The Bucket List (A REVERSE HAREM ROMANCE)

28. ALBANY

"You can't be serious," I breathed in shock.

"Why not?" Severide shrugged.

"Some of us actually have to work for a living," Kieran spoke up.

Severide scoffed loudly and rolled his eyes. "We all know that you—"

"Fuck off, Sev," Kieran interrupted him.

My eyes stayed glued to him as he made his way into the kitchen and searched through the fridge. The island blocked my view of his ass which was a shame but if things were going to work out between us, I might actually get to stare at his ass as much as I wanted. He straightened and turned to place the wine onto the counter.

I'd only had two glasses before I closed the bottle and placed it in the fridge.

Our eyes locked. Kieran tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow in question. I hesitated for a few seconds before I nodded at him. One more glass wouldn't do any damage.

Five minutes later we were all seated again with a glass of wine.

"A road trip," Steven said. "To where? For how long?"

"I don't have a specific destination in mind," I admitted. "I was just planning on driving until I ran out of money."

"There's no way in hell you're doing this alone," Severide barked. "Were you planning on doing the things on your list while travelling."

I took a sip of my wine before I answered him. "That was the plan."

He stared at me silently for all but five seconds before he exploded. I winced as his voice rose. He was yelling about all the shit that could go wrong with my plans, and he wasn't soft-soaping things either. Severide was being very graphic about the shit, and to be honest, he was fucking scaring me.

When he finally fell silent, my heart was beating a mile a minute and my stomach was rolling with unease. I never thought of anything he mentioned. Severide was right, though. Going on a trip, girl alone was asking for trouble.

"You're right," I said softly. "I wasn't thinking about it."

"We need a destination and at least a rough idea of how long the trip will last. Thomas can work from anywhere, Kieran has some sick days he can take, and Sev is his own boss so I suppose he can take of anytime he wants."

"And what about you?" I asked Steven.

"I can take a few sick days if I can find someone to take over my classes."

"Number eight; take an epic road trip," Severide read out loud. "Number fourteen; go on a camping trip. Number eighteen; visit the ocean, and number nine; spend a holiday with each other's family." He looked up at us. "We can do those four together."

"Crystal's family lives in America. I've only met them once." I smiled down at my glass. "I don't know why she added that to the list since she stayed with her aunt until she turned eighteen. Her parents aren't exactly. . ." I trailed off with a shrug.

Crystal rarely talked about her parents. I only knew that they were rich and important—too important to fly out and spend the last few days with their dying daughter.

"I'm not in contact with my parents, haven't been for years." His eyes darted over to Kieran. "Kieran's parents are dead. The twins are the only ones who still have family left. I figured we could stop by there on the way to the beach."

"Won't they have a problem with that?" I asked, looking at Steven and then Thomas. "I'm sure that they won't like having strangers in their home."

"Strangers?" Thomas waved a hand at Kieran and Severide. "They're practically family. Mum would love to have someone to cook for other than Dad. She'd love you too."

"I can organise a beach house to stay at," Severide said after a moment.

"Of course you can," Thomas muttered under his breath. "We can do that camping trip at the farm. So it's three out of four. Then it's the trip to the beach before we come back home."

"How about three weeks?" Kieran sat up. "A week at your parents, a week camping and a week at the beach."

"That can work." Steven nodded. "We can leave on Friday to make it back here by Monday."

My eyes darted between them as I sipped my wine. They certainly had things planned already. It was clear that they didn't need my help and I was kind of okay with that. My road trip was certainly not as organized or as planned as theirs.

"What do you think Albany?"

I blinked at them as I realized that they were all watching me expectantly. It took a few seconds for the question to register. Swallowing the last few sips of my wine, I leaned forward to place the empty glass on the coffee table.

"What about the rest of the things on the list?" I asked instead of answering.

"It depends on what's on it." Thomas stood and walked over to the island to grab the wine.

After refilling our glasses, he walked over to Severide and ripped the paper out of his hands. Colour flooded my cheeks as he read through. My eyes were glued to his face to take in his every expression. But without saying a word, he handed the list to me.

"It's your list to its best you decided what you want to do with who."

I licked my lips. "Who says I'm planning on doing this with you?"

"The hell are you going to do that with anyone else," Severide hissed. "You're not going to have sex with a stranger."

"I'm with him on this," Kieran added.

"Me too," Steven uttered. "Now start reading your new list so we can figure out who will do what with you."

Shit, they were serious! I picked up my glass and downed half of it before I placed it down and leaned back. Pulling my legs up, I crossed them and then licked my lips before I looked down at my list.

"Number one; get over my fear of bikes."

"I'll help you with that one," Kieran said.

My eyes snapped up to his. "You have a bike?"

He gave me a smirk. "Crystal never told you that I own a Harley?"

"I think she might have mentioned it but I wasn't really paying much attention." I gave him a small smile before I dropped my gaze.

Funny how a few weeks ago I couldn't even mention her name without bursting into tears and now I could easily talk about her. It had to have something to do with the cliff Kieran took me too. Maybe screaming like a mad woman was a great idea.

"Number two; get matching tattoos."

Silence settled between us.

"We could all do it together," I suggested after a minute. "Or not if you don't want to."

"Let's think about that."

"Number three. . ." I trailed off. "Since it's my list can't I decide on my own who I want to do what with?"

"Okay," Steven said before anyone else could. "What about the things all of us can do together?"

He had a point there. There were a lot of thing I was too embarrassed to read out loud. I like the idea of doing these things with them but I wanted to decide on my own without having them pressure me into doing it.

"Albany, what will we be doing together?"

I swallowed. "The road trip, camping, seeing the ocean, visiting each other's family." I bit my lip and scanned the list as I tried to decide what would be best to do together. "Get a matching tattoo. Make a time capsule, toilet paper someone's house and skinny dipping."