Page 78 of Forsaking All Others

Not for what I’m about to do.

Life is short and I don’t want to wait for my next one to find my twin flame again.

Not when it’s across the lot, wielding a gavel.

A knock sounds, startling me, and I quickly slide the ring back on my finger. The door to the trailer swings open and Hawk pokes his head inside.

“Hey, Holly, sorry to bother you, but there’s a guy from the church out here. Says you called them to pick up a donation of clothes?”

Rising out of my chair, I smile at him.

“Thanks, I’ll be right out.”

“You sure?”

I nod and round my desk.

“I’ve got it, but if you really want to help, you can stop bringing those puppies around my kids,” I tease, swiping the keys to my car from the hook next to the door.

I love that the club has a legitimate business that helps train service dogs, but since we’ve been spending a lot of time at the clubhouse, my kids have seen a lot of Hawk’s dogs come and go. Tara is unimpressed, but Shepard and Theo name every single one he brings around and since Maverick’s been missing in action, they keep hammering at me, asking when he’s coming back because he promised he’d let them pick a dog to keep.

We’re not getting a dog.

We can’t even keep a goldfish alive.

“Yeah, about that…Coco Puffs is here.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“Excuse me?”

“Theo named him,” he supplies. “I’ll bring him by when the kids get out of school. He’s all yours.”

“What? No, we’re not getting a dog.”

“Take it up with Maverick,” he says, before turning around and starting down the steps.

It seems like there’s a lot I have to take up with Maverick.

First, he does not get to disappear for four days.

Two is fine, but anything more is going to require a phone call.

In case you were wondering I did not get one of those and last night when he came back to North Carolina, he parked his pipes here and not in my driveway.

He goes on a run, he comes back—he comes home to me.

To our kids.

His boots are on the floor, his kutte hangs off the dining room chair, and his ass is on the couch...well, that last one is negotiable.

And we are not getting a dog.

That is not negotiable.

I spy the man from the church and tell him the clothes are in my trunk. He follows me to my car, but I go completely still when a white Nissan Altima pulls past the gates.

I know that car.

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