Noel had curled up on the couch, her head in Danica’s lap as the woman stroked her hair while the three men sat around the coffee table.

“If you three are happy,” Danica said, “then that’s what matters. I’m sorry you’re going through such a rough time now.”

“We are going to ask for one concession,” Mike said.

“What’s that?” Scott asked.

Keith was expecting a request for them not to have sex under their roof, or to have separate bedrooms for himself from Scott and Noel, which he would have honored.

But he was pleasantly surprised.

“Let’s not tell your grandparents about any of this,” Mike said. “As far as they need to know, Keith’s a friend of yours.”

Keith relaxed. “Agreed,” he said before Scott or Noel could rebel.

Hell, the two of them still owed him twenty cane strokes each for blurting out the truth in the hospital, but that was something he’d collect later, after they’d returned home and talked about it first.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try calling your mom?” Danica asked Noel.

“No,” she said, sounding lost. “You’re a better mom than she is. I just finally found the nerve to stand up to everyone.”

Keith still wasn’t sure allowing Noel to back out of the funeral and flee was the best option, but he wouldn’t overrule her and force her, either. He hadn’t grown up in her household, although both she and Scott had related plenty of incidents that demonstrated the family had an asshole gene that ran deep over the years.

How it skipped Noel baffled him, but he wouldn’t question it. Not when he was the benefactor of her love.

* * * *

A sense of relief filled Noel that night when they settled into the tight quarters of the guest room. The queen-sized bed wasn’t as large as their king-sized bed at home.

Snuggled safely between Scott and Keith, she felt a peace the likes of which she’d never dreamed possible.

“Thank you,” she softly said.

“Who was that to?” Scott asked from behind her. She lay on her side, her ass wedged firmly against Scott, her face pressed against Keith’s shoulder.

“Both of you,” she said.

“Why?” Keith asked.

“For letting me rage back at the hospital.”

“I still don’t agree with how you handled it,” Keith said. “And there will be discussions when we get home about following orders.”

“I know, Sir,” she said, finally able to call him that. Keith had ordered that, around Scott’s parents, they wouldn’t call him Sir, that they’d let Mike and Danica think it was an even partnership. “But if it makes any difference, it was a long time coming.”

“I don’t know them the way you two do, so I can’t guess that. I know it was a stressful situation that wasn’t made any easier. I should have insisted on staying downstairs.”

“I didn’t want you downstairs,” she said. “I needed you upstairs. And, thankfully, you were. Because that’s when I really needed both of you. I’m not happy how things happened, but honestly? I really do feel free for the first time in my life. I no longer give two fucks what any of them think.”

“That’s fine, but this wasn’t the best way to do it.”

“I know. I won’t, however, apologize for it. Maybe that makes me a shitty daughter and sister, and they’ve been right about me all these years. Or maybe it means I had my fill of being the punching bag for them all these years, the ‘jokes’ and ‘just kidding’ comments I tolerated and kept my mouth shut about, because when I protested I was always told to lighten up. Maybe if I’d blown up at them years ago, it wouldn’t have come down to this. I’m not going to change who I am or who I love. The only time I saw them was at Christmas, anyway. Counting yesterday, I’ve seen them eleven times in the past ten years. Other than my birthday, which half of the time most of them forget anyway, I get no acknowledgements from them. So…I’m done.”

“Okay,” Keith said, kissing the top of the head. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” She pulled Scott’s arm more tightly around her. “I have Scott, I have you, and I have Scott’s parents. And a shitload of good friends who’ve been supportive, loving family to me. I don’t need my blood relatives. I don’t want them. They obviously haven’t wanted me for years. It was just the final…”

She swallowed back the rest of the comment. It was too macabre even for her to say, under the circumstances.

“I finally just had enough,” she quietly said, instead of the reference to the final nail in the coffin.

“Love you, girl,” Keith murmured in her hair.

“Love you, too, Sir.”

He reached across her to Scott, to stroke his arm. “Love you, too, boy.”

Scott let out a content-sounding sigh. “Love you, too, Sir.”

She turned her head and kissed Scott. “Love you.”

“Love you, too. So much, you have no idea.”

“I’m just glad we finally got this right and figured out what we needed,” she said.

“Me, too,” Scott agreed.

Chapter Twenty-Four

It was a beautiful June day, sunny, gorgeous, perfect. The night before, they’d checked into their hotel room thirty minutes away. Close enough to drive, but not so far away it would make their argument for a hotel improbable. They preferred the neutrality of the hotel, a place they could retreat to if things went badly.

Noel noticed how Keith had grown quiet during the drive, until he wasn’t answering questions in anything more detailed than monosyllabic grunts and head nods.

In the backseat, Scott was doing his best to keep up a hint of a conversation, but Noel could see the way Keith’s knuckles grew increasingly white as he gripped the steering wheel more and more tightly with every mile of blacktop rolling beneath their wheels.

She finally reached over and laid a hand on his jean-clad thigh. “We don’t need to do this,” she said. “We can turn around and catch an earlier flight home.”

He didn’t respond, but in the backseat, Scott fell quiet.

Noel had sent a Christmas card to Keith’s little sister, Aubrey, from the three of them. She’d located the woman via Facebook.

From there, it’d led to some discussions via chat, then phone.

And only then had Noel broken the news to Keith.

Which had first earned her a spanking for going behind his back, and then a long, hard cuddle with his face buried in her hair after he whispered, “Thank you,” in her ear.

Keith’s two sisters and brother didn’t share their parents’ views, and Aubrey was getting married tomorrow.

Aubrey had invited them to come over to Keith’s parents’ house today for a family dinner. Aubrey and her fiancé, along with Keith’s older sister, brother, and their spouses, would be there early, before the rest of the guests, to help act as a buffer between Keith, Noel, and Scott and Keith’s parents.

Aubrey really wanted Keith at her wedding. And hadn’t told her parents about his arrival. The siblings had agreed that they loved their brother and wanted him—and his significant others—to be there.

But none of them wanted a repeat of Indiana.

The question was if the Knepp siblings ganged up on their parents, would their parents relent and at least play nice for the day so Aubrey could have the wedding of her dreams with her entire family by her side?

Keith also had two nieces and two nephews he’d never met. They wouldn’t be there today for the initial reunion, no one wanting to subject young children to any tempers if their father and mother unleashed. They would be brought over later by other family, closer to the time everyone was scheduled to gather.

Noel was used to the vast, rolling farm landscape from having grown up in Indiana. Scott, who’d never lived anywhere other than Florida and had rarely ventured outside the state by car, was fascinated by the open miles of farmland.