Page 139 of Fluke
“Shoot.”
“I need you to be auctioned off.”
His brothers howl with laughter. I look at Damaris. She’s giggling too. When she catches me looking at her, she shrugs.
“There will be a bachelor auction,” Gloria says. “It isn’t for a while. A month, maybe two. But I know if I announce that Sparkles is being auctioned, it’ll get us a lot of attention.”
Her voice gets drowned out by the laughter in the room.
Banks cheeks turn red, but he refuses to back down. “Sure. Want me to take new photos to really bring in the crowd?”
“That would be great,” Gloria says.
“I can’t,” Moss says, holding his stomach. “I can’t do this.”
Someone taps on my shoulder. I extract myself from Jess’s arms and turn to see Ashley.
“Hey, Operation Couch is a no-go,” she says softly. “We’ll all be briefed tonight via text.”
I snort. “Is it that big of a deal?”
Her eyes go wide, and she shakes her head. “You have no idea.”
“Let’s say grace so we can eat,” Kixx says from the back of the room. He looks at me and smiles warmly.
The room quiets, and hats come off heads.
Kixx clears his throat. “Dear Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this meal we are about to receive. Thank you for the family gathering here to enjoy it and the hands that made it. Thank you for bringing our new friend Gloria to the table to share this meal with us, and thank you, Father, for our Pippa. We are so grateful to be able to welcome her into our family. Amen.”
A round ofamensis said throughout the room. Then, like someone flipped a switch, it all comes to life again.
My heart swells as I take in this unruly, loving, amazing bunch of humans.
“Is this too much?” Jess asks quietly.
I stare up at his handsome face. “It’s perfect.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to take you home.”
I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him sweetly. “You’ll be able to take me home every night, my man.”
He wraps his strong arms around me and holds me tight.
It’s not this hug, in particular, that mends the ragged pieces of my heart. It’s not the hundred times he’s said he loves me today, and it’s not the fact that he cleaned his closet out for me on the night we were apart.
Jess Carmichael is the first person to care to find the scraps of me that others have ripped apart. He’ll never stop looking, never stop inspecting every crevice to find another piece to put back in place.
Because that’s what love is.
Love is patient, kind, and forgiving.
Tender and aggressive. Sweet and spicy.
It’s giving and taking. It’s work but also free.
