Alec threw his head back and laughed, then wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Ass.”

“Bastard.”

“Really?” Alyssa approached us, arms crossed. “Name-calling? After the day we’ve had?”

Alec backed away with his hands up in surrender. “He’s all yours.”

Alyssa glared. I called after Alec, “Thanks, man! Thanks for abandoning me. What about all that brothers stick together stuff you just said!”

Alec ignored me and kept walking, leaving me alone with a very ticked off Alyssa.

“Babe…” I smiled and crooked my finger at her.

Uh-oh, she was raising her hand. Crap, she was going to slap me. Well, I guess I deserved it. I—

Her mouth assaulted mine, hot and urgent. She pushed her tongue against mine. Damn, she tasted good. I pried her away and swore. “Good God, what did I do? Tell me what it was so I can do it again!”

Her hand came soaring out of nowhere, landing with a crack across my left cheek. “Ah, I was expecting that. Cruel. You seduced me before you hit me. That has to be against some rule.”

Alyssa pushed against my chest with her tiny hands. I always found it hilarious when she tried to fight me. “You suck! I’ve been worried sick about you for days and then after the whole adoption thing, and your real mom, and we never finished the conversation we started this afternoon because all of the drama of our lives, and I just—” Alyssa hit me again and started to cry. “Sometimes I just hate you for making me love you so much, you ass!”

Chuckling, I held her against me and kissed her head. “Let me get this straight. You hate that you love me so much and I’m an ass?”

“Well…” She sniffled. “Not in that particular order.”

“Oh?”

“You’re an ass first.”

I choked on my laugh. “Thanks, babe. I love you too.”

Sighing, she pulled away from me. Refusing to look me in the eyes she looked down at the floor and put her hands on her hips. “What happens after all this? After the drama, after the T.V show — where does that leave us?”

She was freaking adorable. Alyssa was trying so hard to be strong. She hated being vulnerable and I know it was hard for her sometimes, considering I wasn’t always as serious as she would like. It was easy to forget where she was a year ago because she was doing so damn well now. She didn’t have any more anxiety, was completely off her meds, and finally over her dead ex-boyfriend, thank God.

“Lyss, come here.”

“No.” She looked at the ground. “Not until you tell me.”

“How old are you?” I reached for her hand.

She let me grab it and sighed. “Nineteen.”

“You really wanna get married at nineteen?”

That got her attention. Her head snapped up. Was she going to slap me again?

“Married?”

I nodded and slowly pulled her into my embrace, tilting her chin up so she would actually look at me and stop avoiding eye contact. “I love you.”

A pretty blush stained her cheeks she tried to pull away, but I held her chin so she had no choice.

“Listen,” I commanded. “Because you know I only say things once, and then I have to crack some sort of inappropriate joke.”

She smirked.

“I love you so damn much that I’m pretty sure I’d let birds eat me alive if I couldn’t have you. I’d lose my freaking mind if I couldn’t touch your smooth skin every day. I crave you the way a person craves oxygen. I need you in order to fully be me. We’re a pair — soul mates. What we have is eternal and I’m not going anywhere. I think we’ve established that. My adoption? Means nothing. You’re my family — you’re my everything. I want you. So where does that leave us? I guess it leaves us with forever.”

Alyssa’s eyes pooled with tears. She nodded jerkily and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I can’t be without you.”

“Good.” I took a deep breath so I could calm my racing heart. “Because I know for a fact I couldn’t exist without you.”

“Of course not.” She pulled away and wiped at a few tears. “You need someone to scare away all the birds.”

“Hilarious.”

Grinning, she held out her hand. I took it and kissed each finger tip before twirling her around in my arms and walking with her back down the hall.

We walked in silence to April’s room where I was hoping Alec was making some sort of headway. I really didn’t want to be a part of that conversation. She almost died — on purpose, but still. Even I was having trouble processing all the information. Damn, I needed taffy.

“They won’t let me in,” Alec said once we reached her door. “They said she needs her rest.”

I patted him on the back. “We can come back tomorrow. Let’s go talk to Dr. Murray and see if we can spring Nat from this place. You know how she hates hospitals ever since my accident.”

Nodding, Alec walked off to talk to the nurses.

Jaymeson was leaning against the wall looking like he had one foot in the grave. Someone seriously needed to fix that guy’s teeth. He lost one of his bottom teeth from me punching him in the jaw. Lucky for him, you could only tell when he smiled.

He hadn’t smiled in days.

“So?” I released Alyssa’s hand and approached him. “You want to come back with us? We can talk to April tomorrow. I’ll do whatever you want, man. I just think it would be best if we all go back and just… process.”