Broken Course (Wrecked and Ruined #3)(60)

"I tried to shoot my husband." I quickly inform him because he obviously doesn’t have all the facts. "Is that the kind of woman you want to be with? Is that the person you fell in love with?"

"No, you didn’t try to shoot him. Don’t pull that bullshit. But yes, the woman who struggled and got better is absolutely the woman I fell in love with."

"I did. I pulled the trigger."

"Oh for f*ck’s sake. Sarah, the only person who believes that you were trying to kill Brett is you."

"Leo, you deserve better than me."

"I’m sorry. Did you hear what I just said about myself?" he asks, popping an eyebrow.

"I don’t care about your past," I whisper.

"Then why do I have to care about yours?"

"I don’t know," I respond, defeated, as his words begin to sink in. "I know it’s been years, but I still just feel like a mental case in a sea of sane people."

"Sarah, we’re both crazy. That’s the best f*cking part about this relationship. Together, we’re just normal."

"We can’t do this, Leo. It’s a recipe for disaster." I begin to pace again.

"I need you to shut down for a minute."

"What?" I ask.

"Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Hell, maybe even let me hold you. But stop spinning this into something it’s not." He once again steps forward.

This time, I stay still. "I don’t know how," I whimper.

"Then let me show you." He takes two giant steps forward, pulling me into his arms. "We’re going to be okay. I refuse to accept it any other way," he tells my hair before kissing the top of my head.

I try to step away, needing the space to clear my head—or, in actuality, to clutter it back up with the shit Leo just cleared—only he squeezes me tighter.

"Nope. I’m still hugging," he says and I hide my smile in his chest.

Leo stands in the middle of my apartment, surrounded by my entire collection of dishes broken on the floor, and simply holds me. This time, he doesn’t whisper encouraging words in my ear like he has in the past, but I don’t need to hear them. I just need to feel him. Finally, after a few minutes, he scrubs his stubble across my cheek, and I sigh and give him a soft laugh.

He leans away to look down at me, uttering the familiar words that started this all. "Welcome back."

Taking a play from Leo’s flashback playbook, I cup both sides of his face and brush my lips across his. "I love you, too."

He smiles and presses another kiss to my mouth. "I know we have a lot to talk about, and I’ll answer any question you want to ask, but can we at least just agree to do it together? No more running."

"Okay."

"I’m keeping you, and I hate to say it, but you’re stuck with me. So don’t make me chase you again, or next time, I’m going to take you over my knee." He kisses me again and my eyes grow wide.

"No, the f*ck you won’t," I snap, and his smile grows to epic proportions.

"Oh, yeah. I read that shit you bought on my Kindle."

"Oh my God. You did not read that." I begin to laugh.

"Only a small part. But I got a few ideas." He winks and all of the drama fades into the background.

Even the hard stuff.

So. Fucking. Easy.





"YOU SHOULD call in sick to work tomorrow." I try to persuade as I lead her down the hall and into her bedroom.


"Ah, well. Funny you should mention that. I got fired," she replies sheepishly.

"Why? What did the Wicked Witch do?" I release her only long enough to undress down to my boxers and crawl into her bed.

She follows behind me and settles into my side. "I wouldn’t know. I haven’t been to work in a week."

"What?" I ask, surprised.

"Yeah. I called out on Monday and Tuesday. Then…"

"Shit," I cuss when I remember that she was parked next to me those days. "I’m sorry."

"Don’t be. Even if we weren’t here together right now, I’d still be happy that I was there for you."

"Sarah, I don’t deserve you," I say, kissing her mouth.

She replies with a laugh. "Not many people do."

"I’m serious." I kiss her again, a little more deeply.

"I didn’t get fired for calling out. I got fired because, after everything went down with us, I crawled into bed and shut down the world. I didn’t go in or even let them know that I wouldn’t be there on Wednesday and Thursday either. So yeah, now I’m back to being unemployed."

"Come work for me," I rush out.

"Um, no," she says simply.

"Come on. I’ve taken on some new clients and I don’t have enough men for the positions. I’m going to have to fill in until I can hire some. I’m barely keeping my head above water in the office as it is, and now that I’ll be in the field all the time…well, it’s going to be a mess. I need some help."

"Maybe it will be easier to understand if I say it in Spanish. No." She begins laughing.

"You can start on Monday." I ignore her joke, causing her to laugh louder.