Page 21 of Ruin

“He really has been. I told him that the other day too.” Ruin lifts the lid to the pie, pulls a plastic fork from the side of the box, and slices into it, feeding me banana cream one bite at a time. “I got thinking…”

“Okay…”

“You said before how badly you were looking for adventure. Do you think you might want to do something before the baby’s born? We could go on a trip, but riding the bike is out. I don’t want you on it while you’re pregnant, but maybe a flight somewhere would work. What about Hawaii or Rome? I have some money saved. You could pet strange cats and swim in the ocean. Is that wild enough for you?”

I laugh. “I don’t need to do anything. I got my adventure.”

“You’ll regret it, though. You need to do something. Something wild and free. The next few months are going to be… busy.”

I stare up at the man I fell in love with so many years ago. “That’s just it. I’m living my adventure right now.”

He shakes his head. “I know you say the cop thing was an adventure, Peach, but community service isn’t the best example of freedom.”

“I got to clean up the highway and I spent time outdoors, working on my tan… with you. It was fun. Besides, the sheriff kind of let us off easy. Anyway, that’s not what I mean.”

“What do you mean then?”

“This love with you. The baby. Our wedding. Ruin, our life is the adventure.”

He leans in and kisses my forehead gently. “You’re beautiful, but you’re a liar. Three months ago, ziplining wasn’t enough. How’s a family doing it for you? I’m pretty sure a family is less thrilling than ziplining.”

I laugh. “Now I know you’re fucking around. Maybe there will be days that are boring and monotonous. Maybe I’ll wake up some mornings feeling like the sky is falling and I’ll need a break. Lucky for me, I know you’ll be there with banana cream pie to make it all better.”

“I will be,” he groans, “with extra chocolate, but you’re missing the point, Peach. You don’t want to look back on things and wish you’d done more. We should do something big, like taking a trip anywhere. You pick a place, and we’ll go.”

I shake my head. “I appreciate it, I do, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be then right here in Rugged Mountain, painting our little nursery, getting the house ready for our baby boy. Life is going to be boring sometimes, Ruin. I know that, but this is the adventure I’ve been waiting for. You, me, your bike, these mountain roads, and sex… in all the wrong places.”

“Okay,” he grins and strokes his hand down over his beard, “what kind of places?”

“Hmm… well, we haven’t fucked in any public bathrooms yet, and there’s the field of wildflowers up on the hill. Those are just to start. Oh, and the quarry! People say lots of weird stuff happens up there after dark.”

Ruin grips my waist and tugs me toward him. “Well, if you love the quarry so much, we have to do it down in a chute at the rodeo and maybe in a field somewhere on Waylon’s ranch.”

“Or in the kitchen of the lodge where that bear was!” My eyes widen as I speak. This is my new favorite game.

“Okay.” His cock is hard. I feel the ridge in his jeans. “What about the hardware store? I could bend you over behind the lumber.”

My pussy swells and my thighs ache. If the first three months of pregnancy are any indication of the hormones about to be raging through my body, we’ll have every sight in Rugged Mountain checked off by month four.

Ruin’s big hand moves down my back and over my ass. “You’re my juicy little peach. You know that? I’m so lucky.”

I hold tight to the ring that Ruin gave me on my birthday and stare up at him in awe. When he found this ring on his travels, he saw a reminder of time. A symbol that would trigger his psyche to make good decisions in the moment because minutes pass and hours go fast.

I’ve tried to see what he sees, but when I look at this ring, I see something else.

I see my wild, protective, courageous, bad-ass man. I see the guy who I’ve loved for too many years to count. I see the overlook where we park the bike and watch the mountainscape. I see the field of wildflowers where he stops to pick me fireweed. I see the lights on that cop car whirring, and the look on his face as he kept thrusting into me.

And though I know the essence of time is attached to everything and everyone, my heart will always see Ruin. The big, rough, inked up biker that turned my boring life into an adventure.