That’s been a hard one for me over the years—to find my blessings. A lot of my life felt as if I’d been robbed of most of them. But right now, sitting here with Hadley, going to see my Nana and getting to see my extra sister that doesn’t come home nearly enough, I feel pretty fucking blessed.
Mom used to say blessings weren’t always pretty. That sometimes they came hidden, and you had to pluck them out of the ugly and use them.
Maybe a blessing was Hadley finally getting fed up with my shit. Maybe a blessing was Nana getting shook up enough to have a conversation that wasn’t easy for either of us. If those things are true, I have to use them. Otherwise, they’ll go to waste.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask.
“You just did.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha.” I bend my arm around her back and snuggle her closer to my side. “It’s your choice, but—”
“Fucking stop it.” She laughs. “You’re going to run this in the ground, aren’t you?”
I chuckle. “Seriously. I would like to get married sooner than later.”
“I don’t know …” She tries to pull away, but I don’t let her. I need her close, touching me, while she thinks about what I’ve said.
My stomach swirls with apprehension as she quiets. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I had to. It’s the right call.
“I do know.”
“You’re sure?” she asks. “You don’t have to rush this, Mach.”
“I don’t have to do anything. But I want to marry you as soon as possible.”
She tries to rise up again. This time, I let her go.
“Why?” she asks, her eyes full of concern.
“When you know, you know.” I shrug. “And I’d like Nana to be there when it happens. And I’d like to stop wasting fucking time pretending it isn’t going to happen because we’ve done that for long enough.”
She doesn’t answer. As I turn my head to try to get a hold of her reaction, she scoots all the way next to me.
“This has nothing to do with anything but me and you,” I tell her. “Whatever comes our way, we’ll figure it out together. I mean, can you imagine us fighting on the same side for once?”
Her mouth covers mine. I laugh against her lips, trying to see over her head so we don’t wreck. “Had,” I mumble. “I can’t see.”
She pulls back, smiling wickedly. “Don’t worry.” Her hands go to the button of my jeans.
I gasp as she undoes the button. The zipper cracks through the air.
“You’ll be able to see over me from here,” she says.
“Oh, God,” I mutter through clenched teeth as she licks the top of my cock.
My phone buzzes from the holder by the radio, and I see a text from Peck.
Peck:Taking her back for tests. Will be a couple of hours. Don’t rush. Everything is fine.
I take a quick right onto a dirt road. The abrupt motion makes her grip my thighs so she doesn’t fall to the floor.
“Where are we going?” she asks as she sits up and looks around.
“I’m trying something new today.”
“You aren’t trusting your phone for directions, are you? Mine almost ran me off a bridge the other day.”
I laugh. “No. Not that.”
“Then what?”
“We’re going to go to the hospital in a minute. I’m going to be there for my family. But starting today, you come first.”
I pull off the road behind a little-abandoned shed. I kill the engine and look at her.
Hadley grins. “I hope that has a double meaning.”
I grab her, making her squeal, as I pull her on my lap. “Whatever you want.”
She smacks my chest, starting to tear into me, but I smother her with kisses.
Epilogue
Hadley
“Yours looks better than mine.” Sienna makes a face, holding up a bowl of scalloped potatoes. “Are they supposed to look like this?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. But they look a little dark.”
“Is that a nice way to say burnt?” Sienna laughs. “I should’ve ordered this at Peaches, put it in a dish at home, and brought it over. My mom does that sometimes.”
Mariah laughs. “Well, the baked beans are stuck to the bottom of the kettle, so there’s that.”
“We’re a mess, girls.” Sienna shrugs. “None of this may be edible.”
“Peck will eat it,” I say, leading everyone to the table. “If nothing else, we’ll send it all home with him.”
We enter Nana’s dining room to see our men all settled around the table. Nana is at the head, the color in her face a little rosier than it has been. I get why. It would be hard to feel like crap surrounded by the Gibson boys.
Peck takes the bowl of potatoes from Sienna and doesn’t comment a bit about how black the top is. Walker and Lance discuss one of the Landry businesses Sienna’s family runs as I sit next to Machlan.