Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“I’m hearing you,” she whispers
“No, sweetheart. I need you to really listen and take it in. Your brother wouldn’t want you saying this shit. He waded into that war because it was who he was. It was to help you because I know he loved you.”
“You can’t know that. You didn’t—”
“I met him. We didn’t talk, but I noticed the type of man he was. I also know because you’ve let me past your walls and I’ve seen the real you, Gabby. You can’t help but love the woman you are. I also know that no man would give up his life and want someone he cared about wishing they’d been the one to die. He’d want you to live happy, and he’d want you to concentrate on building a life you loved not only for you, but for jellybean, too.” I let my thumb drift against the soft skin of her cheek, pulling her face closer and leaning down so our foreheads touch. “It’s going to be okay. Your parents are lost right now, but they’ll come out of it. You’re scared, but together we’re going to steer you out of that, too.”
“I wake up every day feeling like half a person,” she admits, and the pain in those words strikes another blow inside me.
“Baby—”
“Then, I look at you and I wonder why a man like you—a good man down to his bones—wants to even spend time with someone like me.”
“You don’t get this, but I look at you and I see a woman who understands me. A woman who makes me feel …”
“Feel what?” she whispers.
“Settled,” I tell her and want to wince at my choice of words. Women want flowery shit, I know that. They want to hear how they make the world better for their man and how happy they make them. Yet when I look at Gabby, the one word that hits me over and over is … settled. Gabby has no idea that to a man who never had a real home or a woman in his life that he could depend on—feeling settled is like being in heaven.
I watch as she does a slow blink. Yeah, I was right. She has no idea. I start to explain, but she grins at me and anything I would have said dies on the tip of my tongue.
“I never imagined in all my life I’d like it when a man says he feels settled around me,” she murmurs.
I use my fingers to brush away the remnants of her tears. “That’s not a bad thing, Sunshine,” I try to reassure her.
“I know. It’s … real. I’ve lived my whole life feeling as if I’m searching for real and never truly finding it. So, I guess what I’m saying is you make me feel settled, too.”
“Fuck, you’re perfect,” I murmur.
“You do remember that you came home to find me falling apart and crying on you after a simple conversation with my mother?”
“Trust me, woman, I don’t forget a second that I spend with you—not one second. Besides, I understand what you’re feeling. Dragon called today. He wants me to come to a family dinner.”
“Because of me?” she asks, tension sliding through her body.
“I told you I laid it out to Dragon, and I did. They’re fine, but even if they weren’t, I’d still choose you, Gabby. I think you understand by now that I’m all in on this thing between us.”
“What’s the family dinner about?”
“T is coming in with Lyla and the baby. I guess he just wants everyone to get together.”
“Oh,” she answers, and I can see her losing herself in her head.
“You should come with me. We’ll take a few days. I hear there’s a dinner train in Bardstown. We can do that together.”
“King, I love spending time with you, but there’s no way in hell that I’m going to a family dinner. I’d rather have a root canal.”
“Baby—”
“No, they’d probably tar and feather me. Just saying, I could do that here and it’d still be more enjoyable than trying to have dinner with your family.”
I fight my smile, but there’s no point. She’s cute, and she’s probably not wrong. “Point made, Sunshine.”
“I told you that you and I wouldn’t work. It’s already starting,” she replies solemnly.
I wrap my hand into her hair, tugging on it so that I can get her attention and get her out of her head. “I’m here with you. I’m thinking my decision is pretty damn clear. The only one who has ever been in doubt is you. I connected with you one night in a shit room sharing the crap we were dealing with. Straight up, baby, the topics of our conversation that night sucked ass, but that night is burned into my memory as one of my best. That had nothing to do with the shit we were dealing with, but the fact that we were connected and dealing with it together. Do you understand?”