Page 105 of Stay for Me

“My wife is a good woman,” he noted.

I put out the cig and dropped the butt onto the porch.

He didn’t let up. “Harmony is a good woman.”

My chest began to ache.

“Abbie is a good woman.”

“Kings—”

“Don’t sit here and tell me you don’t deserve her because of the man you had to become in a war zone,” he cut me off softly. “Don’t try to convince me you don’t deserve her, brother, because you do.”

“Got demons,” I muttered.

“Mags, I had a PTSD episode with Valerie, and you had to intervene,” he argued. “Did I not deserve her because of those demons?”

Fuck me.“That was different.”

He nodded. “You’re right—itwasdifferent. Because it was me and not you. You told me not to be ashamed of fighting demons. You remember that?”

Breaking our gaze, I went to the porch railing, leaning my forearms against it, staring out into the field in front of my cabin. “I remember,” I said gruffly.

“So why are you not holding yourself to that same standard?” he asked, coming to stand beside me, mirroring my position, staring at my profile.

I felt it then, the burning, the pain. My voice was low, barely audible. “She saw my burn tonight.”

Kings, being Kings, didn’t even give the words a chance to hang in the air. “Your injuries, your flaws, and your trauma has nothing to do with your worth.”

God dammit.

Damn all of it.

I dropped my head. “She deserves perfection, Kings.”

“I’m certain she’s already found it in you, brother,” he said softly.

His words rang in my ears, like the aftershock of a bomb.

She’s already found it in you.

She’s already found it in you.

She’s already found it in you.

She’s already found it in you.

“Perfection isn’t linear,” he continued, as if he hadn’t just pierced the depths of my fucked-up soul. “Perfection is different for everyone.”

She’s already found it in you.

She’s already found it in you.

She’s already found it in you.

She’s already found it in you.

“I’m more pissed I missed it,” he muttered.

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