Page 33 of Grumpy

Like the cut he now held in a white box under his arm was a resolution.

He took her hand, leading her out into the main room where he settled her onto the couch before sitting on the coffee table in front of her. She hoped it was made of solid, sturdy wood and didn’t break under his weight.

“I don’t expect perfection, Kelly. Life’s messy.” He waved a hand in front of his face as if to say Exhibit A. “And I don’t want the picture-perfect life with you. I don’t need the clean house or the dogs running around the yard. I certainly don’t need dinner on the table at six every night or you barefoot in the kitchen. I don’t want perfect. I want the grease stains, the mess that comes with knowing we’re building something together. Maybe we stumble, maybe we have to tinker around the engine some, but at the end of the day, all that matters is that I get to go to sleep with you in my arms.

“You think I’m perfect at relationships? You think I know the answers to what’s going to happen?” Though she was sure the questions were rhetorical, he still answered himself, “I wouldn’t have gotten myself blown up if I did.” He reached up and brushed a lock of her hair out of her face. “Kell Bell, you’re not my happily ever after, my celebrity, or my hero. You’re my dream, my soul, and my heart. You’re who I think about every waking and sleeping hour of the day. Maybe we don’t know the little things about each other. Maybe you fart so much in your sleep that I won’t be able to move at night for risk of dutch ovening myself.”

Kelly covered her breathy laugh with her hand, tears coating her cheeks.

Grumpy reached behind himself and brought the gift box forward to place on her lap. “I don’t care. We’ll learn the little things and I’ll invest in nose plugs. All that matters to me is knowing you’re mine, that nothing and no one can or will ever take you from my side again.”

Her heart was heavy in her chest, like it had expanded too wide for her ribcage. She didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t asked her anything, but she felt like she needed to answer.

“I don’t fart in my sleep.”

Jesse “Grumpy” Bell nearly crooked a smile. “Good to know.”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you smile.”

“Haven’t had a lot to smile about,” he informed her soberly. After learning about his divorce and being kept from his daughter, she thought the response an understatement.

Leaning forward, crushing the box slightly, Kelly reached up to touch his face. She very carefully traced the ridges of his skin grafts. “I want to learn the little things, too, Grumpy. I want to learn everything.”

“Then stop questioning what you don’t know and have faith in what you do know. That I love you, that one day I plan on marrying you, and that the second I get my strength back, I will make love to you as you deserve.”

Kelly nodded slowly. “I still want to go with you to Texas, but I may have spoken prematurely last night when I offered to go. I don’t know when or if I can take off work on short notice like that.”

Grumpy inclined his head down at the box on her lap. “Sophia and Tally aren’t just your bosses anymore, Kell Bell. They’re your club sisters, and you now have several other sisters and brothers who will gladly take your place at the diner—because I sure as fuck am not taking anyone else with me for such a tedious drive.”

Kelly started to smile, but then something clicked in her mind. “You’ve been calling me ‘Kell Bell’ for a while now.” It was rare he spoke directly to her over the years, but when he had, he’d always referred to her as ‘Kells’ or ‘Kell Bell’. Other than silently swooning at the nicknames, she hadn’t really thought anything of it before.

In all the years she’d known and privately loved Grumpy, she hadn’t learned his legal name until she was at the hospital with him following the explosion. Even then, it wasn’t until now, after they professed their feelings for each other, that she put together his last name with her nickname.

“Holy fuck,” she whispered. “You really mean it. I mean, not that I doubted your declaration or the cut or anything, but you really mean it about marrying me and creating a life together with me. You’ve been calling me ‘Kell Bell’ for years.”

His facial expression did not change, but amusement lit up his good eye like a flare. “Took you long enough.”

* * *

Despite that an army of mercenaries had attacked Keys’ building only a month after the bar’s explosion, there wasn’t a single trace of evidence. Grumpy had still been in the hospital, only four weeks out from major surgeries and completely oblivious to anything happening in the outside world. It was also the same night that Ranger had relapsed on heroin. He was now one hundred and thirty-eight days sober.

Keys’ building wasn’t just “pretty”. Once you learned the extent of the technology put into it, it was fucking scary. The building itself was a security nightmare. Sensors flowed through every inch of the building, making it so sophisticatedly sensitive that Keys claimed he could give an accurate count of insects inside at any time.

His computer lab, or tech hub, or whatever he called it was any nerd’s wet dream. Thankfully, Grumpy was not a nerd and he just thought the number of screens annoying, especially the ones on his left side. But he did give Keys kudos on this place. It was fucking impressive, even though Grumpy did not want to see the monthly electric bill.

Rose was not what Grumpy had expected when he’d first been told about her. Keys’ fiancée sat in what was clearly her station with one foot up on her rolling chair, her arm threaded under her knee, and was typing on the keyboard balanced on the thigh of her other leg that was crossed under her ass. She looked like a blonde pretzel.

“You know, I both respect and am completely annoyed by your daughter,” Keys started as he escorted Grumpy and Kelly into the room. He didn’t pause on his way to his own station, but he did touch the back of Rose’s chair as he passed. Like he wanted to leave her the slight reminder that he was thinking of her without breaking her concentration.

Grumpy had no idea what it was Rose was doing, but it looked fucking complicated, so he could understand Keys’ reserve. He also respected it, because it was very unlike the kid to show any restraint. The club’s littlest brother was growing up.

“What do you mean?” Grumpy demanded, not sure yet if he should be offended on Mads’ behalf.

“She barely has a social media presence, which is rare but also smart in this day and age.” Keys plopped down in his chair, which rolled out too far from his desk to catch himself. He ended up having to half push-half shimmy his way back towards the edge until he was able to reach it and pull himself in front of his million and one monitors.

Kelly covered her mouth to contain her laughter.

Keys pulled up information on Maddie like he hadn’t just humped himself back into position. “Most of what I found out about her was from when she was younger, and it was her mom who was posting.”