Page 117 of It's Always Us

“I’m going to need a four-post lift.” Her teeth nip my bottom lip.

“Oh yeah.”

“And a workbench.” Kiss. Long and torturously slow. “A large tool chest with lots and lots of tools.” She trails kisses along my jaw to my neck.

“Got it.”

“At least an eighty-gallon air compressor.” Her hands run over my stomach muscles.

“Damn, girl. This sounds expensive.” She tries to pull away, but I tug her back. She’s not going anywhere. “I’ll throw in a crappy, old radio for that awful country music.”

Her hands pause from undoing my belt as her gaze lands on mine. “Only if you hang out with me when you’re not working.”

“Fine. Done.” I arch an eyebrow. “I’ll warn you, if I do that, it’s not likely you’ll have time for fixing things.”

She smiles, her cheeks turning pink, and that’s it.

Unable to wait a second longer, I take her mouth fast and hard. A soft feminine hum escapes her, sending my need into the unknown.

She said she never had a chance, but it was me. Her quiet, blue eyes saw straight into me.

Once you find someone who sees you just as you are, all screwed up and flawed, mostly just a bunch of broken pieces held together byinvisible duct tape, and somehow, they believe in you anyway, you don’t have a choice but to love them fully and completely right back.

______

ME: I need your help.

CAL: It’ll cost ya.

CAL: Again

ME: I’ll pay anyprice.

ME: As always.

Chapter 34

LEX

“And I’m going to take care of you. You’ll never question how much I love you because I’m going to tell you all the time.”

I blink, hearing his soft voice, almost a whisper.

“We’re going to be a family. I’ll teach you how to throw the perfect spiral, and I don’t care if you are girls. But if you are, you’re never leaving the house.”

His lips press against the side of my stomach between his hands.

“Now, if you are boys, then we’ll raise hell and drive your mom crazy.”

I lie perfectly still, listening to him making promises and telling them how things will be. A smile sweeps across my face.

I’ve known that Mark would never leave me alone in this, but after last night, there’s no choice but to be together. It’s time for me to move on and forward, and I get to do it with him.

I’m still scared out of my mind, but for years, I’ve been checking off the days like Grandpa said. But I’m learning that if I want to live, really live, then I have to take a chance—risk it despite the fear. Not just for me but for Mark and these babies. Only then will I allow myself the full potential this life has to offer that, until now, I’ve never allowed myself to think I could have.

Mark whispers something about them needing to sleep so that he and I can have adult time, and I can’t hold in my laugh.

“Hey. We were having a private conversation,” he grins, his head resting next to my stomach.

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