Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“Yup,” Hutch agreed.
“So I guess what I’m saying is, be vigilant. You will be, but it makes me feel better to say it.”
“I will, Harry. You got enough to worry about without taking on me and May.”
“Yeah,” Harry muttered.
“Go. Do your job. Then get home to Lillian. Does Sean want Mabel alone when she makes her statement? Or can I join them if he isn’t done?”
“You can join them.” Harry pushed from his desk. “Thanks for waiting around, brother.”
He offered a hand.
Hutch shook it.
Harry took off.
And Hutch left Polly’s office to get to his woman.
The fullness of Mabel’s weight finally settled into his body, and Hutch turned his head to look at the alarm clock.
4:07.
Too late, or too early, but at last, she was asleep.
In his mind, he heard her say his name over the phone, her tone dripping in fear, and he shut his eyes tight.
Even though Tonks was on their feet, he rolled into his woman, rounding her with both arms, feeling Moxie not with her bud, but curled at the small of Mabel’s back.
Tonks just sighed and resettled, Moxie twitched and stilled.
Hannibal snored.
Hutch thought.
He’d been cheated on.
He’d tolerated the rasps of a woman who was trying to sculpt him into something he was not.
And he’d been stalked and harassed.
But he’d never lost a woman.
Every one of those women, in the beginning, even Bree, had presented themselves as The One.
They were not the one.
He had to take his part in the ownership of it. Turning a blind eye. Making assumptions. Not reading words or acts when they belied each other. Not taking action when the signs it wasn’t going to work were there.
In the end, somewhere along the way, all three of those women had shown their true selves to Hutch, and he hadn’t seen them.
His mother never hid what she was.
He was a loner, but it went without saying, since he was almost engaged once and definitely engaged another time, he wanted a wife and a family.
He’d convinced himself that wasn’t meant to be.
Now, there was Mabel, and he already knew this was all going to be a problem. What he didn’t know was that problem was going to be compounded exponentially.
She could be real.
Or she could be an illusion.
He knew one thing: if she was an illusion, he’d break in a way that couldn’t be fixed.
But now, after tonight, he had an even bigger worry.
Because now, he knew, if he lost her, for all intents and purposes…
Just like his dad…
His life would be over.
TWENTY-NINE
Don’t Fail Me Now
Mabel
On Monday, Hutch parked his truck behind my store.
We got out, me with Moxie in my arms, him going to the back cab to let Tonks out and grab the box of bags we picked up from my workshop yesterday.
We ran this errand, incidentally, while also running the errand of me packing nearly all my winter clothes, and Hutch packing all my perishable food.
Because, yeah…
On Sunday, at his brook-no-argument demand, I moved in with my FWB.
In other words, at Hutch’s decree, until Lars Enstrom and his gang of outlaws were caught, I was staying with him.
Him driving me around and crowding me, he assured me, will only, “Last awhile, babe. You gotta give me that until I’m less tweaked.”
And I could give him that, because I’d sat in his chair in his living room, watching him with a rifle waiting for a threat to descend, so I’d seen firsthand just how tweaked he was.
But the line was drawn about the living arrangements, and the way he communicated it, I didn’t argue.
This was only partially because, obvs, I too was tweaked.
It was mostly because he didn’t hide he needed it, and I’d long since passed the place where, if I had it to give, I’d give Hutch everything he needed.
See how fucked up this was?
Calamitously fucked up.
And I couldn’t even blame those folks at The Lion and The Lamb.
It was me who’d had the idea of what he and I should be.
This was all on me.
I juggled Moxie as I unlocked the back door, and Tonks ran in yodeling her greeting to Abigail, while I followed her and Hutch followed me.
I made it to the mouth of the hall that led to the store when I found my upper arms seized by Abigail.
She held tight, examining my face.
I dropped Moxie and she scampered.
“Like I told you on the phone yesterday, I’m fine,” I said quietly.
She yanked me to her and held tight, pushing out, “God.”
Word was spreading, no surprise, and as such, Abigail had called yesterday to ask if I was okay, even not knowing (as Sean told me no one would know) I was the one who instigated the raid on The Lion and The Lamb compound.
Once I told her, she lost her shit. There was a lot of me soothing her and then, when she informed Brett of what was going on while she was on the line with me, I’d had to hand the phone over to Hutch, so there was a lot of Hutch soothing Brett (dude style).