One side of his lips kicked up. “Babe,” he said, and a secret part of me sort of loved it when he called me that, because it was something he’d never done before. “If you want to go, we can go. If you want to stay home and chill with your family, we can do that. If you want to go by yourself—”

“I don’t want to go by myself,” I cut in.

He glanced over at me. “If you did, that’s cool too.”

Nodding, I glanced down at my phone. “Abby said Colton will be there. Roxy is working, so Reece will also be there. Obviously Jax and Calla will be there.”

“Cool.”

My fingers hovered over the phone. “I think Steph and Nick were actually in Martinsburg with her mom, but everyone else will be there. Even Katie.” I hadn’t seen Katie in forever, it felt like. “It would be cool to see all of them.”

“Totally up to you.”

Nibbling on my lower lip, I was still for a second, and then I decided to act off the excitement instead of the dread. “I think we should go. For a little bit? I mean, that’s if you really want to go with me.”

“Do you really have to wonder if I want to go with you or not?”

I peeked over at him. “Well, if we show up together then people might think . . . things.”

“Do I look like I care about what people think?”

No, he didn’t, but I had no idea what he meant by that in terms of us being together or not. “Okay then,” I murmured, sending Abby back a quick text saying I might be there. I didn’t mention that Brock would be with me, because I didn’t want to open that Pandora-size box of questions at the moment. “I guess we have plans for later.”

“I guess we do.”

Placing my phone back in my purse, I twisted in my seat and checked on Rhage. “So, I’ve been wondering about something,” I said, looking to change the subject. “Why did you retire? You still have a couple of more years left in you.”

He chuckled. “The way you say that makes it sound like by the time I hit forty, I’m going to be useless and should be put down. You know, that’s not a long time off from now.”

“Well,” I drawled the word, teasing him.

One hand on the steering wheel, he shrugged a shoulder. “I was . . . getting tired.”

I stuck my fingers through the little holes in Rhage’s cage, touching his paw. He immediately withdrew. “Physically or . . . ?”