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“Perfect,” he says, looking proud of himself.
“You love playing hero, don’t you?”I ask, cocking my head to one side.
He grins.“Maybe.A little bit.”
“Well, thank you.But you don’t always have to be the hero, you know.I’d still like you if you didn’t save the day.”
His expression sobers.“I’d still like you even if your butt wasn’t the best butt that ever slipped into a pair of jeans.Those jeans are…amazing.”
I smile.“Yeah?My butt is happy to hear that.”
My butt also wants him to take its virginity, or at least it did in my dream, but we won’t talk about that.As long as certain things remain unsaid, we should make it through the rest of Aaron’s recovery without doing any serious damage to each other’s hearts.
Or butts.
Chapter 16
Aaron
The suspense is killing me.
If I didn’t have house hunting to keep my mind off the doctor somewhere in the bowels of Bad Dog Memorial Hospital, reading my scans, I’d be coming out of my skin.
“What about this one?It has a hot tub on the porch,” I say, tipping my phone toward Slasher, who’s sitting next to me in the diagnostic waiting area.Gram had a charity auction she couldn’t miss this afternoon, but that’s fine with me.
Sometimes, a little man time is nice.
He slides his reading glasses up his nose, scratching his nose ring as he scans the listing.“Five bedrooms?What are you going to do with five bedrooms for two adults and a little guy?”He opens his guitar monthly magazine and sits back in his chair.“I’d go for the cottage.The one with the fireplace and the sledding hill behind it.Chase’ll love that.”
I swipe back to the home he suggested.It looks like a tiny German cottage from a fairy tale, complete with bric-a-brac trim around the roof, and is set far enough back on the road that no one will see Mel’s car parked in the driveway.It’s also in a private community, with a guard at the gate, so we’d have an extra level of protection.
“Yeah?You don’t think it’s too small?”I glance at the description again.“There are only two bedrooms, one full bath, one half bath, and a foldout cot.”
Slasher shrugs.“So?That’s plenty of room.Melissa can sleep on the ground floor bedroom with her son on the rolling cot.You sleep upstairs.”He points toward one of the pictures near the bottom of the screen.“If you can’t handle stairs, that’s a massive couch.You’d be comfortable there.”
“I can handle stairs,” I say with a huff.“It’s my shoulder that’s garbage, not my legs.”
“Your shoulder isn’t garbage,” he says.
“That remains to be seen,” I mutter, looking up as Slasher puts a slightly gnarled hand on my good shoulder.
His pale blue eyes are serious as he says, “It isn’t garbage, no matter what.You’re not a machine, son.You’re human.Injury and moments of weakness are part of that.Learning to deal with them is, too.You gotta give yourself a break and some credit.You’re a strong man, inside and out.Whatever happens next, you’ve got what it takes to handle it.”
I nod, my throat growing tighter as I wonder if this is what it would have been like to have a dad.A good dad, not one who made fun of me every time I took a fall in peewee hockey.I’ve always told myself that having a piece of shit father was good for me.He pissed me off, and I used that anger to push myself hard enough to make my dreams come true.
But who knows how much farther I could have gone with more faith in myself, faith put there by an adult who cared more about helping me grow up strong and safe than his own ego.
When I’m a dad, I want to say things likethatto my kids.I want them to know they’re loved even when they’re struggling.And that their dad is always there for them, no matter what.
I nod.“Thanks, Slasher.”
“Call me Kevin,” he says with a smile.“If you want.My grandkids do.They think it’s funny that a hardcore guy has such a wimpy name.”
I shake my head.“Nah, you’re too badass.You’re Slasher to the end.”
He laughs and turns back to his magazine.“Damned straight.”
I punch in my dates and lock down the cottage with the surprisingly well-provisioned kitchen for the next two weeks.I’ve just finished paying and sending the address to Mel when the nurse appears in the hallway leading deeper into the hospital.“Boudreaux?”
