Page 98 of Deserter

Maybe the two were interchangeable.

“Because he fuckin’ loved her.” The tone in my voice changed, as if I was on the verge of falling apart, and I cleared my throat. “I think he fell for her the first time he saw her. Like I did.”

Her lips parted as she sucked in a surprised breath. She quickly recovered with an, “I don’t think you can say fuck in a bedtime story, Jamie.”

With a low growl, I yanked her forward, silencing her objections with my mouth. I hadn’t done much right in my life but marrying Celia would never be something I regretted.

Angel had it right. Maybe I had to let go of the idea of how things should’ve been between me and Celia and just see it for what it was. I’d won the fucking lottery with her.

I pulled back. “I love you, princess. I know I’ve fucked up so much, but I will spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”

“I love you too, Jamie.” Celia let her forehead rest against my mouth with a soft sigh.

She made me feel like I could have it all.

The club.

A family.

And instead of fighting her, I found that I was starting to believe it.

Chapter Twenty-One

Grey: 1991

“Darlin’, Daddy doesn’t know whatunghmeans. Let’s get rid of that pacifier and—” I slipped it out of Kate’s mouth and she immediately began shrieking. “Fuck, Katydid.”

“Fu—fu—fu,” she whimpered back at me.

I popped the pacifier back in and looked around in guilt. “Don’t say that word, okay?”

She squirmed to get down out of my arms, sucking furiously on her pacifier while watching me with wide eyes. I set her down and she took off for her bedroom.

I groaned, “Sweetheart, your party’s about to start. Let’s go look at the balloons again.”

“Day-ee!” She yelled around the pacifier, looking like a 1920s mobster with a cigar clenched in between his teeth. “Day-ee!”

I chuckled at the image as she led me over to the bookshelf in the corner of her room and pulled out the comic. “You want Daddy to read that?”

“Day-ee!” She shouted in response and sat down, little legs bouncing in excitement. I never imagined that someone so small could have me completely wrapped around her finger, but she did.

The doorbell rang just as I began and I paused. “Let’s go see who that is and then we’ll read, okay?”

She shook her head and tried tugging me back down to the carpet with a grunt. I scooped her up and carried her, screeching like a hawk, into the den.

It took a little while, but I’d finally discovered what my daughter had inherited from me—my temper. Celia had pointed it out one night as we sat at the table, trying to force feed Kate puréed green beans.

She’d jerked her little chin up anytime the spoon came near her face, lips mashed together in defiance.

“Oh my goodness,”Celia had exclaimed with a giggle.“It’s you!”

Kate might’ve looked like her mama, but she acted just like her daddy.

God help us all.

Comedian stood on the other side of the front door, trademark grin plastered across his face. “I heard it was someone’s birthday today.”

Kate went silent and watched him curiously. When he pulled a present from behind his back, she began squirming in an attempt to get to it.

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