Page 40 of At Last

“What?” Still caught up in the whole eating dinner with him thing, it doesn’t register.

“You said here. I said home. ’Til further notice, this is your home, honey.”

Oh man, I like that too.

“Sure Chief, when I get home. Because for the foreseeable future, this is my home. With you. And you don’t mind us invading your life?”There. I put it out there.

Duke pulls me even closer, which I didn’t think possible, in order to whisper into my ear, a whisper Jade can’t hear. “You ask something that stupid again, I’m gonna drag your fine ass into that bedroom and fuck you ’til you know for a fact I don’t mind, making you really late for work. Understand?”

Oh, I understand. Understand in a way I have to fight the urgeto let himmake me late for work. Well one thing’s for certain, he knows how to distract me from an impending freak out.

“I understand, Duke,” I whisper back. He leans his head down to kiss me, clean enough for a four-year-old to see, but dirty enough for me to know he means business.

Saved by the escort, Jesse raps his hand against the back door leading into the utility room to announce his intrusion.

“Don’t mind me,” he mutters and heads to the cabinet to grab a bowl, then spoons in oatmeal and butter, brown sugar and pecans on top.

We all return to eating with minimal, light conversation until we’ve finished.

Clearing our dishes to the sink, that’s the first I notice men in the back yard building something. “What’s going on out there?” I point to the men.

“Jungle gym.” Duke shrugs his shoulders like it’s nothing.

“Ajungle gym?” I ask. Stunned. Because those are expensive.

“Yeah, well, you said Peaches needed a swing set. If a swing set is good, a jungle gym is better. She’ll have stuff to do, and with the families moving onto the compound for a while, she’ll have kids to play with, too.”

“Oh-kay.” And because I don’t know what else to do to say thank you or express how much him doing this for her means to me, I launch myself at him. The bear-est bear hug probably ever given by a woman to a man.

He holds me right back. Then Jade, feeling left out, hops off her stool to wrap her little arms around our legs until Duke bends to pick her up.

Yes, he has to stop being this nice or Iwillfall for him. I fear I’m already falling. One more quick kiss for Jade, and one not so quick kiss for me, then he leads us out the back through the utility room to the carport where he flings open the backdoor of the new truck to hook my girl into her booster.

“Be there by six, Peaches.”

After a tweak to her nose, he turns to me. “Alright woman, don’t wear yourself out.”

“I’ll try not to, Chief.”

Leaning his forehead against mine, he doesn’t really hug me but grabs my bottom with both hands, eyes closed, he breathes in deep, as if he’s breathing me in. He lets me go and lifts me into the passenger seat.

“Ah Chief, wrong side.”

“No it ain’t.” He tosses the keys to Jesse. FreakingJesse?

“I can drive, you know?”

“Yeah, but I don’t ride bitch,” Jesse answers. “No real man gets carted around by a chick, hot or not.”

Did Jesse call me hot?

I look to Duke. “Is this one of those biker things Elise told me I’d have to get used to?”

His reply is to laugh, one of his rich ones from deep in his belly, which I take as his yes. Jesse laughs too, but as his voice isn’t as deep as Duke’s, it’s not as rich as Duke’s.

I lean in to Duke. “Keep my girl safe,” I whisper.

He sobers. And nods.

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