Page 37 of Secrets That Bind Us

“We’re gonna drive each other crazy, baby, and probably argue a lot, but that’s fine – I can’t imagine wanting to argue with anyone else but you for the rest of my life, and that’s fine too, because that means I get to fix it.

Whatever is ever wrong, from the goddamn rickety stairs to us, I get to fix.

I get to make it better. It’ll never be me having to.

It’ll be me getting to. Because I want to.

Because I want you, those kids, your time, your tears, your happiness, your spitfire, your stubbornness, all of it .

I may have had your past. But I want your now, and I want your future.

So, for the love of all that is holy – stop. Fighting. Us.”

Heartbeats tick by, and I see her visibly shaking. “Goddammit, Dean, I’m scared .” She whispers hoarsely.

“And I’m not , Verity. The only thing I'm scared of, I was ever scared of, was losing you. It happened once. I’ll never let it happen again.

And the universe is making sure of it. You’re here, now, and I’m ready for you.

You gave me all of you once, and I’ll do everything I can to earn every piece you want to give me. ”

“I don’t want just pieces of you, again.”

I shake my head and tug her to my chest. “You don’t get it, Verity. You have always owned every piece of me. There were just some that were stupid and not fully developed.”

A huff of a laugh escapes her. “Goddamnit, Dean, you make it so hard to be mad at you.”

A corner of my lips lift in a smirk, and I hold in the chuckle that wants to escape me. “See? I already got to fix it.”

She looks up at me, and I push her glasses up her nose in that Verity way, by the bottom rim of her frames, and my heart falters when she scrunches her nose.

Goddamn this woman. The only one that could bring me to my knees with a twitch of her nose.

“Dean,” she shakes her head as though she’s trying to break the spell between us, and I don’t like it.

“Yeah?”

“There’s just one problem.”

“What?”

“We aren’t staying here. I’m putting the house up for sale in the spring. We’re going back North. I meant it when I said I’d die before I’d ever call Adelaide home again. That hasn’t changed.”

My stomach drops to the floor. I already knew this, I just hate hearing it from her mouth.

“Then it sounds like I’m going North.” The words fly outta my mouth, but they don’t feel wrong.

They feel honest. Because Verity was always bigger than this town.

She never belonged here. I belonged wherever she was.

She scoffs. “You can’t uproot your entire life for me. For us.”

I brush a strand of her damp waves behind her ear. “You let me worry about what I can and can’t do, Verity. I already let you go once; I’m not doing it again. If you go North, I go North. If you wanna go to Paris, we’ll go to Paris. But you and me? We’re not splitting up again. Ever.”

She groans, but it sounds more painful than it does unhappy, and pulls away from me, covering her mouth. “Oh no, I think it’s my turn.”

I barely get a chance to get the Halloween puke bucket before she doubles over and heaves into it. I rub tiny circles on her back, feeling her muscles tense and relax with every regurgitation. “What the fuck.” She whines. “My poor kids. This is terrible.” She spits.

“Mommy!” I hear from her bedroom and hand her the bucket.

“I got him. You-“ I don’t even finish when she’s at it again. “Do that.” I laugh, and she flips me the bird as she groans.

I leave only to pick up Bear and bring him with me then stay for a few more days, through the weekend. I help wash dirty laundry and do everything I told Verity I was going to without her asking. Noah finds me in the kitchen Sunday morning, making his mom a cup of Texas Praline coffee.

“What’s that?” He asks, big brown eyes watching me stir the spoon in the purple mug.

“Coffee for your Mama. Whip cream. No sugar.”

“She says the whip cream is sweet enough.”

I nod. “I reckon she’s right.”

“Can I have some?”

I laugh and shake my head. “How ‘bout you take this to your Mama, I’ll make you a glass of chocolate milk, and you meet me out on the back porch?”

He grins a dashing grin that’s all Verity, except a dimple in his right cheek. In the future, I’ll tell everyone he gets it from me. Besides, no one will know he isn’t my son if we go elsewhere. “I can do that.”

I get some Nesquik from the pantry, and when I close the door and turn around, Savannah is eyeing me.

“You didn’t leave.”

“No, Sunshine, I didn’t leave.” She strides past me, opening the door to the pantry back up and pulls out some stuff with little anime characters. Bear has been by her side since he’s been here. He currently pants beside her, his entire body shaking with the wags of his tail. “What’s that?”

“Seaweed chips from this Japanese store in New York. Uncle Jake sends them ‘cause he did the art for them, and he knows how much I like this stuff.”

I stir the Nesquik in the milk, eyeing her. “Can I try one?”

“They… they might be weird.” She hikes a brow and hesitantly hands me the bag. I reach in and grab one, popping it into my mouth as she stares.

I let the salty flavor settle over my tongue, and chew then swallow. “That’s… pretty good.” I grin.

“I know.” She puts her headphones back on and leaves me alone in the remodeled kitchen, Bear following after her.

I can’t help but smile at the back of her head.

Quiet spitfire like her mama, untrusting like her dad.

Or maybe she’s untrusting because of the father she knew. Maybe he left a lot.Maybe-

“Dean!” Noah comes bounding back to me, practically bouncing on his toes.

I hand him his cup of chocolate milk, grab my own mug, and we go sit outside.

The sun’s already up. He sits by me on his small rocker, and when I put my boot on my knee, he does the same in his Batman shoes.

I’m gonna have to get him his own pair of boots.

It’s a quiet morning, only a few birds still chirping, the heat not yet overbearing. “Do you like my mommy?”

“I more than just like your mommy, Noah.”

He keeps his gaze on his mug of chocolate milk and his voice low. “Are you gonna be nice to my mommy?”

“I can’t promise I’ll always be nice to her, kiddo. Sometimes grown-ups disagree, and it’s healthy to argue. But I will be a good man to her. And you. And your sister.”

Noah turns his head and peruses me, brown eyes taking me in from boots to hairline, before turning his muddy gaze back to the sparkling pool.

“I think, it would be okay… if you replace my dad.” My heart stops beating, the heel of his foot still gently pushing on the wooden flats of the floor, rocking himself, avoiding my gaze, holding the wisdom of an old man that sometimes kids tend to have.

A kid that’s seen too much but kept quiet.

And when he speaks again, he proves me right.

“He wasn’t very nice or good. And he wasn’t home a lot.

And Mommy cried sometimes at first, but she said she wasn’t sad, she was ‘strated, and it leaks out her eyes sometimes. "

“Frustrated.” I correct.

“Mmhmm. ‘Strated.” He repeats, and I love it, but I hide my grin by sipping on my coffee. “So, if you’re good to Mommy and me and Sister… then it’s okay if you’re my dad.

” He sips from his mug like he’s my age, and leans back against the rocker, peering out at the land, gently rocking back and forth.

Who is this kid?

“Can you take me for a ride in your police cruiser?”

I huff out a laugh and tell him yeah, I can do that if his mama agree to it. We watch as a breeze blows the grass beyond the pool. “I should mow the lawn.”

“Mmhmm.” Noah nods. “We should mow the lawn.” But instead of getting up, we both sit back, finish what’s in our mugs, staring out at the open field. I steal a glance at the boy-version of Verity, and my heart warms.

Yeah, that’s my son, no matter what anyone says.

An hour later, with my shirt off and tucked into the waistband of my jeans, I’m an acre out on the push mower when I see a sexy brunette in a dark blue sundress that comes to her mid-thigh. My dick roars to life. She’s looking a lot less pale and a lot more mine as she makes her way to me.

“I made breakfast.” She says, handing me a cold water bottle and a glass of sweet tea.

I polish off the sweet tea first, handing the glass back to her, then open the water bottle and take a good sip, while watching her.

She swallows, eyes raking over my torso, and clears her throat.

“I also saw Noah ‘helping’ you earlier.”

What she means by ‘helping me’ is he got between me and the push-mower, grabbed the sides, walked with me till he got too hot, and I sent him inside.

I nod.

She squirms.

I like it.

I take my Texas Rangers baseball cap off, run my fingers through my sweaty hair, and put it back on, watching her watch me. And by watch me, I mean her eyes go from my face to my chest to my arms to my abs and back up. I wonder if she realizes what my tattoos are?

“Breakfast, huh?”

She clears her throat, and I don’t miss the way her thighs press together. That’s it baby, take it all in. “More like brunch . My call with Eli ran a little longer than I thought it was going to and…”

“And so you made brunch on Sunday morning.”

She nods. “You must be starving. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-“

“I was just trying to get this last bit done before I went in to make some myself. I know you were working. That don’t bother me none.

Won’t hurt my feelings if I don’t have breakfast on the table as soon as I wake up.

Sav snacked on her seaweed chips. Noah and I ate a banana before he helped me. The kids are good, Ver.”

“The kids are good.” She repeats incredulously.

I incline my head. “I’ll be in shortly. Let me just finish this last bit and then I’ll see you inside.”

“Can we…” She hesitates, and I hate when she does that, like she has to choose her words very carefully in order not to piss me off.

That pisses me off. She bites that gorgeous, plump bottom lip of hers, the one I’m dying to nibble on myself, eyes still roaming over my body, widening as she realizes what my tattoos are – the cover art for every single one of her books that Zoey intricately placed on me, weaving each one methodically so they intertwine.

It’s either extremely pathetic, or a sweet gesture – but there was never a book she wrote where she and I didn’t have a happily ever after. And some of those sexy scenes? Yeah, I lived them. I flex a bit, proud to say I inspired them.

“Out with it, woman, before I get melanoma standing out here.”

“Can I make you dinner?” She blurts, honey brown eyes finally finding mine again.

Like a Cheshire cat, I grin, ear to ear. “I’m not so sure, I’m a busy man. I got kids, you know.”

“Dean.” She scowls at me, but then her lips lift at the corners playfully. “Kids, huh?”

I down the rest of my water, hand her the plastic bottle after I squish it, and place the cap back on. “Yeah. Kids. Plural.”

She crosses her arms under her chest, pushing them up, and brings a finger up to her chin, tapping on it. “Hmmm… I don’t know if I could date a man with kids, plural .” She shrugs and turns around, but I grab her by the elbow and whirl her back to me.

I inhale that rich scent of strawberries and sunflowers, let it fill my lungs.

I cup her elbow, play with a lock of her hair, then rub my thumb over her cheekbone.

She inhales sharply, and her eyes dilate just a bit.

There you go baby, come back to me. “I’d love it if you made me dinner, Verity.

You could serve me cat food, and I’d be happy just to sit beside you. ”

She narrows her eyes. “But you wouldn’t eat the cat food?”

I bark out a laugh and tuck the wayward strands of hair behind her ear. “Just tell me when, baby. I’ll be there.”

“Zoey’s taking them for a sleepover tomorrow night since they don’t have school on Monday and they’re feeling loads better – thanks to you taking care of all of us. Thank you, by the way. It… it meant a lot to me.”

I shrug it off because she doesn’t have to thank me. “Happy to do it.” I jerk my chin to the house. “So… you’re gonna stay all alone in that big house all by yourself, huh?”

There’s a gleam in that caramel gaze that shoots another thrill down to my cock. She turns around to head back to the house, but looks over her shoulder at me, “Not if you play your cards right… Sheriff .” She winks.

Can a man swoon?