Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

28. Milo

TWENTY-EIGHT

MILO

“So, Tessa, huh?” Logan elbowed me in the ribs as he sipped at his scotch, the asshole grinning behind it as he razzed me. “Now that is some wild shit that came from out of nowhere.”

Night had taken hold of the air, the stars alight and alive where they danced over the party that was supposed to mean something, our friends there to celebrate us, to cover us in their love, when it was nothing but a sham.

Guilt of it had me in a stranglehold, everything catching up. Could feel that what we were doing was about to blow up in our faces. Did we really think we could get away with this without repercussions? Did I really think my past wasn’t going to catch up?

My guts twisted as I thought of the note that had been left in my truck. Not that I hadn’t been thinking about it twenty-four seven since I’d found it. Since the abyss that was my life had sucked me down in a spiral.

When I realized that it wasn’t over.

That I couldn’t drag my kids into this.

Couldn’t drag Tessa into this.

I didn’t deserve a single one of them in my life.

Not with what I’d done.

I might have tried to change, but it didn’t change anything. The damage was done.

Jud quirked a brow.

“Nowhere? This fucker’s been salivating over Tessa since the second she came into the club. You didn’t think we missed that shit, did you, brother?” He chuckled as he took a swig of his beer.

Unease stretched across my chest, and I forced myself to return his smile.

Because that shit had gotten deep.

Taken a direction it wasn’t supposed to go.

“Guess you got me,” I mumbled.

“Okay, okay, the whole salivating over our sweet Tessa thing was clear. But this whole wedding bit comes as a surprise,” Logan argued.

Trent grunted at his youngest brother. “Says the guy who proposed to Aster three weeks after she came back into his life.”

Logan shifted to gaze at Aster, who was laughing where she sat at the table with all their wives.

Tessa had her head leaned against Logan’s wife’s shoulder, mumbling something that I’d really like to hear.

My dick twitched.

She was all the way across the yard and still the sight of her had lust knotting in my guts.

Logan swiveled back to Trent. “I’ve loved that woman since I was eighteen. I would say that proposal was about a decade delayed. Not that you didn’t get yourself pussy whipped the second Eden came into your club.”

Another grunt from Trent. “Not complainin’.”

Jud gazed at his wife, his dark eyes devoted as he watched her nurse their son. “I’d have to say not one of us has a thing to be complaining about.”

He put his beer out in the middle of the circle we’d made. Logan and Trent were quick to clink their glasses against it.

Warily, I clinked mine, too.

“To four lucky assholes.” Jud chuckled.

“Here, here,” Trent agreed.

My spirit rumbled.

Thunder that vibrated through my being. One that warned a storm was coming.

The clinking of glass suddenly pulled me out of the stupor, and my mother was over by the cake that was set up on a round table near the buffet. “I have something I’d like to say.”

That had guilt constricting, too.

My mother’s joy too potent.

Too profound.

And I’d been the fool who’d insisted we needed to keep her in the dark.

Tessa popped up from her chair, and she whirled around. That gorgeous face lifted in this smile when she caught my eye. It nearly dropped me to my knees.

Like the sight of me made her feel like she was soaring.

She stretched out her hand toward me. She wore another red dress because she had this thing about driving me out of my mind. This one was flowy and swishing around her knees. Tonight, her freckles seemed to glow beneath the twinkle lights strung up over her head.

I gulped.

Sweet fuckin’ temptation.

In an instant, my body was a tangle of want.

Problem was that need refused to remain skin deep. It was something that had seeped and infiltrated, penetrating all the way down to the bone, getting way too close to the darkened depths where no one else could go.

Where her ghost lingered, and my soul stayed trapped.

Jud patted me on the back. “Looks like your girl is waiting on you.”

Right.

My girl.

I slowly edged across the lawn in her direction.

Energy snapped and fired, and fuck, what the hell was I doing?

Because our friends and family were clapping, shouts and cheers going up in the air, and my mother was looking at us like a long-dead dream had come to life.

My head tipped down, then I was breathing out a shattered sigh when Tessa wrapped her hand in mine.

She squeezed and canted me one of those looks that promised, We have this . We make a really great team .

But how could that be true when I was dragging her toward destruction?

Tessa led me up to where my mother stood, the girl barely touching me but wrapping me whole.

Mom cleared some of the roughness from her voice, her eyes bleary just from looking at us.

Our guests all settled down.

“I wanted to thank everyone for coming tonight on such short notice…but I think we can all agree that Milo and Tessa’s engagement took all of us a bit by surprise, can’t we?” my mother teased as she set her gaze upon us.

Her love poured out and flooded the space.

Hell, I felt it coming at us from all sides, laughter rolling across the lawn as our guests called out their agreement.

My heart jackhammered.

“Okay, okay, we can tease these two all we want…” Mom waved a hand like she wanted everyone to understand the seriousness of what she was speaking, and her voice deepened in emphasis. “But there’s something I’ve learned in my life. Love can come on fast or it can come on slow. It doesn’t matter. Not one kind is stronger than the other. It’s just born differently. And what I can say for sure is I’ve never felt a love so strong as the one that was born between Milo and Tessa.”

My throat thickened, and I struggled to breathe.

Mom turned her full attention on me. “I’ve prayed for this day to come, for you to find your way to joy again. That you would find a path that would lead to the place where you belong…and that’s with Tessa.”

She lifted her glass. “To the happiness that you deserve because you, my son, you deserve it more than anyone I’ve ever known.”

Her voice got choppy, soggy with the affection that rippled out.

She shifted her adoring gaze to Tessa.

To the woman who stood beside me vibrating with emotion, too.

It’s not real.

It’s not real.

It’s not fucking real.

I chanted it to myself like I could make it so, but Mom had her hand on her chest like she was trying to keep her heart in place while she whispered, “And I am so thankful it is you. Tessa, you beautiful girl, the morning I showed up unannounced and found you here, I knew there was something so extraordinarily special about you. You are the hope that this family has been missing, and I will be forever grateful for you showing us that it’s a possibility. I love you, and I know that’s new, too, that it came on just as fast, but it’s true. I’m so happy to have you as my daughter.”

Tessa gulped, and I felt her spirit flail.

Her own loss stark.

This beautiful woman who’d lost so much.

It was a rare day my mom hadn’t stopped by to say hello, and they’d established a bond unlike anything I’d witnessed before. It only made this that much harder.

“I love you, too,” Tessa barely was able to murmur.

My mother nodded, and Tessa was moving forward and throwing her arms around her.

Their hug was fierce.

Different from when they’d first met.

Because in it was a promise.

A promise of a new life.

They finally separated, and both were wiping tears from their faces, whispering something under their breath.

And fuck, I nearly fell apart when Mom turned and wrapped her arms around my neck.

I had to bend down, and I was leaning into her as her mouth came to my ear and she murmured, “I see you terrified of finding love again, my son. I see you’re scared of losing it. Let this love be strong enough to carry you through it. Let her hold you when you feel like you can’t hang on any longer. Cling to each other, build each other up. And most of all, you let your beautiful heart live.”

I’m not sure I know how.

She pulled away and lifted her glass, gesturing it around to our guests.

“Now, I think we should officially announce these two as engaged with a special dance, don’t you?” My mother’s voice lifted at that.

Wariness took me hostage.

The music was turned back up, and everyone was standing, and the air was getting dense, even though a breeze whispered through.

Because these feelings were too heavy.

Too big.

Too much.

And Tessa was turning and grinning up at me.

Sly.

Sweet.

Alight.

The sun rising on the darkened day.

I felt her burning me through.

Scorching when she looped her arms around my neck. I banded one arm around her waist and pulled her flush against my chest.

Relief at her touch belted through my being.

“There you are,” she whispered up at my face, and she fluttered her fingertips down my beard, this precious woman who’d offered me everything.

My forehead dropped to hers, and I inhaled her deep into my lungs that kept aching for a way to fully be filled.

Strawberries and cream.

We barely swayed, just stood there together, me breathing her in as that energy burned around us.

Calling me to a place that I couldn’t go.

“Are you going to stand there all day or kiss the poor woman?” Logan shouted from the sidelines.

I eased back and found what was written on Tessa’s face.

The adoration.

The loyalty.

And that feeling rose up again.

Felt it struggling to pull me over.

Trip me up.

Telling me it would be fine to slide into the safety of a girl who wasn’t really mine.

Tessa’s lips parted, and there was no tease to it.

It was bare-naked hope.

Mad love, Milo. Mad, mad love, she mouthed.

Fuck.

I couldn’t do this. Couldn’t.

I pecked the quickest kiss to her mouth before I tore myself away, putting as much distance between us as I could, waving at our friends like everything was just fine.

While Tessa looked at me like I’d just rammed a knife directly through her heart.