Page 50 of Thunder

She averted her gaze shyly. Is she being coy? He was having a hard time reading her expression, but his dick was getting harder and harder. Whatever it was, it was turning him on.

“You said you didn’t mean anything you said that night?”

Thunder panicked. How could he fight perception? His heart sank. Then he noticed her bottom lip. It was sticking out comically. What was her angle?

“Anything?” she asked again. Then it finally hit him. His smile was so wide it hurt his face.

“Nope, nothing, nada.”

Then her pout turned real. She tried to get off his lap.

“Babe.” He gave her a few tickles. “Babe.” Thunder turned serious. “I’m kidding.” She slapped at him in frustration. “There was something I said that night that I did mean.”

“Yeah, what?” She was back to playful with a hint of insecurity. It was cute, and Thunder just couldn’t help himself.

“I could never deny you anything.”

“Ohhhh.” She struggled hard and he let her go, laughing at her mock frustration.

Thunder stood and picked up the flowers and presented them to her. Andy looked like she wanted to slap them away. Instead, she took them, sniffed them and set them gently on the coffee table. At odds with the emotions he could see swirling in her warm eyes.

Why he kept messing with her, he didn’t know. Maybe it was the fire that licked at her soul when she was alert, like she was now. So much more Andy than the woman who was unsure and scared.

“The flowers were Blast’s idea.” Thunder nodded toward the coffee table. “Wine, Granite. That box, Priest. Donuts, of course, Taps. Trip and Lexi’s suggestions are of a more private nature.” Andy lightly touched or picked up each item as he credited it to the person who gave him the idea for it. When she came to the plastic sleeve, she picked it up and her trembling fingers traced the lines of the drawing encased within.

“Whiskey,” she whispered reverently.

“Yes, he gave it to me for you. Had Billie draw it. When I asked him about it, he told me you could explain.” Thunder didn’t understand how three women with a man standing in the back shadows and what appeared to be infinite spirits behind him had to do with romance. “How did you know?”

“Because Whiskey is, just, well, Whiskey.” Tears actually sat in her eyes as she set the plastic protected page back down. “What about you, Thunder? What do you have to add?”

Thunder knew she wasn’t asking for a physical gift but a declaration. He wanted to simply say ‘my heart,’ but Andy wasn’t the type to appreciate such a cheesy line.

Thunder pulled a small bag from the table and held it out to her. It wasn’t elaborate, expensive, or have a cute label. It came from the bath store and cost two for fifteen dollars.

When Andy peered in the bag, she looked confused. When she pulled out the two white bottles with a flower and a yellow hunk on the front, she looked even more confused. “My favorite shampoo and conditioner?” She was clearly puzzled.

He knew he wasn’t great with words but apparently not with gifts either. A gift that needed an explanation didn’t seem like a great gift. He wanted to take it back, but if he did that, she would think he hadn’t put any thought into it. It was the opposite, he’d obsessed over it. He could’ve taken the easy route and hit her with jewelry, but that wasn’t good enough.

“When you have a bad day, I want you to come home, take a hot bath with a glass of wine, and just relax while I wash your hair. I want you to know that I’ve got you no matter what. And if the day after that isn’t going great, the scent of your own hair will follow you around and remind you it doesn’t matter because I’ll be waiting. I’ll wash your hair every night until your days get better. Then, you can wash mine when I need it.”

Andy started crying in earnest, dropped the bottles to the floor, and leapt into his arms. “Oh, Thunder, I fucking love you.” She was raining kisses on his face. He turned and walked down the hall. When he came down on top of her on her bed, he pulled back enough to look into her eyes.

“I fucking love you too.”

“Jesus, I’ve only been waiting a week to hear that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Andy shifted her gaze. “Thunder, I should really tell you about that night. Or rather why I didn’t remember.”

Thunder’s curious nature had haunted him about that. But, he knew in order to move forward with Andy he had to let it go, and he had.

“Andy, that doesn’t matter. Only what lies ahead matters. I don’t need to know.”

She kissed him hard and fast. “That’s exactly why I want to tell you. You’ve accepted all of me, so you deserve to know about that part. That night, after we were together, I had a fight, my first. Bitch rattled my brain. I won the fight, because I convinced Cap to let me continue, but I had a concussion. I suffered some minor memory loss of time before the fight. I was able to piece together everything with the help of other people, except our time together.”

“You didn’t ghost me. And that means Pound can suck it.”

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