Page 71 of Reaper Released

“Bullshit, Squirt, you would have heard me shut the lodge door and every step I made on my way down here, and you know it. Now budge over!” Shuffling nearer to the chairs but staying laid down, Pa Bernie lays down beside me. He leans over, wipes the tears from my face, and lays back down. “Whaddya need?”

“My dad… and my pas!” I whisper out with a stuttering breath. Reaching under my neck, he pulls me to his chest, and I break down and sob, and he just holds me for what feels like forever.

“I’m done!” I say as I shakily pull away from him, sitting up. He slings his arm around me.

“He’d have loved him, you know.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, even the little time I’ve spent with him, he worships the ground you walk on. When Scar called him to say you’d gone, he was out that door like lightning, had to drag the big motherfucker back!”

“Shit, he didn’t think I was having second thoughts, did he?”

“Nope! Are you?”

“Nope!”

“Didn’t think so!” Grinning down at me, he pulls me in and kisses my forehead. “So Squirt, what’s it gonna be? Do you want me to get Steel? I left the dozy twat pacing back and forth, he will probably have worn a hole in the floor by the time I get back, or you gonna play being girly?”

I huff out a breath. “I should do the girly thing, I suppose. Can we go shooting after the wedding, though? And axe throwing, and maybe paintballing? I think I will have had enough of the girly shit to last a lifetime!”

He barks out a laugh at me. “Whatever you want, Squirt!”

“Thanks, Pa. I love you!”

“Love you too, Squirt. Now fuck off before you have me crying!”

Laughing, I jog back to Ares’ room. Before bursting through the door, I message Steel.

Wife: Sorry, I’m good!

Husband: Where are you? I’m coming to get you!

Wife: Nah, I’m good honest just needed a moment, rough day!

Husband: Second thoughts?

Wife: Never! xx

Husband: You’d tell me if you did, though?

Wife: You’d be the first to know, but never happening.

Husband: Phew, I was slightly worried.

Wife: Maybe, but not about me having second thoughts. You know I love you too much! Now fuck off and enjoy yourself. Meet you at the end of the aisle tomorrow?

Husband: It’s a date. xx

Wife: xxx

I push through the door. “Holy shit, you scared the crap out of us!” Scar spits at me as I burst in.

“I’m good. Sorry, guys, I just needed a minute!”

“Carmen and Catalina are five minutes away, and then we can get this party started.”

I give everyone a hug while I wait and clean my face. “Let's do this!”

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