Page 21 of His Wild Storm
“I didn’t think you did, but then I wasn’t sure. I think she might like you?”
I chuckle softly and shrug one shoulder like it’s no big deal. “I think she might like me too, but just now she told me she’s not going to make it weird.”
Wilde leans in a little closer to me and drops his voice like what he’s about to say is a secret. When he glances around furtively, I have to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing.
“Girls are kind of weird, no matter what.”
I bark out a laugh, and I’m so surprised by his statement that I fall back on my ass right in front of him. Wilde’s eyes go widebefore he starts to laugh right along with me. Since it puts us at an even better height differential to talk, I stay seated.
“You’re not wrong, Bud,” I tell him solemnly.
He blurts, “Do you like my mom?”
The hope in his eyes fucking slays me. It might be too much and way too fast, but one thing I will never do is lie to Wilde. I’m not starting out our relationship like that. I refuse.
“Even though I don’t know your mom very well, I’ve never seen a prettier woman,” I admit. “I don’t know what it is, but there is something there. I can feel it whenever I look at her.”
Wilde’s nod is decisive as hell. “Good.” The smile on his face goes from crooked to downright shy. “She likes you too. I can tell. She looks at you like you’re glitter.” He scrunches up his face a little before asking, “Girls like glitter, right?”
“They love glitter,” I confirm.
“I like you too, Knox,” Wilde’s voice is small.
My instincts are screaming at me to pull him to me and give him a hug, but I don’t want to cross a line and make him uncomfortable or scare him. Fighting against my gut, I hold my fist out to him.
When he gives it a bump, I grin from ear to ear. “I like you too, Wilde,” I tell him honestly. “You know, I could use a helper for class. Someone to make sure we have everything we need and to help me clean up when we’re all done.”
Wilde’s eyes go wide, and he bounces up and down on his tip toes. “Really? I can help you with class?” When I nod, he gushes, “I’ll help with whatever you need.”
“I knew I could count on you,” there’s pride layered in my voice, and he beams at me as if he can feel it take root in his soul.
I hope he can. He deserves to have more than just Haven in his corner. He has no idea, but the number of people at his back has multiplied astronomically.
Haven has no idea either.
But they’ll both find out soon enough.
And I’m not just talking about my Vibrant Ink family. We’re a small part of a much larger family, one who give love and support freely without any expectations. The huge family circles orbits around Beckett Banks and his tattoo shop. Beckett used to work at Vibrant but then left to open his own place. His shop has some talented fucking people in it, and they created their own little family over there.
Even though Beckett had his own spot, he kept in touch with Wyatt. It was about networking, maintaining relationships, and putting out good work. There are plenty of tattoos to go around, that’s for sure.
Beckett got lucky a few years ago and some of his work went viral and brought a shit ton of attention to his shop. Then fate smiled down on the man even more when he met the love of his life, Amelia. He locked her down almost immediately and made her his wife.
Then their family grew by a team of former military security guys and the rock band Suburban Outcasts. Both those groups have been blessed by fate as well and have fallen in love. I swear they keep adding people every time we hang out as a group. When you add in the number of babies it’s almost too much to keep track of.
Wilde and Haven will thrive with so many people at their backs. I just need to figure out how to convince her to open herself up to me, and to them.
Maybe with Wilde helping me with class, Haven will come in, and I’ll have the chance to spend some time with her. It’s worth a shot.
CHAPTER 8
HAVEN
It’s been a while since I watched Wilde eagerly walk away with Knox and I’ve been trying to get some work done since then, but it’s almost impossible. It’s like I can feel him in the building, like there’s something connecting us and it’s tugging at me. At this point, I can’t ignore it any longer.
After saving what I was trying, and failing, to work on, I stand up and stretch. My feet have me leaving the room I share with Wilde to head down to the kitchen area. Even though my body wants to head toward where art class is taking place, I resist the urge.
It’s difficult as fuck to fight against the feeling.
