Now he smiled. “I know.” His hand curled around my neck and he rested his forehead against mine. “Fuck babe, it feels so good not to have all that shit between us anymore; as much as I hate you having to deal with it.”
My arms circled him. “I’m glad you finally told me. I was beginning to go insane wondering what the hell was going on with you.”
We sat there like that for a long time. I savoured the closeness and the feeling of fresh beginnings. J was finally mine again; completely mine. I chose to focus on this for the moment rather than on the sense of loss I felt over my father.
Chapter 7
Jason
I sat back and watched Madison, Brooke and Crystal, and not for the first time this week, I realised I was a lucky bastard. It had been almost a week since I’d finally told Madison about her father, and while it’d been a long fucking week dealing with the emotional fallout of that, it’d also been a fucking fantastic week with her.
“J, earth to J,” Brooke called, interrupting my thoughts.
“What?”
She shook her head. “You keep zoning out on us. You okay?”
“He’s probably thinking about club business; it’s always just club business,” Madison teased with a wink. “Brooke wants to know if we want to go to the movies with her and Crystal next Thursday night instead of doing Thursday night dinner.”
Thursday night dinners had become our new tradition. Brooke and Madison had started it while I was away and they made sure I was there every week; my life wasn’t fucking worth living if I didn’t make it. “Sure,” I agreed, “Whatever you want.”
Brooke rolled her eyes. “J, you can say no if you’d rather just stick to dinner. It’s a kids movie after all.”
Fuck me. I hated kids movies. “All good. I’ll be there.” I looked at Crystal to see her staring intently at me. “What are we seeing, kiddo?”
She hit me with a mega smile. “It’s a dog movie. You’re going to love it, J.”
Christ, a fucking dog movie. I plastered a smile on my face for her. “Looking forward to it, sweetheart.” Crystal was a good kid; she was still trying to get over her mother and brother’s deaths, and the three of us were working hard to help her. Building a strong family was part of that so a dog movie was the least I could do.
We finished dinner and Brooke insisted I help her clean up while Madison helped Crystal with an assignment for school.
“You and Madison seem a hell of a lot happier this week,” she said as we did the dishes.
“Yeah,” I agreed. I hadn’t mentioned anything about our problems to Brooke so I wondered where this was coming from. “Did Madison say something to you?”
“No, I’ve got no idea what’s been going on with you two but there’s definitely been tension for the last couple of weeks. You two alright?”
“We are now. Been a long few months but we’re working on it.” I hated talking about this shit but Brooke was like Madison and invested copious amounts of fucking energy into trying to get me to talk.
She didn’t fail me today. “When are you going to ask her to marry you? I thought you’d have that all done by now, the bossy ass that you are.”
“We had shit to sort out,” I muttered.
“And have you sorted it now?”
“Fuck, Brooke. Yes, it’s fucking sorted.”
She turned and looked at me intently. “Good, because I want to see you happy, big brother. You two have been through so much crap and I, for one, want you to get your happy ending. You and I were dealt a crappy hand with our family; Madison changed our luck.”
“Shit.” She’d stunned me. “I didn’t realise you were such a huge fan of Madison’s after all the shit from years ago.”
“I spent a lot of time with her while you were away and we wiped the slate clean. You’ve seen us together; I thought you knew we were closer now.”
“I’ve been preoccupied. I also thought you were just making an effort for Crystal and me.”
“Nope. She’s good for you and she’s given both of us the family we never had. Plus she seems to have gotten herself together and worked out how to handle you. I’m surprised she put up with whatever you two had going on between you for so long.”
“Yeah, you and me both.”
“So, when are you proposing?”
“Soon.”
She smiled at me. “Good. And then we can have some little J’s running around.”
I grinned at her. “Fuck, we’d drive Madison fucking insane if we had more of me running around. How soon do you reckon I can make that happen?”
***
“Babe, how much longer are you gonna be in there?” I called out to Madison. She’d been in the bathroom for a long fucking time doing her face or some shit, and I’d been waiting for her to come to bed. My patience was running out.
“Not long. Why?”