Heart of a Bad Boy (Bad Boys of Destiny #3)

by Sugar Jamison

  “Daddy!” Her father’s appearance was even more surprising. “You’re not supposed to be home yet.”

  “I had to come home. There’s been an emergency.”

  “With you?” She went to him. “Are you okay?”

  “No, pumpkin.” He kissed her cheek. “I heard you were upset.”

  “Oh. How did you hear?”

  “Levi came to see me in Florida.”

  “He what?” She blinked at him, not sure if she had heard him correctly.

  “Looked mighty pathetic, too. I recognized that look because I saw it on my own face when your mother broke up with me.”

  “Mama broke up with you?”

  “Yeah, I was a jackass. I knew I was in love with her but didn’t know how to handle it and when she dumped me, I figured I had better learn real quick how to deal with it because my life was miserable without her. I think Levi’s life is miserable without you in it.”

  “Oh.” She rubbed her temples. “I think I need to sit down.” She eased herself down on the couch.

  “I like Levi, Michelle. I always did. He was respectful. He was good to Lolly. He helped her around the house. He used to help your mother bring the groceries inside. He was just a good boy and he didn’t have to be. He had everything against him. I knew he used to sneak into your room at night. I knew he used to fall asleep in your bed, but I didn’t stop it because I knew nothing was going on and after your mother died he was there for you in a way I couldn’t be. Because nobody else knows what it’s like to lose a parent unless you’ve lost a parent yourself. He loved you, Shelly. At fifteen years old I could see in his eyes that he didn’t just love you; he was in love with you.”

  “How could we even know what love is at fifteen?”

  “I just could see it. I was relieved when he moved away because I knew you two would have begun to figure out how to be in love eventually and I didn’t know how to talk to you about it. And I sure as heck didn’t want to be a grandfather before my time.”

  “Daddy!”

  He gave her a little smile. “It’s true. He’s never stopped loving you. Men who aren’t in love don’t send letters or gifts. They don’t fly across the country and speak to fathers. He may not have come back here in the last thirteen years, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t look back. He needed to find his own way, honey. To learn what kind of man he was. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.”

  “I’m so confused. You’re defending him when before you told me not to wait for him to come back. You told me to see other people.”

  Her father shrugged. “I was hoping you would tell him and that he would come home to get you. I just didn’t think that my plan would work so quickly.”

  “You set me up!”

  “He makes you happy. I want you to be happy. It’s your choice to do what you want to do, but just know that you have my blessing. Just know that I will love you no matter what decision you make.”

  “Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say to that.

  “I’m putting in my papers. I’m going to retire. I’m going to be spending some more time in Florida. The house is yours to do with what you want. Your mother and I were happy here, but I think it’s time for me to try to be happy someplace else. I’m going to keep a little apartment on the other side of town for when I come to visit. But I think it’s time we all move on.”

  “You’re going to leave me?”

  He bent down to kiss her cheek. “No. I’m giving you what you deserve. I know you stayed behind because of me. I don’t want you to have to worry about me anymore.”

  “But that’s just what I do.”

  “I know,” he said. “I’m starving suddenly. I think I’m going to head into town for something to eat.”

  He left her alone then and she sat back on the couch and shut her eyes as the flood of information she had been hit with today washed over her. She didn’t know how long she had been like that when she felt a kiss touch her lips.

  She knew it was Levi without even opening her eyes. His familiar smell and heat just made her feel calmer. “I hurt you,” she said when she opened her eyes.

  “Not as much as I hurt you.”

  “I got scared,” she admitted as he eased himself down next to her. “I didn’t think I was enough for you to love. I wasn’t exciting enough, or worldly enough, or beautiful enough. I thought you would get bored with me. And it would kill me to let you know how much I loved you only to hear you tell me you didn’t love me back.”

  “And here I was thinking I wasn’t good enough to be loved by you.”

  “You’re nuts.”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t know why you wanted to be my friend. I couldn’t see why you loved me. You were the first one to ever tell me that you did. I was so afraid of failing you. Because you seem so effortlessly good. I’m not sure I can live up to that, but I’m willing to try, if you’re willingly to always love me.”

  “I’ve loved you since I was eight. There’s no stopping it now. There’s nothing I would change about you. Nothing I expect from you except for you to just be you.”

  He nodded and pressed his forehead against hers. “You believe me, right? You know I’m in love with you.”

  “I do.”

  “I want to marry you.” He slipped a ring out of his pocket and onto her finger. It was a heart-shaped diamond, something that she’d never known she wanted but seemed like the only thing she was meant to have. “I want to make babies with you. I want to build a life with you. I’m done with racing. It was just something I did to fill up my time away from you. So if that means you want to go to Australia I’ll go with you. Or if you want to stay right here, I’ll be by your side. Whatever you want we’ll do, but just tell me that you want to marry me, too.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and nodded. “Of course I’ll marry you.” She kissed him. “I still want to go skinny-dipping, though.”

  “Yeah?” He smiled just before he gave her a long, lingering kiss.

  “And I want to make love under the stars and wake up naked on a beach.”

  “Sounds good,” he spoke into her mouth. “Tell me more.”

  “I want to see the world and go to Disneyland and eat pizza in New York.”

  “Will do. What else?” He looked into her eyes. “What else do you want to do?”

  “I want to spend the rest of my life being loved by you. Do you think you can manage that?”

  “Done. There’s nothing else I’d rather do.”

  She leaned back down on the couch, pulling him on top of her. “I guess today is the first day of the rest of our lives together.”

  “Mmm.” He kissed the seam of her throat. “How should we celebrate?”

  “That’s easy.” She slid her hands up the back of his shirt. “I want you to make me forget all those other days before life with you ever existed.”

  “Oh?” He gave her a hint of that naughty bad boy smile she loved so much. “And then?”

  “I want to go out for ice cream. Duh!”

  He threw back his head. “I love you, Shells.”

  “I love you too, Levi.”

  “Good. And don’t you ever forget it.”

  Epilogue

  Levi sat across from his brothers at the large conference table in their Destiny offices. Since the three of them had become equal partners in their new businesses here, they met every week to discuss progress and plan their next moves. For the most part they worked well together, but Duke and Colt King were two of the stubbornest men to walk the planet. Colt looked at him, his expression completely neutral, not giving a single clue as to what he was thinking. Duke was easier to read. His face held a heavy scowl, a sign that he wasn’t happy with the way the conversation was going.

  Both his brothers were normally incredibly intimidating, and any stranger who sat across from them at this table might be quaking in their boots by now. But Levi wasn’t at all bothered—not because he knew these two men almost as well as
himself, but because Colt and Duke King were conducting this meeting with their tiny daughters in their laps. Looking at a man holding a baby wearing a pink polka-dotted sundress kind of took the tension out of any situation.

  “Are you hungry, Daddy?” Duke’s two-year-old daughter, Ruthie Rose, asked him. She was named after their mother, Duke’s way of honoring the woman they all still missed.

  Duke lost his scowl as he looked down at his daughter. “You think I’m being cranky? I am hungry. I’ll take you out for French fries in a little while. As soon as your uncles pull their heads from their behinds.”

  “Here, Daddy.” She reached up with her small hand and slipped a fish-shaped cracker into his mouth.

  “Thank you, princess.” He gave her a quick smile and dropped a kiss on her forehead before turning his attention back to Levi. “Back to our grand opening celebration. We need to have a car show and invite enthusiasts from all over the area. We’re the car guys. No one can customize a ride like we do. We’re opening up a huge karting facility. We have a TV show showing our cars off. It just makes sense to invite others here to show theirs off during opening weekend.”

  “Can Summer and I join you for lunch?” Colt asked, looking down at his nearly year-old daughter with adoration in his eyes. “I promised her French fries this morning.”

  “Don’t be stupid. Of course you’re joining us for lunch. It’s Wednesday. We take our girls to lunch on Wednesday.”

  “Don’t say stupid, Daddy,” Ruthie reminded him.

  “Of course, princess,” Duke said gruffly. “Mommy doesn’t like that word.”

  Levi always got a kick out of watching his brothers be fathers. He didn’t want to say they had softened. They were both still tough and when pushed could be dangerous, but they were incredibly happy. Now instead of spending 95 percent of their time at work, they spent every moment they could with their families.

  Duke’s son Ryder had flourished since his father had been back in his life. He was no longer the surly thirteen-year-old that they’d met nearly three years ago. He was a responsible young man—and a brilliant one, too. He was on track to graduate from high school ahead of schedule and already looking into MIT for college. Levi never thought Duke could glow, but his brother beamed with pride every time he spoke about his son. He and Grace were happy, too. It seemed impossible that a relationship that had started out so rocky could end up so smooth. Duke could still be an overbearing pain in the ass, but Grace loved him and he was a better man for it. He’d moved his life here for her. Opening up a new shop in Destiny and only going back to Vegas once every few months when it was necessary. Duke was a man who needed to be around his family.

  “I’m not saying that a car show is a bad idea. In fact, it’s brilliant. But you can’t just blurt out an idea and expect it to magically happen. There are people who have to actually do the work and put it together,” Colt said, seeing all the details that made up Duke’s big picture. “We have to figure out how much this is going to cost us. We have to rent a space that’s big enough because none of our properties can hold it. We need to advertise it widely. Get television coverage. We need more time. Our grand opening is in two weeks. If King’s Customs is putting on a car show it has to be the best car show on this side of the country. We can’t do anything half-assed.”

  “It will be fine,” Duke said stubbornly. Duke was probably right; their businesses were all booming. They were once considered trash in this town, but they had saved hundreds of jobs by turning the factory into a family-friendly entertainment complex complete with ice-skating rink, pool, and state-of-the-art karting facility. It took them years to complete it all because they wanted it to be just right. If something was going to bear the King name it needed to be outstanding. They had opened each part as it was completed just to keep the people in town working. The movie theater and restaurant first, the pool, skating rink, and arcade next; now it was time for the karting raceway to open. There wasn’t another that compared to it in the entire country. They were even opening a school there for kids interested in learning how to race in the big leagues. Levi was proud of it. He couldn’t walk into the building without his chest swelling a bit.

  “I won’t have my name associated with a rush job. And just because you wake up with an idea and come barging in here with it doesn’t mean we’re going to go along with it. You’re the boss of your shop, but we’re equal partners in this. You aren’t just going to have your way.” Colt looked back down at his daughter, who was growing restless in his lap. She was the spitting image of her mother. Bronzed skin, dark hair, gorgeous eyes. The girl was going to be a looker. Levi knew many sleepless nights were ahead of his brother once Summer hit her teenage years. “We’re going to go soon, sweetheart.” He lifted her up and kissed her cheek. Summer may have looked like her mother, but she had her father’s temperament. Quiet, observant. There was a lot of intelligence in that little girl. Colt, like Duke, spent most of his time in Destiny. Zanna owned Lolly’s hair salon now, and while it might have been easier for Zanna to open up a salon in Vegas than it was for Colt to move their multimillion-dollar headquarters to Destiny, that’s just what he’d done. The large shiny building in Vegas still held their offices, but Colt ran the day-to-day operations from the small building they were sitting in. It was a far cry from his luxurious high-rise corner office. The biggest difference being that it was more like a nursery than a place where million-dollar deals were made. Summer came to work with him every single day while Zanna was busy running her salon. There was a playpen and a giant box of toys and every day at one PM Colt ordered everyone out of the office for an hour while Summer took her nap.

  It had surprised Levi when he found out that Colt was going to be spending his days with a baby, but he wanted to be a hands-on father. He wanted to be the kind of father they wished they’d had.

  Levi had shown his brothers the letter their father had sent him years ago. At first neither of his brothers seemed to care, but after Colt’s daughter was born they decided to go see him. It wasn’t a happy reunion. All wasn’t magically forgiven, but they sat and talked like men and now for now it was enough. The door had been opened. It was all he could ask of his brothers.

  “Why the hell are you being so quiet, Levi?” Duke asked him. “You’re an equal partner. You get the deciding vote.”

  “If you two think I’m refereeing this fight today you’re insane. Ask Lolly what she thinks.”

  “Ask Lolly?” Colt frowned at him. “Why the hell would we do that?”

  “Who’s she staying with this week?” Duke asked. “Is she even in the country?”

  “We have her,” Colt said. “She just came back from her Hawaiian cruise and declared that she was staying with us until she leaves for her Alaskan cruise.”

  “Sounds about right.” Duke nodded.

  Lolly lived with all of them. After she got out of the hospital they all had invited her to come make their homes with them. Each of them building a special suite of rooms for her so that she could have her own space. She couldn’t decide who she wanted to live with permanently so she stayed with them all, randomly showing up on their doorsteps when she was in between trips. She spent most of the time on cruises, though. Claiming it was the best way to see the world and still get the benefits of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

  Levi knew that she liked having them all in the same town. Now that they were there, she said, Destiny felt like home.

  Unlike his brothers, Levi split his time between Vegas and Destiny. The show was still filmed there, the viewers too attached to the original shop and crew that they saw every week for them to move locations. Shelly had quit her teaching job and from the time they walked down the aisle up until a few months ago they had traveled the world when he wasn’t shooting. He had taken her to Japan, and on safari in Africa. They had spent nearly a month in Italy and had been to the Alps. He had had many adventures in his life but none of them compared to seeing the world with Shelly.

  She
appreciated everything. She was always so happy. It was hard for Levi to get stressed about anything when he got to go home to such a wonderful wife.

  “Why don’t you care about this, Levi?” Colt asked him. “You were so damn particular about every aspect of building the karting complex. You made sure we found jobs for every worker in the factory. You wouldn’t let maintenance paint a wall without your approval. Why don’t you care about the grand opening ceremonies?”

  “We’re having a girl.” He grinned at them, feeling the pride swell in his chest. “We just found out before I came here. You could set me on fire and I wouldn’t feel the burn. I’m too damn happy about it.”

  “Three King girls.” Colt smiled back at him.

  “We’re in for some big trouble in a few years.” Duke laughed.

  “I know. Shelly is so happy.”

  “Shelly is always happy,” Colt said. “If the doctor told her she was having a kangaroo she would still be happy.”

  “That’s true.” Levi nodded. “So today I don’t care if we have a car show or a parade. I don’t care if you want to give every person in this town a thousand bucks. Everything is good with me.” He stood up, ready to leave them to hash it out.

  “Fine, we can have the car show in the fall and make it an annual event,” Duke said to Colt. “Does that please you, Your Highness?”

  “It gives us more time.” Colt nodded before he looked at Levi. “Aren’t you going to come out to lunch with us and the girls?”

  “Not this week. My very happy, very pregnant wife asked me to take her out for ice cream to celebrate and that’s just what I’m going to do.”

  “What if we want to celebrate with you?” Duke asked.

  “Come over for dinner. We’ll barbecue.”

  He walked out then, smiling to himself. When he’d stepped back in this town three years ago, he’d never thought he and his brothers would be so close, that he would be a married man and soon-to-be father. That he would give up racing for good, along with the lifestyle that always had him in search of the next big rush.