Page 72 of Whiskey Shivers

I wasn’t worthy, and I knew that… but I’d try to live up to as if I were every fuckin’ day to the end of time.

I’d do anything for her. Her smile soothed my soul and her laugh healed parts of me that I hadn’t even realized were broken. I didn’t know how else to put it, but one night La Croix and I got to talkin’ and some of this got to spillin’ and it was an eye-opening experience, that was for sure.

There were times you’d like to forget that La Croix was just a man. Certainly, it was easy to forget he had any type of feelings… but that night I’d caught a glimpse of just how deeply that man felt about his woman and had some realizations about just how much I felt for my own.

Did she have some habits that drove me nuts? Sure. Like how she seemed to apologized for literally everything, even when there wasn’t a thing to be sorry about. Or how shestill, after months of living with me, would ask me stupid shit like permission to do this or that to the house.

It was to the point of ridiculous – but some of that had eased off with the completion of the loft above the guest room, just off the living room, the one I’d gifted her and said to make it her own.

The one she’d stared up at, a blank canvas – hers to create a space to do with what she wished, and she’d tried so very hard not to cry when she asked if she could make it a little library. A cozy nook and reading space for herself. I told her she didn’t have to ask me shit – that that was what‘hers’meant.

She’d calmed down on asking permission for things and asking if X, Y, or Z was alright with me but then the barrage of “what do you think of this?” or “what do you think about that?” had started. While they still would like to needle me – it wasn’t half so irritating with the way her eyes shone with excitement as we scrounged and thrifted and she got on with Alina making some magic up there and turning the space into something I couldn’t even begin to tell you. It certainly was something magical. She even found a corner desk thing for her laptop and grading and such.

I was dragged out of my thoughts when I dragged a tee shirt over my head and her hands on my flanks stopped me.

“What’s up?” I asked, looking down at her, and she asked me, “What’syourhurry?”

I smiled down at her and reached up from my side to palm her cheek and run a thumb over her smooth skin.

“Well, I figured why we had the time, even though it’s short, it was high time we took you for your first ride.”

Her squeal of excitement was damn near earsplitting as she leaped up and flung her arms around my neck. I laughed, I mean, how could I not, and returning her hug I held her close for a minute and told her, “Go on and get dressed now. Jeans, boots, all that like I showed you.”

“Okay,” she said but had to kiss me soundly before she complied.

I slipped my wallet in my back pocket, and threaded my worn leather belt through its loops, watching her scurry around the bedroom like the most adorable little creature you’d ever seen. Like an excited ferret or something, which I know, I know, not the best thing in the world to compare your girlfriend to an excited ferret but that’s seriously what it reminded me of. That kind of cute that forced a smile so big onto your face that your damn cheeks hurt.

“Dress on the warmer side, darlin’ it’s a bit on the colder side out there,” I reminded her and she nodded and pulled a pair of leggings out of her bottom drawer to layer up under her jeans.

“That’s my girl,” I praised and the smile on her lips and the glow in her cheeks meant I’d hit the mark with my praise.

I helped her into the chaps I’d bought her, and into the jacket; treating her as the special cargo she was but to anyone on the outside looking in? I probably looked like an overbearing or protective asshole bundling her up against the weather.

The sudden image of a kid in a fat snow suit flashed in my mind with those three haunting words any parent dreaded to hear once they got them all bundled up…“I gotta pee!”

“What’s so funny?” Cor asked me as she turned back around and shrugged the jacket into a more comfortably and evenly distributed weight across her shoulders.

I told her, “I feel like the parent in just about every Christmas or winter movie ever bundling their kid up in all the layers and I’m just waiting for you to say you gotta pee.”

She laughed and shaking her head said, “I definitely don’t have to pee but I think I’m so excited that I might.”

I laughed and ushered her out of the bedroom.

We finished by wrapping her lovely throat in a warm and stylish autumn colored scarf she’d made for herself. One in that eternal loop or whatever.

She looked so good; I was going to hate to put the helmet on her – I’d gotten one with a full-face mask to protect her best, I just hated to cover up her beautiful face.

We went out to the detached garage, and I threw open the door. She practically danced in place, very nearly vibrating with excitement.

“Okay, you remember everything we talked about?” I asked.

She nodded eagerly, and I stopped short and looked at her, eyebrow raised, silently reiterating my expectations when it came to any conversation about safety. To her credit, she didn’t roll her eyes but I could tell it was a near thing.

“Yes,” she said, settling down.

I tilted her head and with a slightly amused smile she ran through the safety bullet points. I couldn’t help but smile at that and leaned forward to palm the side of her neck and run a thumb along her jaw, kissing her sweetly.

“That’s my girl,” I purred against her lips and I felt as well as heard her gasp slightly. The thing that made me smile more was the leap of her pulse against my fingertips, her heart warming up for the race it was about to endure once I got her out for the ride.

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