Wow.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“They dig you,” he muttered.
They dug me.
And suddenly, I was reading Buck.
Reading and reading and reading.
Reading soaking tubs.
And reading him wanting to make sure I liked my job, felt fulfilled there, and I didn’t need more.
And reading, not days into us being us, him making me go out with Lorie, Minnie, and Pinky and make friends in his world, have a girl posse who would also have my back.
Reading him shielding me from losing hope about Tia.
Reading him not caring all that much if he got me pregnant.
Reading him teasing me about buying islands and bikinis.
And how he didn’t mind if I called Rayne about Rogan’s money, he just wished he’d been there to have my back if Rayne upset me.
Reading how hard it was for him to share things about himself that he worried would color the way I thought of him.
Reading how he’d never let me go.
Reading.
And reading.
And reading.
Something was happening in my belly. It felt like a soda pop was fizzing there.
How I’d missed all this, I did not know.
I had been at my lowest ebb and I was in survival mode.
But I’d quit surviving the minute he carried me out of Lefty’s clinic.
And from that point on, me and the man in my life had been falling in love.
“Now, Toots, you gonna get on the back of my bike?”
“Tia,” I said.
“Are you gonna get on the back of my bike?”
“Yes, West. Of course I am. I love you.”
He closed his eyes and his forehead landed on mine with a thud.
Oh my.
He really, really loved me.
“Baby,” I whispered
He opened his eyes and lifted away.
“Tia,” I repeated.
He shook his head. “Reunion can continue tonight over enchiladas. Now we’re goin’ home and havin’ make-up sex.” I stared at him and he concluded, “All day.”
My eyes got big. “All day make-up sex?”
His hand slid from my jaw down to the side of my neck where he squeezed. “Okay, maybe not all day, since the kids’ll be here tonight, but we’re stayin’ in bed all day. Eventually I’ll need to crash, or enchiladas will be shit.”
“You need to crash?”
“Babe, sat up all night waitin’ for you to come home. You raced outta Ace and disappeared into thin air. Then fuckin’ Scott shows at my door sayin’ you’re with him and he wants your shit. So I’ve been up all night and spent the mornin’ pissed as hell and scared as fuck and on the back of my bike comin’ into the Valley to deal with my woman. Now I’m not pissed, I’ve dealt with my woman and we’re goin’ home, we’re fuckin’ then we’re crashin’.”
That soda pop feeling was getting stronger and it was effervescent.
“You sat up all night waiting for me to come home?”
“No, I got on my bike, left Ace and went to Mrs. Jimenez’s place and waited for you to show there. When you didn’t, I figured you’d cooled down and went home. So I went home and you weren’t there. Then I stayed up and waited for you to cool down and come home ’cause you tossed out your money, Toots, and someone’d have to pay the taxi.”
“Pay the taxi?” I parroted.
“You went to Ace on the back of my bike so, after you tossed most of your bills on the bed, and a taxi home would cost a whack, with no way home and no cake…yeah, pay the taxi.”
We’d had our fight. He’d said what he’d said, then he’d gone to the only places I could go, Mrs. Jimenez’s and his house. And in the end, after we had our fight and he said what he said, he was waiting up to pay my taxi.
Oh my God.
He so totally loved me.
And I’d been right. I’d finally been right.
I’d found the real thing.
I knew what that feeling was in my stomach.
That lightness.
The froth.
It was joy.
I was feeling actual joy.
I’d never had that in my life.
But I knew precisely what it was.
Buck clearly didn’t feel the joy.
I knew this when he ordered, “Babe, quit starin’ at me and get on the back of my bike.”
I didn’t quit staring at him.
I kept staring at him, and I did this awhile.
Firstly, he was so incredibly handsome, I could look at him forever.
And secondly, obviously, I liked everything I could see, and the best part about it was that everything I could see was mine.
All mine.
“Babe—” he started, sounding impatient.
He stopped talking when I slid my hands down to rest on his chest.
“I need to go get my purse, then we can go home,” I whispered.
It was his turn to stare, but he didn’t do it as long as I had.
His hand at my neck shifted, going back and up, his fingers in my hair. He put pressure on, pulling me up as his head came down. His mouth hit mine and he kissed me.