“Gran swatted his butt and shooed him away out the door. "Now, we can get down to business." She rubbed her hands together like a villain.”

“Whatever happens today, Maggie," Rachel started and I saw her tearing up. I had to look away. "We're here. You will always be our family.""Even if we have to kidnap you and be a rogue clan," Gran muttered under her breath.”

“Of course I am, Gran," I said quietly. I blew out a breath and leaned my elbows on my knees. "I will admit that the withdrawals suck, though.""That they do," she agreed and came to sit on the bed with me. "The sooner you get to her, the better you'll feel.""Yeah, but I don't want to scare her. If I run over there before a decent hour, she'll probably freak and kick me out.""I highly doubt that, boy." She lifted a piece of hair from next to my ear with her fingers. "Girls usually invite cute boys in, not throw them out.”

“I turned my face to let his nose rub my cheek. "Mason, let's just stay here," I told him breathlessly.He chuckled, huskily and dangerously. "Oh, no, absolutely not. I'm not to be trusted with you alone right now.”

“It wasn't long before I had the urge to glance inside. I then had a slight moment of panic. Number one, Big John was walking out the door with a meat cleaver gleaming in his hand. Yes, a meat cleaver.Number two, he was glaring at Caleb like he was the devil himself.”

“He pulled my face up with his hand cupping my cheek and kissed me on my trembling mouth. He smoothed his hands down my arms, my back, my hair, my cheek, soothing me. “There’s a picture of you two in the dictionary under ‘get a room’,” Kyle said from behind me.”

“So what was your favourite song?""Um...the one about the sun sizzling into the ocean." He laughed hard. "What?""Zeke wrote that song about his cat.""His cat," I repeated blandly."Yep, Peaches, she ran away.""I'd run away too," I muttered under my breath, making him laugh harder.”