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I snorted, rolling my eyes. “Maybe.”
He laughed, the tension easing from his voice. “Actually, I can’t. But later?”
“Uh-huh.” I tried to walk away, but he grasped my wrist tightly.
“Tonight?”
“We’ve been saying that for a week.”
Shifting his stance, his hand met my hip and held me securely in place against the hauler. The warm metal radiated through me, much like his possessive touch. “You know it’s not because I haven’t wanted to.”
“I know,” I admitted, and then gave him a bit of truth I never thought I would. Or at least, hadn’t planned on. “But sometimes it feels like our intimacy gets pushed aside for all this.”
And it’s only going to get worse now.
He stared at me, as if he either couldn’t believe I said that, or he wasn’t happy. I couldn’t tell.
“Arie?” Hayden yelled from Casten’s trailer. “Where’d you put the JAR Racing hats?”
When I glanced over at her hanging out the side of the trailer, Rager’s fingers danced across my collarbone and then cheek. He forced me to look at him. “You think that?”
“Think what?” Relaxing my expression, I sighed, knowing I had a million things to do tonight, but understanding what I said to him wouldn’t go unnoticed.
His weight shifted again, his hand that wasn’t holding me in place planted firmly beside me against the hauler. “That all this gets in the way of us?”
“Sometimes, yes.”
His expression softened. “I didn’t intend for that to happen.”
My resolve crumbled and my shoulders rolled forward. “Rager, it’s just that there’s always something that needs our attention. Kids, racing,life… but if we don’t start making time for us, what are we?”
“We’re husband and wife.” His chest pressed to mine, his tongue darting out to sweep across his bottom lip. “That’s all that matters. This is what being married is like, honey. It’s not always easy.”
“I never thought it’d be easy.”
With a sigh, he stepped back. “We’re talking about this again. Later.”
I nodded and turned to find Hayden standing there waiting for me. “Hey, bitch.” She kicked my ankle. “Where are the hats?”
Rager drew in a deep breath and then turned his head when Caden called his name. “Hey, Rager? Boss man’s looking for ya.”
Nodding, Rager took one last look at me and then frowned. I couldn’t offer him much, so I forced a smile and faced Hayden. “They’re in the box marked, JAR Racing hats.”
Hayden grabbed my hand and yanked me with her. “I don’t see no fucking box marked hats.”
“Really?” I stumbled, trying to right my footing and not fall face first on the pavement. “Is this like the time you couldn’t find the stickers and then discovered you had been using the box as a coaster for your Pepsi and Crown?”
“What? No.” She stopped walking, making me run into the back of her. She scratched her mess of hair she had knotted haphazardly around a hair tie. “Maybe, but I don’t think so. I don’t see it.”
Inside Caden’s hauler where I had put at least one box of the JAR Racing hat’s Lily ordered last week, I scanned the black carpet. Hundreds of stickers lined the floor and in the middle of the mess was Ryder, Casten and Hayden’s rowdy, but extremely happy three-year-old.
“Auntie Re!” He stood, stickers stuck to his knees and most of his upper body that was shirtless but wearing a JAR Racing hat.
“Found the box,” Hayden noted, hauling up Ryder into her arms. “Ry, we needed those stickers.”
Ryder glanced down at his chest, the hat falling into his eyes. “Sorry.”
Hayden and I got to work organizing the stickers or what was left of them, then I locked them up in the cabinet. “Don’t leave this unlocked.”