I turned to Maureen and touched her arm. “I’m sorry to drag Donovan away from the wedding.”
She waved me off. “I’d clip his earhole if he didn’t go for those bairns. Abe and Iris are leaving soon to take over babysitting duties, and Kai’s bringing Kady and Sunny to the party. Bring your two back as well, love. The buffet will be out by the time you get here, so they can eat.”
I took her hand in mine and smiled fondly at her. “Thank you, Maureen.”
She squeezed my fingers and raised her other hand to touch my cheek. “Go and get your babies, Rosie love.”
A lump formed in my throat.
I was usually the person who was calm in a crisis, so having somebody else organize the rescue mission was a relief. It was nice, just for once, to have somebody takingmyback. Atlas was always there for me, and I was privileged to have him as a brother, especially as he did so much for me and the kids, but it wasn’t the same as having a partner.
I knew Donovan wasn’t that, but just for a while, I was going to let myself pretend, because I found I liked the feeling of having someone else there to ease the burden.
A warm hand engulfed mine, and I glanced down to see Donovan’s heavily tattooed fingers covering my daintier ones.
“You ready?” he asked, his voice a rumble.
My gaze lifted to meet his, and I nodded. “Yeah.”
Donny pulled me toward his matte black GMC Sierra Denali and threw open the passenger door before glancing at my dress. Before I knew it, his hands were on my waist and he’d lifted me onto the step as if I were light as a feather.
Now, I was a gal with tits and ass—think Kardashian rather than Olsen twin—so the fact he lifted me at all was impressive. I worked out and ate right, mostly (a girl needed chocolate at certain times of the month, and my love of wine, Pornstar Martinis, and iced donuts was legendary). I loved my figure, but I wasn’t what you’d call a waif. Still, I liked the idea of having a man who could fling me around, especially in the bedroom, so the fact that Donny did it without exuding any effort made my hoo-ha tingle.
I slid into the passenger side as Donny closed the door behind me, and I reached for the seat belt while I watched him jog around the hood and haul himself up into the truck.
He definitely had cat energy, but I was still deciding if it was a black or orange cat. Anyhoo, I was all Doberman, so we’d fit quite well that way. I couldn’t deny that I liked how he’d white knighted the shit out of my mini crisis. My love language was acts of service, so Donovan was scoring pretty high already, which was a good thing when you considered that my life tended to be full of mini crises. Especially when I had two teenagers who seemed to generate them on the daily.
There was also the fact that he was damned hot, but the jury was still out on whether that was a good or bad thing. I mean, hot was great except when it came to getting attention from other women. Also, hot guys were aware of their power and generally believed they could get away with behaving like dicks.
Donovan didn’t have his head stuck up his own ass, so that was good. In fact, he didn’t act as if he were gorgeous at all. He was a down-to-earth guy and even self-deprecating to a point.
It was becoming clear that he’d settled down in the last few years and was definitely showing himself to be more reliable. Perhaps that was why I found myself wondering if maybe this thing between uscouldgo somewhere after all.
Donovan fired up the engine, slid his arm across the back of my seat, and craned his neck to look out the back window.
My hoo-ha tingled yet again because that was hot.
After reversing and turning the truck around, we set off down the road toward the intersection that linked us up to the I-80.
“What’s the story with your ex and your kids?” Donovan asked.
I glanced at him. “It’s long and drama-filled, and typical of my life. It’ll probably scare you away.”
“I don’t scare easy. Tell me everything.”
“I was eighteen when I fell pregnant,” I began. “Evan was twenty-one, and I don’t think he was looking for anything serious. He got me pregnant the second time we were together after he convinced me that if he pulled out in time, we’d be covered.” I gave Donovan big eyes. “Obviously, he was full of shit.”
“Not meaning to victim shame here, Posy, but didn’t you already know that?” he asked.
I snorted quietly. “Believe it or not, I didn’t. I was a virgin, and my mom wasn’t the kind of parent I could approach about sex. She told me the basics and how things work, but that was as far as it went. Atlas had already moved to Wyoming by then, so the only people I had were my two best friends, who were as clueless as I was, and Evan. Who knew he’d turn out to be a big ol’ rat bastard? He had a shock when I told him he’d knocked me up. Initially, he even denied being the father, then Atlas found out, came home, and had a little chat with him and his parents, who were horrified that their son got me pregnantout of wedlock. Before I knew it, we were down at County Hall saying I do.”
Donovan glanced at me. “Did you want to marry him?”
“In hindsight, no, I didn’t, but at the time I just accepted the situation for what it was. I loved him as much as an eighteen-year-old can love anyone, I guess. We settled in, and before I knew it, I was pregnant again. Then I had Gabby, and he started going out more, and eventually stopped coming home at all. I knew then that I’d made a huge mistake.”
He shook his head. “Who was she?”
“A woman from work. He’d been seeing her throughout the entire time he was with me. She found out I was pregnant and ended it, but he sweet-talked her somehow, and it started back up around the same time I had DJ. When I eventually threw him out, he ended things with her to try to get me back, but by the time he realized he couldn’t talk me around, it was too late; she’d moved on with somebody else.”
