Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
It looked restaurant quality.
I turned my attention to him. “This says ‘welcome back’ almost better than the two orgasms you gave me.”
He chuckled, dropped a kiss on the top of my hair and sat beside me in front of his own plate, reaching for the hot sauce to shake on his food.
My man liked his hot sauce. It was something I’d noticed, but never really paid attention to.
Being able to watch him spice up his food again felt weirdly profound.
“That was a lot of the Baby Yoda theme,” he noted.
He meant the texts.
Prior to our big blowup, he’d asked about my ringtones because he’d never seen The Mandalorian, something I intended to rectify when winter hit, days were colder and shorter, and binge-watching became the meaning of life.
“I think that theme is Mando’s,” I told him.
“Whatever,” he muttered, lips tipped up while shoveling food in his mouth.
I watched.
I missed those lips.
And that stubble.
He noticed me watching, put his fork down, reached a hand to me, curled his fingers under my jaw and rubbed his thumb along it, his beautiful blue eyes tender on me.
“Told the girls we’re back together,” I shared. “They’re keen to know what happened, but they’re happy for us. And I’m going to see Mom and Andy tonight. They’ll be relieved too. I’ve been shutting them out. And they think the world of you.”
“All right.” He didn’t move his hand and continued to hold my gaze.
“I won’t share anything you don’t want me to. What happened is private to you. They don’t ever need to know.”
He was still rubbing my jaw when he said, “Do they know Nails is active?”
Shit, I hadn’t seen to that.
I mean, in my defense, I thought I was dying of a broken heart, so I had other things on my mind.
But still.
How had I forgotten to share about Eleanor?
“I’ll get on it,” I promised.
He nodded, then said, “It’s up to you whether you tell them who I was and what I did. It’s your family.”
“Okay.” Damn, this was harder. “But I think it’s important they know your history about your mom and dad.” Before he could argue, I went on, “I won’t go into detail, but as hateful as it is, it’s a part of what makes you, and if I’d known before I heard—”
He moved his hand to curl it around the side of my neck and cut me off.
“I’ll rephrase. It’s up to you what you tell them. But I’ll say that I learned the hard way this kinda shit, if you don’t share, finds a way to bite you in the ass.”
He was right.
Paid attention to the men I knew, not what I knew about them.
On the reminder, I made a decision.
“I think they need to get to know you better. They need to know the man I know, not just the man they think is good for me.” I softened my tone. “I’m going to tell them about your parents, but the rest can wait. For now or forever. We’ll see.”
His eyes flashed with relief, and I knew I’d made the right decision.
He’d been through a lot recently, reliving that with me. He was tall and strong, but he was still human. We got through it, but now he needed a break.
Thinking that, I continued to look into those beautiful eyes, right there beside me.
“Missed you,” I whispered.
“Yeah, me too,” he whispered back.
I turned my head and kissed his wrist.
After I did that, with one more swipe of his thumb against my jaw, his hand dropped away.
Okay, good.
Enough of the mushy, it reminded me of the pain.
“Everything’s okay,” I assured.
“Awesome,” he muttered.
Yes. It was.
On that thought, sitting with my guy, we ate breakfast.
“So, Eleanor told me some stuff about Core’s past when his club was under a different charter, and they got involved in some not-great things.”
Ugh.
Understatement.
But I had to leave it at that and keep going.
“This led me to walking away from him, only to find out why he allowed himself to get messed up in a situation where he did those things. That being what I just told you about his mom and dad. Not to mention, some experiences in the foster care system, which Core and I haven’t gotten into yet, because frankly, reliving the nightmare of when he found his mom and dad was enough for one night.”
I was sitting, holding an untouched glass of wine, talking to Mom, Andy and Li.
I was tense because I’d just mentioned the not-great things, and even though it was an understatement, Core was a biker. They might not be able to guess it all, but they could read between the lines.
But I had to mention to them because they needed to know why I walked away, and should the time come when I told them the fullness of it, I’d need to lay the groundwork now.