Page 7 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

I leaned forward. “I can take you anywhere that’s not here.”

Her eyes flashed to mine. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t ask. I offered.” I held out my hand. “When you want to come back, I’ll know the way back.”

She slipped her hand into mine again, and the rightness of it nearly overwhelmed me.

“Oh,” she looked at our conjoined hands. “What do you do for a living?”

“I was in the military,” I admitted. “Recently got out due to some hearing loss in my right ear.”

She frowned. “How’d that happen?”

“Bomb went off near my face,” I admitted. “Now I’m back to my club. We own a bike and body shop in Tuscaloosa. It’s a great place to hang your hat.”

She looked at me with worry on her pretty face.

I hated that worry.

I wanted to wipe it away by wrapping my arms around her and telling her everything would be all right.

“I don’t know…”

“Go,” I heard.

I looked up to find Roger standing there at the edge of the building. “He’s just getting worse. If you’re not careful, he’ll hurt you. And I would never be able to live with myself after that.”

When she still hesitated, I said, “I’d never hurt you, Angel Face.”

She licked her lips. “You promise?”

“I promise,” I said. “I’ll never let anything hurt you ever again.”

She seemed to deflate. “What if you get tired of me?”

I outright laughed at that one. “Angel Face, there’s never gonna be a time that happens. I saw you the moment I walked into this bar and knew you were about to change my life.”

She wilted.

“You want to get out of here, sweet cheeks?” I asked Mary.

She looked at me with the biggest smile I’d ever seen before saying, “Only if you tell me your club name.”

That’s when my smirk came in full force.

“Oh, sweet girl.” I laughed, a deep belly laugh. “I don’t need a club name when my real name is as good as it is.”

“Dixie is good?” she pushed.

I patted my flat belly. “It is when your last name is Normus.”

It took her a moment.

It only ever took a moment.

But then her eyes widened and she whispered, “You’re joking.”

I winked at her. “Nope.”

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