Page 86 of LOT 62

Manual labour and a lot of pain. I grinned, hoping he’d smack me again. Jesus. Instead of a spanking, I got hit in the shoulder.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “Not the reaction I was going for.”

“Can you behave for five minutes?” he asked, pushing the grocery cart. Okay, maybe the baking aisle wasn’t the best place to get spanked.

“What’re we even doing down here? You don’t bake. Last I checked, you couldn’t even make toast.”

Devon straight-up growled at me. Fuck my life. We went from enduro races at the track every weekend to hitting the grocery store with pockets full of coupons. Not complaining, but shit. I hoped we’d be able to get back to motocross someday, at least. I’d get annihilated out there on the shitty bike the boys got me, but I loved it anyway. It’d been getting me to and from work like a dream.

“Gina is going to show me how to bake those things you like,” Devon said, his cheeks pinking right up. “Fuck off about it. I’m trying to do something nice!”

Once again, I loved the effort he put in. “Then spank me again,” I laughed.

Devon stopped with his hand on a bag of sugar. He raised a brow at me, dead serious. “You really liked that?”

“Mhm,” I hummed, grinning. I took the cart from him, leaning over the handle while he shopped. “I think I remember you mentioning something about tying me up?”

“Fuck the baking aisle.” He put the sugar back. “Let’s go.”

I huffed a laugh. “Get your Martha Stewart shit first.” I grabbed the sugar and put it in the cart. “Then we’ll go.”

“Not that one.” He put it back, exchanging it for a different one. “We don’t have a coupon for that one.”

I made a gesture to promise I’d keep my hands inside the cart from now on. “Can you also learn how to cook dinners? Does Gina work that sort of magic?”

“Fuck you, Maddox.”

Shit, this was actually fun. Never been happy in a grocery store before, but I kind of liked watching him be all domestic and shit. Real husband material right there. I was still half laughing as we walked into the next aisle and ran right into Julie, the girl we both hooked up with and sort of dated.

“Oh, hey,” Julie said, looking surprised to see us. “Hey, guys.”

I nodded, ready to move on and leave this place, but Devon wasn’t as awkward as I was. “Hey, Julie. How are ya?”

“Yeah, good.” She tucked her hair and shuffled.

Okay, that should be enough of a social obligation by now. I moved the cart past her, but she spoke up again.

“Hey, Maddox?”

I turned to face her, glad she hadn’t called me Maddy like she used to. I felt a bit shit about how Devon and I played tug-of-war with her back in the day, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I smiled, to the best of my ability, but Devon elbowed me in the ribs, so I showed some teeth.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for what happened to you,” Julie said.

Well, that was nice. “Thanks. At least it’s mostly over now.”

Julie nodded awkwardly again. What was her damn deal? She’d never been shy before. She looked nervous, which made me nervous.

“You okay?” Devon asked her, glancing around.

“Something wrong?” I asked at the same time.

“I’m fine,” she said with a smile. A fake smile. Then she looked behind us, and her face dropped.

I shared a concerned look with Devon before turning to see what she was looking at. And I met eyes with the man who shot me.

39

-Maddox-

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