Love You Always

She can call me an asshole later when she likely finds out but I won’t care. I could see it in her eyes when I was in her apartment that she had all kinds of walls up. I wanted to make sure that I handle her with care and knowing about her past will help me do that.

What if I only have one chance at this? I need to be prepared the best I can and finding out about her is my best chance to not fuck it up. I’ll do whatever it takes to make her mine. If that makes me an asshole, then you can call me one, as long as I get my girl and she’s happy.

“I enjoy doing everything my wife likes to do.” Now he’s just bragging.

“Spit whatever you came here to say out, so you can get back to your wife and I can get back to—” I trail off, not sure what to call what I’m doing.

“Stalking?” he offers. Is that what I’m doing? I guess so. “Not that I’m one to judge. I used a few tactics that might be frowned upon by most to get my angel. I regret none of them.”

I almost smile at his words. I prefer to think of what I’m doing as monitoring my girl but it’s all the same. “Care to share?” I’ll take any tip I can get. That said, a lot of the information I received about Amelia also brushed up against Mia’s life because the two are so close. They haven’t been friends long but have done a lot together in a short period of time. The two came from two very different worlds and are different in so many ways.

“If you hurt her, I’ll have to hurt you.” Max lets out a long sigh.

“You know I’m not here to hurt her.” I’m here to love her for the rest of my life. To make her my wife. No one ever needs to worry about me hurting her.

“Still had to say it.” He shrugs. “And drop this cold attitude shit with me. If this is what I think it is, we’re stuck together, so you might as well get used to me being around.”

“So you’re not here to tell me to fuck off?” I honestly thought that’s what he was going to be doing. I don’t know Max well but I respect him even more after this. I can see that he cares for my girl but in a brotherly way. Him coming here is not only for his wife but because he, too, cares for Amelia.

“Would it do any good?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so.” He opens the car door.

“That’s it?” I don’t know why I expected more.

“Ah. Now you want to be chatty.” He laughs, stepping out of the car. He leans down to look at me. “Careful with her,” he warns before shutting the car door, not giving me anything else.

As much as I hate that Max knows my girl a little better than I do in some ways, I’m thankful she’s had someone like him in her life to watch out for her. He is still making this a little too easy for me if he’s as protective over her as he claims to be. Or maybe he gets it. He’s been here. I still have no idea how Max met Mia but everything seemed to happen pretty quickly.

None of that information was in the folder. Max and I lead pretty reclusive lives due to our success. We don’t trust people easily and to be honest, we don’t usually get out much. Our world doesn’t usually collide with the outside world that much. It was an accident that mine crossed with Amelia’s that night.

I take that back. It wasn’t an accident but fate that had me at my brother’s club that night. Our paths will be crossing again very soon. My gaze goes back up to her window. I want to give her time, but even Max could see that this is already a foregone conclusion. I might be doing this all wrong. Time might be the last thing she needs.

7

Amelia

I roll over, grabbing my phone and turning the alarm off. I do not want to go to work today. I feel drained both physically and emotionally. I tossed and turned most of the night, unable to get my mind to stop racing. I snuggle deeper into the bed, debating whether I should email my boss that I’m not going to be in today.

I have a ton of sick days and I never take a vacation. I have essentially been stockpiling time off in case I ever needed it. There usually isn’t a good enough reason for me not to go to work. The need to work and make sure I never go without drives me hard every day. At least now I’ll have plenty of time to take when the baby comes.