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My dad had done it enough to my mom for me to realize the kind of pain that caused. Hell, if it wasn’t for my grandfather showing me what a good relationship was, then I might’ve never seen how good they could be.
He’d been faithfully devoted to the same woman for sixty years. Even when she’d been dead for fifteen of those years.
Hell, Dixie Normus might’ve wet his whistle with women since my grandmother had passed, but during all that time, he’d never once fallen in love with any of them. He hadn’t wanted to and hadn’t tried to.
My grandmother was it for him.
It was sad that my father hadn’t given my mother the same thing.
“I can’t date you.” She tried a different tactic. “What if we did, and didn’t work out? Then I’d have to see you over here all the time.”
“I’m not here all the time,” I paused. “But I am here quite a bit since Bayou’s my cousin. I spend just as much time at my other cousin’s house and I do have other friends. I don’t have a place of my own since I’m not currently living anywhere at the moment.”
Or ever.
I saw no reason at all to own a place or rent one for that matter since I was never fucking here. The only time I was here was when I was on leave, and that leave could end at the drop of a hat if I was needed for a mission.
That was the life of Delta Force. We were there when we were needed, and we didn’t have set dates when that happened.
With as much leave as I had built up after being in the military for fourteen years and never taking any of it, I could take off as much as I wanted.
Though technically, I was on leave right now thanks to my accident, I still had more than enough to spare.
“Even worse,” she said, looking relieved. “Bayou’s very protective of his family. Did you know he yelled at me once because I was mean to his sister? I’m sure he won’t like me dating you since he doesn’t really like me.”
My eyebrows rose. “He yelled at you?”
She nodded. “He did.”
When she didn’t elaborate, I pushed.
“Tell me what happened,” I ordered.
“Why?” she replied.
So fucking stubborn.
“How about we make a bet,” I offered.
Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Okay,” she rolled her eyes. “What do you have in mind?”
“I’ll take you over with me right now. We’re having a little get-together since so much shit’s been going on lately. It’s just the immediate club. If he says a word, I’ll just say you’re borrowing some salt and send you back home. Then I’ll leave you alone and never say another word to you,” I proposed.
She looked intrigued and saddened all at the same time. I could also tell she wanted to ask about the ‘shit’ that’d been going down, but didn’t want to pry.
“Fine.” She dusted her hands off. “I have to wash my hands, though. Give me two minutes.”
Instead of staying outside where she likely expected me to wait for her, I followed her.
She looked at me over her shoulder as she heard the tread of my feet close at her heels, but didn’t say anything. She pushed open the door and paused to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, then continued forward.
My eyes had adjusted before hers, which was why I saw the large blob on the floor by her feet.
Before she could fall, I caught her around the waist and halted her.
She squeaked in surprise and stilled in my arms, melting against me for ten seconds or so before remembering she wasn’t supposed to like being in my arms and stiffened.
“Let me go!” she ordered.
“I would, but you almost tripped over that…pig,” I said, staring at the object.
“Oh, shit,” she said, stilling once again in my arms. “Bacon, what the hell have I told you about laying in the middle of my floor?”
Bacon, the large black and white potbelly pig—and when I say large I mean fucking huge, at least a hundred and fifty fat pounds—lifted its head, oinked once, then collapsed back to the floor.
His little piggy tail, however, started to go a mile a minute.
She sighed and bent down to her knee, then started to run her palms over the pig’s fat belly. The tail picked up speed.
It was actually fucking cute, in a really weird sort of way.
“You have a pig,” I mused.
She snickered. “I have a pig.”
Standing, she stepped over the large blob. “Catch the door, though. When Bacon gets out, he’s really hard for me to catch. I also think that’s why your cousin secretly hates me. My animals get out all the time.”
“Animals?” My eyebrows rose.
“Yes, animals.” She paused. “I have a pig, a dog, two birds, and a goat. The goat stays outside, though, because he doesn’t have the potty training thing down just yet.”
