“Nope,” he told me with a sad smile. His eyes drifted to my neck, where the bruises had long since healed. “But I did hear that his parents cut him off. They sent a letter to the district attorney letting the county know that they condemned his actions and didn’t raise their child to abuse women or hurt them in any way.”
I laughed, because what else was there to do at that point? They’d found the videos of his abuse. And if he videoed Mallory, too, they’d have that murder on tape.
“Good.”
In bed, Linc held me in his arms and rubbed my back gently. “I love you, Kennedy; you know that, right?”
“Duh.” I yawned. “You put your ring on my finger and gave me half the closet. I think that’s pretty clear.”
“You have the whole closet, and you know it. Just like you have my whole heart, woman.” His heart kicked up a notch under my head, and his hands paused their perusal of my back. “I have to tell you something.”
I didn’t even bother opening my eyes. There was nothing Linc could say that would take away the absolute peace I felt being in his arms.
“After the wedding…” He cleared his throat. “I want you to take out your IUD.”
Silence filled the air between us.
“You don’t want kids,” I told him. “I’m not going to do that, when it would mean we could have them.”
“That’s the point.”
I opened my eyes at that. And he was staring down at me. When he saw my eyes, he shifted and moved so that we were sitting up, with me in his lap facing him.
“I don’t understand.” I’d eaten too many tacos. Or I was sleeping. There was no way Linc changed his mind. “We haven’t talked about this at all since you said you don’t want them. I haven’t tried to change your mind. I don’t need them to be happy, Linc.”
He kissed me. “You’re talking too much. My turn, okay?”
I nodded.
“You gave up everything for me. Time. The chance to fall in love with someone else. You chose me. You don’t need them, you’re right. But you deserve them. And if I’m going to be happy, really happy, I need to give you everything you want in this life. I see the way you are with babies. With Nox. And the twins. Now Cassie.”
I was crying again. “Shut up, Linc. Don’t do this.”
“Don’t do what?” He rubbed his hands down my arms.
“Don’t try to give me something that you can’t. Don’t do this if you’re going to change your mind.”
“I’m not going to. I’m in therapy, Kennedy. I’ll be in therapy forever. But life isn’t all absolutes. I thought it was. I thought I’d hurt you, and any kids that we had. You’re going to be my wife, Kennedy. You’re already my life. I don’t think I could ever, in a million years, hurt you. Or any babies that we have.”
The tears were falling fast and heavy after that, and I couldn’t breathe.
I didn’t know how much they meant to me until that moment. That small moment in time where he gave me every single thing I’d ever wanted in my entire life. Memories of that night, our first night together, came floating back.
“I want to build a life with you,” Linc said. “I want it all. What do you say?”
I pulled my shirt off, glad that I wasn’t wearing any underwear at all.
“What are you doing, Kennedy?” His eyes drifted down to my chest, and I took advantage of his distraction to wipe the tears from my cheeks.
“Get naked, Linc.”
He didn’t have to be ordered twice. In a tangle of limbs, he stripped off his pajama pants, and then slid into my body without even trying.
“You’re so ready for me.” He smiled. “Minx. Tell me.”
For a fraction of a second I froze, and then I worked through it. Linc helped me work through it. The trauma, the history.
“I love you, Linc.”
“Not what I meant.” He started to move, and all thoughts of talking went out the window. “Kennedy,” he growled as I tightened around him. “Say it.”
“Yes.” I gasped. “Yes.”
“Good.” He leaned forward and kissed me. “Let’s practice, then.” He bit my lip and then grabbed on to my hands and lifted them over my head. When he started to speed up, I wrapped my legs around his hips and arched my back.
He groaned and I started to tremble as everything started building toward the bliss I could feel on the other end of the line.
When I hit the biggest orgasm of my entire life, Linc stilled completely. Then he started again, furiously pounding into my body until he came, too.
“Perfect,” I whispered. “Now I need to take a shower. Come wash my hair?”
Linc stared at me with a strange mix of hope and said, “You sure?”
I got up and offered him my hand. He looked at it like I was about to vanish into thin air. “Linc. You just told me that you’re ready to get over your deepest fear and want to have little baby Lincs with me. The least I can do is let you into the worst and darkest parts of my life.”
He was up off the bed, with my hand in his, practically dragging me into the bathroom before I could change my mind.
“Plus, you did promise tacos and sex for the rest of my life.”
“Absolutely. I’m boots on the ground, Kennedy. Ready whenever you are.”
Linc kissed me, his lips pressing against mine in the silent promise of forever, and single-handedly chased all of my nightmares away.
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Bite the Bullet
Anyone who ever said that they liked running was a liar. My lungs were on fire and I hadn’t even really started yet. Still, I pushed myself harder and harder because running was the only way I’d be able to reach my goals.
“Tacos,” I wheezed when I crossed the finish line. “Someone needs to get me tacos. And tequila.”
Kennedy sat there on the grass in the middle of the track at the high school, with a stopwatch that she was supposed to be using to time my laps, snoring.
“Are you kidding me?” I kicked her leg, and she snorted. “Come on, Kennedy. I needed you to time me. The stupid physical fitness standards are ridiculous.”
She opened one eye and glared at me the way only she could. “I’m going to kill you,” she muttered. “I was timing you. Until the last lap, because you slowed way down.” She threw the stopwatch at me. “Now, let me go back to sleep.”
“But I want tacos and margaritas,” I whined pathetically. “Can’t you sleep later?”
That got her up. There were very few things in life that Kennedy would pass up, and tacos wasn’t one of them.
“Fine, but we’re not going to Lucy’s. I want real tacos.”
That’s how we found ourselves all the way out at Alta’s Takeout, halfway to the island, and an hour from Birch. But we got the best tacos in the entire world.
“Alta,” I groaned around one of the most delicious meals I’d ever had. “I don’t know how you do it. But you make the best meat I’ve ever had in my mouth.”