Page 43 of Infected By Virus

VIRUS

Virus wasn’t thrilled with the idea of not seeing Rae every moment of every day, but in hindsight, she was right. He needed to focus on Adam. He was priority number one.

Besides, they were very different than they had been almost seven years ago. While he had every confidence in the world they were meant to be and it would work itself out, Rae needed to see he was different.

He understood that. What he’d done hurt her beyond comprehension, shaped the way she viewed things from then on. She said she loved him, but the kind of trust they needed to make it work would take time. He would never give her a reason not to trust him ever again.

He’d swapped his motorcycle for his truck as soon as Rae had left so he could take Adam back to his place. But Nova wouldn’t let him leave without a booster seat. She had an extra one in her car, so Hook showed him how they worked.

“Who knew kids would be so complicated? Back in my day, Dad just tossed us in the back seat and told us to buckle up and shut up.”

Hook laughed at his puzzlement. “Yeah, but we vow to do better than they did, no matter how great your parent or parental figure was or wasn’t. It’s part of being a dad, man. You want so much more for them than you can ever achieve, but you’ll never stop trying to make it so.”

There was happiness and sadness in the enforcer’s voice. Virus knew Hook’d never had a father figure worth a damn. Between the system and being a street kid with a psycho acting as his brother being all he knew before unspeakable abuse; Hook had turned into an amazing father to little June.

Virus admired him so much. “Well, I’ll consider it a success if I turn out to be half the fucking father you are, brother.”

The glitter in his eyes that indicated his words had struck a chord didn’t escape Virus’s notice, but he played it off.

“Now, if you have any advice on being wooed, I’m all ears.” When a grin split Hook’s tattooed face, Virus knew he’d fucked up. He was just trying to deflect from the overly emotional moment he caused, and now he’d be teased relentlessly.

“Being wooed, you say?”

“I mean, wooing. Any advice on wooing a woman you fucked up with but is giving you a second chance.”

“No, that’s some grade A bullshit, that’s what that is. The Virus I know doesn’t mix shit up. You are getting fucking wooed, brother.”

Hook laughed his fucking ass off at Virus’s expense.

“Whenever you’re done, big guy, let me know and we can have a mature conversation about love and relationships.”

That scolding just made the fucker laugh more.

Nova came outside with a few bottles of water and handed one to each of them. “I just came out to see what was taking you two so long, but now I feel I need details if something is that funny.”

“Don’t—” Virus started, but his words fell on deaf ears.

“Rae is wooing Virus,” Hook answered between laughs and air quoted wooing.

Instead of laughing, Nova clapped her hands together.

“Oh, how romantic and very progressive.” She wrapped her arms around Virus before pulling back and planting a kiss on her husband. “I’m so happy for you. She’s a keeper, you know that, right? We’ve already voted her in to the Royal Ol’ Ladies Club, so you can’t fuck it up. You’re not allowed.” She crossed her arms.

“Noted. But what if …” He trailed off. What could he say? What if she doesn’t ever look at me like she used to? What if I always see the hurt I caused her hidden in her blue eyes somewhere? No, he couldn’t give those thoughts a voice. “What if I don’t know how to be wooed?”

It was a valid question. He was a take charge kind of guy. He did the wooing; he made decisions that needed to be made. He didn’t make a lot of friends because he was direct to the point of rudeness sometimes. He had never been a passive participant in any aspect of his life but one, and that resulted in letting Celeste manipulate a situation.

“I think it’s just like anything else in life—if you want it, you figure it out. Besides, you definitely seem like the type to enjoy a woman lavishing her attention on you. So, I say enjoy the process.”

She headed toward the door and spoke right before she entered. “I know the followers will,” she singsonged as she closed it.

Fuck, the ol’ ladies and their social media. He was about to be fodder for the masses.

“Cheer up,” Hook said, as if he could read his mind. “You know you love the attention.”

He did … or had until Rae walked back into his life. How would she feel about women on the internet asking about his dick size? Virus vowed to not feed any of that moving forward, or anything that might hurt Rae.

It was well after lunch by the time Adam and he pulled away from Hook’s place.

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