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“Heavy,” he says, his eyes not breaking contact with mine.
“Uh…Finn, he called Shaft last night. That’s why I showed up this morning. Told him he was going to be moving here and would be transferring to our chapter,” Larry answers.
“I…” I have to stop talking. I can’t say anything. My knees feel weak. Cade made plans to move here to be with me after just one night together. Who does that?
“See yourselves out boys. I’ve got some shit to work through with my old lady,” Cade announces, standing up. I want to back away from him, but I’m frozen. I couldn’t move if I tried. I can’t even put up a fight as he picks me up. I don’t have any fight left inside of me.
I’m in over my head here…
12
Keys
“You’re really planning on moving here?” Red asks. I yawn, my gaze automatically moving to the bedside table to check the time.
Midnight.
It’s been a fuck of a long day. First Heavy shows up and slams his fist into my jaw, then the small blowup in the kitchen this morning, followed by fucking the panic out of Red—a feat I was only partially successful in—then, helping her scrub the stalls of the shelter clean. She has a big adoption event planned for Valentine’s Day. I promised to help her and made her make a list of everything that needs to be done before the weekend. I did it mostly to keep her busy and focused on something mundane—not wanting her to panic again. I also planned on helping her though. Running a shelter is hard damn work—I’m completely worn out. I can’t go to sleep because Red’s brain is working overtime and I can’t risk the fear that she will try to run out on me. I’d hunt her down, but I’d rather that not even be an issue.
I kiss the top of her shoulder and squeeze her, pulling her ass in tight against my body. She fits me perfectly. Fuck, I fit her perfectly. How could she even doubt that? How could she be thinking of leaving me so easily? Shaft told me that women are damn complicated creatures, and I don’t think I took him seriously enough.
“I’m here aren’t I, Red?”
“This doesn’t make sense,” she whispers so quietly that I have to strain to hear her.
“Maybe not, sweetheart, but we make sense,” I tell her, and I can’t explain how I know that—but I do, just the same.
“I don’t want to live in Colorado. It’s beautiful, but besides Larry, I’ve never truly liked it. It reminds me of things I want to forget,” she says.
“Then we won’t live in Colorado.”
“I’m not ready to agree to go to Kentucky. Of all the places I was kicking around in my head, it wasn’t there, and Larry would be so far away,” she says.
“We’ll figure it out, Red. We have time.”
“Don’t give up your club, Cade. Not for me. I was raised in a club. I know what that means. Don’t do it. I know better than most what it means to be part of a club. You can’t give it up.”
“I’m not giving it up, Red,” I assure her, although the truth is, I’ll give it up without blinking to keep hold of her. She’s close to another panic-bitch-fit though. So, I don’t share that knowledge. I want my woman curled up against me, her body warm and pressed into mine.
“Okay,” she responds.
“Okay. Go to sleep, Red.”
“You promise you won’t leave your club, Cade?”
“I promise you that it took me forever to find a home, sweetheart. I’m not just going to leave it.”
She lets out a breath that shudders through her body. The relief literally comes off of her in waves. So, I let her have that. I don’t explain that she’s my home. That I’ve spent a lifetime making fun of love and the hoops my brothers jumped through. I don’t explain that she’s everything I’ve wanted my entire life and never knew truly existed.
She’s it for me.
And come hell or high water, I’m going to be it for her, too.
13
Finley
Two days later and I’m still a mess. There’s no other way to describe it. Cade and I seem to fit seamlessly. We laugh, we talk, work together and every moment I spend with him seems better than the last. Hell, even lying in bed with him listening to him breathe is better than anything I’ve ever experienced. Cade seems so positive, so confident. Me? I’m a freaking mess who might have fallen in love in less than a week.
In love.
Jesus.
Today, we had dinner at the Avalanche, a local pub in Sweetheart, with my brother. He’s not very happy with me, but he’s been quietly accepting about it. I’m not sure why. I figured he would go ape shit. My brother likes to have me close enough to try and control what happens to me—without letting me know that’s what he’s doing. It doesn’t work, but I don’t call him on his shit most of the time. When I lived in Nevada, I thought he was going to go insane. I think he was glad when I finally called him to get me out of the mess my so-called parents were living in. I never regretted the decision. I love my brother, but I still feel the need to spread my wings more.
