Page 81 of Protected By West
"What did I-"
"I want to know you, West. I want to go through these moments and come out the other side a little stronger together."
She closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly. When she opened her eyes again, she was smiling, but her eyes were still watering.
"I don't want things to push us apart and that means I don't want to let things go. Ignore them. I think... at least I remember it that way, that after a while it wasn't the yelling that broke them apart. It was the silence. The apathy. On the random days when my dad would come home it was like they were two people in... in parallel planes. I was worried they'd walk right through each other instead of crash.
"And then I almost missed the yelling. The nights when I'd hide in my room, just behind the door."
Her gaze moved to different parts of the room. He didn't think that she was avoiding 'him' just the memories.
Weston moved his hand against her back, just a gentle sweep of the heel of his hand against her.
"At least then..." her voice was softer, almost as transparent as she'd described her living situation at home. "At least then it was like they were trying to communicate with each other."
He moved one hand up her back and gently cupped it at the nape of her neck. "Babe-"
"I don't want to get to the point where we're just moving around each other. I don't mind a good fight every once in a while. Verbal only..." She gave him a look to say she meant it, but he was already there, too.
"I wouldn't touch you like that, Trace. My family would put me six feet under if they thought I was hurting you."
"My friend Jamie would run you over with her car." She smiled and laughed at it, but he knew.
"I'd stand there and let her do it and wait for her to back it up and finish the job."
"I..." she drew in a breath, and he felt her whole-body tense with it and then she let it all out again. "I don't think you would. I just want us to communicate. Once a couple has gotten to a point where they don't bother talking things out-"
"That's not going to be us."
She smiled wider and he didn't see any more tears in her eyes.
"We can't let it get that way, Trace." He let his hand slip lower from the curve of her back. "I mean, who's gonna get custody of the kids? I can tell you right now, I'm not claiming Oxy or Myles. The rest..."
She pulled him down by the hand on the back of his neck and the hand she fisted in his hair.
Just before her lips touched his, she smiled. "We've got kids to take care of, West. No divorce."
He forgot any idea of a snappy comeback to that, because she tasted too good.
It wasn't the tequila.
It was Tracy.
And he was damn lucky she was his.
CHAPTER 15
The phone rangas Tracy was heading back to her office and when she was close enough to hear it clearly, she picked up the speed of her steps and grabbed the phone before she sat down in her chair with a sigh. Swiping to accept the call, she smiled. "Mama! How are you?"
"Good... good! We just got to a stop on the cruise, and I wanted to give you a call."
"Where are you now?" Tracy had the itinerary at home, all over the front of her refrigerator, but couldn't think of where they were at the moment.
"Well, you've likely got the box of gifts we sent you from England."
"Yes, thanks! Loved that tea and jam from Highgrove. It was gone in a week."
"It was delicious when we tasted it. We went to Spain for a week and attended some kind of festival. I wrote it down somewhere. And thank goodness Stan talked me out of trying the dances. I would have broken my ankle! Now... we just got to our first stop on the European cruise." Her mom sighed with a smile, she could hear it. "You sound good. A little out of breath."
