Page 84 of Ridin' True

I wanted all of it. Marriage and children.

It felt crazy to say I wanted it with him—but every time he caught me staring, he’d smile or wink, and I had to admit that I did.

The question was, did he?

The kids went to bed at ten, and Jed and I made up the couch to make it look like I intended to sleep there. We gave it a half hour before we went to get ready for bed ourselves. I was setting my alarm for the morning when he returned to the room after double checking doors and windows. I set aside my phone and watched as he stripped down to his underwear.

“What is it, gorgeous?” he asked, kicking his ankles free of his jeans.

“Hmm?” I hummed.

He wasn’t even looking at me, so I didn’t understand the question.

“Been starin’ at me half the night. Somethin’s in that head of yours.”

I drew in a breath as he climbed into bed next to me, wondering if I was brave enough to ask. Then his eyes found mine, and I knew in an instant I was going to. I had to. Like a band-aid, I needed to rip it off. I needed to know. I was falling too hard, and I couldn’t pretend otherwise.

I wet my lips and shifted until I was facing him directly.

“I know it’s only been a few weeks, and the last thing I want to do is come on too strong or freak you out, but I need to ask you something.”

“Already opened that door, darlin’.”

“Right,” I whispered, sweeping a bit of hair behind my ears. “Why didn’t you and Nicole ever get married? You were together for such a long time. You had two kids and a house—are you, like, opposed to it?”

He shrugged nonchalantly.

“We never got married because she never made a big deal of it. When we first met, she hooked up with me to get back at her parents. She was wild and we were fun. We moved in together because she spent more nights at my place than hers. The club knew her as my ol’ lady, and that wasn’t nothin’. Then she got pregnant, and life was what it was. It worked until she wanted me to be someone else.”

I nodded slowly, trying to extrapolate his answer from all he said.

“So, you’re saying, you’re not opposed to it, but you’d only get married if the person you were with made a big deal of it?”

“I’m sayin’, I don’t need a piece of paper to hold me to the commitment I make to my woman—but if it’s important to her, I’ll do it.”

“It’s important to me,” I blurted.

I knit my eyebrows together as soon as the words fell out of my mouth, startled I actually said them out loud.

Jed merely smirked, like the cool guy he was, and replied, “Noted.”

In for a penny, in for a pound.

I hesitated only a second before I laid it all out there.

“And, um, what about kids? I mean—would you be open to more of them?”

His smirk stretched into a grin, and my breath caught as I waited for the answer that accompanied the expression. Before he spoke, he held out his right arm and jerked his chin down at the ink on his forearm. I glanced at the black bands broken by the roman numerals I’d yet to interpret.

“The top one is Lowe’s birthday. Bottom is Axel’s. Left a bit of spare room. We get that far and you want more, I’ll give you as many as you want or as many as will fit, whichever limit we hit first.”

I coughed out a laugh, relieved and elated in equal measure.

“Good answer.”

He moved his hand until it was pressed against the small of my back and insisted, “Come ‘ere.”

I crawled toward him obediently, straddling his lap.