AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I thought I knew what love was. I wanted to cling to her because of it. What I felt then is nothing like I feel now. What I feel for you doesn’t even come close to what I thought I felt back then.”
“I love you, too,” I whisper, loving the way his eyes flutter closed, the way they do every time I say the words. It’s as if he’s relishing them, as if he can’t believe he’s hearing them from my lips. It shows he values me, and that is something I didn’t realize I was missing until he showed me what it looked like.
“I’m in this with you until my last breath, baby. Where do you stand?”
“Right here with you.”
He nods as if he expected my answer but needed to hear it anyway. That’s the change my love has made in him. He no longer looks apprehensive and scared that I’m going to take off. His resiliency, his steadfastness, was what I needed to trust that he’s exactly who he presents, and that’s the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.
“Marry me,” he whispers against my lips.
“Make me come first,” I say against his.
Chapter 40
Bishop
“You were right,” Travis says, a proud smile on his face. “He loves it.”
I nod. The man doesn’t need to hear me tell him I knew I was right because I know his son very well.
“Can’t ever go wrong with Superman.”
I know Sunshine is slightly uncomfortable with her position on my lap with her ex two chairs over, but I’m territorial, even more so now that she’s pregnant with my child and wearing my ring on her finger.
We’re at the clubhouse, celebrating the October birthdays. Travis is here on a day pass from the inpatient program he’s in. I wasn’t exactly happy when Kincaid told me that he’d helped secure a spot for the man, but I calmed when he reminded me that Ryder loves the man despite all his faults. If Travis can’t get his shit together, then action will be taken, but he’s done exceptionally well in treatment. He still hasn’t been to court for his DUIs because of the backlog, but he’s fighting to be a better man and a better father. I commend him for it, and it helps that he hasn’t looked at Sunshine once in a way that makes me think he’s trying to be sly and waiting for the moment to pounce on her.
“What did you get him?” Travis asks, his eyes still locked on the frown on Ryder’s face when he opens my gift.
“Books.”
Travis turns to look at me. He nods, understanding that it’s a way for me to take one for the team. Ryder needs to see the good in what his father is trying to accomplish. Ryder isn’t a selfish greedy kid, but he’s still a kid. I have the means to give him everything in the world, but I don’t have to prove that at every turn. Travis giving him the thing he really wants and me giving him something he’ll also enjoy is an olive branch to the boy’s father. Ryder loves his bedtime stories, so although the book isn’t as flashy, I know Sunshine and I will be able to spend precious moments with him and that gift. Those are things Travis aren’t afforded yet.
“What did you get?” Jamie, Hound’s son, asks.
“Books,” Ryder says, a little disappointment on his face, but he smiles up at me when he thanks me.
“That smile is familiar,” I tell Sunshine, pressing my hand to her lower belly.
“I love trucks,” Ryder says, holding up The Little Blue Truck book.
“I guess that’s your doing?”
She gives him a thumbs-up and pride pulls the real smile to his face.
“I told him it’s rude not to thank someone for a gift. If he finds himself wanting to complain, to do it when he gets home, but to find one good thing about each gift when he’s thanking the person for it.”
It makes perfect sense, and I don’t exactly see what he’s doing as the same thing she did for so long. Her pain ate away at her. He’s just trying not to hurt my feelings. It helps some that when we get home and he’s exhausted from the day, he’s going to pull the book out, grab my hand, and ask me to read his bedtime story.
“I love that book,” Jamie says.
“He’s going to be an amazing big brother,” I say, watching him hand Jamie the book to flip through instead of staking claim to it.
Travis turns his head in our direction and I see his eyes dip to my hand on Sunshine’s stomach.
“Big brother?”
I sit a little straighter. I will end this man if he causes a scene. Kincaid was quick to help the man get into treatment but he wasn’t exactly thrilled for him to attend today where he’d be around his own grandchildren.
