I turn and kiss Savannah on the side of the head as she walks over to hug Sierra and Tia. Leaving Lucy with the girls, I march over to Ryder and put my hand on his shoulder.

“A word, brother?”

His head tilts as the words come out of my mouth. “Yeah.”

We walk onto the patio and before the door is shut behind us, I pull him into a hug. I don’t care that everyone can see us through the window. I hope they do. I hope they know this is my brother, my real brother, and I’m not going to hide that anymore.

He laughs as I clap his back, probably a little too hard. “You okay, man?” he asks.

“Never better.” I pull away and find that familiarity in his face again. Now that I can see it, I can’t stop looking at it. It makes me laugh for a second. Then I sober up and say what it is I really need to get off my chest. “I treated you like shit, and you still stuck around for me. I don’t know what else to say than I’m so goddamn sorry, and I…” my words trail as I clear my aching throat. “I’d hate to see you leave again.”

He lets out a hefty exhale, one he’d been holding, and I can tell there’s tension there. His eyes trail toward the window and I follow his gaze to the beautiful woman standing next to mine.

“Trust me,” he says. “I don’t want to.”

Seeing the girl and everything she did to help me save Savannah has me hoping that she’ll stick around too. I took her for a bit of a gold-digger at first, but now I see the sincerity there. She has a bite, but she’s not afraid to be kind to those it might be unpopular to be nice to—at least in her circle.

She spots us both looking at her and quickly excuses herself from the conversation. We watch in silence as she joins us on the patio and her arms are around me a second. It takes me by surprise at first, but then I realize that she had to be just as nervous as I was, but feeling far more helpless.

“I’m so glad everyone is okay,” she says through tears.

“Yeah, me too. Thank you for everything. You saved her life,” I answer, which is true. Who knows how long I would have let Savannah go without Tia stepping in to knock some sense into us both. If she had been in that car much longer...

“Listen, Murph,” she says with a hand on my arm. “About your shop.”

“Keep it.” The words fly out without hesitation.

“I can’t keep it,” she mumbles, obviously confused.

“Then sell it back to Savannah.”