When she was done, when she’d got it all out, we just sat there in silence letting it all sink in. She’d trusted me with the truth and I had no words for what that made me feel.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, to both of you. It’s fucked. But you don’t have to do it all by yourself any more. What’s more I’m not going to let you.” She sat up and wiped her hands across her face.
“The fact that I told you changes nothing. My life is still what it was an hour ago and I still have things to do.” Stubborn little shit.
“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you keep going like this for another year.”
She jumped up off my lap and I let her go because I had a pretty good idea what was coming and I was right. We had our first real fight which I had no plans on losing.
Her little ass got all the way the hell in my face like she thought she was grown. The back and forth gave me great insight into her damn head. She’s right. She is smart and capable, but that doesn’t mean that she should push herself beyond the limit like that.
But trying to placate her didn’t work. Telling her that I understood but…was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. She had it stuck in her head that she was on her own. Like fuck!
I’ve given money time and opportunities to less deserving people. What the fuck does she take me for? As good as her arguments were, mine was better. She just wasn’t doing that shit period.
Things came to a head when I threatened to follow her ass to the coffee shop the next day and quit for her. She fumed, yelled and had a fit but I didn’t back down.
I learned something else about her during all that. She’d push hard and long to see how far she could go before giving in. She’s also a raging feminist.
Once she got it through her head that I wasn’t trying to walk all over her because of my dick and I pointed out just how unwise it was for her to burn the candle at both ends, she calmed the hell down.
All it took was reminding her that if anything happened to her, Travis would be all alone in the world. She reacted like she’d never given it a thought. Stuck in her damn head.
“I can’t just leave like that. I have to at least give them time to find a replacement.”
“That’s not my damn problem. I’ll give you until Thursday but that’s it. Get some sleep.”
I added that last when it looked like she was going to argue my ass to death. She was not in the least bit happy with me by the time the argument was over.
“Come here.” I pulled her stubborn ass into my arms and hugged her until she stopped being mad. I wanted to say so much with that hug. Most of all that I would never let her fall. “It’s going to be okay.”
I didn’t bring up using the space at the club again but had all intentions on going ahead and making preparations for it to happen within the next week. I left her after a hot kiss that left us both breathless and had my dick sniffing the air.
Chapter 26
That was Monday night. For the next two days I took her to that place every morning at five and brought her home from the restaurant after midnight. Can you say pissed way the fuck off?
By Wednesday it was pretty well known around the club that we were an item. As these things go I didn’t have to say anything, people just drew their own conclusions.
The fact that I’d been hanging around until closing and had had her wait in my office at the end of her shifts until I was ready to leave was also a dead giveaway.
I’m not sure if anyone had said anything to her, but I was pretty sure Tony had passed on the word through Celeste the bartender that that shit was a sure fired way to get their ass canned.
Thursday morning after she finished at the coffee shop I picked her up. I went inside for the first time to make sure things were cool, since this was the day she was supposed to quit.
There was no yelling and screaming, so I guessed everything had gone well and she confirmed it as I walked her to the car where her brother was waiting.
Today was the day he was going to check out the school. For the past few days I’d been taking him to the park to train with him and keep his arm from getting rusty. The kid is good.