Page 102 of My Secret to Protect

Bowie and Grandma get their faces painted while Zoe eats cotton candy with Leo, Lucas in his stroller between them, and Arlo and I play pool. His dad talks with Mama and Merv, and Cara and Doug select songs on the jukebox. The day is good, great, and Arlo looks so happy to be here.

‘Youwerehappytoday,’I say as Arlo drives us back to my house, his arm stretched out as he grips my thigh.

Doug replaced the windows and door at Arlo’s, but it felt weird being there, so we’ve been staying at mine.

‘I was.’ He nods, a smile on his face. We stayed a little later than the rest of the family so he could spend time with his dad. The atmosphere definitely changed once the kids disappeared, and I saw a hint of the club life I’d been expecting.

‘Arlo,’ I say, and he glances toward me. ‘Do you want to go back?’

He swings the truck to the side of the road and puts it in park as he turns to face me.

‘What do you mean?’

‘To the club, do you want to go back? I noticed your dad hadn’t picked a new vice president. I think maybe he’s hoping you’ll take that spot.’

He exhales, then drops his head back in the seat.

‘Yeah, part of me does.’ My stomach drops with the reality, but I embrace it.

‘I’m quitting my job for good. I’m done busting my ass to serve and protect fucking nothing in a crimeless town, especially when the only time I’ve ever needed help, they weren’t there for me. You were, and your dad was.’ He swallows and opens his mouth to respond, but I’m not done. ‘I would follow you into the fires of hell, Arlo Harper. Where you go, I go. If you want to go back, I come with you.’

‘Pix.’ He shakes his head, then reaches out to grab me and pull me into his lap. I’m thankful we left Beans with Missy today, so I don’t have to scramble over him. ‘I said part of me.’ He reaches up to cup my jaw, his thumb stroking over my cheekbone. ‘The nostalgic part of me, the twenty-year-old kid who just, finally, got a real relationship with his dad, wants to be by his side, yeah, but I’m not that kid anymore, Bree. I’m a grown man. I’m forty years old. I’m a business owner, a dog dad.’ He grins, and I match the expression, then gasp as my mouth falls open.

‘Oh my god. You’re forty. I missed your birthday.’

He laughs. ‘You were sedated and recovering from lifesaving surgery, pix. I forgive you.’ With his fingers moving underneath my chin, he leans in to press a kiss to my lips. ‘I don’t care about my birthday, Bree, and I don’t want to go back to the club. You and I have a lot of years ahead of us and we’re going to be happy, together, and free for every single fuckin’ one of them.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Baby, I’m positive.’ He kisses me again. ‘Besides, what would Merv do if I went back to the club?’

‘Merv?’ I question, pulling back, and he grins.

‘He asked me to take over running the diner.’ My jaw drops again, and he nudges it closed. ‘He wants to retire once he marries your mom. She’s dropping her hours at the clinic, and, well, they have a lot of years ahead of them, too.’

‘Your shop…’

‘Cali is taking it on permanently. It’s still mine, but she’s running it better than I ever did anyway, and this way, I get to cook. I get to expand and experiment and do what I really want to do.’

‘Arlo—’ My eyes fill with tears, and I shake my head with a growl. ‘Jesus, I don’t know if it’s you or the gunshot to the gut, but I can’t seem to go a day without crying anymore.’ He smirks like he’s proud of breaking me, and I scowl at him. ‘I meant what I said about being a cop, though. I’m done.’

‘What do you want to do now?’ he asks, not doubting my resolve for even a second.

‘I don’t know yet, and I need to talk to Jenna, but I have the compensation money coming.’

Chief Cane had to face facts once Nolan’s body was found and his apartment searched. The club made sure no trace of Arlo was found at the scene despite forensics sweeping the place—pays to have the right people in your pocket, I guess. They found him and the car he took me in, the gun he shot me with, the gun I shot him with, as well as the evidence of my abduction and captivity. Then they searched his place and saw the walls, yes, multiple, covered in photographs of me, notes about my movements, eight years’ worth of stalking, laid out. What that led to, thanks to Arlo’s dad’s somewhat crooked but excellent lawyer is a quite large compensation payment for his failure to take my complaint seriously. ‘I guess that gives me some time.’

‘All the time in the world, pix.’ He kisses me again, and I roll my hips against the growing hardness beneath me before he slides me across to my side of the truck with a growl that makes me laugh.

‘The doctor has signed me off foractivity,’ I assure, amused and a little frustrated. He hasn’t touched me or let me touch him in any kind of intimate way since I got out of the hospital.

‘I know, butactivityisn’t happening in my truck at the side of the road.’ He pulls back onto the road, his foot a little firmer on the gas this time. ‘I want you naked and spread out in my bed, pix.’

‘Then drive, baby, get us home.’

We Can Fix the Admin Later

Bree

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