Page 21 of Loving Her

He lifts an eyebrow but reaches into his pocket and takes the key out and gently puts it in my palm. He doesn’t remove his hand from mine, though. He wraps his fingers around mine before placing the sweetest kiss on my forehead. “Do you want to tell me why you’re mad as a wet hornet, Doc?”

“I’m not mad. I’m irritated. There’s a difference, I grumble.

“Okay, so why are youirritated?”

I blow out a breath, trying to get control of my emotions. I can’t confess that I’m upset he’s been distant, or that he left without telling me anything about what he was doing. Technically, it’s none of my business.

“It has just been a rough day,” I answer. I’m kind of proud that I’m not lying to him. “Would you like a piece of Iva’s chocolate pie? I was still hungry so, I found myself down here,” well one small lie isn’t bad. I wasn’t so much hungry as I was sulking.

“Sure. Cooper and I ate in a small street café when we met his buddy, but I couldn’t truly eat. I had a lot of information to digest.”

I stare up at him. “I heard you were getting some answers about your past. Although, I guess I wasn’t supposed to know.”

“Indy …”

“Sit. I’ll get the pie,” I mutter.

“Indy, it wasn’t that I didn’t want you to know. I planned on telling you.”

“It doesn’t matter, Breaker. It’s not like I have a right to know.” I dish up two saucers of the pie with vanilla ice cream on the side. I put one in front of him and then sit beside him with my own. I steadily avoid looking at him.

“Apparently, my name is Matthew, but my mother and two sisters call me Mattie.”

“You met them?” I ask, dread filling me.

“No. Cooper’s friend was a member of the Tennessee chapter of the Savage Brothers. He knows me and my family pretty well, actually. He was different. I liked him. He actually showed me pictures of everyone he kept in his wallet, not his phone.”

“That’s different,” I agree. “Am I supposed to call you Matthew now?”

“You can, if you want. I’m not sure I want my woman to call me Mattie.”

“Your woman?”

“That’s what I said.”

“You’ve barely spoken to me since the night you kissed me, and now you think you can just call me your woman?” I scoff.

“I’ve barely spoken to you because I knew if I didn’t put some distance between us, I’d claim you before finding out anything about my past. I don’t think you understand how desperate I am for you, Doc.”

“You barely know me.”

“Indy—”

“It has been a while for me, but I’m pretty sure if you want to date a woman you don’t move out of the house and ignore her,” I point out, taking a bite of my ice cream.

“You made it clear I needed to find out if I had a woman waiting for me. I don’t, by the way.”

“You’re sure?”

“Devil seemed to know everything about me and had pictures of my family, so I’m fairly certain.”

“When are you going to tell your family you’re alive, or have you?”

“I wanted to hold off and just spend some time with you and Tinny. I’ll meet with them, but nothing sparked a memory tonight. I don’t want to look at them and admit that I have no idea who in the hell they are. I need time to prepare for that. I guess that sounds selfish,” he explains with a sigh.

“It sounds human. It’s really not fair, though. You may not know them, but they love you. They’re worried and grieving right now.”

“Can you give me a couple of weeks?”

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