Pulling her closer, I tap her nose with my finger. “Do me a favor and never tell anyone what you just told me unlessyou want to be charged with tampering with a witness and obstruction of justice.”
She blinks once, twice, and then says, “I didn’t know it was that bad.” Her eyebrows furrow together. “The only other thing they would have heard was Matt screaming on the floor.”
I don’t know what I love more, the fact she didn’t realize what laws she broke, or that she broke them to protect me. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt happiness, but with her, I’m happy. Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her in for a hug and kiss her temple. “You’re right, sugar, that’s not worth listening to.”
Burrowing her cold nose in my neck, she sighs and tightens her hold, her fingers digging into my back. After a few breaths, she murmurs, “You don’t know how happy I was to see you when you walked through that door.”
She’s wrong. When I walked through the door, the terror on her face that turned to relief had my blood boiling.
Setting my chin on her head, I slide my hand down her spine and back up. “I’ll always be there, sugar.”
After another moment, she talks into my shirt. “Did I hear you right? Arewemoving to Tennessee?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
A few days later, we’re walking through a small apartment that’s close to team headquarters. Nora’s on the balcony looking out over the large sprawling city, and I walk up behind her, setting my hands on the balcony railing, caging her in.
Setting my chin on her shoulder, I kiss her neck just under her ear. “What do you think?”
It’s the sigh that has my ears perking up. She lets her head fall back against my shoulder. “I miss everyone at the ranch already, and the wide-open spaces.”
“It’s only temporary, sugar. Is that what you want? Something remote?”
She turns in my arms to look at me and sets her palms on my forearms as she leans back against the rail. “I kind of feel like this isn’t my call to make; this is your job and your relocation. I’m sort of pushing in.”
Shaking my head, I say, “No, you’re here because I want you here and I want you to be happy.”
She looks to the side, and I can tell she wants to say something, but she’s holding back. “Say what you want to say. Let’s iron it out.”
Her thumb is spinning her ring on her finger against my forearm, so I know something is bothering her, and I wait quietly for her to get her thoughts together. But every second she is quiet scares the fuck out of me a little more.
With a huff, she looks back at me. “I hate to bring him up, but Matt used to say that any woman who’s not bringing a paycheck is dead weight, and should be cut loose. I just want you to know I’m going to rebuild my editing business so I won’t be dead weight. I’ll contribute.”
Fucking asshole.
Taking her hand in mine so she’ll stop spinning the ring, I kiss her fingers and hold her hand to my chest. “Sugar, if a person thinks of another person as dead weight, they also think of themselves as an island. That’s not what we are. We are a team;wework together to strengthen each other, we do what’s best forourteam.
“I know we haven’t really had a conversation about money, but I’m not worried about that, I’ve had a long military career with good pay. Now, if you want to work, if it makes you feel better to work, do it. But don’t feel like your only worth to me is how much money you bring to the table, you’re so much more to me than that. Okay?”
She nods her head as her eyes move between mine. “Okay. In that case, yes, I would like something remote, and I want to haveroom for your family to come visit. And, well… I don’t know how long we’re going to be here and if it isn’t very long, then there’s really no reason to bring this up, but if we do end up being here for a long time, I would like to have room for any future additions, but that’s only if you would want something like that.”
She takes a breath and starts rambling like she does when she’s nervous about not wanting to be presumptuous or pushy, and that it’s an important subject to discuss; her eyes are focused on the button on my shirt she’s fingering as she talks. She’s so fucking cute when she’s nervous, especially the flush that’s making her cheeks pink.
What sends me over the moon is that her thoughts are about a future together. Setting my finger over her lips, she stops talking, and her beautiful green eyes lift to meet mine.
“Before my injury, I never thought I would settle down, much less have kids.”
Her face falls, and she slumps further against the rail in disappointment, so I quickly follow up with, “But wait, let me finish. After my injury, because of the PTSD issues, I didn’t think a family would be possible just from a safety aspect, but I think maybe with you it’s something I could do.”
The disappointment on her face fades, and a small smile brings light back to her eyes. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. It’s not something I want right away, but someday.”
She slides her hands up my chest to my shoulders with a sly smile. “In the meantime, you want to practice?”
“Yes, I fucking do.” I loop my arms around her and lift her just enough that her feet are off the ground as she laughs and turn us to go back into the apartment. It needs to be christened anyway.
34
