Page 76 of When You Stayed
A tear slid down the side of my face as I laughed. “Such a bigcrush, Ford. When you kissed me in the cellar when we were kids…it was like this dam burst. I was obsessed with you, and you didn’t seem to care, or to notice me. The rejection stung.”
His nose slid across my jaw before his mouth found a way there. “I was insecure because Connor followed you like a puppy. I assumed you wanted him.”
“So you pushed me away.” It wasn’t a question anymore, I knew it was what he’d done.
His warm breath fanned my neck. “He talked about you incessantly. Wanted to marry you and have babies with you. Told anyone and everyone who would listen. I got angry, and I took it out on you.”
I pulled his hand up to my chest and laid it over my heart. “What sort of things did you imagine for the future? If I hadn’t rejected your card, and you hadn’t pushed me away. If Connor wasn’t in the picture…what would our future have looked like?”
“I don’t know…back then I wanted to go to college, and one day build things…I guess I pictured you in a wedding dress at one point. Getting married in those fields you love so much.”
The one he’d permanently drawn onto his skin. “Go on…”
“I never pictured a cat…I pictured a dog, and a house. The one in my mind back then looked more like my parents’ house, and less like a rundown piece of shit, but it was also where our kids grew up.”
“We had kids?” My voice was rough with emotion. I followed along with his words, seeing myself in a beautiful white dress, and a house that didn’t exactly look like this one, and a boy and a girl who looked like a blend of each of us.
Ford drew a design into my skin before agreeing. “I want them eventually.”
“Me too.”
“Good, then when you’re ready to hop off the birth control, let me know, we’ll start practicing.”
I smiled, even as I swatted his chest. He caught my hand and kissed my palm.
“I’m dead fucking serious, Rose.” Rolling over the top of me, he caged me in with his arms.
Tracing a line up his chest and along his throat, I asked, “Does that mean I’m getting a property patch?”
I’d always wanted one when I was little. My mother had one that she wore when there were big club events, and anytime we went somewhere that would have bikers. It was a leather jacket that had her name on the front, and on the back had my father’s wolf insignia along with the club patch, and in big white letters, said: Property of the Wolf.
Hers also said President’s Wife along each shoulder, because he was the leader, and she was his woman. It was a way of telling everyone in the motorcycle club community that she wasn’t patched to a random member. She belonged to the president of the whole goddamn club. Ford’s mom had one as well, but hers had the club patch, not the wolf.
I assumed Ford would tell me, “hell yeah,” since he’d been so open and engaging about our relationship, but he immediately rolled off me and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Shit, I forgot I had church this morning.”
I wrapped my hands around his waist, placing my head against his back. “Surely dating the president’s daughter gives you a pass, right?”
His head turned, allowing our gazes to meet. Mine was playful, silently begging him to come back to bed. His was something else…there was that warning that Connor had left me with, and it shone through Ford’s eyes. He wasn’t telling me something, and while I was typically pretty good at conjuring up fake scenarios and ideas of what it could be, I simply refused to.
I knew he wanted this. He wanted me, I believed that to my very marrow. So why was he holding something back?
Right as he opened his mouth to respond, someone banged on his front door. Gus ran into the bedroom, darting under the bed as the pounding stopped, only to start again.
“Who the hell is that?” It was like eight in the morning.
Ford’s determined gaze swung to the bedroom door as he heaved in a sigh. “I’ll give you one guess.” He stood from the bed and moved to the dresser where he yanked out a pair of sweats. “Honestly, I’m shocked he gave us the night.”
That had me scrambling out of bed. “You think it’s my dad?”
“I know it’s your dad.”
Sure enough, seconds later my father’s voice came muffled through the door. “Ford, open the fucking door.”
I was naked, and my father was about to burst into Ford’s house.Ohmyfreakinggosh.
Did my mother know about this? I needed to call Taryn.
