“You little shit, you delete them right now, or I swear you’ll be walking around with no balls,” I threatened.

“You’ll survive, and besides, this is too funny not to share. Teens might wanna see this. I’ll just send it to her,” he said with a smile while punching buttons on his phone.

Not even five minutes later Teeny walked in the door. “That was freaking awesome. Did he bring you a kiddie lunch?”

“Don’t you start! He’s annoying the crap outta me. Today was supposed to be my day off, but I came in here to get away from him. My bathroom has been invaded with girly fluffy slippers and a matching bathrobe. Don’t even get me started on the ‘his and hers’ towels. The kitchen was full of baked goods, roses and four different pairs of heels he apparently thought I’d look sexy in, and to top it off, Mace was in the backyard shirtless cutting my hedges into hearts and shit.” Teeny couldn’t take anymore, she burst into laughter.

“I’m bored. There’s nothing to do here, and I’m avoiding Mace. So stop laughing at my misfortune and help me find something to do.” I picked up my bag, and flipped the still chuckling Remy and Trip the bird as Teeny and I went out the front door. I came to a quick stop when I registered what was in front of me.

“My Car! Wait. How did you get my car?” There was my baby, all shiny and fixed, with a sexy-as-sin Mace casually leaning against the hood, twirling my keys around his finger. If I wasn’t so mad at him, the fact he’d picked up my precious car and was standing there looking like sex incarnate, would have cause me to walk right up to him and dry hump his leg.

“It’s my buddy who owns the repair shop. I called in a favor; had it hurried and he called me this morning to let me know it was ready.” Tossing the keys to me, he took that moment to move in quickly and plant a big fat kiss on my lips, crushing me to his chest and palming my ass in the process. Mace moved back just as quickly, leaving me stunned and breathless. “Go on, I know you missed her. Go for a spin.” He told me with a glint in his eye.

“Thank you,” I whispered. As mad as I was with Mace, I couldn’t be that rude. He knew what my car meant to me, which I figured was why he called in a favor to have it rushed. I jumped into the driver’s seat as Teeny opened the passenger door and burst out laughing. At the look on my face, or the reason I had a foul expression going on, I wasn’t sure. “What is wrong with him?” He knew I hated the color pink, yet he’d put in fluffy pink seat covers with a matching steering wheel cover and pink fluffy dice hanging from the rearview mirror.

Shaking my head, I put the keys in the ignition and turned. That rumble, God, I missed the purr of her engine. Teeny sat holding her stomach still laughing when music started to blare from the speakers. “No, no, no, no, no! JUST NO!” Pressing the skip button on the stereo, song after song turned my stomach. “He’s trying to send me crazy!” I growled, pressing the button to eject the CD he’d put in. Written on the top, in thick black marker, it read ‘Love for my love!’

“I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. None of this is funny. Why is everybody laughing? I hate love songs. I hate pink and he put both in my car!” Throwing the disk full of gross love songs on the back seat. I put the car in reverse. Mace, Trip and Remy were all standing at the front door of the shop in various states of laughter.

Pulling back up to Needle’s Kiss after Teeny and I cruised around in my baby for a while, just enjoying the purr of her engine and the girl talk, I could see Mace standing by the counter through the front glass windows.

I missed him.

I missed him something fierce.

All his annoying attempts to woo me back were crumbling my resolve.

“You gotta give the man props, Scar. He’s gone all out. I mean, I’ve never seen so much cheese; he’s making a fool of himself to get you back. If you don’t, it’s only gonna get worse. Imagine what he’ll do next! Just take him back already. We both know you still love him. Give him another chance already!” Teeny made sense. I hated when she did that. I wanted to forgive him, and he was proving he wasn’t going anywhere. Damn, he was proving he was going to annoy me until I gave in.

“Not you too? Everybody’s ganging up on me. Am I meant to just walk up and say, ‘Oh, gee Mace, I forgive you for ripping my heart out and stomping on it while you walked out the door?”

“Yes. I don’t even think you’d have to say anything at all. That big hunk of a man is head over heels in love with you. He’d take you anyway he could have you.”

I pulled into my driveway to a very dark house and an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was my birthday. Nobody had mentioned it all day. I waited for just one person to say, “Hey, Scar, happy birthday!” But nothing, not a damn thing. Trip and Remy both went about their day talking about mundane crap and joking around. I mean the shop had been really busy, but even Teeny hadn’t called or stopped by. I hadn’t heard from Mace since he offered to return my rental car while I followed him in my now un-fluffy car the day before. Everybody had forgotten.

Feeling disheartened and a little unloved, I trudged up to the front door and unlocked it. Pushing forward, I searched out the light switch on the dark wall, flicked it on and nearly died of shock, my hand coming up quickly to cover my mouth.

“Happy birthday!” was yelled in unison.

Balloons hung down from the ceiling, streamers were thrown around everywhere, and everyone was wearing a party hat. Mace stepped forward. Grabbing onto my hands, he pulled me further into the room, and dropped my bag down onto the entryway table.

“Happy birthday, baby,” he whispered.

“Mace, you did this? All this for me?”

His hand came up to frame my face. Looking down at me with nothing but love in his eyes, he whispered, “The day you were born is worth celebrating, baby. Teen and the guys sorta helped me put it together though.”

His words made my heart melt. Just when I was feeling alone and forgotten, Mace made me feel special and cherished. He surrounded me with family and friends; that’s who these people were to me; that’s what Mace had become to me. My family.

It occurred to me I was holding up my own happiness. Keeping Mace at arm’s distance, I was only hurting myself and him. He may have left me, but I needed him. I needed us. I was ready to move on from it and put us both out of our own misery. Just as I was about to open my mouth to tell him what I’d decided, we were crowded by family wishing happy birthdays. The twins Jaxson and Jordan, jumped on Mace calling him away for a soda refill.

“I’ll be right back,” he told me, wandering off looking like a human jungle gym.

“You surprised?” Teeny asked, wrapping her arm around me and leaning her head on my shoulder.

“You were in on this? That’s why you didn’t call me today?”

“Well, I wanted to help. Mace came up with it. I just helped a little. You should forgive him already, Scar. He’d move heaven and earth to make you happy. You’re it for him; there won’t be anyone else. The way he talks about you when you’re not around, and the look he gets on his face, he just lo-”

Putting my hand over her mouth, I cut off her “Mace is the shit” speech. “I want him back. He’s been worming himself back into my good graces with all his tacky cheese, but this,” doing a sweep of the room with my hand, “this sealed the deal. He had me at ‘Happy Birthday’”

Teeny jumped up and down with a squeal, showing just how happy she was.

About an hour later, I was still trying to get a moment alone with Mace. Every time I thought I had him to myself, somebody would interrupt, or he’d have to run away and sort something out.

I’d had enough of waiting for the perfect moment. I just wanted him to know I’d forgiven him, loved him and wanted to spend the night in his arms. Pushing past everybody, I stepped up in front of him, my back facing the large bay window, moonlight shining in through the open curtains. “I need to speak with you a minute.”

Mace picked up my hand smiling down at me, his eyes shining with adoration. His eyes flicked up over my shoulder, a look of recognition played across his face a millisecond before it turned to a look of pure horror, his features crumpling. A look of pure panic registered on his face.

All of a sudden, a loud bang and the sound of glass breaking, split through the room. A jarring pain hit my side as I was thrown to the floor, my body throbbing from the sheer force of hitting the ground. Screams of panic. Fear or pain followed—I was unsure which, and that thought alone terrified me. My ears were ringing from the sounds around me. As I lifted my hand, I saw it covered in blood. I was confused and disorientated. My blood ran cold through my body as reality set in and the scene around me became a little clearer.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Scarlett’s face drained of color as she stared at her hands and looked back at me. “You’re bleeding! Why are you bleeding? Where? Mace!” Scarlett was frantic, worry etched on her face.

“I’m okay, babe. I’m fine. Just my shoulder. It was a gunshot, but don’t panic. You okay?” I asked through clenched teeth, trying to bite back the burn in my arm and back. My training kicked in; I needed everyone out of the way into safety.

“You saved me, wait who? Where? Somebody shot at us?” she rambled, clearly still confused. I ran my good hand and eyes quickly over her to be sure she wasn’t hurt.

My heart was pounding, adrenaline coursing through my body as I moved to stand. Darting my eyes around everywhere to make sure nobody else was hurt, I saw Trip’s back was to me; he had Teeny pinned behind him, protecting her.

“Everyone in the back of the house now! Move, move!” I needed everyone out of the way of danger. Janelle was still standing, gun pointed at the spot Scarlett had been. She’d been aiming at Scar, but the moment I saw her standing outside the window, gun aimed, instinct took over and I shoved Scar to the ground seconds before she would have been shot.

“Trip! Get everyone out now. Take the girls!” I ordered as calmly as I could. Scarlet looked like she was moving towards Teeny and Trip so I slowly moved toward the front of the house. Another blast of shocking pain ripped through me as Janelle dropped to the ground on her knees screaming nonsense

“What have I done? Oh no! Mace, it wasn’t supposed to get you! I—I—” Janelle screamed.

I needed to get out there and disarm her before she killed somebody. Moving toward the window, I quietly stepped over the windowsill nodding to Trip as he swiftly made his way out the front door to get behind Janelle. Broken glass was sprayed everywhere from the impact of the bullet. She’d blown the entire window out.

Before I could make it to Janelle, a rush of color shot past me, and Janelle was on the ground with Scarlett on top of her.

“Scarlett, she’s still got the gun. Get down!” I yelled. My heart felt like it was in my throat. I’d never be able to deal if she was hurt. The burn in my shoulder had slowed to a deep throb. I moved forward to get the gun off Janelle, while Scarlett was beating into her, punching, ripping hair and screaming.