“Even the mean one.”
I smirked at her description of Aaron.
“What’s his deal?”
I shook my head. “What isn’t his deal? He’s been through some things, I guess,” I replied, making light of Aaron’s background.
“What did you say to him to convince him to talk to my boss again?”
“I told him I would kick his ass for messing with my woman.” I scowled just remembering how pissed I was the day I went to see Aaron after Michelle came to me at the station. I turned and looked down when I heard giggles coming from the woman in front of me.
“You didn’t really threaten him, did you?”
“Damn straight I did. But he wasn’t afraid to get his ass kicked by me so I had to use something else.”
“What’d you use?”
“Threatened the one thing that would get under his skin. Townsend Industries.”
Michelle’s head snapped backwards and the space between her eyebrows creased. “How’d you use Townsend Industries against him?”
I pushed out a breath and told Michelle all about how I told Aaron I’d use my stake in the company against him as CEO if he didn’t get her, her job back.
“You did that for me?” Her voice was filled with a little bit of awe.
“Of course, sugar.”
Her honey brown eyes softened and shone, and just as she bit her bottom lip I wanted to lean in and take what was mine again. Instead, I was thrown off when she shoved me away.
“Good! It was your damn fault I got in trouble in the first place.”
My chest rumbled with laughter that eventually spilled out of my mouth. She was right but I wasn’t about to make any apologies.
“Come here.” I pulled her pouting mouth to me and wiped that little frown off her face. Before I could get too carried away, I released her from the kiss and then repositioned ourselves on the bike, with Michelle’s back to my chest. Even our breathing was in sync as we sat quietly watching the cars down below pass by.
“How often do you come up here?”
“Not a lot anymore. I used to come frequently when I first moved into the house. I had a lot of time to myself then.” My voice sounded weighed down by a pair of dumbbells.
Michelle turned to look at me over her shoulder. I only caught her out of my peripheral as I was staring out into the distance.
“Why’d you have so much free time?”
I clenched my jaw and peered down at her before staring off into the distance again. “I’d been having some trouble at work.”
“What kind of trouble?” She turned to face out into the distance again, but her hand rose to stroke the side of my beard.
It was all too comforting and I leaned into her soft palm. I sighed and briefly debated on how to say my next words. I had told Michelle she could trust me and that I wanted her to know everything about me. What I was about to reveal was one of my uglier truths, but for better or worse it was a part of what made me who I was.
“I’d been suspended from work. I got caught coming into work drunk and high on oxycodone.”
Her hand paused on my cheek and she sat up, turning to me. She stared at me, searching my eyes. I wasn’t proud of my past, nor was I ashamed, and so I wouldn’t look away from her.
“You were high at work?”
I nodded. “For the third time.”
Her eyes ballooned.
