As she and Eagle walked around the room saying hello to everyone, Taylor was once again reminded how good it was to be alive. Everyone was wearing their name tags, so she didn’t have to ask their names. She might not have recognized their faces, but she knew a lot about each of them. Robert hated pinball, but was a master at foosball. Jose was a complete softy. Christine bitched about how messy everyone was, when she herself was, in fact, a closet slob. She’d learned about everyone’s children, and each person’s favorite shift at Silverstone.
Taylor might not’ve been an employee, but she’d spent enough time there to know everyone well . . . and they’d gotten to know her in return.
This was just what she needed. To be surrounded by friends.
Shawn came up to her then, and Taylor almost cried again, feeling overly emotional about everything at the moment. He didn’t say anything, simply wrapped his huge arms around her. They hugged for a long moment before he pulled back and looked deep into her eyes. Then he nodded. “You’re okay,” he declared.
“I am,” Taylor agreed.
Then Shawn leaned down and whispered into her ear, “When you’re hungry, I made a caramel-peanut-butter pie just for you. I hid it in the crisper drawer of the second fridge. It’s got aluminum foil over the top, and I wrote ‘Touch this, and I’ll never make another dessert again’ on it. No one has dared to even peek under the foil to see what it is. It’s all yours.”
Taylor smiled, stretching up on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Then he turned and went back into the kitchen, shooing Robert and Shane out of his domain.
“What was that about?” Eagle asked. He hadn’t gotten more than an arm’s length away from her as she’d made the rounds at the party.
Taylor put her arm around his waist. “Nothing. You’ve got some pretty amazing friends.”
“We have amazing friends,” he corrected.
Taylor beamed. “Yes, we do.”
It was one o’clock in the morning before the last person left Silverstone and Eagle could get Taylor alone. He loved how well she got along with everyone, but he badly needed her to himself. After learning what that bastard Williams had done over the last couple of months, he couldn’t think of anything other than holding her.
They’d commandeered an empty room at Silverstone so no one had to go out of their way to take them back to his apartment. He would’ve asked someone to drive them home if he’d had the slightest indication that Taylor wanted to leave, but she’d seemed content to climb into one of the full-size beds at the garage.
The second he got under the covers, she snuggled into his side, holding on to him as if she never wanted to let him go. They were skin to skin, nothing between them, and her warmth seeping into his side went a long way toward making him feel better.
He was also relieved he wouldn’t be charged for killing Williams, but even if he were sitting in a jail cell right now, he wouldn’t have done anything differently. He’d told Taylor he’d kill anyone who hurt her, and he hadn’t been lying. The thought of her being in the clutches of that madman was enough to make him paranoid about letting her out of his sight ever again.
“I’m okay,” Taylor said softly, obviously picking up on his unease.
Eagle did his best to relax his muscles. She was all right. She was safe in his arms.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you too.”
She looked up at him, and he saw her gaze go to the gash on his forehead.
“It’ll heal,” he said quickly. “Compared to all the other wounds I’ve gotten over the years, this one is nothing.”
“When I first saw you, you were literally covered in blood,” Taylor said softly.
“Head wounds bleed a lot,” he said. “I had to constantly wipe the blood from my eyes so I could see.”
Taylor nodded. Then she brought a hand up to his face and touched his stitches with a barely there caress. “It’s going to scar.”
“Probably,” Eagle said with a shrug. “Does that bother you?”
Taylor gave him a weird look that he couldn’t interpret. Then she came up on an elbow and hovered over him. “I hate that you were hurt because of me, but—”
“I wasn’t hurt because of you,” Eagle interrupted, not liking that she thought such a thing for even a second. “I was hurt because Brett Williams was a sick fuck who decided to take something that wasn’t his.”
Taylor gave him a small smile. “You didn’t let me finish,” she scolded.
“That’s because you were talking crazy,” he retorted.
“You’re bossy,” she informed him.
“Yup,” Eagle agreed.
She smiled, and he loved how relaxed she was around him.
“Anyway, what I was saying was that while I hate you were hurt in the first place, I’m also kind of glad.”
Eagle didn’t know where she was going with this line of thinking, but he didn’t take offense. He knew she’d have a good point—he just had to wait for her to make it.
Her free hand came up and once again traced the wound on his forehead. “You’re going to have a scar. On your face . . . where you can’t hide it.” Her gaze came to his, and he could see tears forming in her eyes. He opened his mouth to comfort her, to reassure her once again that he didn’t give a shit what he looked like, as long as she loved him. But she spoke first.
“I’ll be able to recognize you.”
The six words made Eagle’s throat close up with emotion.
“I’ll be able to tell at first glance who you are. That you’re my man. I won’t have to wait for you to call me Flower, or to give me some other clue. I can be like any other normal woman and know immediately that you’re mine.”
“Fuck,” Eagle whispered, not sure what else to say.
“I know that’s weird, and if you want to see a plastic surgeon to fix it, that’s okay.”
“No fucking way,” Eagle told her. “I’m going to wear this scar with pride.”
Taylor smiled again and rested her head back down on his shoulder. “Remember when we had that talk about kids, and I said I didn’t want any?”
“That’s not what you said,” Eagle told her. “You said that you didn’t think you’d make a good mother.”
“I can’t believe you remember exactly what I said,” she huffed.
Eagle smiled. “I remember everyone I’ve ever met or seen a picture of. Why wouldn’t I remember what you say?”
“True. Point made. But it’s annoying. If you’re always going to be reminding me of my exact words, that might not bode well for our relationship in the future.”
“Got it,” Eagle said, grinning. He could tell she wasn’t really pissed at him. She was kinda cute when she was ruffled. “Go on.”
“Right . . . I’ve thought about it a lot,” Taylor said.
“And what did you decide?” Eagle’s heart was beating faster, and he wasn’t sure why. Once again, he didn’t know where Taylor was going with this conversation, but he had a feeling whatever she said next was going to be life changing.