How About No (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 3)

She bit her lip and looked down.

I caught her chin and forced her to look back up. “Baby?”

“I’m so bad at this thing, Wade,” she whispered. “I’m always screwing up. I’m always emotional. I’m just…fucked up. I’m wishy-washy, and not a day goes by that I wish I hadn’t done the things I’d done to us. And you treat me like I’m the beginning and the end of your world. Why do you deal with my shit?”

I bent forward and dropped my mouth down on hers.

“Why do you deal with mine?” I asked. “This last month? It’s been awful. I’ve been on bitch duty while my leg healed at the rate of a goddamn slug, and I’ve been in a god-awful mood. Yet, each day you make time to make me feel important. You’ve taken me to work with you. You don’t complain when I go with you everywhere and walk slow—holding you back. You have lunch with me before going to the rescue…and you act like I’m not fucked up, too. I love you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Wade, unlike you, I don’t see anything wrong with you. Not one single thing.”

I rolled my eyes. “So, you’re telling me that having me follow you around day in and day out doesn’t bother you?”

Because I had done that. I’d followed her around, from room to room, almost as if she was leaving me at any second. As if what we had was something that might disappear if I didn’t keep an eye on it.

“Actually,” she said softly. “That’s been my favorite part of having you back. You being there when I wake up from a nap. Me coming out of the dog kennels after cleaning shit up for an hour. Wade, why do you think I haven’t freaked out that our house burned down and all of my stuff inside of it was ruined?”

I gave her a look that clearly said that she had, indeed, freaked out.

Landry waved it away. “I’m a little freaked out, sure. I’m pissed off at the situation, yes. But, did you ever stop to think that I’m taking this incredibly well?”

Yes, I had.

“Yes,” I replied hesitantly. “But I just assumed it was because nothing super important was lost in the fire. It was only material things, and honestly, that house held some bad memories for me and you. I just assumed your feelings and mine were the same on the matter.”

Her eyes went wide. “You had bad feelings about the house?”

I snorted. “You lived in it with another man while we were supposedly divorced. Of course, I had some ill-will regarding it.”

Her eyes went soft. “Kourt asked me today if we were going to renew our vows.”

My eyes sharpened. “Do you want to?”

She looked at the still smoldering ashes in the sink. “I want to get married again. I want to do it all over again. I want it to feel real.”

I took a step in her direction and hooked an arm around her waist, pulling her to me. “You’re saying that what we have doesn’t feel real?”

She shook her head with frustration plainly written on her face. “I’m saying that I fucked things up, and I want to make sure that you remember you’re mine. I want everyone to know that you’re mine.”

I looked down at her hand—which still didn’t have my wedding ring back on it.

“Where’s your ring?” I asked.

I didn’t bother to ponder it being lost in the fire. I’d seen the box in her purse last week when I went through her bottomless pit in search of ibuprofen. I’d seen it in the middle section, all by itself, as if it was just taunting me to put it back on her hand.

“My purse on the counter,” she whispered.

I didn’t waste a second going to retrieve it.

Stepping over Capo who was laying peacefully in the middle of the kitchen, I winced only slightly at the jarring movement before quickly retrieving her ring and walking back to our bathroom.

Once I was back in front of her, I opened the box and stared at the ring.

“This ring means you’re mine,” I told her, not taking my eyes off of the piece of diamond and metal that had changed my life the moment I’d slipped it onto her finger.

“I was yours whether I had that ring on or not,” she whispered. “I’ve been yours since the moment that I walked into your classroom.”

I felt my heart swell as I reached for her hand.

“I’ll marry you again,” I told her. “I’ll pay for another ten-thousand-dollar wedding if it makes you smile at me like I’ve lit your entire world.”

Sliding the ring on her finger, I felt something inside of me once again become whole at the sight.

Her breath caught, and I finally lifted my gaze back to hers.