“I was handling business, Rem-”
“This isn’t the military. You aren’t on a top secret mission that forces you away for weeks and months at a time. You are not alone anymore, Erys, and you can’t move like that,” she fired back. “I’ve been worried out of my mind about you. Ernie has been…beside himself.”
He breathed and nodded. “Do you want every detail?”
“Are you being funny right now?” she snapped. “I told you about that neglecting shit. I told you.”
The dramatics and the attitude all heightened by him. Remedy felt like she was unraveling and couldn’t find the grip to hold herself together. It was maddening.
“I heard you,” he shot back. “I know.”
“But you did it anyway.”
“I handled business,” he stated.
“I know. All I ask-”
He cut her off. “So you and my pops could be fine. Untouched. Do you get that? That I will lose my fucking mind if something happens to you?”
“Erys, I-”
“I’m talking.”
Remedy’s mouth snapped shut, her eyes still intense under furrowed brows. She rolled her lips together and sighed.
Erys rubbed his brow with his free hand, still holding a container in the other. “Remedy, you don’t see what you’re doing to me? Huh? You unravel me. Everything I thought I was, I’m not. Every horrible thing about me, I’m having to change not just because of you, but because I want to be a better person for you. So when we have kids and they talk about me, they’re fucking proud. In a matter of some weeks, you’ve undone everything. Ilove you and I’m going to always do what I need to do to ensure above all else that you’re safe.”
“What’d you say?” Remedy questioned.
“I’m going to always do what I need to do to ensure above all else you’re safe,” he repeated, a silly smile melting away the sternness on his face.
“Mm mm, before that.”
“In a matter of some weeks, you’ve undone everything,” Erys repeated, his smile growing.
“After,” Remedy directed.
“I love you.”
She bit a grin. “Say it again, please.”
“I love you. Without question, without worry, without bounds. I love you,” he declared, closing the space between them. He hooked her chin, craned his neck and kissed her with passion. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you know I was good. I understand it’s more than me now too.”
“Good, next time I’m going to track you down.” Remedy playfully pinched the inside of his arm.
“Ow, girl,” he winced with laughter. “I missed your mean ass.”
“I hope it kept you up all night. Had me sleeping in the room with Ernie because he was mad at me you weren’t home. Well Cherie, but at this point, it’s the same damn thing,” Remedy shared.
Erys handed her the box in his hand. “Hopefully that’ll make up for it.”
She screwed her face slightly. “I don’t know how you can top the car.”
Erys watched as she opened the box and found a baby turtle tucked away in its shell on a bed of grass. “While I was neglecting your spoiled ass, I saw him in the middle of the road.Considering you’ve been calling me Franklin, I figured when I’m gone, if you have a mini version, you can cuss him out.”
Remedy gently stroked the shell with her finger and cooed “Hey, Bud.”
“I’ve been callin’ him Lil’ Nigga,” Erys shared, watching her gush over the turtle. “His ass snapped at me twice.”
