At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(158)

So I slid to straddling him. His hands came to my h*ps and gripped them, probably to push me off but I put my hands to either side of his head, dipped my face close to his, held on and peered at him through the dark.

“I’m gonna piss you off, honey, probably enough for you to want to leave. I’ve got a temper and so do you, we’re gonna clash. It won’t feel good, it’ll feel not worth it sometimes but, you leave me, I’ll wait for you to come back. And you’ll come back because, something we’ve both learned, this, what we have is worth getting over it. Whatever it is that ticks us off or holds us back, we know it’s worth fighting for. I won’t give up on you, Joe, I promise. I just need you to promise the same thing.”

He remained silent and I started getting scared so I tilted my head so our foreheads were touching.

“Baby, don’t give up on me,” I whispered.

“Buddy, I came home,” he replied and it hit me that he did and it also hit me that his hands were still gripping my hips, not to push me away, he’d never tried to push me away. They were gripping my h*ps to hold me where I was. If he was giving up on me, he wouldn’t have come home to my bed.

So my big speech was kind of unnecessary.

“Oh,” I murmured, “right.”

“Jesus,” he muttered then he rolled until I was on my back, his weight was on me, his h*ps between my legs then he said, “you’re not real fast, are you?”

If he’d said this in an angry or sarcastic way, rather than a resigned and a tad bit amused way, I would have lost my mind.

Instead, I said honestly, “I’m not usually this clueless. But when my brother is murdered; I’m waiting for the next crazy gift to be delivered to my door which might cause my head to explode; I fall in love with a man and he moves in; and I have a future that includes another kid and I need to figure out how I’m gonna tell my daughters they might have a brother or sister sometime in the future, I get a little out of it. In my defense, most women would.”

“What?” Joe asked when I stopped talking and I realized his body had gone tense again, so tense it felt like even his cells had stopped moving he had that tight a rein.

I put a hand to his face and answered, “I thought you said you wanted a kid.”

“Before that.”

I thought for a second and asked, “My head exploding?”

His body moved but only to press mine deeper into the bed.

“After that, Vi,” he growled and I was getting confused again because he was sounding impatient again, very impatient, close to losing it impatient.

“I’m in love with you?” I asked quietly.

“Yeah, baby, that.”

“What about it?”

“What about it?” he repeated.

“Yeah, um… do you… uh…” Shit! He wasn’t ready for that. Now what did I say? “Is that too much for you? Should I have –?”

He cut me off by roaring with laughter. Roaring. So loud I was pretty sure he’d wake the girls (and Mooch).

“What’s funny?” I asked him and he shoved his face in my neck but his hands started roaming.

“You think maybe you might have wanted to tell me that?”

“Tell you what?”

His head came up. “Honey, keep up with me because this is pretty f**kin’ important.”

I felt my temperature increase as my anger elevated and I did my best to lock it down.

“I’m not following you, Joe. Maybe you could explain?”

His mouth came to mine and he whispered, “You’re in love with me.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Didn’t you think maybe you should share that with me?”

“Um… I thought I did.”

He kissed me lightly then his mouth went away but not far away when he said, “Woulda remembered that, buddy.”

“But, I gave up Mike and you’re moved in.”

“Yeah. So?”

“With me and the girls.”

He didn’t say, “Yeah. So?” again, he let his silence say it.

“Doesn’t that say it all?” I asked. “I mean, I wouldn’t let just any guy move in with me and the girls. I’m not like that. He’d have to mean something to me, like you do.”

I felt his body relax into mine before he asked quietly, “When did you know?”

“What?”

“That you loved me, when did you know?”

I felt my temperature decrease and my hand slid up his back and into his hair. “I don’t know. I just knew,” I answered softly.

“Vi –” he said my name on a gentle warning.

Quickly, to get it out because, being Joe he wasn’t going to let it go and when I said it, it was going to make me sound stupid, I told him. “When you said, ‘Baby, you aren’t wearing any shoes’ that second night we were together at your house.”

Immediately, he replied, “I knew you were the one when you were standin’ in my living room, wearing those stupid-ass boots, your nightie and that ratty robe.”

“That was the night we first met.”

“Yep.”

I was the one for Joe and he knew it the first night we met.

He knew I was the one. The one. The one.