“Should have known it was you, Brady.”
I didn’t say anything, although Myra wanted to. I put my hand over her mouth and whispered in her ear.
“He’s trying to find out where we are. We need to move.”
She nodded, and we crawled away, laughing as paintballs soared over our heads.
We got two more, but then our luck ran out. We needed to cross over another fallen tree, but as we did, someone shouted, and Myra jerked. I heard the sound before it even came at us, and I tackled her to the ground, but it was too late. I cursed under my breath as three paintballs hit me in the side, right where Myra had stood. I rolled, keeping her out of harm’s way. She pushed at me, cursing.
“Nate, I can handle it.” She looked over her shoulder, shot twice, and the guy cursed.
“Great aim.”
“And it seems we have a winner.”
Ed came out over the ridge, and we all laughed, taking off our gear. Myra stood, looked at her very dirty yet perfectly black outfit, no spots of color, and did a little booty shake.
“Wow, talk about beginner’s luck.”
I narrowed my eyes at one of the single men who watched Myra’s ass as she did her little dance, and he held up his hands, shaking his head.
“Looks like we need to celebrate,” Ed said, and I raised a brow at the other man. “Next time. I do believe you have a date tonight.”
Myra looked up at me, and I pressed my lips to hers.
“Congratulations, baby.”
“I’m going to bruise, and you’re going to have to suck up for the fact that you injured me.”
I winced. “Sorry. But at least I’m going to have horrible welts from the paintballs.”
“That is true. It will help me sleep at night.”
The others laughed, and I pinched her ass. She squealed, and I pulled her away, the others laughing and planning our next outing.
As we cleaned up, piling everything into my truck, Myra grinned at me. “That was a blast.”
“Really?” I asked and rubbed my temple.
“Are you okay?” she said.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Didn’t hit my head or anything, but I think it was a little too much adrenaline for me. Do you mind driving home?”
She took the keys from me and kissed me softly.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“Because you aren’t a big, tough guy who needs to drive the little lady around. As soon as your head started to hurt, you realized that maybe you might be getting a migraine, so you handed over your keys without a second thought. You asked for help.”
“I had to learn the hard way that if I don’t, I end up putting people I love in danger.”
She frowned.
“I was the big, tough guy to Arden, even though she was having a good health day, and I wasn’t. I ran a stop sign, and I almost killed us both. We were fine. I didn’t even hit a curb or anything, but I threw up all over the interior of my car—and Arden. She’s never let me live it down.”
Myra winced. “That sounds horrible.”
“It was. So now I take Ubers everywhere, or I have people drive me if I’m having a bad week driving. I’ve been fine recently, but this might have been a little too much for me.”
“Oh, Nate. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was my idea, and I didn’t know if it was going to be bad or not. I never do until I’m there. I don’t take unnecessary risks. And that’s why you’re going to drive us home, so I’m not your unnecessary risk.”
“Nate, I…” She trailed off, shaking her head.
I didn’t know what she was going to say, and I was grateful she didn’t finish the sentence.
Because in my head, it sounded so natural to say that I loved her right then. Because I did.
I fucking did.
I had wrapped that feeling around so much hate over the years that I hadn’t let myself feel anything else.
But I loved her.
And I had no idea what the fuck to do about it.
We ended up picking up Thai on our way back to my place, and we retrieved Daisy from Macon’s, as well.
“I love that Daisy doesn’t have to spend the day at home alone and that she gets to spend time with her cousins.”
I laughed. “Truth be told, I don’t think the cats are all that happy she’s there, but they’re getting used to her.”
“True. I guess since we’re eating, she has to go back in the octagon?” Myra asked, setting down the food on the counter as I took Daisy out to the backyard to do her business.
“Yep. But we’ll get her some food and water, and she’ll be fine. As soon as she gets out of this chewing stage of hers, she can have a little more freedom. But according to Macon, it’s one day at a time.”
“You’re a good puppy dad,” Myra said as I brought Daisy back in, looking very proud of herself.
“I’m trying. Macon’s the one with all the rules. I just do my best to follow them.”
Myra looked down at herself and then grabbed her bag from the counter. “I’m going to shower and change. Do we need to stick the food in the fridge?”
“As long as you’re not doing your hair or makeup or anything, I can at least set everything out and get it ready.”
“That sounds like a plan. Because I’m starving.”
I leaned over and took her lips with mine, groaning. “Me, too.”
She pulled away, and I was thankful that she looked reluctant as her eyes darkened, and her cheeks reddened. And then she practically ran towards the bathroom.
We were moving far too fast for whatever this was.
It didn’t feel real, and I knew she was still grieving. I knew we were figuring out what the hell we were going to do about who we were to each other.
But I didn’t want to think about any of that just then. All I wanted to do was pretend for a minute.
And I was grateful that we were making that happen.
Myra came out wearing her well-worn jeans and a tee, her hair wet and piled on the top of her head.
“I usually only wear jeans for work. The fact that you are seeing them on me right now should tell you I wanted to be comfy, and these are my oldest pair of pants. Do not tell the rest of the world that I dared to go out in public not looking pristine.”
I licked my lips and kissed her as I set the plates in front of her. “You always look fucking gorgeous to me.”
“Is that a come-on?” she asked.
“If you have to ask, it wasn’t a very good one. Will you bowl up the soup while I change?”
“I can do that. I’m starving.”
“Once again, I’m going to say…me, too.” I kissed her hard and then took the quickest shower of my life, putting on gray sweats and a white T-shirt even as I walked towards where she was. Daisy was asleep on her little bed, and I knew I’d have to take her out again soon. Myra sat on the floor near my coffee table, the food spread out before her, and an egg roll in her mouth.
“I couldn’t wait,” she said around her food.
I laughed, took a seat next to her so she was cradled between my legs and stole a bite of her egg roll. “Sounds good to me.”
“Hey, that was mine!”
“What are you going to do about it?”