Page 97 of Ramsey & Emerson

“What about when you married Em? Or when she gave you Ram and Mad?” Liam asked.

“When Emerson finally married me, I felt relief,” I answered honestly. “When she gave me the boys, I felt more possessive over her than I’d ever had before. I stared at her holding Ram, and all I could think about was how I had to make sure to protect them at all costs. It was the same when she gave me Mad. When I look at my family, I don’t feel happy like you’d think. When I look at my family, I always feel like I’m on guard. I feel like a momma bear around her cubs, appreciating the miracle of them, but never really ever being able to relax around them.” I shook my head tiredly. “I’d lose my goddamn mind if anything ever happened to any of them, and that’s mostly what I think and feel when I’m around them.”

“That sounds exhausting,” Ace remarked. “I mean, I feel the same whenever I think of Ava and the girls, but I’m also able to be happy around them.”

“Like you said, that’s because you never fucked up as badly as I did,” I pointed out.

“Deke and Liam fucked up just as badly as you did,” Ace countered. “But they’re still able to be happy.”

“Hey, my fuck-up wasn’t as bad as Deke’s and Ramsey’s,” Liam argued. “But…I get your point.”

“While that’s true, there’s a big difference between their marriages and mine,” I replied. “Delaney and Roselyn aren’t Emerson. Delaney’s the sweetest person on earth, so Deke’s able to soothe her feathers easier, and Roselyn will always choose forgiving Liam over breaking up her family because she’d never do that to her sons. Even Ava’s willing to put up with your shit because she’s at peace in her life now.” I looked between each man. “Emerson might love me like she’s never loved anyone else before, but what Emerson doesn’t do? She doesn’t love me more than she loves herself. Emerson has seen up close and personal what can happen when you love another person more than you love yourself, and it ended up costing her mother her life. So, unlike your wives, my wifewilltry to leave me if she ever feels cornered, and she’d have Ram and Maddox’s full support if I ended up fucking things up.”

“You’re scared,” Liam stated seriously.

“Fuck yeah, I am,” I replied honestly. “I believe in Heaven and Hell, but the only thing that scares me and has ever scared me is Emerson trying to leave me.”

Deke cocked his head. “But you also know that you’d never let that happen, so that’s not the real problem.”

“That’s why I said that she’dtry,”I told him. “Not that I’d ever let her.”

“Okay, so is this just a fight?” Ace asked. “Or is this more serious than when you guys usually bump heads?”

“I don’t know,” I said before letting out another deep breath. “I don’t know, and that’s why I was deep in a bottle of scotch last night and hung-the-fuck-over this morning. We said a lot of shit last night, and she can’t see why I can’t get past what I did to her that morning, and I can’t see how she was able to. I mean, how in the fuck is that even possible?”

“Okay, hear me out,” Liam said. “Maybe it’s possible because Emerson has seen worse. Yeah, what you did to her back in high school had been…it was bad. Still, you’re talking about a female whose father began beating her at a very young age, Ramsey. Emerson saw and heard her father do horrific things to her mother in that small trailer of theirs, so…well, it’s very possible that what’s unforgiveable to you is just run-of-the-mill bullshit for Emerson, and that’s why she’s been able to move on from it.”

“He’s got a very good point, Ram,” Deke tacked on.

“That still doesn’t make what I did forgivable,” I said, though his words had re-wired my mind a bit.

“True,” Liam agreed. “But maybe it’ll help you remember just how strong your wife really is.”

Her father had started beating her at the age of six, so I knew exactly how strong she really was.

Chapter 16

Emerson~

“While I love these all-girl moments, why does it always have to be because one of the guys fucked up?” Ava grumbled right before she let out a long yawn.

I let out a soft chuckle as Roselyn and Delaney agreed with her. “It does seem to always happen that way, doesn’t it?”

“Well, we know that the guys are all over at your place right now, Emerson,” Ava added. “So, our plan needs to be better than whatever they come up with.”

After Ramsey had made his point last night, I’d been exhausted. While he’d been ready for round four, my body had cried uncle, and so I’d ended up sending him off to his office to drink his troubles away. Now, while that hadn’t been the most effective or mature way to handle our problems, I just hadn’t wanted to hear anymore. Ramsey and I had reached a stalemate, and screwing all night long hadn’t been the answer last night, and it still wasn’t the answer.

“Well, if I know Ramsey-which I do-then he’s already running a thorough background check on Adrian, and if nothing comes back that he can use to his advantage, then Ramsey will just dig deeper until he finds something,” I told them. “Everyone has at least one skeleton in their closet, and that’s something that Ramsey has never been wrong about so far.”

As soon as I’d gotten up this morning, not wanting to ruin Ava’s vacation with Ace, I had called Roselyn and Delaney to let them know that I needed some girl time because Ramsey was being Ramsey again. Ignoring how I hadn’t wanted to bother Ava, Delaney had sent her a text to let her know what was going on, and to my grateful surprise, Ava had shown up on my doorstep, ready to plan Ramsey’s downfall. Luckily for me, Roselyn and Delaney had been willing to wait for Ava’s arrival, so that I could tell the story only once.

“Okay, so…doesyour boss have a thing for you?” Delaney asked. “I mean, I’m not calling Ramsey a liar or anything, but we all know that the man is a bit unreasonable when it comes to you.”

“Says the woman that’s married to Deke Marlow,” Ava snorted.

Delaney’s dark gaze slid Ava’s way. “While Deke might be a bit…challenging-”

“Oh, is that the word we’re using?” Roselyn chuckled.

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