Page 129 of Kings Don't Break

“To what do I owe the surprise pick up?”

“I wanted to see your face,” I say, shrugging, starting up the Jeep again. “So did Mama. She’s waiting on us, by the way. She’s been texting telling me to hurry up. She’s not getting any younger.”

“She’s got a point. None of us are getting any younger, are we?”

“Guess not. But you’ll always be the boy who I beat at ice-skating each and every time to me.”

Blake’s husky laugh fills up the space in the Jeep. He reaches over to smooth his hand down the length of my thigh and says, “We’ll be seventy and you’re gonna be bringing that up, aren’t you?”

“I can skate circles around you is all I’m saying?—”

“I see somebody wants to start trouble. You might have to answer for that later… when I get you in my bed.”

Blake’s sexy threat makes me thrum with desire. I have no doubt he fully intends on collecting. I fully intend on enjoying every second of it. I’ve never been so sexually fulfilled as I am these days with Blake—he’s made it his mission to please me inside and outside of the bedroom. Our chemistry is natural and intense and results in us exploding in passion. But most importantly, it’s two best friends in love, having the time of our lives.

We’ve taken our relationship slow. At least emotionally. No L word exchanges and no real plans for the future. Just a dedication to the present, where we both work to overcome traumas and demons and be the best partner for each other we can possibly be.

For me that’s meant therapy to process the damage my marriage with Ken did. For Blake it’s been attending AA meetings where he can talk with others in recovery and learn new methods to cope and how to overcome his guilt about the car crash that horrible night. He reached his one hundredth day sober the other week, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

Blake is determined to prove he can break the generational curse his father passed down to him; he won’t be ending up like Bill Cash because he’s a far better man than his father ever was.

I’ve made it clear that I won’t be ready for anything more anytime soon. It’ll probably be a couple years before I’m ever ready to commit to another marriage. That doesn’t change the fact that if—when—I do, there’s no doubt in my heart it’ll be with Blake.

He senses it too. I see it in his stare whenever he sets his gaze on me. He knows I love him.

Just like I know he loves me.

35

BLAKE

We pick up Sunny and head to Main Street where the annual parade’s taking place. The woman who’s always been something of a second mother to me won’t stop sneaking us smirks. She’s a bundle of joy as we pull up and she insists we head even closer for a better look.

Korine shares an exasperated look with me and mouths sorry.

But I can only feel warmth inside my chest. How can I not when I’m taking my two best girls out for a day on the town?

What’s crazy is that I’ve never pictured this for myself. Attending the town’s spring parade with the woman I love and her mother and enjoying myself. The three of us a unit, something of our own family.

I’m the guy who grew up in dysfunction. The kid who used to wear long sleeve shirts to hide the bruises on my arms. The teen who ran away from home more times than I can count, and who eventually applied for emancipation at age sixteen.

I’m the man who let his demons rule him up ’til a few years ago and almost ruined my life on that fateful night.

I survived to see another day after the crash. I have to keep making the most of it.

It’s wild to look over at Korine, her soft, slim body tucked into my side, and realize that I’ve got something I never thought I would. That I was sure I was never good enough for. A good woman and the love she gives me.

None of it’s been easy. It’s been anything but.

We’ve traveled down a long, twisted path with roadblocks every step of the way to getting where we are. We’re still on our way to the final destination… wherever that is for us.

Sharing in a small smile with Korine, something tells me we’ll get there eventually. We’re halfway there even if we haven’t said the words aloud.

I turn my attention back onto Main Street. A string of different floats drifts by as people on both sides of the street wave and cheer them on. The town council has put together a float for damn near everything.

The elementary school’s got one. So does the middle school and high school. The local beauty pageant’s got one with their most recent queen sitting up top and each of our town sports teams have their own.

Sunny elbows me as the float for the Pulsboro Pioneers goes by. “The motorcycle club might as well get a float.”