Page 70 of The Seven Rings
“I need to know you’ll call me.”
“I explained why I didn’t. You can’t be here twenty-four hours a day. You have work, just like the rest of us. Things you need to do outside that. Family and friends to keep up with. You have to trustmeto know when to send out a distress call.”
“Not just distress, Sonya. I’m sitting around eating burgers with Owen when you’re going through this. I’m hanging out, bullshitting, and playing cards without a clue.”
“And just what good would it have done to dump all this on you after it was over? Cleo and I went downstairs and had a lot of wine. Because we won the battle, Trey. We stood up to her, and we won.”
“It won’t be the last battle.”
“No, and it’s not going to be the last where you’re not right here to fight it for me or with me. I want you in the war with me, Trey, just like I want you to trust me to fight.”
“I do. I’ve seen you fight. That doesn’t mean I have to like thinking about you facing off against her with a rock.”
Visibly calmer, he moved back to her. “I don’t want or need nights off from you. Being with you’s what I want. No, I can’t be here twenty-four seven, but I want you to call so I can be here. I want to know you will.”
“If I had, you’d have dropped everything and come. Both you and Owen.”
“Of course we would.”
“And if I had, it would lessen my considerable victory. Plus, and I think it matters, I’d look weak to her, and that would give her one.”
“It’s not about keeping score.”
Astonished, she threw her hands in the air. “Oh, hell yes, it is. At least on one small, petty hand it is. I hurt her, Trey. I saw pain on her face, and I’m holding on to that. That rock landed, and I think—I’m going to sound like Cleo because she put this in my head over wine—I think the intent behind the throw landed just as much. I wanted to hurt her, wanted to give her a scare, and I did.
“Come at me and mine, bitch, I’ll come right back at you. Jones got a piece of her dress—and good dog, Jones. But I made her bleed. And if I get the chance, I’ll do it again.”
She took a breath, a steady one.
“She knows it now. She can worry about me now.”
“You want me to say kudos, and I do. And I do want to see the rock you threw so I can get a nice, clear picture in my head of you throwing it. But I’m allowed to worry.”
“You are, and I know you do. I didn’t want you to worry last night. When it was over? I knew it was over for the night. I saw it in her face. I saw it, and I just… felt it.”
“All right.”
“All right?”
“Being annoyed you didn’t call isn’t at all the same as not trusting you to take care of yourself. And being glad you did.”
She had to sigh, as this, thisreasonablewas why he rarely lost an argument.
“You weren’t annoyed. You were pissed.”
“Semantics.”
“Lawyer.”
“Irrelevant.” He laid a hand on her cheek, and those deep blue eyes looked into hers. “Just understand, you’re my first priority. Not work, not poker, not this house, not some curse. You. You’re what matters.”
“How am I supposed to stay irritated with you when you say that?”
“You weren’t irritated. You were pissed.”
“Correct. Now I’m not.”
Sonya rose on her toes, put her arms around Trey’s neck, and proved it with a long kiss.
