Page 67 of Imperfection is Beauty

He really didn’t need to worry.

Sure, Fiona was beautiful, but she wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous, not like my Shortcake.

Needing to let the man know that I had no intention of making any moves on his woman, I locked eyes with the man and nodded.

He got it. I knew he did when he let her go and then didn’t hover for the remainder of the meeting.

“I’m on the road a good bit of the year for work, I need a dog that will protect her, and be by her side when the power goes out during storms. She’s terrified of the dark.”

***

And that was how three weeks later I was walking up the stairs to my Shortcake’s apartment with a dog at my heels, Fiona, and Knox behind him.

Taking in a deep breath, I knocked three times on her door, and then I growled when I heard, “It’s open.”

Slowly, I pushed the door open and then I asked in a low tone, “What do you mean, it’s open?”

From the kitchen, she called out, “Marcus? I didn’t know you were coming by today. Sorry, honey, but I thought you were Marissa, she needs cookies for her daughter's bake sale tonight and she had to work overtime.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding at the news.

Over the past three weeks, she and I had really gotten to know one another.

We had been to a few group outings with her friends, and she had met mine when she came to one of my home games last week.

And it was at that game that she had started calling me honey. And I fucking loved it.

Then as I walked toward her kitchen, the dog at my back along with Fiona and Knox, she poked her head around the kitchen wall, looked at me, and asked, “Why? What did you think?”

She looked fucking adorable with her hair in a bun, flour on her cheek, “Oh, hello, I didn’t realize he had company.”

“Sorry, Shortcake, but this is Fiona and Knox.” She looked at me, then around me, and saw the two people at my back, and color me surprised she didn’t react to the kutte that was on Knox’s back.

“Not your woman my fucking ass,” Knox mumbled at my back.

I didn’t bother with a response.

But it was her face that ripped my heart out, over the past three weeks we had gotten so freaking close that I could literally finish her thoughts, and we really needed to have that talk, and when she asked Knox, “He told you I wasn’t his woman?”

And then… I wanted to kick my own ass for forgetting the kind of woman she was.

Deciding that I needed to tell her that, I said, “I told them you weren’t mine because we have a lot we need to talk about.”

“Funny, here I thought we were already a couple and things we needed to talk about would come when the time was right, and we already had that level of trust. My bad.”

Fuck.

“If you’ll please excuse me, I need to use the bathroom.” And with that, she stepped away from me and headed out of her little kitchen.

That was when I heard Fiona mutter, “I need some popcorn.”

I watched, helpless as Scarlett shook her head and then headed to her bathroom, then I asked Fiona, “Why?”

“Because this is great. I can handle Knox like she’s handling you, but you’re bigger than Knox and she’s a little bit smaller than I am. And that’s saying something.”

“Just make yourselves comfortable, okay? I’ll be back.”

“You going to grovel?” Knox asked.

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