One day I’ll have him figured out.
One day he won’t fight me.
And maybe one day he’ll come to enjoy the flirtatious banter we have instead of being stuck in his head.
“Grace.” Snake greets me. There’s an easy going smile on his face that I have no doubts Alice put there. “They’re all waiting for you inside.”
“Connor doing good?”
“Connor came running in and went straight to Alice. Hasn’t left her side since,” he tells me. My eyes widen. I suspected a crush but not one strong enough to keep him from video games. Especially Star Wars. “He should be glad he’s just a boy otherwise I might have a problem with him trying to stake a claim on what’s mine.”
Oak rolls his eyes but there’s a smirk on his face.
I narrow my eyes at Snake. “It’s an innocent crush you asshole. He’s only eleven.”
Snake shrugs. “I met Alice when I was ten and fell in love with her before I even knew what love meant. He could be in love with her and you don’t know it.”
I sigh exasperated. “Are you seriously jealous of an eleven year old kid having a crush on your fiancée?”
“Soul mate,” he corrects me. “She’s my fiancée now, will soon by my wife but Alice will always and forever will be my soul mate.”
“Never pegged you as the romantic type,” I reply surprised.
“Only with her.” I believe that. “So as I was saying,” he continues, making me want to narrow my eyes at him again but I refrain, “he should be glad he isn’t of age or I would have to straighten him out.”
I don’t even know what to say to that logic. It sounds barbaric as it does insanely possessive.
Yet why does it almost sound just as admirable, too?
“You guys seriously can’t be this possessive,” I say to them both but my eyes fall on Oak. He stares back at me with a smirk on his face.
“We’re biker men, Grace,” Snake says as if that answers itself. My eyes swing back to his incredulously. “Of course we’re fucking possessive about what’s ours.”
“You’re so unapologetic about it.”
He nods his head. “Because as much as she’s mine I’m hers. We don’t own each other but we completely have all of each other. Make sense?”
I nod my head because it does. It makes perfect sense. Their possessiveness doesn’t come with an underlying need for control nor does it make them want to own someone like a toy. Their possessiveness comes from love. A love that stakes a claim. One that says proudly she is mine and I am hers and I dare anyone to say otherwise.
“You ready to go, Oak? I promised Alice I’d be back in decent time and we all know I never break a promise with her.”
“Give me a minute and we’ll go.”
Snake nods his head and waves to me before heading to his bike.
As we walk towards the back entrance I ask him quietly, “Have you ever loved someone like that?”
His fingers on the strap of my duffel bag tighten. “I’ve loved someone.”
My heart lodges somewhere in my throat. “What happened?”
He glances at me and then straight ahead. His body grows more tense with each step that he takes.
“She found someone else to love better than me.”
I sneak a glance at him and see the faraway look in his eyes again. The one that reminds me of four days ago before he lost himself inside his head.
And I don’t want that for him.
