Page 125 of Songbird: Black Kite
“Why don’t you tell me what’s really bothering you so we can clear the air.” This date really wasn’t going the way I’d hoped. She’d gone from pissed at me to, well, pissed at me, but for a different reason.
“It’s just so expensive,” she finally admitted, her face heating. “I would never in my whole life spend frivolous money on a meal at this restaurant and you just ordered five.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “And what about that bothers you?”
She took a deep breath, her shoulders rising sharply with the effort.
“I don’t like you spending money on me. Onus.”
There it was. There was the reason she was being so antagonistic.
Wren was uncomfortable about money. Or, more likely, the fact that I happened to have more than she did.
“Bird,” I said, reaching across the table and placing my hand over hers, stilling her fingers where they had been continuously toying with the tines of her salad fork. “I have a lot of money.” She frowned at me, trying to pull her hand back, but I curled my fingers around hers, refusing to lose the connection between us. “I’m not saying that to be an asshole. It’s a simple fact. I have worked my ass off for the last twenty-five years, and the result of that shows in my bank balance.”
“You’re not making this better, Hawk,” she grumbled, giving me side-eye, and I chuckled.
“During all that time, I spent a lot of money on some seriously stupid shit.” More facts, unfortunately. Wren let out a derisive laugh. “No, I mean it. I’ve made and lost more money than most people could ever see in a lifetime. I’ve bought expensive shoes and beach houses and vintage guitars I’ll never play and over-sized watches I’ll never wear. All of it a complete and total waste. Aside from what I’ve spent on my mom, I have nothing of value to show for my life.”
I watched as her face softened, her surly discomfort morphing into tender compassion, and I smiled at her.
“There is nothing in the world I want more than to spoil you, Wren. You and Cooper. Please, don’t tell me I can’t, because I have missed so fuckin’ much, baby. So many moments and memories. Time I’ll never get back. Let me make it up to you guys the only way I know how.”
“Hawk,” she said, her voice breathy with emotion as her tear-filled eyes gleamed in the candlelight. “All we ever wanted was you. Your attention and your time. To us, that’s worth more than all the watches and fancy shoes in the world. Just be here.”
“You want my time? You got it, baby. Every fuckin’ second.”
Chapter seventy-two
Hawk
Present
Thewaiterreturnedbalancinga tray loaded with the ridiculous amount of food that I’d ordered, dancing between the tables with plates filled with delicious smelling dishes. Once he’d placed them all on the table, Wren and I settled in to sample them all, finally justtalkingto each other. She asked about my mom, and I told her a bit about growing up in East Los Angeles. She shared more about Cooper, what she was like as a baby and how things had worked when they had lived with Sabrina, just the three of them against the world.
Then Wren pulled out her phone, bringing up a treasure trove of photos she had stored on there. Sitting at that table, I stared in awe at a slideshow of Cooper’s life, from first steps to first words, and I couldn’t hardly breathe past the lump in my throat. Seeing all those photos, those smiles and tears captured forever, moments held in stasis for me to see, just about had me breaking down at the table.
I was so fucking grateful for them.
As the evening wore on and the pile of dinner plates was swapped for every item on the dessert menu, I realized that I’d never had a better night in my entire fucking life.
Sold-out shows around the world. Parties at the hottest clubs in every town I went to.
And still, none of that compared to sitting across the table from my girl, talking about our kid.
That shit was fuckin’ wild, man.
Watching Wren talk about Cooper, you could just see the love she had for her. Every word she spoke was infused with pride and excitement. When she talked about Cooper’s love of sports, or the way she cried at the ending of all the princess movies, Wren’s adoration for our daughter shone bright with every word she spoke. She was a mother who loved hard and fierce, and it turned me the fuck on.
I couldn’t think of a better way to end the night than to take my girl back to my place, and show her what I’d been picturing since the moment she walked out in that stunner of a dress.
And how fuckin’ great it was gonna look on my bedroom floor.
I was just about to ask for the check, more than ready to get the hell out of there, when a couple entered the restaurant, the hostess ushering them to their table.
Right past ours.
“Wren?” came a shocked voice, the woman stopping short next to our table. As she spoke, I watched Wren’s entire demeanor change. She went from relaxed and comfortable to tense in a heartbeat. Her whole body froze, and all the color drained from her face, her cheeks that had just held a sexy pink glow from the two glasses of wine she’d consumed with her dinner turning ashen before my eyes. “Thatisyou. For a minute, I thought I had entered a parallel dimension.”
