Page 56 of Wait For Me

“Dammit, Bagger! When did you become the smart one?”

He damn near growled as he threw me on my bed, climbed on top of me, and glared right into my eyes.

“You do not call me that! You use my damn name, because the last thing either of us needs to be reminded of when we’re together, is how fucking dumb I was when we were younger.”

“Sorry, when I’m mad at you, you’re a different person.”

“I don’t want to be that person anymore, Star. Not even when you’re mad at me, and that will happen, because I’m not fucking perfect, and neither are you.”

He rolled off me to lie on his side and pulled me so that we were facing one another. “Tell me about what you were up to while I was gone,” I finally demanded.

“I’d rather hear about what you were up to. My life was boring in comparison.”

“Okay, well, question for question then?”

“Sure,” he agreed. I tickled him to get him to answer my original question. “Oh, you still want me to answer that one?”

“Yeah, duh!”

“Well, you know where I was for the first few months. I followed your ass all the way to Loveland, Colorado.”

“You’re a bastard for that too. There were so many times that I could have sworn that I caught a glimpse of you. There were a few times I thought maybe I should just lock myself up somewhere and get the strong drugs for my delusions.”

The jerk laughed at me. “Twinkles,” he groaned, “there were so many times that I begged for you to see me.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly, the more I watched you figure life out all on your own, the more I wanted you.”

“Well, shit, if that’s all it took, maybe I should have gotten a job sooner,” I joked even though we’d already talked about how it took him seeing me being my own person when I didn’t think there was a safety net under me, for him to really clue into the woman I was becoming.

“Where’d you go after Loveland?”

“I’m sure you already know that since Trench was reporting back after you left.”

“Yeah, but I want to hear from you where you went and why you chose those places.”

We volleyed our questions and answers back and forth until my eyes were drooping. By that point, I was snuggled into Jared’s arms with my back to his front. I’m not sure which of us drifted off to sleep first, but it was the most peaceful sleep I’d had in years.

~*~

When I woke in the morning, Jared was already gone, and the smell of coffee brewing drew me out to the kitchen.

“Bagger left a few minutes ago,” Uncle Mack told me as I grabbed a cup and started filling it with the potent brew I needed to ingest before waking up fully.

“Mmm,” my response was hummed which amused my uncle greatly.

“Good to see the two of you getting along, finally.”

I nodded and sat down to pull up the local real estate listings on my phone. About that time, Aunt Viv wandered into the room too and leaned in to kiss the top of my head as she passed me.

“What are you looking at there?” She asked.

“Well, since my own brother couldn’t tell me that he got married, and had a kid, I guess the only way I’ll know things is if I live here – at least part time.”

“Part time?” Viv asked, wiping the quick smile from her face at the implication that I didn’t plan on sticking around.

“I don’t plan to stop traveling just because I purchase a home.”

---