Page 124 of A Lick and A Promise
He made a noise. It was pain and something else. It came from way down deep, so it sounded guttural.
And so beautiful.
I’d never forget that noise. Never.
Then he kissed me, soft, wet, and so, so, so, so achingly sweet.
After that, he slid off me so I could clean up and he could take his shirt off, get back in his sling.
And in my bed.
We were man and woman and dog again in the moonlight.
Knox was on his back, arm in the sling, and I was tucked to his good side, head on his shoulder, but avoiding his bad leg.
Jacques was laying over our ankles.
“Cap got in my face after you sang that song,” he said. Then he admitted, “When I laid it on him, I omitted a few things. Him hearing you sing that song, he figured that out.”
He was there.
With me.
I had him.
I knew I had work to do with him (seriously, the man didn’t think he was worthy? I got it with his history but…hell no), but I had him. Right there. With me. So I could do that work.
And I was going to do that work.
Therefore, I refused to get angry.
“Raye heard, so did Eric,” he continued. “Eric took me outside, had a few words to say. I listened. And called a Lyft.”
“I’ll bake Eric some cookies.”
His arm around me gave me a squeeze.
“What now?” he asked.
“What now?” I parroted.
“Babe.”
I lifted my head and looked at him in the dark.
“I think what now is obvious,” I stated.
“We got shit to work out.”
“Sure,” I said offhandedly.
“Serious shit.”
“Okay, breaking that down, I am aware that there’s a rather glaring outstanding issue with your sister. Though, good news, things are progressing well with mine.”
“I kinda noticed that tonight.”
“Yes, she’s an evil genius, something I admire greatly. But…moving on, it also appears I have some work to do so you’ll settle into the fact I’m not going anywhere. However, I will point out at this juncture that you tested me, repeatedly, and actually, I did not fail. Okay, so we were apart for thirteen months. There was Cheyenne, who’s also an outstanding issue. But I one-upped that bullshit play with an even more bullshit play with Brady, so I’m taking that as even stevens.”
