Pure Love

14

Bunny

“What are you craving today?” I ask Pink as we make our way down to the bakery on the corner. This place being so close to the office is dangerous. They have the most delicious treats. Plus, I’ve enjoyed getting in some girl time with Pink.

“Powdered sugar,” she declares, making me laugh.

“Can you put powdered sugar in your coffee instead of normal sugar?” She stops walking as if the idea never occurred to her. I don’t know why it popped into my head, but powdered sugar is the best of all the sugars, if you ask me. We should use it more.

“We’re about to find out.” She slips her arm into mine and starts to pull me along. We’re almost running at this point. “I can’t wait for you to be preggers with me. Have you gotten a period yet?”

“Pink!” I shake my head at her.

She’s been on this baby thing for the last week. I swear she’s paying more attention to my cycle than I am at this point. I’m almost positive I caught her putting dates into some sort of app on her phone.

“What? You’re my best friend. We should be doing this together.” This time it’s me that stops walking. “What? Too soon for me to declare that?”

“Not too soon.” I adore Ollie and Vee, but there is something about Pink that’s made me grow close to her quickly. From the moment we met, something just clicked between us. As though we were always meant to be in each other's lives.

Heck, I can have conversations with her across a room without words already. And I know it’s not because we spend more time together either. I see her almost every day. We just have a special bond. I know Vee and Ollie would understand it because they have the same thing between them.

“You Harts don’t mess around.” It’s zero to a hundred for them, and I love that. They’re all in whenever they go for something.

“Oh, you’ll be rocking the Hart last name soon.” She pulls on my arm to keep walking.

A man in a suit is about to enter the bakery when we get to the door. He holds the door open for us. I do a double take because he seems really familiar. I can’t seem to place him, though.

“Do we want our normal drinks, ladies?” Jennie asks when we enter the bakery. She places fresh cookies into one of the display cases.

“Yes, please, but instead of normal sugar we want powdered sugar.”

“All right.” She laughs. “Want some coffee for the Hart men too?”

“Yes, and bear claws,” I add. Ben loves those. My eyes start to wander the display case. One of the things I love most about this place is Jennie always has different stuff. You never know what you might find.

Pink is already pointing at different things she wants to take back with us. Jennie starts to pull them out and box them.

“Anything else you got back there with powdered sugar?” Pink lifts up on her tiptoes, trying to look toward the back of the bakery. Like they’re hiding things from her back there.

“This is all we have today, but I’ll keep in mind you’re on a powdered sugar kick when I work on tomorrow's items.”

“You’re so good to me, Jennie.” Pink sighs. I shift down the display case as more people trickle into the bakery to make room for others.

“Crap. I forgot my wallet,” I suddenly realize when I make it down to the register and Sammy hands me my coffee.

“Shit.” Pink laughs. “So did I.”

“We got so excited about sweets that nothing else mattered.” I laugh with her. “I’ll go grab mine real quick. Order me a—”

“Vanilla cupcake with rainbow sprinkles? I know, babe.” She winks at me.

“Hey, sometimes I get the—”

“Frosted cookie sandwich with rainbow sprinkles?” She smirks. “You had that last time unless you want both. Are you double hungry?” Somehow, she always manages to swing everything back around to me being pregnant.

“Let me go grab my card.” I snag my coffee from off the counter. “I’ll be right back,” I tell Sammy before I slip back out of the bakery. My eyes catch on the man in the suit again. Our eyes lock, and I think he might be wondering how he knows me too.

I search my mind on the quick walk back to the office. I’m almost positive I know him. Quickly, I grab my wallet out of the desk drawer I’d left it in. I’d taken over the desk next to Pink’s in the front office. Sometimes I’ll help her with stuff and answer phones. I still don’t love the idea of staying home by myself, and Ben seems more than happy to take me to work with him.

A week ago, I would have been worried over my clinginess. Or the fact that I’m merely drifting through life at this point without a plan. I’d be concerned that Ben might be wondering what I’m going to do with my life. Those fears no longer cling to me. My Benny has washed them all away. I know that he’d be more than happy if I sat right on his face all day and did nothing else.

A giggle pops from me at that thought because it’s true. The man loves when I cling to him. I don’t know how I went from being kidnapped, stuffed in the trunk of a car, and thinking my life was over to being lifted from that trunk into the arms of a man that is a fairy-tale white knight. My old life sucked even before I was abducted. I’m almost positive that I didn’t remember at first not only because of the trauma but the fact that I was unhappy in my old life.

I remember going to work in an office I hated but stayed at to pay the bills. That’s all I did. I worked to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. There had been nothing else meaningful in my life. The reality is I actually didn’t know how much my life really sucked before until I got a taste of this one. Being with Benny has made me realize that I was so alone before. Now between the Hart family and the MC Club, I’m lucky to get a moment to myself. I smile, loving that so dang much.

“Charlotte,” I hear someone call as I make my way back toward the bakery. “Charlotte!” they call again. I spin around, remembering that’s actually my name. The suit from earlier at the bakery pushes off the SUV he’s leaning against. “I can’t believe it’s you. I thought it was in the bakery, but you took off before I could say anything.”

“David.” His name hits me. “You have a beard,” I blurt out. No wonder it took me a second. He’d always been so clean cut and put together at the law firm. His father was one of the senior partners, and David was on his way to becoming one too.

“Yeah.” He reaches up and rubs it. “Everyone’s been so worried. We were told you were okay but not much else.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Living here now.”

“We miss you.” He smiles, stepping toward me. I’m not sure how to respond to that because honestly, I didn’t think David even knew my name. He was an entitled jerk most of the time.

“Thanks,” I say. “How are you?” I add to be polite.

“You ever thought about coming back? You could have your job, I’m sure,” he asks, not answering my question. As terrible as it might sound, I don't really care how he’s doing. All the lawyers there were jerks. I’m sure the only reason one noticed I hadn’t showed up was because they needed something I’d worked on for them. They barely uttered a word to the clerical staff in the office if they didn’t need something. They’d always acted as if they were better than everyone.

“No, I’m here to stay. I actually need to get back to the bakery. My friend is waiting on me.”

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” I ask as he subtly pulls out a small gray handgun from his pocket. Everything inside of me freezes.

“You’re going to get into the SUV,” he hisses as the anger that he was masking before shows through. I shake my head, unable to form words. My hands start to shake. “Get in the fucking vehicle, Charlotte. You’re lucky I don’t kill you where you stand after what you’ve done. Gone and given yourself to another man. You were supposed to be different. A good girl,” he seethes.

I take a step back. I’m not getting in. He’ll have to shoot me. I’m as good as dead if I get in that SUV. Last time, I ended up stuffed in a trunk. I was lucky Ben found me.

“Snow?” Pink calls my name. Oh God. A tear slips free and rolls down my cheek.

“Get in or I’ll put a bullet into her.” David starts to turn toward Pink. I do the only thing I can think of. I toss the coffee in my hand right into his face. He screams as the hot coffee hits him and the sound of gunfire fills the air.