Page 73 of Divine Sense

“I hope you don’t. I might just have to dock your pay so you can’t.” She scrunched up her face at me and pinched my arm.

“I’m serious, it’ll only be a few months and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

“I doubt it. I plan on making it so good you never want to leave,” I said without a shred of doubt in my voice. I had every intention to make her breakfast each morning and drive her to work with me. I planned on making sure she has every new dress or new pair of shoes she wanted. If she wanted to go to Sunday brunch with my family, I’d take her. If she wanted to go to Aspen for a weekend, I’d buy her a whole damn jet just so she could go. Whatever she wanted, I’d make sure she had it. I knew the type of lifestyle she was used to and I was ready and willing to give that to her, even if she didn’t know it yet.

“We’ll see about that, Jack,” she quipped with a smirk, before picking up a box and walking out to the car with it.

Several hours later,the boys and I were sitting around the dining room table at my place for our weekly D and D session. Bailey and Magnolia were curled up in the living room together continuing with their weekly rewatch ofGilmore Girlsthat they had started back when she first started coming to game night. Her belongings were strewn around my house after we’d cleaned her place out of everything she wanted to bring with her.

“Why do I feel like shits about to hit the fan?” Hank lamented after his roll. I had them trapped in a village without the supplies they needed to get to the next part of their quest. They didn’t know it, but a slew of goblins were about to descend on them.

“If only one of us were a paladin, then we could use divine sense to figure out if something evil was around,” Malcolm scoffed. I looked at my friend suddenly, his words hitting me square in the chest. Something about him calling out the skill made me think back to last November when I went to the Sinclair’s manor for the first time and got the sense thatsomething wasn’t right. Something about them, that house, put me on edge but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Ten months later, I knew exactly what had made me feel so uneasy.

“What’s that look for?” Conrad asked, looking at me up and down from his chair.

I blinked hard and shook my head. “Nothing, it’s nothing. Alright fuckers, buckle up.”

For the next hour, my friends rolled the die and battled the goblins I threw at them, mild cursing and yelling included. The girls yelled at us a few times from the other room to be quiet because we were interrupting their show. Conrad rolled his eyes while Hank and I laughed. Malcolm, oddly enough, didn’t make any kind of asshat remark he would normally make, which I thought was out of character.

“Alright losers, last roll,” I called out once I noticed the lack of sound coming from the TV in the other room. I could hear the girls chatting on the couch but I knew before long they’d be in here asking us when we’d be done.

“Will it be a nat twenty?” Malcolm quipped, raising his brows as Conrad released the die.

“Nope,” Hank said flatly when the die didn’t land on the perfect number.

“How’s it going nerds?” I heard her voice and looked up to find Magnolia and Bailey watching us just to the side of the table.

“Are you guys almost done?” Bailey yawned, walking to stand behind Hank.

“We’re wrapping up now, blondie,” Hank answered, grabbing her hand and pulling it around him.

“Anyone roll a nat twenty yet?” she asked.

“Not yet, which is so weird to me. I know the stats aren’t in our favor but we’ve been playing for over a year. You’d think it would’ve happened by now.” Conrad frowned.

Magnolia had moved to stand behind my chair and was resting her hands on my shoulders. She leaned over and brought her lips to my ear. “Should I know what a nat twenty is?”

I chuckled softly before kissing her on the cheek. “I’ll explain it to you later, flower.”

As I wrapped up the story for the night, I thought about the last ten months with Magnolia and how our whole story started by chance. If I hadn’t been riding down the street that Saturday morning just as she had been stepping out into the street, we might not have had the start we did. If her father hadn’t hired me to work his campaign, we may not have ever met. Sheer chance brought us together and made it so that our stories were tied. While the circumstances weren’t always easy to work through, they had been what needed to happen so we could end up together. A random chance encounter, a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I had ended up with a girl I knew I wanted to keep forever.

Almost like the same amount of chance you have at rolling a nat twenty.

* sweetheart/honey

46

KOLBI

Before we knew it, August rolled into September and it was one of the most important days of my best friend’s life. Hank, the other guys, and I were getting ready before the ceremony, tucked away in a small room inside the wedding venue. With the heat of summer still lingering, it was still plenty warm outside even as the sun went down. Thankfully for us, Hank and Bailey had decided that we didn’t need to wear full suits because the ceremony was going to be held out on the lawn at sunset. We were all wearing light gray dress pants, white formal shirts, and brown leather suspenders that had our names embossed on the backs of them. A gift from our friend as a thanks for standing next to him as he said ‘I do.’

The ceremony was about to begin and I couldn’t wait to see Bailey in her white dress walking down the aisle towards a guy who was more like my brother than my friend. Hank was a good man and I couldn’t be happier for him. Not once over the last few weeks did he hint at being nervous or scared about this next chapter in his life. Instead, whenever you asked him how he felt, he simply answered with ‘happy.’

Over the last few weeks, Magnolia has made herself at home with me, slowly unpacking her boxes and filling my custom built closet with lots of pink and too many bows to count. Her shoes took up the entire guest room closet and her dresses had started to creep into my side of the closet as well. It didn’t bother me though—the small glimpses of her around our home always made me smile.

Having her live with me was better than I thought it would be. We would wake up next to each other, get ready, eat breakfast, and head into the office. Her and Bailey were bringing in more business than we could take on and worked together better than Hank and I did sometimes. At the end of the day, she would strut down to my office, ask me if I was ready to go, and we would head home hand in hand. There were more than a few occasions we would stay late after everyone else went home and I would black out the windows to my office and take her on top of my desk. Or in front of the windows. Or in my chair. Things were good with us, even if I knew she was still struggling with her family.

She had tried to reach out to both her parents a few more times after she moved in with me but each time was met with voicemails or staff members who told her they weren’t available to speak with her. It crushed me to see them cutting her off like this but despite it all, she was thriving.

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