Page 320 of Branded
Cas
I was breaking through.
I could taste it on the back of my tongue, could feel it in the imprint of her fingertips on my skin, could sense it in the way her body had finally relaxed against mine.
The rink itself had been the final thing I’d showed Ethan and Jules, even though I would have continued to find shit to extend the tour if not for the fact that the late night seemed to have finally caught up with Ethan.
When his yawns had punctuated his excitement, I had called it.
Now I’d walked Jules and Ethan back through the arena and out into the cold night air. And when Ethan had stumbled as we made our way up the long flight of stairs leading to Jules’s car, I had scooped him up, carried him to give his little legs a breather, and fuck, the little boy had sewn himself even tighter into my heart. Because within a minute Ethan had been out, his head dropping to my shoulder, one arm around my neck, the other hanging at my side.
“I can—” Jules began, probably because my arms were also laden with the bags of souvenirs I’d sent them earlier.
“I got him, gorgeous,” I said. “You just get your keys out, yeah?”
She bit her lip—which had the side effect of making me want to kiss her—but then she nodded and dug through her purse and pulled out her keys.
“Did you have a nice night?” I asked softly, finding that with Ethan asleep, I needed to fill the silence, needed to hear her voice, needed to know that she was here with me and not thinking about something else.
Footsteps halting, her body spinning toward me so fast I barely processed it. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. Her tone was full-on porcupine, and I decided to proceed with caution. “I mean, I know that it was just a game and looking through a bunch of rooms, but?—”
Her fingers touched my jaw. “It was the best night of my life,” she whispered, and then she smoothed her hand over Ethan’s head. “Because I got to see him have the best night of his life.” She looked up, held my gaze, her voice so soft I could barely hear it. “So, thank you for letting me be part of giving that to him.”
Then she was spinning away from me, walking with near furious speed, but not before I’d seen that soft voice of hers on her face…and not before I’d watched all that soft disappear, chased out by panic.
I felt a bit deflated, if I was honest. Losing that soft was like losing a limb.
But then I saw my name on her back.
And instead, I knew I needed to focus on the fact that I was making progress.
She’d shared her past. She was letting me hold her son. She cared about my bruised ribs enough to bring it up several times. And she was wearing my name on her back.
So yeah, progress.
Jules unlocked her car when we got close, tugged open the back door, and through some maneuvering that had my ribs reminding me angrily that they didn’t like me bending and twisting, I got Ethan into his booster seat and carefully straightened, stepping back so that Jules could check to make sure his belt was buckled correctly.
Then she was quietly shutting the door and turning to face me.
Yup. All panic. No soft.
Two steps forward. One step back.
“You okay to drive, gorgeous?” I asked, giving in to the urge to touch her and smoothing my fingers over her cheek.
She blinked wide eyes. “What?”
“It’s late. We had a rough night last night”—I brushed her forearm, below the spot where my bitch of an ex had hurt her—“and it’s late again tonight. So, I’m asking, sweetheart, are you okay to drive?”
A shrug, which had the bonus side effect of rubbing her body against mine. Not as good as holding her, but still, feeling any part of her was fucking incredible. However, then her response permeated my tired, hurting, sleep-lacking brain. “I’m used to it.”
Anger prickled at the base of my spine, alertness sliding through me. “What do you mean?”
Anger that apparently permeated my tone and face and body, if her eyes skittering away from mine and her taking a step back were any indication.
Cool it, dumbass.
