Still Standing (Wild West MC 1)

“All right,” I said when she stopped and said no more.

But she was watching me closely again.

And she explained why when she asked, “That doesn’t upset you? That he bought this place for Mom?”

“No. It’s his now. So, no,” I answered.

“I did up his room, after they split,” she said like this was gravely important. “The whole thing. The bed isn’t even the same.”

I took control of her hand, which was still holding mine, and gave it a squeeze.

“Your mother doesn’t factor in our lives in that way, Tatie,” I promised, then grinned. “Though, you have good taste. I always wondered why your dad’s bedroom was so fantastic.”

She grinned back.

“That said, honey,” I went on, “it doesn’t explain why you didn’t claim your room. You’d been living here—”

“They broke up when I stopped being a little girl.”

I closed my mouth.

She carried on.

“It was Dad. He has sisters. He said my little girl room had to go. And it was pink, Toots, pink with lots of purple and some glittery stars and other shit Dad thought a little girl would like. And I did like it when I was a little girl. He moved it all out, repainted, got new furniture and they split up and…and…” she drew in a visible breath, “and I guess I didn’t have anybody to help me fix it back up.”

Her fingers twisted so they were threaded through mine.

And she finished on a whisper, “Now, I do.”

“Now, you do,” I whispered back.

And now, I did.

I had a girl to help fix up her room and sit on her bed and talk about stuff.

And to love.

I didn’t have that myself, when I was a little girl, or a teenage one.

But I got to give it to Tatie.

And for me, that worked.

In a big way.

“My room sucks at Mom and Knuckles’ place,” she told me.

Hopefully, soon, that would be a memory.

“Well, you have your space here,” I unnecessarily reminded her, since we were lounging in it.

“Yeah, I got a lot here,” she said.

Uh-oh.

I was going to cry.

“Toots, don’t,” she begged. “’Cause I’ll start bawlin’ with you and your friend is sweet and I’m glad she’s back, safe and sound, and her man is hot and they look happy and it’s all good.” Her hand shook mine. “Yeah?”

I nodded, but said, “I’m supposed to reassure you.”

“Well, I get to do it sometimes too,” she retorted.

“Hate to break this up, my two girls,” Buck said low from the doorway.

We both turned our attention that way.

And yes.

Buck standing there looking like someone handed the world to him on a platter just seeing his woman and daughter talking together.

It was all good.

“Talk to you a second, Toots?” he asked. “Then you can come back.”

“I’m gonna hit the sack,” Tatiana announced. She then leaned into me, kissed my cheek, and said in my ear, “Love you and love you worry about me, but I’m okay. I get in a bad place, I call Debbie. She’s, like, my after-assholes-fuck-with-you sponsor.”

I pulled back, stared in her eyes, and tried really hard not to take her in my arms because I figured I might crush her to death with what I was feeling after she told me she loved me.

“Good, baby,” I whispered. “Sleep tight, yes?”

She nodded.

I kept whispering.

“Love you too.”

Her eyes got bright with tears, we both squeezed our fingers, held tight for the second it took her to get a lock on it, let go, and I got out of her bed.

I walked to Buck, saw he had some papers in his hand, but with his other, he grabbed mine and called to his girl, “Sleep good, honey.”

“Thanks, Dad. ’Night.”

We both bid our goodnights as she swung her legs to the side of the bed, probably to get up and change into pjs.

Buck led me to our room.

He closed the door behind us.

He then took me to the end of the bed.

“Was she a bitch?” I asked after Kristy and did it quietly.

“First, this,” he said, lifting the papers up and shaking them.

I turned my attention to them and saw, even with the shaking, they were my credit card bills.

I’d left them in the office.

Oh dear.

I shifted my gaze back to Buck.

“Buck—”

“I can pay these off in fifteen minutes online,” he declared.

Yes, I was right.

Oh dear.

“West…no,” I refused carefully.

He dropped his hand with the bills in it.

“I have to do it,” I told him.

“Babe, I figure with all that happened today, you get what’s goin’ on here.”

“I do, honey, but I have to pay those.”

“We’re partners in this, and by ‘this,’ I mean everything.”

Yeesh.

Was I going to fall in love with him more every day?

Every hour?

Every minute?

“Will you listen to me?’ I asked.

“Fuck yeah, I’ll listen to you, and you don’t have to ask.”

Yes.

I was going to fall in love with him more every minute.