Текст книги "Opening Up"

Автор книги: Lauren Dane

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

Chapter Twenty

She came to the door looking so pretty he paused to just take a long look. This was his. It had long ceased to matter how she’d ended up in his life, only that she remained there.

He bent to kiss her.

“You look very handsome,” she said, smoothing a palm down his shirtfront.

“Ha. I’m nothing compared to you. Do you want to stop for a drink before we go to the restaurant?” Asa asked.

Worry flashed across PJ’s features. “Do you? I think it’ll be fine. My mom is excited to meet you in person. Julie likes you. Shawn will because he’s easy that way. Jay, well, who knows? But you’ve met him.”

“Darlin’, I’m fine. We’ll be all right. I just hate seeing you stressed. Are you worried? Do you want me to take the piercing out?”

The outrage and surprise on her features made him feel a lot better. “You’d better not! You’re who you are. A successful businessman. You own your own home. You take care of your mother and sisters. Plus that piercing is hot and as much a part of you as the color of your eyes.”

He grinned, bending to kiss her. She defended him so ardently, even when he knew she was stressed out about dealing with her family.

“So beautiful. How’d I get so lucky?”

“I honestly don’t know. You fought me so hard I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever come to your senses.”

Laughing, he pulled her close. “I’m not always the smartest person. My mom says I need to live up to my potential. But you kept at it and thank god I finally listened.”

“And now you get to eat dinner with my family. Lucky you. I’m going to warn you up front, my mother might use terms like ‘in-laws’ and ‘marriage.’ Just ignore her.”

He remembered that he’d never told her about Ellen. Shit shit shit. It’d been weeks since that night PJ and Ellen had met. First he’d been waiting for the perfect moment to bring it up, and then he’d forgotten about it entirely.

He thought about it long enough that she noticed, giving him a look that said he needed to spill.

“I need to tell you something.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her gaze. “That’s worrisome.”

Even at a time like this she could make him laugh with her attitude. Still, he made sure to show none of that on his face.

“You know Ellen?” He could charm his way back into PJ’s good graces. He just needed to get it out and tell her everything first.

“From the restaurant on fight night? Oh, are you going to tell me you and she had a thing sometime in the past? ’Cause duh.”

If only he could hang it on that. “I was married. She was married. I mean, we were married to each other.”

The amused smirk slid off her face. “You and Ellen were married and you’re just telling me right now? Weeks after I met her? Months after we started seeing one another?”

“It was a long time ago. Seven years. It only lasted six months.”

She shook her head, clearly upset. “That whole night! Everyone knew? Everyone but me.”

This wasn’t going the way he’d hoped. She wasn’t mad, she was hurt.

“It wasn’t like that. I was going to tell you that night but it was weird and then there was that whole thing with the douchebag at the bar. We got back to my house and then we had sex. A lot of it, so it’s not like I was going to bring it up. Then I forgot because it wasn’t important. That’s why we got divorced. Neither of us cared enough to stick it out.”

“Asa, this is not okay.”

“I didn’t purposely hide it from you.”

“Oh, but you did. You did, and you made that choice for me. Your sister, she started to talk about your father and I stopped her because I wanted you to share with me when you chose. I respected your right to do that. This, though?” PJ blew out a breath. “Why’d you get married to start with?”

“Stupidity. She thought she was pregnant, so I wanted to do the right thing. She didn’t really want to get married, but she wanted to do the right thing too, and then she wasn’t pregnant and it was awful. We were a bad fit from the start.” It had been a tubal pregnancy, so by the time Ellen had gone through that they just didn’t have any real foundation to build on and they’d broken it off.

“So bad she knows how you like your sushi and comes to dinner?”

“Are you jealous?” In hindsight, this line would have been better delivered with another tone. But he was so amused and flattered it showed right through, and she wasn’t nearly as amused by the sentiment as he was.

“This is the part where I’m not laughing or making jokes. Do you see this part? Do you know how the chapter ends?” PJ asked.

This anger was different. He knew it to his toes. “I was lightening the mood. It was a failure. I apologize.”

Her look told him how little she was moved by his declaration. “How would you feel if the tables were turned? If we were at dinner with my friends and then we chitchatted with some guy for hours and then weeks later I was all, ‘Oh hey, that guy is my ex-husband. No big!’ ”

“I did not say it like that!”

“You didn’t say it at all!” PJ said in a quiet voice so sharp it sliced to the bone.

He sucked in a breath. “Okay. I’m sorry. You’re right. It was stupid not to tell you way before now. But it was something I did, something really dumb, and it happened a long time ago. What this is” – he waved a hand between them – “is not even in the same universe. I was married to her and she never knew me the way you know me. I didn’t think about her the way I think about you. I won’t say it meant nothing, because that would be shitty to her. And she’s not a bad person. We didn’t split because of anything horrible. Which makes me sad because it feels like a bigger failure that I never loved her and married her anyway.”

She glared at him, stepping away to pace a bit.

Finally she turned back. “We need to leave for dinner. Being late will only mean lots of drama and upset.”

“Are we okay?”

“Enough to go to dinner. Hopefully later we will be. Being lied to is a problem for me. I don’t like it and I won’t tolerate it. When people lie to me they’re telling me I’m not worth the truth. If there’s something else this big you need to disclose it right now. No kids, right? Other wives?”

He chanced getting close enough to hug her. “No kids. No other wives. She does really like you, though. Which weirds me out because she doesn’t really like anyone. But you’re irresistible, so I won’t even say anything about you sleeping with Craig, and he’s been at several events you and I have been to since we started dating.”

Wow, that was a mistake to have said out loud.

She stepped back. “How is it you don’t know when to stop speaking, Asa? That sentence should have ended with me being irresistible. So explain to me how you won’t say anything about me sleeping with Craig? Craig Salazar?”

Uh-oh.

“Naturally I’m assuming that stopped when you and I started in seriously.”

She blinked at him, so utterly incredulous he felt like kicking his toe in the dirt and hanging his head.

Finally she spoke. “I never slept with Craig. We’ve made out on several occasions. Usually when one or the other of us breaks up and the other is free. Kissing. That’s it. No canes and floggers. No orgasms. His dick hasn’t even been in my hand, much less in my mouth or body. He’s my friend. He cares about me, but he is stone cold in love with someone else. Only she doesn’t feel the same.”

He started to speak and she put a hand up to stay him.

“Furthermore, if I had fucked him inside out in the middle of the street every third Tuesday, it still wouldn’t matter. I don’t care that you slept with other women. I knew you weren’t a virgin when I came along. I don’t want to hear about who you had sex with. It doesn’t matter because you’re with me now. This is about the fact that you had been married and you never shared that with me. Don’t muddy the waters with this Craig stuff.”

He paused, really thinking about what she’d said and realizing the huge missteps he’d taken. “I don’t know how to do this right. I’m feeling my way along. I should have told you earlier on and most definitely that night you met her. I really am going to have to buy out the entire Godiva store to make up for my fuckups today, huh? Maybe some paint or a trip to Vancouver for the weekend where I’ll keep you pleasured until you forgive me. Yes, the latter. I vote for that.”

She sighed and tiptoed up to kiss him. “Caramels. Try Fran’s. I like that better than Godiva, though if you go that way, nuts and chews, please.” She opened her door and gave him a look over her shoulder. “And yes to Vancouver.”

Hot damn. Weekend-in-a-luxury-hotel sex was something he’d been wanting with PJ for some time.

He put a hand at her elbow as they went down the steps. He hefted her overnight bag, not caring that it was heavy. Just pleased it meant she’d be in his bed that night.

After he finished an epic grovel. He knew that was necessary too. He’d hurt her trust in him. That was a problem he needed to fix.

He hit the remote and popped the trunk and PJ came to a stop. “One of those few other cars?”

He put her bag in the trunk of the BMW 7 Series crouched at the curb. “It is indeed.” He loved the car. Smooth and powerful, he loved to road trip in it. He bet PJ was really fun on a road trip.

It also was safe, and if he couldn’t surround her in all that steel of Motor City’s glory days like the Caddy, he’d happily surround her in the finest German engineering.

Plus, it was an impressive fucking car. He knew enough about PJ to understand that the kind of guy she brought home to her family before didn’t have a pierced cock. They’d be suspicious of him from go. So he’d keep in his piercing in his nose, but he wore nice clothes, drove an awesome car, and he cared about PJ.

If that didn’t matter to them, they didn’t care about PJ very much. So he hoped they’d all get along for her sake if for no other reason.

He followed her directions and then settled back into the seat and drove, just enjoying the time with her.

“This car is so quiet. It’s like you can’t tell an engine is running but for that purr beneath your feet.”

“After driving the Caddy it’s an adjustment, but she’s so smooth, it’s like really good scotch. And way easier to fit into a parking spot at a restaurant.”

“Ha. And yet you do it. You parallel park in a car that’s half a block long. It’s your superpower. Well” – her voice changed, going low – “you have a few other superpowers, but that’s one you can do in public.”

He wanted to ask if she was all right, but it was clear she was a little tense and he figured asking would only make it worse. He let her lead with how much she wanted to talk.

She seemed in good enough humor and hopefully in a forgiving mood as they parked, and he sent out a prayer that her family wouldn’t upset her. And that he’d be a good guy and not make anything worse.

It was a warm night with a light breeze; the sun wouldn’t go down until after nine, but it was one of those Seattle summer nights when it was twilight for hours.

He put an arm around her, pulling her close as they walked across the street together and headed into the restaurant.

Once inside, they were led to a table where her entire family waited. She and Asa weren’t late. She’d gotten them there fifteen minutes early, even with the thing she and Asa had had at her place.

She should have known they would have been there twenty minutes early just to make her feel bad even when she hadn’t done anything wrong.

Julie grinned up at them, standing and heading over to hug her and smile at Asa. She held them in place, speaking quietly. “You’re early. Shawn and I bet Jay fifty bucks. He said you’d be ten minutes early. I said fifteen, so I win. Shawn said twenty.”

“How early were you?”

“I got here three minutes ago. Shawn and Jay only just put napkins on their laps when you two walked in, so don’t let them make you think they were here yesterday at dawn or something.”

PJ cringed inwardly. This weird family stuff must seem so strange to Asa. It was pretty embarrassing when she thought about how it must look from the outside. Then again, he’d totally kept an entire marriage from her and she was still annoyed.

Just because she was mad didn’t mean she wanted her family to make him feel bad. She hooked her hand at his arm and they went the rest of the way to the table, where her brothers stood and, after a poke from their mother, her father did as well.

Asa sent out so much charm PJ had to school her features. She gripped his arm a little tighter to keep from stroking his beard or kissing his neck. The man was lethal.

His hair had been drawn away from his face, exposing all that feral, masculine beauty. He wore a dark shirt with a tie that brought out the amber in his brown eyes. He was dressed appropriately for a meet-the-parents dinner. He cleaned up really well, while still being himself.

She introduced him to the siblings he hadn’t met yet before they turned to her parents. “This is my mother, Lenore Colman, and my father, Howard Colman. Mom, Dad, this is Asa Barrons.”

There was handshaking, though her father was cooler than usual; whether it was about Asa or the situation already existing with PJ leaving the company, she didn’t know. And cared about less as each day passed.

“I think we should get a few bottles of wine for the table,” Julie said as their server came over with bread once they’d all sat.

“I’ll have a scotch and soda,” her father said before Julie had finished her order.

PJ was sorry she hadn’t taken Asa up on his offer to get a drink before they showed up because before they were finished with appetizers her father had consumed his fourth scotch.

As it was, she kept herself to one glass of wine because she didn’t know what he might do. Which was disturbing as well as annoying and embarrassing.

Asa, though, kept it together. He asked Lenore about what she did, her hobbies and activities.

“We keep telling her she should run a party planning business.” PJ smiled at her mother. “When you’re invited over to Lenore’s for a meal you always say yes, because it’s going to be really good and she gives presents.”

Julie laughed, putting her head on their mother’s shoulder. “She does. When PJ and I had dinner with her recently she gave us each a silver frame with a picture of our grandmother in it.”

“I was just asking PJ about that photograph a few days ago.”

Of course, he’d been in her bed at the time and saw it on her dresser, but no one needed to hear that detail.

Her mother blushed as they kept talking about what everyone had been up to.

Finally, the most exasperated Lenore had ever been in public toward their father, she said, “Howard, you’re awfully quiet tonight. I was just telling Penelope how much we’ve been admiring her work. From the pictures and articles Shawn sent over last week, remember?”

Her father grunted but said nothing. Asa’s body language radiated anger though he kept a civil tongue and continued to talk with her siblings.

“Penelope tells me you’re gifted with machines.” Lenore shifted, her body language seemingly relaxed, though they all watched Howard somewhat warily as he ordered another drink.

“Excuse me a moment.” Jay got up, dropping his napkin on his seat before walking off.

PJ never found it hard to talk about Asa’s work. He never bragged on himself, so she had no problem doing it with her family. “He’s pretty amazing. Sometimes these cars come in and they’re a total mess. Half the original parts are totally destroyed because it was stored in a barn for sixty years or whatever. And then he shapes the metal and their shop machines new parts and when they’re done it’s totally art.”

Asa squeezed her hand and she blushed. “Sorry, she asked you, I know. I got a little excited to brag on you.”

He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “It’s nice to be bragged on.” He turned to Lenore and they talked about restoration, and then transmissions when Shawn jumped in and Jay returned.

It wasn’t too long after they’d finished eating when Asa excused himself along with Shawn and Jay.

“You know they’re all going outside to look at Asa’s BMW, right?” PJ said to Julie.

“Probably. Dad, you should go out there too,” Julie said.

Howard curled his lip. “Why would I do that? I got enough of Penelope’s boyfriend for one night.”

“Howard!” Lenore sent him a stony glare, but he was too drunk to heed the warning on his wife’s face.

“What? She quits her job and shacks up with this creature. She’s an embarrassment to this family to come here with that at her side. This whole thing began when he came into the picture. Am I the only one who can see the connection?”

“Maybe it’s hard to see clearly from the bottom of a tumbler of whiskey. I quit my job because I wanted to do something with my place at Colman and you didn’t want to even listen to my ideas. Asa had nothing to do with that. Also, I live in my own apartment, so we’re not shacking up. But even if I was living with him he still wouldn’t have been connected to why I left Colman.”

“You keep telling yourself that, Penelope. You don’t seem to mind failing at things.”

Everything just sort of froze for long moments as the pain of that sliced through her, tearing at her heart.

Her mother’s face darkened with anger and Julie’s eyes widened.

It was by will alone that she was able to stand without shaking on her wobbly knees. PJ grabbed her purse, pulling money from her wallet and tossing it at her father. “That covers our meal and the wine and tip. And on that loving, positive note, I’m going to leave.”

“Penelope, wait.” Her mother headed after her, along with Julie.

PJ paused at the front doors because she didn’t want to carry all the drama out to Asa, but she did not want to have this scene in a restaurant waiting area either. She shook her head at her mother. “No. I’ve had enough for one night. I’m not going to stay to be insulted and listen to all that stuff about Asa.”

“He’s drunk. He doesn’t know how to deal with you growing up and doing things on your own. You used to seek his approval; he misses that.”

“And yet he continues to toss away any opportunity to give me even the smallest bit of his approval. This isn’t about me growing up and him being a daddy who can’t let go of his princess. Remember his comments about how I love failure? He ought to know. I’ve wasted years of my life begging for his approval. I’ve now accepted that will never happen. I’m done.” It hurt for PJ to say those things, but she meant them, and once they’d been spoken, she had no choice but to hear.

“He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

“Mom, no. I love you, but please stop. I appreciate that you wanted to meet Asa, but please don’t ask me to pretend I believe that.” PJ hugged her mother. “He knows what he was saying. For a long time I thought it was my imagination that he felt that way. But he’s been up-front about it all my life, so that’s on me.”

Her mother shook her head. “No. Penelope, he loves you.”

“I don’t need that kind of love.” She hugged her mom once more and then her sister.

Julie kissed her cheek. “Call me tomorrow. I mean it.”

“Okay. Drive safe. Love you both.”

When she walked out, she nearly bumped into Asa, who was walking back across the street with Jay and Shawn.

He totally had been showing off his car. That made her feel a little better.

“What’s going on?” Jay stopped her.

“I’m going now.” She hugged Jay and thanked him quietly for being so welcoming to Asa and for the way he’d gone to ask the bartender to water down their father’s drinks earlier.

“What happened in there?” Shawn asked.

“Too much scotch and ego.” She hugged Shawn, relieved Asa hadn’t asked anything yet. “I’m sure Julie can give you the rundown.”

Asa said his good-byes to her brothers and put an arm around her shoulders as they went to the car.

Chapter Twenty-one

Once he’d gotten back on the freeway she exhaled hard. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry. I can’t believe that just happened in front of you.”

“PJ, stop.” Asa kept his gaze on the road, so she was free to stare her fill at his profile.

“That shitshow in there was so rude. Honestly, I’m horrified.” That her father hadn’t even made the smallest effort, that instead he’d gotten drunk and belligerent, had been a blow she still reeled from.

“Your dad was having a rough day by the looks of it. But that wasn’t your fault, and the rest of your family was nice. Even Jay. He bragged about you, you know.”

“Jay?”

He laughed. “Yes. He’s proud of you. They all are, even your dad, I wager. You’re different, but your siblings seem just fine with that.”

“My whole life it’s been ‘Penelope Jean, don’t be common. You’re meant for better things, you won’t achieve that if you color your hair wildly or pierce more than one hole in your ear.’ ”

“I’m glad you’re not common, darlin’. I get what you mean, but you are singular. There’s no one like you in all the world. I’m sorry your dad is having such a rough time with that.”

“The summer I was fourteen I saw a sidewalk chalk artist at work and my mother got me these chalks to use so I could try it myself. I’d go out there at the top of our driveway every day and work, hosing if off and redoing it. One day I remember trying something to give it a three-dimensional quality. Have you seen what some of those street artists can do? Like huge chalk murals that look like people fishing in lakes or crevasses down to dark depths. That sort of thing. Anyway. My dad came out and made me hose it all off and throw the chalk into the trash. He said I could have fine art lessons if I wanted, but I couldn’t deface the driveway with scribbles.”

“Christ.” He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry.”

“When he gave me permission to paint the Colman logos on our cars it was one of the best days of my life. I felt like he finally understood that just because I was different it didn’t mean I was worse. Or wrong. It was like he was all right with my being creative.” It had felt like a respite from being a failure in his eyes all the time. “And we know how that ended up.”

In the end he’d rather have her walk away because being different wasn’t treasured in her life growing up, it was suspect. It made him wary of her because she didn’t conform.

Even when she’d tried to conform she’d fucked it up.

And it didn’t seem to matter either way¸ because her father still didn’t want to talk to her, even at a dinner with her sitting right across from him.

“Are you ready to tell me what happened in there?” Asa asked quietly several minutes later.

Was she?

“Obviously whatever it was has something to do with me. At least partially. I want you to unburden yourself, and you can’t if you worry how I’m going to feel. This isn’t about how I feel, it’s about how you feel.”

Tenderness flooded her to near bursting. How did she get so lucky that she found this? She never expected that love would be something so utterly certain. Asa had called to her from the start and now he fit in her life in a way that lightened her heart and made her feel grounded all at once.

“I’m in love with you, Asa. You know that, right?”

Wow, had she just said that out loud? After that freak show of an evening? After he’d lied to her and she’d caught him?

“Ack! Pretend I didn’t say that.”

He reached out to take her hand, squeezing it. “No way. I heard it and I’m holding you to it. You scare me. I’m scared I can’t possibly measure up. You were meant for more than me.”

“Shut up. This again?”

He barked a startled laugh. “And then you remind me you’re perfectly capable of your own choices and decisions, so I’m not going to argue the point because as it happens I’m in love with you too. But I still want to hear about what happened in the restaurant.”

Those words made it easier for her to tell Asa. “He thinks I’m a failure.”

Asa’s voice was quiet, but she heard the anger in it. “What? Honey, he’s drunk and he clearly doesn’t like me much. He’s just being defensive. He doesn’t mean it.”

“No. No, I think he does. All these people who claim being drunk made them say offensive or hurtful things. Bull. Alcohol exposes your true feelings. The ones normal filters usually keep you from saying out loud. And it’s not really about you, because he’s made me feel like a failure my whole life.”

Asa blew out a hard breath. “I don’t get him at all. He’s got four really great kids. You’re all at the family business. Were, anyway. You all seem to understand and value what that means. What Colman Enterprises means. He’s mad because you quit. But he pushed you there. Your quitting doesn’t make you a failure. That’s his failure – that he couldn’t see such amazing talent. You chose an alternate path to succeed. It’s petty and abusive to hang it on you like that.”

It did feel abusive, but having him say it, having someone not in her family say it, meant a lot. It meant she hadn’t been oversensitive or imagining it outright. It was so damned nice that he saw it. To be believed.

“When I quit, it was liberating and nauseating all at the same time. I knew even as I was saying the words that it was the right thing to do. It was the right choice. I don’t need him to ask me back, or even to admit he was wrong. For me, that’s past, and if he’d just made the smallest effort I’d have been happy to move on. I would have forgiven just about anything. But there have to be some limits. You just don’t say things like that. Even if you think them.”

She blew out a breath, trying not to cry as the memory of that moment washed over her again. The shame. The sense of betrayal. He’d hurt her so carelessly but with so much vitriol she knew it was exactly how he felt.

PJ pressed the heel of her hand over her heart. It seemed odd that such a wonderful thing – the first time you tell someone you love them – could happen on a day when such a horrible thing had also happened.

“He said things to me. In public. In front of other people. Stuff that got to me because it’s a lifetime worth of conditioning. Anything outside the plan as laid out by Howard Jr. is a failure. And then I’m horrified because I’m a twenty-five-year-old woman who wants her dad to be proud of her.”

He growled and then sighed. “You’re supposed to want your parents to be proud of you. I’m thirty-seven and I want my mother to be proud of me still. More than that, parents should be thrilled their kids still want it.”

Asa hadn’t been this angry at a person whose ass he couldn’t beat in years. Rage simmered in his belly at how upset Howard Colman had made his daughter.

Failure? Was he kidding?

He’d enjoyed her sister and brother Shawn as well as her mother, and even Jay was all right. They all seemed to have a great deal of affection for PJ.

Her father had power over her, which normally, if your dad was cool, was a good thing. But the guy seemed to prefer to manipulate and shame his incredibly talented youngest child, and based on the few stories she’d told Asa, her father had been picking at her the whole of her life.

“You turned out pretty well. Thank goodness for it.”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Not tonight. Thank you for coming with me,” PJ said, her voice tired.

“Nope.”

“What? Nope what?” At least now the sadness was tinged with annoyance and a little curiosity.

“I’m not having any attempts on your part to pretend this all away. Your father shredded your heart tonight, Penelope Jean. You told me you loved me, which means your heart is mine. I don’t take kindly to things that are mine being misused. You’re mine. I warned you I didn’t play, and I don’t. I’m deadly serious about loving you.”

She tried to take her hand back but he wasn’t having that either. Fuck Howard Jr. and his bullshit. He had no right to make any of his children feel this way.

“I need my hands!”

“Why?”

“Why?” An edge of irritation had pushed all the sorrow from her tone.

Asa smiled. “Yes. Why?”

“Because you’re going to make me cry and I want to cover my face. But now I’m just annoyed, which is probably what you planned to start with.”

He snorted. “You’re super smart.”

“Oh my god! You do a PJ impression?” She grinned and it was like winning the lottery. That was far better than seeing her on the verge of tears because someone valued her enough to want to protect her. He didn’t want her tears. He wanted her joy. That’s what love was, and he wished her father understood that.

“Duke says he’d give it a seven and a half. We had a competition. I won fifty bucks.” They’d both laughed their asses off. Duke had adopted PJ as the little sister he never had, and he seemed to have subtly campaigned on her behalf with their circle and in the industry enough to have really mattered. People respected Duke, so if he liked someone, it was taken as a good sign.

It also meant Duke teased her just like he did Asa. Well, not exactly the same, but the tone and affection were.

“Oh my god. I’m going to blush so hard the next time I see him,” she said through laughter.

“I have others. Most of them I don’t share because they’re usually sounds you make when I do something you like,” Asa said. “You know how much I love your noises.”

“I can demonstrate for you and we can do a comparison.”

“Yes.”

“Right on.” She’d done a perfect impression of Duke’s signature expression.

“Holy shit! How long have you been sandbagging that?”

“When I first met Duke it was at the track, like a year or so before I met you. I think you all had just decided to do some sponsorship of a local driver and he was up checking things out. Anyway, he just cracked me up with that beard of his. He had these purple boots,” PJ said.

“Jesus, the Godzilla boots? He got those in Turkey off a street vendor. I’ve tried to kill them but they always make their way back to him, like Christine.”

“Wow, so I already think you’re the hottest man alive and you bust out a Stephen King reference. How can you continue to be so fucking sexy?”

No one gave compliments like PJ did. She had this way of seeing people always at an angle that surprised him and frequently touched him deeply. Each one was a little gift made just for him and no one else in the world.

It made him feel lucky.

At first it had been a struggle to allow himself to want her. But there had been no way around it because they had amazing chemistry. And then she’d been there in his life. Working at the shop, and then once he’d kissed her it had been a hard road to allow himself to need her. To accept that he needed her.