She nodded.“No matter how bad.”
“And I promise to keep open communications with you.And while there will be times I absolutely do not agree with you on a course of action, if Badger, Peyton, or Duncan—hell, even Beck—if they agree with you, I’ll suck it up and deal.As long as you promise to listen to me, actuallyhearmy concerns, and do your best to mitigate, and then do that in return with me.Fair?”
“Fair.”
“And our first son gets the middle name ‘Heathcliff.’”He smiled.
“Now you’re just pushing it.”
He cocked his head, finally smiling.“That wasn’t a noooo.”
She snorted.“I’ll think about it.”Then a thought hit her.“Unless you mean that you hate me calling you Ken?”
His turn to snort.“I told you a long time ago, baby, I don’t mind it.I like it.It’s one of our first ‘things’ between us.And there’s no negative association for me with it.”
He stretched out on the bed and opened his arms to her.She tucked herself against his body, closing her eyes as she listened to his heart beating.
“I love you, Dewi.I can be mad at what happened and still love you.But wehaveto start over and reconfigure this mess.Build something new that will work for us and make us a team.Doing what we’re doing now willnotwork.It’s not sustainable.Either we find a way to work together, or both of us will have to stop working for the pack like we are.”
“I-I don’t know how to do anything else,” she said.“It’s the only job I’ve ever had.”
“I know.But do you understand how serious I am now?”
She nuzzled her face against his chest.“Yes.”
“Deal?Going forward, we’re a team?”
She tipped her head back, meeting his gaze.“Yes.We’re a team.Nothing siloed between us.”
He kissed her forehead.“Good.Love you.”
She closed her eyes and tucked her head against his chest again.“Love you, too.”
“Sorry I’m not in the mood for make-up sex,” he said.
She kissed his chest.“Me, either,” she quietly admitted.
“Starting right now, clean slate,” he said.“I won’t throw this in your face, and you won’t throw it in mine.We build it from the ground up.”
“I promise,” she swore.
He nuzzled his face in her hair.The feel of his warm breath over her scalp was damned near heavenly.“So that’s a yes on Heathcliff?”he asked.
She laughed but didn’t move.“Since the man I love the most in the world is named that, I suppoooose I can agree to it.”
Ken chuckled.
Dewi realized it was a sound that could soothe her pain and make her do her damnedest to become a better person, a person worthy of this beautiful, singular man.
And she’d do whatever it took to keep him laughing.
ChapterThirty-Nine
Aisling
It was almost justover two months since Aisling’s return from Wales.Jake was still in Wales with Maya and the older children, but they’d be moving to Florida soon, as would Callum and Bryn.
Tonight, Carl and Mateo went out for a night alone together.Tamsin and Aisling used that time to have their own stay-at-home date night.Maisie was sound asleep in her crib when, after dinner, Tamsin and Aisling curled up together on the sofa in front of the TV.
