Page 111 of Time to Bounce

Choose you. Choose me.

I could do that.

“Okay,” I breathed. “When you ask me, I’ll choose you.”

He growled something low in his throat, then twisted us so that I was on top of him, my entire frame resting on his.

I lay there, my ear to his heart, for quite a long time before I said, “Seems a shame to waste a perfectly good bed, Gable.”

He laughed. “Beds aren’t our thing. Plus, today was rough. I think we need some sleep. We can think about how to use the bed tomorrow.”

I carefully adjusted myself so that I was lying on my side, leg thrown over his hips. The stitches in his side were pressed against my belly, and the last thing I thought about as I fell into a deep sleep in his arms was, ‘I hope I don’t rip those open in my sleep.’

I am just so thankful for all the different ways to eat potatoes.

—Text from Athena to Gable

ATHENA

Good news.

I didn’t rip his stitches open.

Bad news? He had to get to work.

Quaid had called him and begged him to cover a shift and Gable had agreed.

I was currently watching him get dressed in the mouth of his closet as he talked to me.

“I don’t think there’s a reason you can’t go out today,” he said. “Just be very aware. And carry your gun with you.”

I grinned, eyes still heavy with sleep.

“How’d you know I had a purse gun?” I teased.

Maven probably told him.

The moment I turned twenty-one, I’d rushed to get my concealed carry.

After my parents had been shot, my dad died, and my brother was killed, I just couldn’t not have it around.

It was my emotional support purse pistol.

Something I had to have to feel safe.

Maven called it my security blanket.

I called it the way I kept myself safe before Gable entered my life.

You just never knew what was going to come at you, and I wanted to be prepared the best way I could.

“Because your purse is heavy, which is a dead giveaway, and Maven talks about it like it’s a live person.” He chuckled as he pulled his tactical pants up his hips. After zipping and buttoning, he reached for his police belt which he looped through the belt loops. After that, he started attaching various implements.

Gun.

Night stick.

Handcuffs.

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