Page 36 of A Package Deal

Paisley, the designated driver for the evening, offered to drive me home first. When I protested not having my truck, Paisley assured me that Gin/Tan/Laundry was used to cars staying in their parking lot overnight. In fact, they promoted it if it meant no drunk drivers on the road. I could just pick it up tomorrow.

I must have snoozed on the ride home because next thing I knew, Paisley was prodding me awake. I blinked a few times and wondered why Warrick’s house was moving.

“Are we havin’ an earthcake?” I asked, though it sounded weird to my ears. I brought my hand to my lips, but they felt normal, even though I couldn’t feel my tongue.

Paisley just laughed and came around the hood of her truck to haul me down. She slid my arm over her shoulder and walked me to the front door. For a designated driver, the girl couldn’t walk for shit. We almost trampled Warrick’s mom’s flower beds.

“Shh!” I said way too loudly as she knocked on the door. “We haf to be quiet. Don’t wanna wake up Gogia.”

The door swung open and words were exchanged. Suddenly it was Warrick with his arm around my waist and Paisley was nowhere to be seen. He practically picked me up bodily, but I still managed to trip over my own two feet. With a sigh, he bent down and slid a hand behind my knees, hauling me up and against his chest.

“Drank the whole bar, Slaywright?” he asked with that sexy smirk on his face. He walked us through the house, ending in the living room and heading for the couch still pushed off to the side of the room.

The room spun if I swiveled my head too quickly and my tongue was being stupid and nonfunctional, but I was still aware of his broad chest, his insanely strong arms banded around me, and the way his aftershave enveloped me like a warm hug. Before I could talk myself out of it, I laid my head on his shoulder and let myself relax. Other than the bath the day of our wedding, when was the last time I truly relaxed? Even in sleep, I was always on guard, listening for any slight noise from Georgia that might signal I was needed. And yet somehow, with this annoyingly strong man, I’d found a level of relaxation that had alluded me for years.

My belly swooped and my eyes flew open to find Warrick sitting on the couch, with me on his lap, arms still around me. I tried to straighten up, with the intent to scramble off his lap, but those arms tightened.

“Why don’t you trust me, Em?” he asked gently, in direct opposition to the steel bands holding me in place. “We’re not all like him, you know.”

His gaze snared mine and I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t distract myself from the hurt I saw there. I sighed and laid my head back down on his shoulder. If I was going to be vulnerable about the worst parts of me, I was going to be damn comfortable while I did it.

“My brain knows it, but I can’t seem to get my heart to get on board with it.” My mouth felt like it had sucked on a cotton ball, but at least my tongue was cooperating now. “I trusted Cayden fully and he let me down in every way. Even people I would have considered lifelong friends took his side and wouldn’t have anything to do with me. I wanted to fall apart and grieve but I had a baby to raise, so I hardened my heart and picked myself back up. It was the only way to survive.”

Warrick agreed with a low hum that rumbled his chest where I lay against him. His thumb absently stroked across the skin at my knee. We stayed just like that for long moments. So long I think I dozed right there on his lap for a couple minutes. He jostled me awake. A glass of water appeared in front of me and I drank it down greedily. He set the empty glass on the side table.

“Is it really living though if you’re still in survival mode five years later?”

Every muscle in my body froze as his words sank in. His tone had been gentle, but the words highlighted what I already knew and tried to ignore. What kind of life was I giving Georgia by being constantly stressed out and on edge?

My eyes stung but I swallowed back the emotion. I would not cry in front of Warrick. I’d sit on his lap and use his shoulder as a pillow but there were some lines I just couldn’t cross. Refused to cross.

Warrick shifted and suddenly his lips were warm against my forehead, right by my hairline. He pulled back just a fraction of an inch, his breath fanning against my forehead.

“I don’t say that to hurt you. I say it because it hurts me to see a wonderful woman limiting herself because of past traumas. I see you, Emmerleigh, and I see someone stronger than steel with a heart of gold. You don’t show anyone your soft side, except for Georgia, and that’s a shame for the rest of us.”

And then he kissed my forehead again and shifted me off of his lap and onto the couch. I was too stunned to move, too emotional to trust myself to say anything after all of that. Reaching for the side table again, Warrick grabbed something and twisted to hold it out to me. A thin gold band lay in his palm.

“What’s this?” My voice was barely a whisper.

“A new ring for you. Not because I want the other one back,” he was quick to add. “But because I see it’s not practical to wear a huge diamond while working on a house. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize that earlier.”

I plucked it from his palm and studied it. I thought about what Keva had said about the best thing being right in front of her and her stubbornness kept her from seeing it. I wondered if Warrick was my best thing. Wondered how this man could be so kind, so thoughtful, after I’d purposely hurt him with my words earlier today.

I slid the ring on my bare finger and threw my arms around his neck in a bruising hug. For once I let emotion guide me. The wind was probably knocked out of him, but he hugged me in return, one big hand stroking circles on my back, seeking to comfort when I was the one who should offer comfort—and an apology—to him.

“I do trust you, you know,” I whispered in his ear, wishing my brain was more sober and could analyze why being in his arms felt so damn good. “I’ve never let anyone but my mother babysit Georgia.” I pulled back, my hands still on his shoulders, giving him my gaze when I owed him so much more. “She’s the one good thing in my life and I’ll protect her with everything I have.”

He didn’t smirk. His eyes stayed solemn. “And yet you trust her with me. So, how about you trust yourself with me too?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Warrick

Em looked so lost I wanted to scoop her back up in my arms and take her to bed. And not to her bed in the guest room. To my bed.

Fuck. I scrubbed a hand over my face as her hands dropped from my shoulders. Things had gotten confusing. Fast. Half the time Emmerleigh Slaywright made me want to punch a hole in the drywall just to make her fix it with a scowl on her face, and the other half of the time, I wanted to make this marriage real. Forever. The three of us as a family. Not some fake arrangement to help her out with this court case. I’d never felt so useful and so at peace than I had here in Blueball with Em and Georgia.

Didn’t help that this pint-sized general contractor of mine was sitting on the couch wearing a dress with my gold wedding band on her finger. A flirty little sundress in pale pink that highlighted her lightly tanned skin and long blonde hair. Her eyes were as big as saucers, realizing she’d hugged me of her own volition.

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