Page 41 of Love Takes Home

“I’ll never hurt you, Ginny.”

“No. That’s not…I don’t…I’m not afraid of you, Joker. Well, I am afraid of you, but not like that.”

“Explain. Please.”

“You are aggressively nice.” He grimaces at these words, but I continue. “You are! Fuck, Joker, you’re every woman’s fucking fantasy. Is that what you want me to say? I don’t know how to say this and not sound stupid.”

“You’re not stupid.”

“That! That right there.”

“Okaaayyyy,” he draws out the word.

“Anytime I say something, whether it’s literal or figurative or metaphorically, you correct me. Keith did this by hate bombing me. You are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum, but just as aggressive.”

“Bombing is bombing.”

“Exactly. He tried to shove it down my throat that I wasn’t good enough, and you are trying to shove it down my throat that I am too good. I’m neither. I’m not bad. I’m not good. I’m just me.”

He closes his eyes, his face pinched like he’s in pain. “Ginny, I don’t know how to not be me?” He ends on a question, confusion in his words.

“And I don’t want you to be somebody that’s not you.”

“I need you to tell me what you want.”

“That’s just it. I want everything and I want nothing. I want to save the kids. I want to be there for my friends and family. I want to be four sizes smaller and comfortable in my own skin. Sometimes, I just want to lie in bed all fucking weekend and not do anything but read trashy books. I want to go to the bar on Friday night with my friends and not worry that people are judging me because I had more than one drink.” I take a deep breath and tell him my final truth. “I want to love you without fear that one day you’ll wake up and wonder what the hell you’re doing with someone like me.”

“I’m going to love bomb you now.” His smile is so genuine, I return it.

“All right. Here’s your chance. Love bomb me.”

“You are perfect.”

“But—”

“Nope. It’s my turn,” he tells me, putting his finger over my lips. “I’m love bombing you, remember?”

I nod, and he continues. “You are not perfect. But for me, you are.”

“What’s that mean?” I mumble under his finger.

“It means when I look at you, I see everything I never knew I wanted and then some. I look at you and I see everything I never knew Ineededand then some. You are the most beautifulwoman I’ve ever met, inside and out. You are perfectly flawed, and you are flawed perfectly. And I will take anything that you’re willing to give me as long as you let me show you how much I care about you.”

“Why?” I ask, tears welling in my eyes. “Why me?”

“I don’t know why. Why Trish and Davis, why Lottie and Tiny? Shit, who ever thought this one, but why Elle and Ranger? It doesn’t have to make sense, but it does. It just is. The universe is telling me that you belong with me and I belong with you.”

If that isn’t a declaration of love, I don’t know what is. Good God, could this man be any more perfect than he is?

“Joker?” I ask, turning around in the bed to face him. His hand never leaves my body.

“Yeah?”

“Will you kiss me again?”

“Thank fuck,” he says before gently bringing his lips down on mine.

Chapter 14

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