Excuse me?
My voice turned low. “What now?”
Molly’s wide eyes settled on me. “It’s date night.”
Like hell it was.
“With who?” I could barely contain my fucking rage.
Molly shrugged before looking me up and down. “I’m sure you could find her if you really wanted to. You know,” she said with meaning, her brow arching. “Like you found me?”
Pausing only momentarily to say goodnight to my son, I left the house, and my anger pulsed so hard that all I could hear was the rushing of blood in my ears. Stopping home, I got my keys and headed to the car. I started it then reached over to the glove box, retrieving my treasured .45 caliber, resting it on the seat beside me.
My jaw steeled as I thought about what Molly said.
Looked like I was going to a funeral after all.
Pedal to the metal, I sped down the street, absolutely fucking raging, tracking the GPS to my woman.
And God help her when I found her.
Chapter
TwentyEight
Lexi
I knew he’d come. I was counting on it. And as I sat on the beach waiting, I heard his sigh as he approached. I twisted back to look at him, and when his face went from irate to mildly relieved, he paused, shaking his head before he muttered, “You’re alone.”
My brow narrowed a moment, but when I saw what he was wearing, a soft smile graced my lips. It was a blast from the past to see him in the tailored gunmetal-gray suit.
Jesus fucking Christ almighty. I bit my lip. “You look handsome.”
My lady bits liked that very much.
He came to stand next to me, and when I peered up at him from my sitting position, he glared down at me. “Molly said you were on a date.”
“No, she didn’t.” I looked out toward the shore, watching the waves crash and foam. “She said I was on date night.”
Silence followed, and the longer it went on, the wider my internal grin became.
“Okay,” he said, moving to sit by me. “I’ll bite.” Lifting his knees, he rested his forearms on them then narrowed his eyes on me. “What’s date night?”
I smiled to myself, mentally praising his cool and calm demeanor.
Was this a test? Not intentionally, no. But it was proving to be a good one, and his composure told me just how much he’d changed.
That was important.
“To answer that question, you need a little background info. So,” I started, “A.J. was at school one day, when one of the students asked their teacher what date night was. The little girl wanted to know because her parents were going on a date night, and she wasn’t sure what that was. A.J.’s teacher was explaining that sometimes mommies and daddies go together for a night out without their children. That some parents did this once a week, while others only did this on special days. And when A.J. came home, he asked me why I didn’t ever go on date nights. I explained that it only applied to parents who had partners.” I turned to face Twitch. “But A.J. didn’t think that was fair to me.”
Twitch’s face softened and my smile widened. “Ah, the injustices of the world. Nope. Our son wasn’t having it. He asked if there was a special day, any day, that I could use for a date night. And I had one in mind. So, he insisted I use it. And here we are.” I turned to the man by my side. “It’s fitting you’re here for it.”
“Why today?”
“It’s March eighteenth.” When I saw he wasn’t catching on, I put him out of his misery. “The day we met, as adults. You know.” I watched him closely and laid the bait. “The day you organized for that awful man to attack me.”
Well, that got him talking.
He straightened and sneered. “He was never meant to take it that far. And when I saw what the fuck he’d done, how he hurt you, I went berserk. Lost my damned mind. I could’ve torn him apart with my bare hands.” Twitch’s balled his hands into fists. “Kill him all over again given the chance.”
“I know,” I murmured. “I know you would.”
A thick silence enveloped us, and I couldn’t help myself.
Grinning into the night sky, I asked, “How mad were you when you thought I was on a date?”
“Mad enough to have brought my Glock.”
I should not have found that as funny as I did. My laughter rang into the fresh evening air, and I heard the dangerous man beside me choke on his own laugh.
God, we were crazy.
When my laughter quieted, I spoke softly, “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, honey?”
“Yeah,” he agreed, and I felt his eyes on me.
I turned to face him, and when I found him frowning at me, my own frown formed. “What?”
Jaw tight, he looking straight ahead. “I do know how it feels...” He paused. “To feel like this might be our last day together.” He licked his bottom lip. “And it scares the shit out of me.” I gave him the moment he clearly needed before he went on. “You’re scared of me leavin’, and I’m scared of you waking up and realizing you’re officially sick of my bullshit. ‘Cause one day, you will.”
He said this so agonizingly soft that I recognized he really believed that.
Around and around we go.
What a pair we were.
“The last time I saw you alive, you told me you wanted to break me,” I recalled quietly.
“Who says that goal has changed?” My head snapped sideways to his, my eyes narrowing, but his gaze smiled back teasingly. “How else am I meant to put you back together again?”
I rolled my eyes, but my heart warmed in a way that was hazardous to my health.
Into the darkness, we listened to the waves crash, when he finally spoke again. “I realized too late.”
My brows knitted. “Realized what?”
His stormy eyes focused on me. “That breaking you would never fix me.”
Oh, baby.
How he’d grown.
It was too much for me. I needed a fresh conversation. Lighter conversation. “Do you remember when you used to bring me here?”
“I remember everything.” He grinned then. “We’d come here to get high.”
“No,” I corrected him. “You’d get high and I’d watch.” My eyes widened. “And then I’d let you drive me home.” I shook my head at my idiocy, chuckling humorlessly. “Oh, God, I was so reckless with you.”
“You were, but it was fun.” He smirked.
My brows arched. “I don’t know about that.”
He looked at me. “You tellin’ me you don’t think about that time and smile at the memories?”
Of course I did. How could I not? It was the most turbulent, unstable time of my life, and I loved every second of it. But times had changed.
I conceded, “Some of it was fun. But the thought of doing it all over again—” I tried to quell my soft laughter but failed. “—I think I’d give that a polite pass. I’m a mother now.” I smiled sadly. “I can’t just think about myself anymore.”
“I feel that, baby,” he allowed, and I know he did. He loved his son more than anything. I genuinely felt it whenever they were together. “A.J. is everything I knew he’d be and more. And I’m grateful.”
He was grateful.
The memory from way back when assaulted me hard and fast, and I was thankful for the darkness then as my knees tightened and my stomach clenched.
“You’re grateful?”
Twitch looked at me then, and when I moved, I could tell he was wondering what I was up to. But as I crawled the short distance over and used his rock-hard shoulders as leverage, lifting my leg and climbing over him, his hands landed on my hips, helping me settle into his lap.
Our faces close, I ran my nose up the length of his and whispered, “Grateful enough to suck my tongue?”
His shuddering intake of breath had my pussy flooding on cue. My lips parted slightly. I ignored the heavy beat of my heart and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to the edge of his lip, and the hands on my waist tightened like a vice. “Lexi,” he growled in warning, a moment before his stormy eyes met mine. “Don’t play with me, woman.”
My eyes widened at the brutal tone he took with me. I was worried he’d mistake my sudden quiet gasp for fear.