Page 69 of Mending Me

“What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling away from her.

“I just…I just wanted to say thank you. For doing what you did. For helping me through this. For fighting this fight with me.” She beamed up at me. I reached for one of her hands and swiped my thumb across the back of it.

“Of course, hermosa?2, I would do anything for you.” I brought her hand to my lips and kissed the back of it. Her cheeks turned a faint shade of pink as I did.

“I love you, Hank Martínez.”

“I love you, too, Bailey Brown.”

“Would you two lovebirds get over each other and come on?” Conrad shouted from down the hall. We both looked towards him and laughed before heading down the hallway again.

“Come on, you owe me a drink,” she said with a wink. She pulled me down the hallway and I gladly followed behind her.

Just like I always would.

1 My beautiful girl

2 beautiful

40

BAILEY

After drinks with the group, Hank and I headed back to his place for the night. We had been sitting at the bar with everyone when I leaned over and whispered into his ear.

“You know how thankful I am for you helping me get past this, right?” I said loud enough for him to hear me over the music that was blaring through the speakers.

“You’ve already told me as such. You don’t have to thank me though, I would do anything for you.” He looked at me with so much reverence and love that I wanted to pull him into me and never let him go.

“Can we get out of here soon so I can show you how thankful I am?” I asked, giving him a coy smile. While it had been nice to go out and be with friends and not feel as if something was looming over my shoulder for once, I really just wanted to be with Hank.

The last several weeks had been hard for me, hard for us. But he stood by me unwavering, just like he promised he would. He fought my fightwithme instead offorme and I wanted to show him just how thankful I was for it. His eyes widened as my request sunk in and he quickly said goodbye to his friends.Ophelia gave me a small wave and an evil grin as I left her at the bar with the guys. We rode back to his place on his bike but only after he strapped me into my helmet and zipped up my riding jacket for me. I had become accustomed to this ritual and never fought him on it. Besides, I liked watching him take care of me in this way. Once we got to his place, he frantically threw the cover over his bike and pulled me up the staircase to his door. I laughed the entire way because I found his hurriedness endearing.

“Hank, Hank!” I laughed as he pulled me inside his apartment and pressed me up against the door. “You’re acting like this is the first time I’ve asked to come home with you.”

“It is the first time you’ve asked to come home with me. This version of you, the freest version of you,” he stated, stealing my breath from me. I hadn’t thought about it before he said it, but he was right. Every time I had stayed with him before I had felt like there was a dark cloud hanging over my head and preventing me from being fully me. Now though, I didn’t sense the dark cloud looming.

I felt…free.

I grinned widely at him before he pressed his lips to mine. He kissed me with so much force and passion that it awoke a new part of me that I’d never felt before. The part of me that wanted him raw and unbridled, with nothing between us. Now that I knew I was safe and free from my past, I wanted to give every part of who I was to him. My hands found the hem of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head. As he threw it to the floor of his kitchen, he picked me up with both hands and held me around his torso. I wrapped my legs around his center like a koala as he walked us both towards his bedroom. My hands swooped across his back, felt the deeply embedded scars that were a permanent reminder of his past.

“You know,” I said through heated breaths, “I feel like you have helped mend me. Like I was broken before meeting you and now every time I’m with you, you’re mending me a little more.”

He pulled away from me and gave me a goofy smile before speaking, “You know that’s a spell in Dungeons and Dragons, right?”

“What is?” I asked as we stood in his bedroom now. He held me as if I weighed nothing as I waited for him to answer my question.

“Mending. It’s a spell in the game you can use to restore something that’s been broken, to help return it to its most perfect form.” I looked at him in pure shock. Only he would bring up his game while I was trying to get in his pants.

“Oh my god, you know what I just realized?”

“What’s that?” he quipped, lying me down on the bed finally.

“You’re a big, fat, stinkin’nerd,” I teased before laughing deep from my belly.

“A nerd? Did you just call me a nerd, blondie?” He started to tickle me and kiss my neck. I tried to wiggle away from him but he had me enclosed, surrounded by his strong arms and muscular body.

“I sure did. You’re a big ol’ nerd,” I doubled down on my claim before pushing him away from me so I could look at him. “But a nerd that I love. And I wouldn’t trade you for anything.”

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