King curses, and while his eyes still burn with determination, there’s also some surrender there. “We can’t fucking win here, can we?”
I move into him, putting my arms around his waist. “I don’t think I ever imagined hearing those words from you.”
He puts an arm around me, settling his hand on my ass. “I never fucking imagined saying them.”
“I’m beginning to think we have to start trusting our parenting.”
“How?”
“Meredith is smart, and we’ve done a good job raising her. We’re giving Travis extra responsibility. I think we have to give that same kind of responsibility and trust to Meredith.”
“Fuck,” he mutters. “You want me to stand back and just let this kid do whatever he wants with our daughter?”
“Not whatever he wants. But I think we have to allow Meredith to figure out her own path in life. We can’t stop her from getting her heart broken. We can only be there if she needs us along the way.”
I watch the war King wages with himself and I know it’s the first of many to come. I’m feeling the same. The last thing I want to do is step back and just let my baby get hurt, but I’ve raised enough children now to know that’s exactly what I need to do. I’ve been slowly coming to this realisation all week.
“Fuck,” he mutters again.
I laugh. “I feel like that might be all you’ll say for the next few years.”
“I’m not going to be good at this,” he says gruffly.
“I know. I’m not either.”
He’s silent for a few moments, still waging that war in his mind, and then he says, “I can’t promise anything if he breaks her heart.”
God, how I love this man and all the ways he loves us. “Yeah, I know, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
I pull his mouth down to mine and kiss him. When I end it, I say, “I’ve decided that we should do our next life together too.”
Amusement fills his eyes, right alongside that expression that saysI really don’t know what to do with you. That expression and that amusement, though, quickly turn to his signature intensity when he tightens his hold on me and growls, “If there is a next life, there’s no fucking way you’re doing it without me. That’s one promise I am making you right now.”
With that, he bends his face to mine again, kisses the hell out of me, and then strides out of our kitchen, leaving me staring after him breathlessly.
When I was younger, I would have thought that nineteen years was a long time to be married. I mean,nineteen years with the same man? Now, I know that nineteen years with therightman feels like nowhere near enough time with him.
I want all of King’s years.
All his lifetimes.
King may be the most difficult man alive at times, but he’s mine, and I’m his, and I’ll never let him go.
26
ONE LAST GROUP CHAT FOR A LAUGH
Madison
OK, science time. Did you boys know women can still remember the grocery list while you’re going feral between our legs?
Chelsea
AND, we can add to it too
Velvet
We are multitasking queens.
