Good men don't need rules

"At least one," she smirked. "Crazy how I was having meltdowns about how good you were for me. And I am better than all men, fact." Still, he was right, she was absolutely having those conversations with her girls. Generally with a massive scowl, attempting to convince herself that it was all a huge cosmic joke and he couldn't possibly be real. And yet, there she was, the rock on her finger proving herself wrong. It really was some bullshit, being your own worst enemy. "It's like, I know where I'm going but how I get there? Who knows, and that's the fun of it all," she chuckled, knowing he'd seen her get annoyed about her shitty internal compass more than once. "Oh, married and our own place? Slow down, marine," Rhi widened her eyes in sarcasm, if only to cover the pitter patter in her own chest. It seemed like an obvious step, but his grandparents' estate was big enough that she forgot they weren't alone a lot of the time. Which was crazy because Cohen wasn't exactly quiet at the best of times. "I mean, we don't have to rush anywhere, and it's not like we'd be moving to the moon anyways... unless you're talking like, leaving town, in which case I'm gonna need a good argument towards."

"Alright, you are better than all men, but I still called it. They should put us on the newlywed game because we'd kill it." Cal saw Rhiannon for what she was and loved her for all of it, even the part that guarded and protected herself so fiercely behind being surly or off putting because what she was protecting was precious. He loved even more that she let herself see that she didn't need protecting from him and that she accepted his love and gave her own in return. "Sorry Coyote, we're in the endgame now. No turning back." Cal's own heart pitter pattered because Rhiannon not only accepted his family, but loved them, understood why he wouldn't want to be far away and it seems she didn't want to either. "Of course not, both our families are here, the Coyote Ugly itself is here, who do you think I am. Marriage is about gaining, not taking away. "Wherever we end up I'd like to be at most a 15 minute drive away. But we have all the options in front of us, we could even get a house built to spec if you want. Whatever it is, I just want it to be a place you'd be happy spending the first few years of our lives in. If that means extra rooms so the girls can come and go comfortably, it's all good with me."

"I'm a woman of my word. I mean, it was the least I could do after I kept luring you into manhandling me for my own benefit," she chuckled, considering the cheer routine had been his reward for winning an arm wrestle against her. Of all things, with his beefcake arms against her miniature self in comparison. Of course she'd been turned on by it. "Big shout out to me for somehow subconsciously knowing it would pay off to push through the uncomfortable. Kept telling myself, well, he hasn't run away screaming yet so I can take one more step closer..." While she'd never cared about the house nor his money, she definitely had a better grip on herself around his family's affluence nowadays. Maybe even felt more of a part of it, which probably explained why she was so protective of the potential for her parents to expect handouts that they hadn't earned. "I didn't think poorly of you about it, like, at all to be honest. Your sincerity outshone it all. I mean, you wanted to talk about me more than yourself from the jump so I had some confidence that the house tour wasn't a flex. Swear though, I thought you'd dropped my ass in the backrooms when I was trying to have my dramatic storm out. All these years and I've never seen the same hallways twice, I know this for a fact. We might still even be in there, how am I supposed to know?"

"I don't know it in practice, but there's no doubt in my mind you've had at least one conversation where you were like 'I don't know, he has a lot of feelings but I'd fuck him because big arms blah blah blah. You know you're no better than a man, right?" Cal didn't have a complex about his wealth, but Rhiannon had struck him as someone who very well could have saw how he lived and called it a red flag and he wouldn't even have had all that much room to argue with her. "You're just really bad at not getting lost, that probably plays a part. If this was the Twilight Zone then that would be the plot twist, wouldn't it? I guess that means we're looking at something smaller to live in after the wedding. Add that to the things we have to figure out. It's going to be weird not living with my grandparents. I haven't not lived with them since I was 15. They're getting older, I'm glad Cohen's around but I still want to visit often." Cal didn't count living on bases as a home, just temporary housing so that was a big one for him.

Rhi made a small noise when Cal bit her thigh, moving but only to be closer to him as he held her. It was maybe the first time they'd talked about their beginning, how they'd seen each other before they'd fallen in love. "I remember. It was weird that you were outside, I stand by that. No one comes to the Coyote to stand outside. I liked that you didn't flinch when I was an asshole, but didn't try to fight me either. Your ego was so solid. Honestly I probably would have gone home with you that night if you'd stuck around long enough. But I like how we happened, that you gave me time. That you still give me time. Like I said, you're my peace." She enjoyed the comfortable silence, kissing at his jaw until a memory surfaced. "That stupid fuckin' cheer you made me do... and you kissed me right after, like, seriously? That was what tipped you over the edge?"

She hadn't known then why Cal had to take a breather outside. The Coyote Ugly was insane that night, only made more insane by the dance Rhiannon and the rest of the Coyotes had done which included setting a bar on fire. He'd just stepped out to get his barring's and met his wife in the process; it would never not amaze him. So many things had to line up just for them and they had and that gave Cal some kind of cosmic comfort that they were meant to be. "I like how we happened too." He wasn't trying to be her peace that day, just moving intuitively, "You're mine too." And he meant that, by now he couldn't count how many times his anxiety had spiked and Rhiannon had been there to help him come back down. His eyes slipped closed, relishing in the feeling of her lips, then he popped one eye open and then the other with the fondest smile on his face, "That cheer. It was amazing you even added kind of a threat at the end. I should have known then you'd fall for me." He turned his head enough to look at her while he absorbed himself in the memory, "I don't know you didn't want to do it but you were also so adamant about holding your end of the bargain up, then when you cheered there was a point where it just looked so natural like auto pilot, there was something special in that and it made me so happy that you trusted me to see it, I couldn't deny how badly I wanted to kiss you." He kissed her then, feeling the same want to do so as he had then, "You fought against yourself so hard that day and did the hard things that you felt would be good for you, not easy. It endeared me a lot to you. Can I just say that I was really fucking embarrassed to bring you to my house, I didn't want you thinking I was some rich dick who lived in a too big house and get turned off by it. When you crashed out and asked why I lived in a maze I thought I was cooked for sure."

Generally speaking Calvin was her moral compass, her emotional compass, every damn compass. It helped that while he had no qualms with speaking his mind on her grievances he also wasn't preaching. He let her absorb his advice in her own time, let her stew until she decided whether he was right (which he was, usually), or if she wanted to continue on her own trajectory. He truly was her peace. "I hear you baby, I do. And I'll think about it, and we'll circle back." It still seemed unimaginable that someone could read her the way Cal did, understand that at the crux of it all she wasn't awful, she was just protecting herself. He made it so easy to soften, which she did as soon as he lifted her up, near giggling with sheer joy as he goofed around. "I hadn't noticed," she joked, hitting the bed with a soft exhale. "So... did you? Or did I sneak up on you?" She reached for him, always wanting to touch, "I think I knew pretty quickly. Just took a while to let myself admit it, as usual."

"I hide it really well. Always have, always will." Cal said with a straight face and quirked eyebrow before he bit the inside of Rhiannon's thigh and crawled up the bed so he could hold her in his arms, "Not even a little bit. I was just out to check out the Coyote for the first time. It was long overdue, but in reality I guess it was really just divine timing. The night we met though, I did know pretty early on that I wanted to see you again. I like the way that you talked to me. I remember feeling so…on edge and I was looking for something to make me feel normal. And there you were giving me shit for, let me check my notes." He held his palm up, pretending to read, "Standing outside of the bar."

"We're supposed to be picking fonts..." she grumbled, loathing when Cal tried to drag her onto the therapy train if only because she was so well versed in pushing things away. Her parents were a pebble in her shoe, an annoyance, not a make or break when it came to her overall happiness so why should she afford them the effort they'd never given to her? "They're from a small town and high school was their glory days. They still act like being head cheerleader and football captain in the 80s means they're hot shit now." Still, that wasn't the problem, not really. If they wanted to embarrass themselves they could go right ahead. Cal's exercise worked in getting her to think about it though, as much as she resisted. "I finally found peace, I'm scared they'll fuck it up somehow and I'll have to start over. Okay, vulnerability minute is over can we rewind to the part where you were eating me for breakfast?"

Calvin didn't pretend to completely understand the intricacies of Rhiannon's dynamic with her parents. Sure he knew all that she'd told him, but there was obviously more. Cal himself recalled the years when his relationship with his father was strained at best and how no one could really conceptualize exactly what he'd felt. He was in her corner though and he would love to have in laws that they could take trips to visit and get along with and it would make Rhiannon happy, but it wasn't a requirement nor did it register as important in comparison to what gave Rhi peace. The truth of the matter was, if they weren't it then they could be out altogether. "Our peace is un-fuckwithable. That's all I'll say, vulnerability minute over." He knew when to back off so he picked Rhiannon up, first with her legs around his waist, then he lifted her higher like it was the easiest weight in the world, this time high enough that her legs could wrap around his head. For a few seconds, Cal moved his head from side to side in a motorboat motion before he tossed Rhiannon back on to the bed, "I'm so excited to be your husband. I can hardly believe it sometimes." He dropped to his knees and started kissing up Rhiannon's legs, alternating as he ascended, "I always wondered if when I met my soul mate if I would see it coming."

"I'm not locking anything in, I'm just thinking out loud. I will... leave space for potential." While the words almost left her lips painfully, she knew he understood that she was trying. It wasn't unwillingly either, not that that was even possible. She wasn't so much living her life in fight or flight mode, she had reconciled with a lot of her demons thanks to Cal's patience and care. Now she was learning that she didn't have to fight life the whole way, that loving Cal as fiercely as she did was exactly as easy as he made it look and that she actually liked herself because of it. "Spoiled little rich boy," she smirked, nuzzling noses. "And call me the wife of a spoiled rich boy because I fuck with those little salmon ones we had at that fundraiser... you know the ones? I took the whole tray from the–" Her eyebrows shot up when he cut her off but she wasn't upset, if anything she was amused. None of this was happening imminently, but he took every conversation so seriously she couldn't help but fall in love with him a little more each time. "I don't... I really don't know. I need more time with that one. I'll need to see them first and scope it out. I just- at the risk of sounding like I care too much, I don't want them to embarrass me... Us."

"Leaving space for potential wow…look at my soon to be wife go. Like I said, if it's what you want it's what I want." Cal chuckled under his breath as their noses brushed, "Wife of a spoiled rich boy. Those things were so fucking good, yeah they make the list easy." While he couldn't predict the future, Calvin was prepared for the possibility that bringing up Rhiannon's parents would always be something that could kill a vibe, but it wasn't something they just couldn't talk about. He shook his head, "Okay…" He started while he slipped his arm around her, holding her tightly in place as a means of comfort while they spoke, "Biggest thing you fear they'd do to embarrass us." It was an exercise Cal ran when he felt himself become anxious and while he wasn't sure it could translate to this situation, it had brought him down off of the ledge more than once. "And for the record, you know my parents by now and my grandparents. You're already family as far as they're concerned so I wouldn't worry so much about being embarrassed and more about them being overly protective of you."

"Yeah, I knew that was coming," she said of Calvin's inhale as she took his hands to stand. "I don't give a fuck what the elders think, you know that. It's really not a big deal to me, like, the symbolism or whatever. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you. A fucking goat could walk with me for all I care. And they're lucky I didn't just do it the easy way by flushing my birth control or ripping you away to the fuckin' courthouse first chance I got anyway so they don't get to complain about the one single thing I want." Her brow had scrunched mostly in thought, intense because that was her default, and slightly because yeah, she cared about it all being whatever Calvin's version of perfect was. "I'm not not having fun," she reassured him, cupping his face in her hands and returning his look of adoration. "I'm just not interested in impressing anyone except you. You're my everything, not your uptight great aunt who probably tells everyone I'm a gold digger anyway. And obviously the tiny foods are the most important. If we don't get those right we might as well forget this whole thing."

"Okay I hear you and you know I want what you want. If this is your one thing then I'm backing you up, 100%." A lovely little side effect of being engaged to Rhiannon was that she was more forthcoming now with her feelings towards Cal than ever. He wasn't sure if she felt that secure in them now or if she was just conditioning herself in the fact that it was a safe space for her to express how she felt 100% but either way, Cal was never going to take it for granted. He spent most of his love life in relationships where he felt on some level that he loved and cared for his partners way more than they did for him, he even told himself that he just loved hard and needed to make peace with that, but Rhiannon loved him on equal footing without him having to dampen down his emotions and it felt amazing to love and be loved by the woman whom he was holding closer. "Don't worry, no one really likes my uptight great aunt and if she is doing that there is no doubt in my mind that my grandmother has cursed her out in ways that would make you blush." He shook his head free of her hands then leaned in to run his nose over hers, "You're my everything too. You and tiny foods. Call me a spoiled little rich boy but my round 1 draft pick is 100% those little mini beef wellingtons." Hating to go back to a not so fun part, Cal rushed out his words, "Also is our families meeting beforehand a thing? I already put in the ground work that it may not be but just in case I don't want to leave anything up to assumption. It's not at all a pre-requisite though so if it's a no it's a no."

Despite them having been together for so long Rhiannon still didn't have the whole 'future wife to the heir of a fortune' thing down. Not in the way anyone else expected, at least. She didn't care, nor did Cal, but it was moments like this where she felt that difference in upbringings a little louder. "Mock this up," she pretended to karate chop him in the neck, pointedly using her left hand to flash her ring just a little. She loved the way he started trying to out sparkle the diamond every time he saw it. Of course his challenge was accepted, her eyes narrowed in small defiance because as much as he knew he was making her wet just speaking like that she also still had a huge opposition to authority. Which in turn only made her want to win more, which was really a win for both of them. "And just like that..." she sighed, pinning her knees together at the mention of her parents. "Dry as the desert. Be proud of me though! I've thought about it and I think... potential yes, unless they pull some bullshit in the near future. But I'll walk down the aisle on my own and no dancing with my dad. I don't get down with that weird giving me away like livestock shit. I'll dance with you, because for me it's about you, nothing else."

Calvin was living out his dream - on the one hand life had given him the very tough lesson (more than once) that a relationship wouldn't and shouldn't make or brake his life, and on the other once he truly metabolized that and carved out his own life path he met the person he would be spending the rest of his life with and he could hardly stop smiling since he'd proposed and by now it had been a few months. It was indescribable the way it made his heart lurch in the best way seeing Rhiannon wearing her engagement ring, one that had been in his family since before his grandparents were alive. He let out a quick chuckle when she said she was instantly dry, he couldn't say that he didn't see it coming, "I am proud of you." He said as he held his hands out to help her out of bed, "You want to walk down the aisle on your own?" He took in a deep inhale knowing his traditional family and untraditional future wife wouldn't see eye to eye on every aspect of planning, "If that's what you want that is fine, it's our wedding. I did have a thought though because the whole 'giving away like livestock' mentality I pretty much knew but what if it were Liz or the Coyotes that walked you down instead? It's not so much giving you away as entrusting me to care for you as much as they do. It's just a thought though, I think we both know this is always on my mind." He told her while he looked at Rhiannon with the familiar adoration he always regarded her with, "We could do some fun discussions like the food, personally I think the food served at cocktail hour is just as important as what's served at dinner."

Rhiannon didn't have the first clue about how to plan a wedding. Hell, even the idea of it being her own wedding was still dawning on her moment by moment. At the very least she had Cal there to remind her that it was in fact all very real... in his own unique ways. She uncurled her fingers from his hair and pushed him away with her usual smirk, still catching her breath. "Oh, that wasn't the task? Fuck, I really thought we nailed it this time." On one hand it all felt very banal to her, picking out pretty paper, but she knew it meant a lot to Cal that she actively had an opinion so she was genuinely trying. "Okay... I would like to add these ones in for consideration," she added two more to the options. "I don't think anything too flowery is speaking to me. I like the clean, um, elegant ones? I don't know baby, I'm still thinking about your mouth."

Truthfully, there was no real rush as their engagement was to be a long one. Calvin himself would marry Rhiannon tomorrow but there was a lot of details that needed to be worked out before I do came. Calvin was just happy to wake up everyday and see the engagement ring on Rhiannon's finger so anything beyond that was icing on the cake. He nodded thoughtfully looking over her two selections and keeping what she'd said in mind, eliminated 3 more, leaving the decision down to two, "Okay, we'll get a mock up with both and make a choice." His lips curled up into a devious smirk when she said she was thinking about his mouth, "Earn more of it." He told her casually but with an easy authority baked in; a challenge. "And since we're on the subject of invitations we should maybe talk a little about who we are and aren't inviting, mainly your parents, yes or no?"

"Why is so much of adulthood just... emails," Penn was looking at his laptop but his eyes were unfocused, his attention having lapsed somewhere along the line. "Fuck dreaming of a private jet, the second I make enough money I'm hiring a secretary."

"I feel your pain, man." Cal clapped his hand down on Penn's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. The only reason he wasn't still in Penn's position was that Cohen actually liked the family business, which relieved a lot of Calvin's guilt about hating it for the most part. "How much longer do have to keep at it today? Maybe you have time to take a break, your eyes are starting to glaze over. You hungry? I can make you a burger or something."

Cal: I like the enthusiasm but let's just go with pickle ball and we'll see where the day takes us from there. I'm already at the courts.

"Okay big head, watch the roof." She rolled her eyes as if it were disappointing not to get to cause trouble– though realistically speaking the last place she actually wanted to do that was at Pride. "Like I said, it's because you're hot. Specifically in a very masculine and straight passing way that makes people want to put you on your knees. Mm, but it would be kind of hot to hear you telling Penn's dad you're rescuing your fiancee from his bullshit time out." Still, as much as she was being her rough-edged self she hadn't stopped smiling either, having found a happy medium to settle into over time. "You make it so hard to be humble," she grumbled, but made no effort to actually remove herself from his grasp, "Go back to Penn, teach him your new vocabulary word of the day."

"Ok well it's really hard not to get at least a little bit of an ego when you've managed to get the most beautiful person in the world to fall in love with you so I don't know what to tell you, babe. This is just me now. What about you though, do you want to put me on my knees? In one swoop, Cal got to his knees while he kept grip on Rhiannon's hip and looked up at her with a wicked smile, kissed her torso then got up. He wasn't even drunk, just having a good time, even less on edge despite being in such a large crowd. "Then don't be humble. Why start now, you know?" Cal leaned in and kissed Rhiannon's neck, breathing a little harder when his lips got close to her ear just to give the bartender chills, "You sure you want me to go?"

"Christmas shopping while buying a Halloween costume does sound pretty efficient, honestly. I'll have to see if it works next year. Probably won't but man I have never felt more like a dude then being here with all the other dudes looking for presents," he admitted with a laugh. He had wanted to put some finishing touches on his gifts for the Balcoins and Lana had tasked him with picking up something she had put on hold for Colette. Aiden's eyes widened. "Wait discharged discharged? Like you're back in Rosewood for good discharged? Well shit, James. Happy Holidays indeed. Welcome home."

Cal looked around, already aware of the make up of the building they were in, but the action was more for conversational dramatic effect if anything. "Yeah, you're right about that. I don't care for last minute shopping myself, but I didn't have much of a choice this year." He grinned, his service being well and truly over was still surreal but he had no regrets, "Discharged like discharged discharged. With honors. Thank you, feels good. The same, but so different at the same time. But anyway, what'd you pick up?"