Page 14 of Booth

“You are more than I ever dreamed of having in a mate, more than I ever wanted in one as well.”She smacked him as he lay back.“You honor me by being my mate.I look forward to fighting with you for many centuries to come.”

She snorted.He laughed.There would never be a dull moment with his mate.And he was glad for that.Holding her in his arms, he did wonder what their future would bring and found that he didn’t really care.All he wanted was her, and for now, that was more than enough.

“I would like to have a child with you.Soon.I feel the urge to be a mom like Amy is.She’ll be a great one, I think.I’ll need help.I know so very little about your kind…our kind that I find myself wanting to find someone I can—did I tell you that I talked to your mom?She’s brilliant, by the way, and you guys should tell her that more often.Anyway, she was very helpful when I asked her questions, and she didn’t embarrass me at all.I thought that she’d have fun with me for some reason.”

“My grandmas could have helped you, too, but I think they might well have teased you a bit.I’m sure that whatever you talked about was something that my mom will treasure.I think she’s wanted a girl, a woman around to hang out with for some time now.And with us finding our mates, she seems to be happier than I’ve ever known her to be.Even Dad is having fun being the knight in shining armor for the new brides of the troop.”Booth stroked her back, feeling sated more than he thought possible for just a single bout of lovemaking.“I’m suddenly starving to death.I know you brought up a cheese platter, but I think that even if I ate the entire thing all by myself, I’d still be hungry for more.”

“I have sandwiches too.Let me get them.”She got up, and he was sort of happy to see her limping across the room.Booth knew that had it been he who got up first, he might well have fallen on his face, he was so sore.Even his nose felt just a little out of joint.She handed him the large platter of food.“There are plenty of them, too.I was only going to bring up a couple, just to tide us over, but the more I thought about what you eat as a snack, I made six more.So you have six just for yourself, and I have two.”

He ate the first two without even tasting them.Which, of course, made Dee laugh at him.When he was ready to eat the third one, he also ate some of the salad that had been brought up, too.By the time he was eating the sixth of the sandwiches, they’d polished off the cheese and meat platter along with all ten bottles of water that she’d brought up and were drinking the wine.

They played while eating and talked.He told her what he knew about babies that might be born to them, and she told him what she’d been up to all day.Booth told her about his classes that he’d had today and how much he’d not enjoyed them as much as he had thought that he would.

“I think that I’m missing you more than I thought that I would.I would think of something that I wanted to tell you, and I’d have to slow myself down in leaving the school to come home and tell you.Then, when they called and said that Amy was in labor, it was all I could do not to find you and make us have a baby as well.I do want as many children as you’d like to have.”She said she didn’t know how many she wanted, but she did want at least two.“And close together in age.There is only about fifteen months between each of my brothers, and it makes it so that we’re close.I know that you’re much younger than your sister and brother.”

“Shawn is eight years older than me and Lynn is nearly sixteen.That makes a lot of years between her and Shawn, too.We were never close, none of us.I guess now that things are different between us, it’s too late for us to be close.They’ve always treated me with a little distance because of the years between us.”He thought of her sister and asked her if she was still around.“I don’t know.She’s not bothered me any if she is.I know that she wants money, and I’ve told her no, but I don’t know if she’s going to just go away or not.I’ve been keeping an eye out for her when I’m out and about.But nothingso far.”

They talked about anything that popped into their mind.No rhyme or reason to their conversations, and they’d pop back and forth about subjects, too.It was enjoyable, but they needed to get up and get going.He needed to grade papers, and she said that she had things that she had to do as well.

Booth felt more relaxed than he had in some time.After getting the papers graded, disappointed in the grades that they had gotten, he put them back in his briefcase and was glad that this test didn’t count.It was just to see if they had retained anything from the years before in his class, and it looked like only a couple would make it on the path that they were on now.

Locking up the house, he was quite pleased with the way it was coming along.With the doors locked and the wolf on watch, he felt safer in his home than he had in some time.For a long time now, he decided that he was never going to be as happy as he was at this moment.

Going up to bed, he was happy to see that Dee was already in bed and sleeping.She’d not been getting enough sleep, thanks wholly to the two of them not seemingly getting enough of each other.As soon as he was stripped down and in the bed, he closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.It was going to be a long day tomorrow, and he wanted as much sleep as he could get.

Up the next morning, he was up before Dee was and out the door before she even stirred around.Getting to school, he was happy that he was able to get his work done, and the lessons for the day finished up before his first class.The rest of the day would go better, he hoped, than the day before if he kept on the same path he was on now.Keeping focused was the only way he was going to survive school while his lovely wife was at home without him.

Twice, he was called away from class, and both times, he thought it could have been handled after class.The principal wanted him to answer a few parent-teacher questions, and he did so without having to refer to his notes.The fact that he’d offered to hold onto their notes for this year was something that he’d done every year since teaching, and he didn’t like being questioned about his methods in teaching classes.Especially since it was only the second week of school and he’d been at it since he’d graduated from college eight years ago.

Going home for lunch, there wasn’t anyone home but the cook.She made him a light lunch of salad and a sub, and he made his way back to school with plenty of time left over.But by the end of the day, he was exhausted and needed a nap as soon as he walked in the door.He was kind of glad that Dee and his mom were out on a mission, whatever that happened to be, and he could take advantage of the nice quiet house and sleep for a couple of hours.He needed more sleep, too, it seemed to him.

When he woke up, Dee was home, but she was working at the dining room table.The office that she had was finished up, but she said that the paperwork that she had had to be spread out so that she could see it all.He didn’t care.They’d been eating in the kitchen since they moved in, and it seemed to suit them both.As soon as dinner was over, the two of them retired to the living room, where they zoned out instead of watching television.For some reason, the two of them were asleep in a few minutes instead of having a nice conversation as they’d been having for the last two weeks.

Waking up the next morning, he was refreshed more than he’d been in a while.When Dee got up with him, she said that she felt like she was finally rested.They’d made love in the middle of the night, but that didn’t seem to have made them any more tired.He found himself whistling all the way to school, even though it was colder out than it had been over the last few days.

At noon, he decided to stay at school.The weather had gotten worse, and the snow that had been spitting this morning was now coming down in earnest.It made him happy that the weather had changed; he was looking forward to the colder weather since spring.It was his favorite time of the year, when the snow fell from the skies.On his way home, his cell phone rang and he almost didn’t answer it.The unknown number wasn’t one that he knew either.

“Where is my money?”It was Lynn again.“I’ve given you enough time to gather it up, and now I’m tired of waiting.I want my money that is owed to me, and I’m sick of waiting.I have a gun now and I’m not afraid to use it.”

“Why do you feel that we owe you anything?I mean, you keep saying that.That we owe youmoney.Why is that?”He entered the house and saw that Dee was there and hugged her tightly.“It’s your sister again.She wants the money we owe her, and I’m trying to figure out why we owe her anything.She’s not even been a part of our life up until now.”

She asked for the phone, and he handed it off to her.It was her sister, after all, and he didn’t know all that much about her.Other than the fact that her asking for money was getting really old.

~*~

After getting the phone from Booth, she nearly hung up.She, too, had had enough of Lynn asking for money…demanding money like she had a right to.As soon as she put the phone to her ear, she thought of two things.She was sick of being bullied, and she was even more sick of her sister being the one who bullied her all the time.Enough was enough damn it and she was going to put a stop to it.

“Don’t call here again, Lynn.Or go ahead, we’re going to have our numbers changed, and you won’t be able to call here.As for the gun that you have, go ahead and try to use it on us, it’ll get you money no more faster than before.You’re sick.”She took in a deep breath and heard her sister do the same.She was in charge of this call, not her, so she didn’t give her a chance to talk.“As soon as I get off the phone with you, which will be in less than two minutes, I’m going to call the police and have you arrested.I’m sick of hearing about your demanding shit from me when I owe you nothing.Less than nothing.Another thing I want to make clear to you is that I don’t want to hear from you.Do you understand that?I don’t ever want to hear from you again.”

Hanging up the phone was easier than she thought it would be.But before it rang again, if her sister was going to call her, she did indeed call the police.There was a limit to even what she would put up with, and her sister was hitting that with every word she spoke.Again, enough was enough in this household.

After getting off the phone with the police, she turned the phone off.If anyone important wanted to get in touch with them, they could reach out.She might not have a connection to all of the family, but Booth did, and he could get with her if they wanted to talk to her.Smiling at Booth, she told him what she’d done and asked him to not turn his phone back on as she’d done the same to hers.

“Good, I was thinking the same thing.That I’d had enough.”He pulled her into his arms and held her.“Also, I feel really good.I think that we’ve been wearing each other out to the limit, and we needed another night like last night.Just rest and relax so that we’re not killing one another.”

“I agree.I feel better, too.”She laid her head on his chest and listened to his heart beating and wondered how she’d ever gone to sleep without hearing the gentle sound of it beating beneath her ear.

“The police are going to pick her up.I don’t know where she is, but the sooner she goes away, the better.”He agreed with her.“Tomorrow I’m going to have our number changed so that we don’t have to deal with her anymore.I have a feeling however she’s going to be a pain in the ass no matter what we do.”

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