Page 103 of The Troublemaker

“What in the hell...”

His brothers held their arms out, gesturing toward the truck, looking proud of their handiwork. There were streamers and beer cans, writing on the window.

“You crazy asses,” he said. “I am driving two miles away back to McCloud’s Landing.”

“Yes,” Gus said, shrugging. “But we figured you deserved a big sendoff.”

“Son of a bitch,” he said.

But there was no venom behind it.

Charity laughed. “Just married. Well. It’s true.”

He went around to the driver’s side and scowled. One of them had written Minute Man on his window.

“I’mnot,” he muttered.

“What?”

“They’re just assholes,” he said.

Charity rounded to his side of the truck and read the window. “Minute Man. What does... Oh. He’s not!” she said, and he howled with laughter, because he knew that cost Charity to say. To joke with them like that about something so private. She’d done it anyway. To defend his honor. He appreciated it.

They got into the truck and she started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“I can’t believe that happened.”

She rolled the window down and leaned halfway out, waving as he started the engine and they began driving back toward their place.

Their place. Their life.

This was happening. It was damn well happening.

He could hear the rustle of the cans behind the truck, and also a couple of balloons popping as they hit the gravel.

“I’m glad,” she said. “That we did it. And also... That was the most beautiful wedding I’ve ever seen. I never thought that I’d have anything like that.”

“Me either,” he said, his voice coming out rougher than he’d intended it to.

“Did you ever think about your wedding?”

“No. I never really thought about my future. Not until my brothers started...changing things. It’s weird to be left behind. To look around you and see people who are just as messed up as you...decide not to be messed up. I... Well, I figured that I had to take a chance on it. It made me start planning. Thinking. Because what the hell else was I going to do? Just sit there and... sit there and waste away? I was going to be some old guy in the bar, picking up women. That’s just sad. That’s what I was going to become. It was going to happen without me even realizing it. Because I wasn’tthinking. Because you know, when you live under constant threat of danger you just learn not to wonder about tomorrow.”

He hadn’t meant to say that.

“Lachlan,” she said, her voice soft. She put her hand on his forearm. “Did you really never try to think about tomorrow?”

“Ever,” he said. “Because the next day might bring more rage, and that time you might not be so lucky. You might not dodge the blow that could take you out. You might get hit so hard that this time you don’t wake up.”

“Your dad hit you that hard?” Her voice was small. Sad.

“Yeah. He got a particular amount of joy out of hittingme.”

He hadn’t meant to say that, either.

He had promised himself that he wouldn’t corrupt Charity. For all these years, that had meant not telling her everything about his home life, either. It was something that he had sworn to himself.

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