I logged her in and handed it back. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’ve got plenty of work to catch up on.” She tilted her head back, smiling at me. “And if you’re in there, I won’t have to share my cupcakes with you.”

“You’re cold-hearted, woman.” I pressed a kiss to her wicked mouth before walking backward for a few beats. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here.”

‘I’ll be here.’

Her words mixed with Kase’s from earlier as I walked to the meeting room. Once I was inside, I shared my revelation. “I’m in love with Mac.”

Gasps.

Open-mouthed stares.

Astonished expressions with eyes so wide, they were about to pop outta their heads.

Shock and awe.

Something.

I got nothing. Not even a surprised blink or murmured really.

Not even a damn raised brow.

“Okay.” Swedes turned toward Judge. “What’s going on?”

“Hold the fuck up.” I crossed my arms. “I feel like this news deserves some reaction.”

Glitch lifted his gaze from his tablet to me. “This isn’t news.”

“What?”

“I could tell at the barbecue,” Scythe threw in, sounding bored.

Fuckin’ bored.

“I’d only known her a day,” I pointed out.

“That doesn’t matter.” A smirk played at Judge’s mouth. “I knew I loved O when I tackled her to the dirt, and she screamed in my face.”

To anyone else, that sentence would’ve sounded fucked up. But to him, it was a loving memory.

Mayhem brothers were twisted like that.

Me included, since shooting my cum on the lawn while I ate Mac on the patio table would be a memory I’d cherish till the day I died.

“I’ve never even seen you with her, and I knew,” Swedes said. “Cooking for her. Skipping parties. Walking around like you got cartoon hearts floating outta your eyes.”

“Fuck off,” I snapped, giving them all the finger as I flopped into my chair. Slouching down, I spread my legs and drummed my fingers on the armrests.

I’d never known my dad. I loved Babs in my own way, but we’d never had a functional mother-child relationship. She came to visit from Atlantic City every few years, and I popped in to see her if business took me that way.

I’d had love for friends over the years.

The only real, semi-normal love I’d experienced was for Court of Mayhem. They were my brothers in every sense of the word, even if shared blood didn’t flow in our veins.

But I’d never been romantically in love. Not even the puppy dog kind. That was why I hadn’t recognized that sometime in a handful of weeks, my pregnant, stubbornly independent, cauliflower steak-cooking neighbor had stolen my damn heart.