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“Fuck. Sorry, Red,” he says sheepishly.
I grin as I lean down and kiss him again before I climb off his lap and he makes a face. “It’s not like you won’t have another round in you, Davidson.”
“You know me too well,” he replies with a laugh as I cuddle up next to him.
Jori clears his throat nervously as he runs his hands over my hair.
Here it comes, I think trying my best not to sigh.
“Red?”
“Yeah?”
“I have to tell you something.”
He pulls away from me, sits up, and pulls the sheet over his lap, his face in his hands as I sit up next to him and place a hand gently on his back.
“Tell me,” I say softly.
8
He runs a hand back through his hair and sighs, resting his arms across his bended knees.
“Alright. There’s a reason I brought you here. Today.”
I run my hand gently up and down his back, encouraging him to keep going. He doesn’t need my words right now—whatever he has to tell me needs my understanding.
“The week before Hoyt got arrested for .. um .. Well, I had gone to the house to see you, but you weren’t there. Again,” he says, his voice turning as bitter as the color of his eyes. “Anyway, I snuck into your bedroom window and Hoyt was waiting for me. I got really scared, you know? I mean here I am, a young kid getting stared down by Hoyt Fucking Blackburn, but he wasn’t angry with me. He just shook his head and told me to climb back out and meet him by his truck.” I smile at the memory of Hoyt’s beat up old pick-up. He loved that goddamn thing almost as much as he loved me. “So we went for a drive. He was telling me that he had a feeling things were going to go to shit soon because he found some stuff out about Doreen and he was going to talk to her about it. We ended up here. He told me that you were lucky to have a friend like me and that he knew we’d always find a way to be together. Obviously this isn’t what he meant, but I think he knew,” he trails off for a moment as he blows his breath out. “So we kinda just sat in his truck outside of the Inn and he talked and talked. Asked me a shit ton of questions. How school was going, how my grades were, what I thought of living with Millie. He even told me that he was proud of me. Me, Red. No one had ever been proud of me before you, but he was too, and he admitted it.”
Jori lets out a sigh as he whips the sheet off his body then gets to his feet. He finds his boxers and pulls them onto his body as he goes to stand by the window overlooking the small lake on the property and crosses his arms.
“I didn’t care what he thought of me. I never did. I only cared what you thought about me but he tried his best and it didn’t turn out the way he wanted. I think he accepted it though, because before we drove back, he promised me to bring you out here one day. And that’s why we’re here. That’s why I wanted you to be happy today. Because I promised Hoyt.”
Jori clears his throat again and I can see his shoulders slump a little.
I get off the bed and walk over to him, wrap an arm around his waist, and rest my head on his shoulder.
I don’t say anything to him.
I know that there are some things that words will never truly express how grateful you really are for the little actions others take for your happiness.
Jori glances down at me from the corner of his eye, and uses a knuckle to wipe away a stray tear. I lean up on the tips of my toes and kiss the next tear away from his face.
The boy that slew all of the dragons that had ever done either of us wrong, grew up into a man that only ever wanted someone to love.
And he chose me.
About Yolanda
Yolanda Olson is an award-winning and international bestselling author. Born and raised in Bridgeport, CT where she currently resides, she usually spends her time watching her favorite channel, Investigation Discovery. Occasionally, she takes a break to write books and test the limits of her mind. Also an avid horror movie fan, she likes to incorporate dark elements into the majority of her books.
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Shari J Ryan
As a single dad, my tween daughter's PTA events are the only time I find to mingle with women—they all seem to enjoy my presence—except one. Journey Milan. She’s not like the other moms which attracts me to her even more.
