He stayed longer than I had expected, hanging around until it was time for Brantley to go to bed. When my boy had asked if Jensen would read him a bedtime story instead of me, it had stung like hell. But as I stood outside the bedroom door so I could peek in on them, I hadn’t been able to contain my smile as Brantley stopped him every five seconds to tell him he wasn’t doing the voices right.
The sight of the two of them—my son a miniature carbon copy of his dad—curled up in Brantley’s tiny twin bed was cuteness overload, and the sting was quickly soothed by a warmth I hadn’t felt in a really long time.
As he did every night, Brantley passed out during the second re-reading of his favorite book, his puffy pink lips parted in sleep and his whole body limp as a noodle. I watched, holding my breath as Jensen carefully extricated himself from our son’s tangled limbs and slipped off the bed. He bent deep, brushing Brantley’s hair back and placing a kiss on his forehead, whispering, “Love you, buddy.”
Pulling myself out of the tender moment, I quickly spun around and raced down the hall as quietly as possible so he wouldn’t know I’d been eavesdropping on the whole thing.
Throwing myself onto the couch, I snatched up the discarded book I’d thrown onto the coffee table and opened it, pretending to read as Jensen entered the room. “Oh, hey. He asleep?”
“Out like a light.” One side of his mouth hooked up in that cocky smirk he used to wear all the damn time. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
“I—no—huh?”
“You really would make a shitty spy,” he said with a low, raspy chuckle that made my blood sizzle.
“Busted,” I said on a sigh.
“Yeah, just a bit of advice for the future. Solid objects cast shadows, especially when they’re hovering in a well-lit area. And if you want to pretend you weren’t lurking, you might wanna make sure the book you’re using as a prop to cover your tracks isn’t upside down.”
I snapped my book closed and tossed it back onto the coffee table, rising to my feet as I grumbled, “All right, smartass. You’ve made your point. I have no future in espionage or as a poker player.”
He gave me that big, genuine smile that made butterflies take flight in my belly. “How are you feeling?”
“At the risk of jinxing myself and experiencing a setback, I think I can say I’m officially out of the woods.”
“Good. I’m glad.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder toward the door. “I guess I should be going.”
I was hit with a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Oh, uh . . . yeah. I’ll just, um, walk you out.”
We walked at a slow, sedate pace to his truck outside, dragging the short trip out a whole lot longer than necessary. The truth was, I didn’t want him to go. Smart or not, I wanted him to stay. I just couldn’t bring myself to say those words.
Instead, I stopped a few feet from the driver side door and crossed my arms, holding myself steady as I said, “Thank you, Jensen, for everything you’ve done the past couple days.” I lowered my head and stared at the ground, suddenly nervous as I confessed, “I’m not sure what I would’ve done if you hadn’t been here.”
I felt that featherlight touch of his fingers beneath my chin before he applied pressure, turning my face back up to his. “Nothing to thank me for, baby. I told you, I want to do my part. I won’t make excuses for the shit I fucked up in the past, all I can do is promise that it’ll be different from here on out.”
I felt those words in my chest and belly. That hope I’d tamped down for so long sprang up all of a sudden.
“Jens, I think . . . maybe we should find some time to sit down and talk? Get everything out in the open.” I waited anxiously for his response, because I knew it would make or break our situation.
His eyes went cloudy, hesitance keeping him silent for several beats before he finally asked, “You on the schedule to work Wednesday night?”
“No. I’m off that day.”
“Think you could find someone to watch Brantley for a couple hours Wednesday night?”
The relief rushed through me so hard and fast it was a wonder I’d been able to stay standing. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I can figure something out.”
“How about dinner at my place? I’ll order something in, that way we can have some privacy so we can talk. That work for you?”
My smile was so big it made my cheeks pinch as I nodded my head. “Yeah. That works.”
“All right then. Wednesday. Now go on back inside before you get sick again.”
“Okay, Jensen.” I nearly called him bunny but caught myself before the endearment fell past my lips.
He leaned in, brushing a sweet kiss against the corner of my mouth before climbing into his truck and starting it up. I moved back to my front porch and stood in the opened doorway, watching as he backed out, thinking that I’d really missed that truck over the years. We’d has some seriously good times in it. Then I went inside, shut everything down, and checked on Brantley one last time before climbing back into bed.
And when I fell asleep a short while later, I did it feeling lighter than I had in a very long time.
Chapter Nineteen
Shane
Nineteen years old
I barely heard the sound of the front door opening and closing over the blood rushing through my ears.
“Sunshine, I’m home.” The thud of Jensen’s boots sounded through our tiny apartment as he made his way toward the bedroom. Our place wasn’t anything fancy. Compared to Jensen had grown up, it was pretty much a pit. The one bedroom/one and a half bath apartment was only a little over six hundred square feet in an older building on the outskirts of town, but we loved it. It was our home, at least for now, and we were happy here.
After Jensen showed up on our doorstep beat to hell and nearly unconscious, my aunt and uncle had insisted he stay with us for as long as he needed.
He’d crashed in the little apartment my uncle had built above the detached garage while he went to trade school to become a mechanic. He got his certification a few months after his nineteenth birthday and got on as an apprentice over at Banks Body and Auto Repair not long after. Once he had a steady paycheck coming in, he’d saved up and put a down payment on this place. I’d followed after as soon as I graduated. It wasn’t always easy, we were still young and trying to find our place in the world while scrimping and saving to pay bills, but we made it work.
My aunt and uncle sat me down shortly before graduation and explained to me the stress that came with moving away from home and living with someone else, but my heart was already in it. My mind was made up. Knowing I was smart and had a good head on my shoulders, they’d let it go, giving me their blessing. I worked part-time as a waitress and went to school part-time at the local college, working my way toward my degree. It wasn’t the course I’d originally jotted out for what my future would look like, but that was okay, because I had Jensen. We were happy, and that was all that mattered.
There were fights, a good number of them considering my boyfriend was a hothead, but they never lasted long. As soon as they were over, we were back to being us. He’d been working hard over the past couple years to control his anger, and now that he was out from beneath his bastard of a father’s thumb, he was making good strides. There was still the occasional fight, but he had more control, and he always pulled himself back before it went too far.