’t know anything about the cartel or that they were thinking about hiring her.” Levi shook his head. “I told you that your sister wouldn’t be connected to them in any way.”

Kevin nodded and ran his fingers through his blond hair. He grunted, then looked out over the skyline. “I know what you said, and what I wanted to believe, but I don’t know man. Something’s going on with Katie. First, she turns down the opportunity for a promotion. Then she turns down her boyfriend’s proposal—”

Levi’s heart paused for a second then thundered in his chest. Katie’s boyfriend had proposed to him? How did he not know about this? He’d almost lost her forever? To that dumbass, Garrett? What the fuck?

He shook his head and focused back on what Kevin was saying.

“—you know how she is. So, it all just doesn’t make sense. Mom and Dad are worried, and so is Cass. She won’t come right out and say it, but she texts Katie a lot more than she used to, and she’s always talking about her to me. Asking if I’ve talked to her, or if you have.”

Levi pointed at himself. “Me? W-why would Cassie ask if I’d been talking to Katie?” His palms grew damp as he watched Kevin closely. God, he hoped that Cassie hadn’t told her husband about the conversation the two of them had two months previous. He was over at the couple’s house, once again, this time they were celebrating Cassie’s new office at the hospital and her being asked to do an interview with a well-known medical magazine. The kids had been put to bed and Kevin had just gone to take a call from his supervisor when Cassie had cornered him on the back porch where he’d been drinking a beer.

 

****

 

“What are you doing out here, Levi? Brooding?” Cassie’s voice came to him on the breeze and Levi turned to smile at his best friend’s wife. While Katie was his ultimate dream girl. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, slender figure, curves, pouty smile, her sharp wit, sense of humor, and her giving nature, Levi had to admit that Cassie came at a very close second. As a matter of fact, if he hadn’t known Kevin and Katie wasn’t in complete possession of his heart, he might have approached Cassie to date her, or even to have an affair.

He chuckled and shook his head. “Now, Mrs. Faulk, what reason would I have to brood?” he asked as she came to stand next to him. He watched as Cassie’s slender, medium-brown shoulders lifted and lowered, and waited for her to speak. Cassie’s hair was pulled back into a chignon—a term he’d learned from Katie when she was only fourteen—and she wore a white cashmere sweater over her black-belted white dress. She wore a pair of white heels on her feet, and he wondered why she hadn’t gotten rid of them as soon as she’d come home. He knew that was what Katie did as soon as she stepped into her front door. She’d told him so on more than one occasion. “My heels come off, then my bra, then my hair comes out of whatever torturous style I’ve put it in, and I greet Bruce, then we both go to the kitchen for a drink. Me, a glass of wine, and him, fresh, distilled water that I poor him.”

“Mmmhhhmmm,” Cassie hummed next to him and Levi pulled himself out of his fanciful memories of talking with Katie, so he could focus on what her best friend had to say.

“I know that look,” Cassie said next, turning to look at him, with a small smile turning up the corners of her lips.

“What look?” Levi asked with a frown, his eyebrows pulling low over his eyes.

Cassie rolled her eyes. “You know, I didn’t think you would try to play stupid with me, Mr. Stroud,” she stated with an irritated huff. “I mean, you know I’m a mother of five, right? I can pretty much spot a liar a mile away. And you sir, are lying to me right now if you want me to believe you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Levi chuckled. “Okay, so I had a look on my face. I was thinking about something that made me happy.”

“Katie?” Cassie inquired softly, and his breath caught in his chest. Swiveling to stare at Cassie in shock, he watched as she nodded in understanding before patting his arm.

“Calm down, Agent,” she teased with a soft smile. “I haven’t told Kevin and anything you tell me will be just between the two of us. Just know that I know, okay? I watch the two of you,” she pointed at her eyes and then his with two fingers of her right hand. “I pay attention to everything to do with my family and friends. And Katie happens to be the intersection of those two things, so I watch… closely.” She shrugged and giggled when Levi reached out to grip the wooden banister of the patio. “Take a breath, Levi,” she directed.

He took a gulping breath and shook his head. “You don’t understand, Cass.”

“Yeah, I do. Kevin told me all about the pact the two of you made when you were idiot, knot-headed boys,” she rolled her eyes. “The stupidest thing the two of you could have agreed on if you ask me.”

Levi frowned at her, then stood upright. “Why was it stupid?”

Cassie stared at him in shock for a moment before she muttered to herself beneath her breath. He hadn’t been able to catch everything, but he could have sworn he heard her say: “Men are idiots.” “I have to do everything.” “Better get a gift.” He didn’t exactly understand what she was muttering about, but he was even more curious than before.

“It was stupid, Levi,” she said, putting the emphasis on his name. “Because neither of you can dictate, control, or forbid someone’s heart. Or fate.” She sighed and slid her eyes closed for a moment before she stared at him intently. “People are going to feel what they feel. When we try to deny our hearts, they either beat louder, or they refuse to speak to us anymore—which means we walk around unable to feel anything truly genuine for anyone.” She touched his bicep and Levi swallowed the lump that had arisen in his throat without his knowledge. “Levi Stroud, how do you feel about Kathryn Faulk?”

Levi looked out at the trees, jungle gym, treehouse, and pool that sat in the backyard of his best friend’s home and admitted something to someone else that he’d kept to himself for a decade.

“I love her, Cass. I love her more than I ever thought possible. She’s my first thought in the morning and my last thought at night. I inhale her beauty and exhale her strength and intelligence. She flows through my veins and I’m helpless to try to cut her out. I would do anything to see her be happy. Anything to make her laugh. Anything so she knew how special, how precious, how important she is to me. Having her in my life, in any way, is my every wish for every birthday and Christmas. I am thankful for her every Thanksgiving, and if I were on my deathbed, her name would be the one on my lips.” He moved to look at Cassie sincerely. “In short, she is everything.”

“Holy. Shit,” Cassie breathed.

 

****

 

And while Cassie had sworn to never tell anyone what they’d talked about, maybe she’d let it slip to her husband. The one man Levi had sworn to never feel that way about Katie to. Levi waited for Kevin to answer his question, while nausea roiled in his gut.

When Kevin shrugged, Levi exhaled in relief and chuckled softly.

“I don’t know man. Probably because if Katie’s not talking to her or me, she’s talking to you. I mean, the four of us? We’re like the Musketeers, you know?”

Levi frowned and rubbed the stubble that decorated his cheeks and chin. He thought about Kevin’s words, trying not to choke on the guilt that curdled in his stomach. He knew he was betraying his best friend’s trust just by feeling the way he did about Katie, but after all these years, Levi wasn’t sure there was anything he could do to make them go away.

How did one stop loving the one they were created to spend eternity with?

Levi rolled his eyes at his own fanciful musings and instead nudged Kevin with his shoulder. “I don’t man. Don’t think we can be the Musketeers, there’s like four of us. Besides two of those knights weren’t married to each other like you and Cass.”

“Actually, there were four musketeers, one of them just didn’t go on the adventures with the others because he was serving at the mercy of the king, remember?”

“You mean because he betrayed the others, right?” Levi spat with disgust as he thought of D’Artagnon.

Kevin laughed. “Dude, you gotta stop comparing everything to that movie, The Man in the Iron Mask ©. Not everything applies to it. Besides, D’Artagnon didn’t betray his brothers, he fell in love. He was in love, and so he followed his heart.” Kevin paused and turned to look at Levi intently. Levi didn’t respond. He felt a bit like this moment was going to be extremely important for his continued friendship with Kevin. When Kevin clasped his shoulder and stared at him, Levi felt slightly uncomfortable, unsure what Kevin was looking for in his eyes.

There’s a reason they use him for interrogations, Levi admitted to himself. He wanted to confess all to Kevin in that moment. Even things he hadn’t thought about in years. He felt the overwhelming urge to kneel at his friend’s feet and beg for forgiveness. So, he swallowed thickly, almost choking on his secrets.

“There’s nothing wrong with following your heart, Levi. You understand? No matter what promises we made when we were younger, we were stupid kids, but we’re men now. We’ve lived. We’ve been through some shit. But this?” He gestured between the two of them with his free hand. “Nothing can break this bond, man. You’re my brother. Always have been. Always will be. All I want is for you to be happy. So, follow your heart, okay? Be D’Artagnon. You’ll still be a Musketeer.”

Levi opened his mouth to ask his friend if he was saying what he thought he was saying but before he could the door to the balcony opened and Cassie stepped outside, followed by Katie. Both women looked back and forth between them, clearly wanting to ask what they were talking about. Levi admired their restraint when they didn’t, however. Instead, they called them both inside for lunch.

Children were picked up, called from the back rooms, hands were washed, and before too long, Katie’s dining room and living room were filled with people eating. Levi’s heart thundered in his chest when he found himself sitting next to Katie on the floor in front of her couch, their shoulders and knees touching. Levi glanced down at his plate and smiled at the turkey, Colby jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, mayonnaise, and mustard sandwich, sliced diagonally, with barbecue chips and ketchup drizzled on top. He knew Katie had been the one to fix his meal for him because Cassie had always told him that she would never make his “blasphemous” chips the way he liked them.

Levi leaned over and whispered in Katie’s ear as Cassie and Kevin directed everyone to bow their heads for grace.

“Thank you for making my lunch.”

He watched as Katie’s cheeks reddened and he felt himself fall even further under her spell.

She glanced up at him, her blue eyes sparkling, and her pink lips curled into a soft smile.

“You’re welcome, Levi.”

He stared at her. Katie’s eyes never left his and Levi felt it. That moment. That shift. Where he was extremely aware of the fact that his attraction. His desire. His feelings for Katie had a very high probability of being returned. He inhaled quickly, Katie’s intoxicating scent wafting up his nose, and he barely stopped himself from groaning.

Instead he leaned forward, intent to do… something.

What it was, he didn’t get the chance to find out, because the sound of a chorus of “Amens” rang out in the room and Katie jerked away from him, causing Levi to pull back as well. He turned back to his sandwich, aware of the buzz of conversation around him, but he needed a moment to pull his focus where it needed to be.

He also needed a minute for his hard as nails erection to go down.

When he felt in control, Levi lifted his head and found his gaze snared by Kevin’s. Neither of them spoke, but when Kevin nodded, Levi understood.

Some kind of way Kevin knew how Levi felt about his younger sister, and instead of being upset, he was giving them his blessing. Levi smirked, before lifting his sandwich to his lips. He took a large bite and began to plan.

She didn’t know it, but Kathryn “Katie” Faulk, would be claimed before the night was over. She would be his and he would never let her go.

You are mine, Katie. Hope you’re ready.