Page 53 of Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC 7)

“Because.” I paused. “I don’t think there’s any way in hell that I can fix any of this. We’ve all been too mean to her. She was telling me stories today of all her memories when it came to me, and my family, and I think I’ve got a burning bridge I’m trying to repair with only my bare hands and no tools.”

“If you think that you’re going to fail, you will,” he said solemnly. “And I think that Dory deserves a chance. I think that, if you can figure it out, you two will mean the world to each other. She deserves the world. Don’t you think?”

I didn’t think.

I knew.

“Maybe we should move,” I thought. “That place in Florida, Accident… it was nice. Away from all of our family. And I know that it’ll be hard but… I could find a place to work there on the coast. Jobs pay better over there anyway. Maybe I need to allow her to get to know me before we repair whatever the hell we broke with my family.”

Jeremiah crossed his arms over his chest, but his face was open as he said, “I think that might actually be good for the both of you.”

A fresh start.

Maybe… maybe that’s exactly what we needed.

• • •

BRAM

“What do you think?” I asked.

Her mouth opened and closed, her eyes wide, as she said, “I don’t know.”

I smiled.

I knew what she was actually thinking.

She was thinking that I wouldn’t be happy there.

But I would.

As long as I had her.

“I contacted that BNB chick,” I said. “Directly. They said as long as we pay rent, that they’ll be more than happy to rent it out to us for six months.”

My belly pitched as I watched her face go from excited to unhappy, to pensive, to excited again.

She didn’t want to be here.

My family and me… well, we’d fucked something up inside of her.

She wanted to be away.

“As long as you’re willing for me to be there, I’ll be there,” I told her. “And if you want, we can look for a house there.”

“But your family…” She hesitated. “They’ll hate me even more for taking you away.”

“I’ll tell them that I found a job there that pays better. You know how hard it is to find jobs here as it is.” I waved off herconcern. “They won’t even know that it has anything to do with you.”

The hope in her eyes damn near killed me.

A little beep had me glancing at my phone, and I grinned.

“The chick that owns your BNB just messaged back with this house.” I flipped my phone around. “Check those pictures out while I go get dinner started. Let me know what you think.”

Dinner consisted of some really bland, non-smelly food.

All the meat was cooked outside, because I’d found out over the last week that she did better when the smells didn’t linger.

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