AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you going to tell everyone at the clubhouse that I kneed Sin in the junk too?”
“Nah. He’ll tell everyone that.”
“He will?”
I nodded. “‘Course. Shows you’ve got guts.”
“I don’t think I do. Not really. I just don’t like to see people hurting you.”
What was that? A fucking football, right in my throat?
I sucked in a breath, refusing to be unmanned by my tiny wife. “No one ever cared about me before.”
“Same could be said about me. Well, apart from Sarah.” She huddled closer, then her hand moved to my throat. Her fingers traced where I knew bruises were starting to form. “Is this your mom?”
Tilting my head back against the bar, I sighed. “When she was younger. Before I wrecked everything for her.”
“You could never wreck anything for the women in your life, James,” she chided, then she pressed a kiss to my cheek. “We have to protect each other, don’t we? Even from ourselves.”
Because I knew where she was coming from, I reached over and cupped her chin. “We do. Even from ourselves.”
Her happy smile told me she liked my concession. “Did he say if he’d come to Christmas dinner? Or did you tell him I can’t cook?”
I drew her deeper into my hold, assuring her, “I’ll make sure he’s here for your burned offerings, baby. Don’t you worry.”
38
DIGGER
COUNT ON ME - BRUNO MARS
THIRTEEN WEEKS LATER
With a yawn,I opened my eyes. Spying the first edition copy ofLord of the Fliesthat MC had given me for my birthday on the nightstand, I smiled then rocked my head to the side when I realized she was awake as she drowsily tickled a lock of hair over one of the tattoos on my throat.
“I wish you were ticklish.”
That had me snorting. “You say strange shit first thing in the morning.”
Drowsily, but with a semi-serious tone, she countered, “I say strange shit all the time.”
“Not all the time. Mostly before coffee or after a long day of studying or work.” I rolled my eyes. “I still can’t believe you got a job. It’s not like you’re not busy enough with school—”
“I like having a job.” Her smile was happy. “Plus, I never thought I’d get to use my degree. I just thought it would be a piece of paper I got to frame.
“Now, I can help out Mr. Banks, and after I graduate, he said I can carry on working there while I get my masters in urban planning and can experience the issues civil engineers have on the ground.”
She sighed, and that sound was also happy, and that was when I knew I was a sap because fuck, her happiness was all I really wanted anymore.
When she smiled like that and sighed like that and said shit like that, it amplified my day. Brightened my mood.
I’d never understood until her how someone else’s joy could mean more than my own, but now I did.
Reaching over, I pulled open the nightstand drawer and retrieved the small box from within.
Flicking it open with my thumb, I stared at the contents, hoping she’d like it, before I dumped the box back in the drawer and returned to her side.
With a questioning look, she smiled at me. “Everything okay?”
