AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Every feminist bone in my body revolted at him ordering for me, but I kept my mouth shut until after Manny left with our menus. “I wasn’t sure I wanted wine.” I folded my arms across my chest. Sauvignon Blanc was my favorite wine, although the one he’d ordered was nicer than I usually ordered myself. Was I being petty and trying to start a fight for no reason? Yup, sure was.
Reaper scoffed. “You love Sauv Blanc, and that’s the best bottle they carry. And don’t start with the food. You couldn’t decide on one thing, so I saved you the trouble and ordered everything.”
He’d effectively snuffed out any argument I was about to make. I wanted to kick him in the shin just because I didn’t know what else to do.
I changed tactics. “So, how long have you been stalking me?” My tone was bland, like I was asking if he thought it would rain. Reaper choked on his water and I bit back a grin. It was nice to surprise him for a change.
“A few years. And it wasn’t stalking.” His face pinched like he’d tasted something unpleasant. “Just some light recon for when I finally got my opening.” ?
I blinked, then blinked again, certain I’d misheard. Reaper just admitted, rather smugly in fact, that he’d been stalking me.
“Did you think I was going to deny it?” He grinned. “I did what I had to do, Einstein.”
“But why?”
Manny chose that moment to drop off our drinks and the first round of appetizers. I dove into the food, hunger getting the best of me.
“Why what?” he said once we were alone again. “Why did I do everything possible gather all the info I needed to make you mine one day? Or why did it take so long to get here?”
“No.” My head spun. “Yes. I don’t know.” Taking a sip of my wine, I composed myself. “Why me? And I guess… why now?”
“You understand my life and the way life is with Redemption. You accept every person the way they are and were always the kindest person in the room. You’re smart as fuck. You’ll support me, the same way you support your girls. And you’ll fight with me, when necessary, because we both know I can be an idiot sometimes.
“Above it all, Peyton, I trust you. When something good happens, you’re the first person I want to tell. When something shitty happens, you’re the person I want to talk it through with.”
My heart squeezed painfully as he listed off reason after reason why he picked me, and not one of them was shallow like I would have expected. But I didn’t know what to say. What could I say? Everything that came to mind seemed inadequate. “And the second question?”
“Why now?” I nodded. “I wanted to give you space. I know you need it, especially when things change and you need to acclimate yourself, so I didn’t press in the beginning like I wanted to. I thought there’d be a signal at some point, to let me know when you were ready, but then you made it so damn hard to connect, avoiding me and the club. I didn’t know what to do.”
Glancing up at him through my lashes, I tapped the stem of my wine glass. “Okay. Um, is there anything else you’d like to put out into the open?”
His expression turned thoughtful as he swallowed a bite of food. “Yeah.” He blew out a noisy breath. “Your place? I, uh, I kind of orchestrated you buying it. And I may have added some stuff to the blueprints while we worked on it.”
I laughed, because I should’ve figured that one out for myself. “Were you the reason I got the house so easily? And why the bathroom ended up twice the original size? The bedrooms being flipped to the other side of the house?” I thought back to the construction and how I’d approved everything without much thought.
“Your bathroom was too small for me.” He frowned. “Everything else was family planning.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed by how he was able to infiltrate my life without me knowing or angry that he did it when he knew he wasn’t wanted. But another part of me, the one that had a few loose screws, loved it. That part of me wanted to forget the past and move forward with him. Wanted to revel in how much time and effort it must have taken to find a place that was perfect for me.
Reaper had worked on himself. Made himself better before he came to me. Something deep in my soul clicked, and everything about us, about us being together like this, felt utterly and completelyright.
There was one elephant in the room. And if Reaper was opening up, I was going to press a bit harder. “You trust me?” I asked, needing him to repeat it.
“There’s no one on earth that I trust more than you, Einstein.” He laced his fingers with mine on the table.
“My job.” I started and finished with those two words.
“I love your job. It makes you happy. You built a family.” He said that like it was so simple. “I’d never ask you to leave, the same way you’d never ask me to leave the club.”
“It’s dangerous. I sometimes can be gone for weeks.”
“Military spouses handle it. So can I.” He shrugged. “The club has no problem keeping me busy while you’re off saving the world. I’ll miss you more than life, but I know you’ll come back to me. You’ll never be far from my mind. Ten years, Einstein, and there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought about you. Worried about you. Missed you. At least next time you leave, I’ll be in our bed waiting for you to come back.”
His words rocked me because I knew they were true. The food was forgotten as I tried to think of more questions. I needed to know more, ask as many questions as I could. I was obsessed with learning more about him.
Somehow, I hadn’t seen what was right before my eyes—Reaper making plans to be with me, building his life with the singular goal of sharing it with me someday.
A flurry of what-ifs popped into my mind, but I shoved them aside. There was no use wondering if we could have been together sooner if I had only been willing to let go of the pain and anger of the past. I wasn’t ready then, but I was ready now. It was time to focus on what our future could be. Time to look toward the future he had worked to build for us.
