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“Yes, of course. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay. I have two other brothers, Alden and Ransom. They both met women and wanted to get out of this life in order to keep them safe. Ayana would never have left her dad and his club because that’s her family. She and Ransom have a baby girl together. That was kind of a surprise for them, and it happened fast, but they made it work. Alden and Azalea are in Canada, and she brought her parents with her. They were kind of betrothed at birth by really bad parents—the types of people on Granny’s radar. They ended up passing away, and Azalea was adopted. It’s a long story, but they fell in love, and it all worked out. We kind of almost took down Ayana’s dad’s club because one of the bikers flipped Granny off, and she didn’t take kindly to that. She did legitimately think they were up to no good, and Lennox met Cass because she’s Ayana’s best friend. He kind of kidnapped her by mistake, thinking she was Ayana because he didn’t know what either of them looked like, and Granny made him make it up to her with pie and swan boat rides, and then she kept contriving for them to be together.”
“So, for the most part, it was in your Granny’s plans every single time your brothers met their ladies and fell in love.”
“Kind of. I don’t know if it really was part of her plans, but it quickly became that way. Azalea, yes, while Ayana and Cass just kind of happened.”
“But it was definitely not in the cards for you to hear someone’s voice on the phone, go a little haywire for it, find that person, and fall completely head over heels into infatuation.”
“No, that’s false.”
“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry, so it was in the cards for you to move here as part of your cover and meet someone?”
“No, that part is true. It’s the infatuation bit that isn’t right.”
“Oh. Oh, I see.” Her eyes narrow, but there’s laughter dancing in them all the same. “So what would you call it then?”
“My family kind of asked me that, too, so I’ve had some time to think about it.” I seriously hope this doesn’t come out as corny and lame, though it probably will. I’m already bracing for it, but Victoria genuinely wants to know. She’s a better woman than I could ever deserve, and I darn well hope I can spend the rest of my life earning her trust, getting to know what makes her tick, learning all her favorite things, reading her favorite books, being lucky enough to read the books she’s going to write, protecting her hard, and loving her harder.
“And?” She raises one brow, waiting.
I breathe in deeply like I’m getting ready to leap another barbed wire fence. “And I…well, I hope it can be like a fire. From the minute I heard your voice, the flame was lit. I want to temper it down, make sure nothing can blow it out, and let it burn bright and slow. I’ll guard that fire, keep it safe in my chest, feed it when it needs feeding, and tend it when it needs tending. I don’t want it to consume us to the point where we both get razed to the ground. That’s not the kind of fire I’m after because I want the kind of fire that lasts, a fire that cares about each other. That is…well, that’s my honest hope, even though I’ve done a poor job of it, and I know you probably want to laugh at me right now.”
“Nope,” she whispers, her eyes wide and huge, the gold floating once again in the dark depths. “I don’t want to laugh at you. I think we need a lot of work going forward, and trust might be hard, but I don’t want to give up. Maybe I feel the burn too, and maybe I don’t want that fire to go out either. I think we can restart it, make a new spark, and tend that. Let whatever happened in the past stay in the past, and let’s make different decisions going forward. There’s a lot to talk about. A lot. And a lot to learn about each other. But I’m not walking away.” She smiles at me shyly, maybe a little bit sheepishly too. “I’ve always wanted to see the world and have crazy adventures. Plus, who knows? Maybe taking down a bad guy or two would be kind of fun. I’m useless at computers, but I could be a good companion. I mean, not that I have much experience with that because I’m practically a loner who never dated anyone before, but if you want a friend who is more than a friend, a friend you’re kind of attracted to—though for the life of me, I can’t figure out why— someone to nerd out with, and someone to share some hopes and dreams with, then maybe, maybe I could…we could learn to be a good fit together.”
