Page 18 of Maddog

She smiled. “Are you always going to give in to my demands?”

I couldn’t suppress my chuckle. “Probably. I’ll make sure I’m there when the fireworks start, and stand between you and whatever I have to until you’re ready to leave.”

“That’s such a ‘you’ thing to say, Jax.” She focused on my hand, threading her fingers through mine. “Are you and my dad OK?”

“We are, baby. Don’t worry about your dad. He and I can work out our own problems, but he’s going to allow me to make you my old lady.”

“I mean, you gave me a property cut and everything. It’s a little late, I suppose.”

“Never too late for a daddy to protect his little girl, but Wrath knows I’ll take care of you.”

Moisture leaked from her eyes, though she smiled through her tears. “You’ve always taken care of me.” With slow, deliberate movements, she raised her hand to my face, stroking my short beard. “I’ve loved you my entire life, Jax.” Her voice was barely a thread of sound, almost like she was talking to herself. “I know I haven’t always acted like it. I’m sorry for telling Mom and Dad you were mean to me when I was little. That wasn’t very nice of me.”

“Baby, don’t apologize for that. Never for that. It was the only way you could get one of them to come get me.” I chuckled softly, bringing her fingers to my lips where they were still laced with mine. I kissed her knuckles gently, letting my mouth linger on her skin. When I spoke, it was with her fingers still against my lips. “I admit the first time startled me. Especially when I opened the door to a scowling Wrath. He took a swing at me before telling me what was going on. Once he did, I knew what was wrong.”

“Were you even out of your teens?”

“Not that time. But I was eighteen. Barely. It’s why he took a swing at me. I was legal and he knew I knew better than to hurt your feelings.”

“And I told him you had. And he believed me.”

“Of course, he was gonna believe you. It’s why you told him I’d been an asshole. You told him you wanted me to come apologize and that’s what he was makin’ me do.”

“Then you let me berate you for a solid hour. I think I hit you more than once.”

“Yeah, baby. You did. I took it proudly because once you tired yourself out, you crawled up in my lap and went to sleep with me holding you.” I stroked a lock of hair off her forehead. “That’s one of my favorite memories. The first time you showed me you trusted me and that I was able to take away at least some of your pain and frustration.”

Holly sat up and moved to the edge of the bed before crawling up into my lap. She wrapped her arms around me and cried against my neck. I held her and let her cry. The sooner she got out all her pent-up negative emotions, the better she’d feel. And we could get about the business of us.

When she finally stopped crying, Holly showed no signs of being ready to let me go. I was content to simply hold her. Wrath still shot off the occasional text, but as I’d told him when I stopped answering my phone, Holly was awake and needed my full attention. If he called, I’d know it was urgent. Otherwise, I was going to ignore everything but Holly.

“So, what now?” She played with the front of my T-shirt, picking at the neckline and brushing her fingers over the material and my chest.

“You mean, what now for us?” I shrugged, leaning down to kiss her forehead just to feel the silky-smooth texture of her skin against my lips. “We live happily ever after.”

She pulled back, meeting my gaze with an exasperated one of her own. “Nothing is ever that simple, Jax.”

“It is with us. Sure, there are a couple things that need ironing out, but I’m pretty sure our major problems are going to disappear. After that, you and I get busy figuring out what makes you happiest.”

“Me? What about you? Despite our history, I don’t want you to be miserable.”

That got a bark of laughter out of me. “I never thought you wanted me miserable, Holly. You needed a way to vent your anger and frustration. You chose me. I accepted the challenge willingly.”

“But you didn’t know I didn’t mean all the stuff I said.” The tears were starting again. I hated seeing her cry. Especially about our past.

“I knew. Call it intuition. Or wishful thinking.” I chuckled.

“You couldn’t have known I didn’t mean it, because I didn’t know I didn’t mean it!” There was a little fire in her eyes now. That spark of temper was the thing that made me relax. Holly was ready to start fighting again.

“All I knew was I needed to make you better. Since there was nothing I could do to cure your illness, I knew I’d do the only other thing I could. Be there for you when you needed to lash out. You couldn’t do it with your parents, and certainly not the McDonalds. You had parents and other people who loved you, and all kinds of bikers in this compound who’d kill anyone you needed killed. You even had a doctor doing everything in his power to make sure you were with us for a very long time to come. What you didn’t have was a person you felt safe to release all the pent-up anger and frustration inside you. I knew exactly what I was signing up for, baby.”

“I don’t deserve you, Jax.” Her chin trembled with emotion.

“Yeah you do, baby. You deserve way more than I can give you, but there is no one on this earth who will be solely focused on you and seeing to your happiness.”

“You know, the leukemia came back once. Blade said he got on top of it because he monitors my markers aggressively. Says it’s better to do a blood test more frequently and get a negative result than to not test enough and get a positive result months later.”

“I remember.” As if she had to remind me. “I was on pins and needles for months, afraid to leave your side.”

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