Page 156 of With A Little Luck
Her hand flies up to feel the heart-shaped lock pendant. It’s not a locket. It’s quite literally a lock, and I have the key. It’s a tiny key, which is more symbolic than functional since the necklace is removed with a clasp rather than a true collar.
“I love it,” Quincy whispers, grabbing a handful of my button-down shirt. She tugs me closer, shoving her lips to mine. It’s a quick kiss. I’m still trying to understand why she’s weepy ifshe likes the gift when she pulls back, smiling as she catches her breath. “I love you, Trigg.”
My heart thunders, and I cradle her head in my hand. “Thank you. Now it’s time for breakfast.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Quincy
I’m grateful when Saylor and Briar show up immediately following the breakfast from hell. Honestly, I’d rather pee myself again than to ever tell someone I love them and have said person respond withthank you.
I’m so thrown for a loop that I blurt out the details, shoving myself off the couch to pace. The wrapped presents they brought for the makeshift baby shower have been sitting in the corner since the day Ridge was shot. The whole reason they came over was to watch me open them.
“Okay, that is pretty bad,” Saylor says, dropping the gift she was holding and shoving herself off the end of the sectional. “But guys are weird. Maybe he wanted to say it without an audience?”
“Maybe,” I concede.
King lies across the floor, blocking most of my path, so I do an about-face to march back in the opposite direction.
“Look, you’re bonded,” Briar chimes in from her spot on Ridge’s recliner. “That alone shows that he wants to be with you long term.”
“That’s true.” It still doesn’t make me any less embarrassed.
“Are you just really angry, or are we walking through contractions or something?” Saylor asks, looping her arm through mine as I continue to pace.
I laugh. “No, hopefully labor is still over a month away.”
“Oh, good.” Saylor smiles, patting my forearm. “I mean, not good that you’re upset, but it’s a good thing you’re not in labor.”
“Wow, you are on Calder-levels of communicating,” Briar says to Saylor before meeting my eyes. “Are you more upset that he didn’t say it back, or are you embarrassed because you had an audience?”
Ugh.
It’s definitely the second.
It slipped right out.
Being able to feel his emotions in the bond, combined with the beautiful gift that he had been trying to give me for days but was so patient about… It all just accumulated. I don’t think I’m full-blown, head over heels in love with him yet. The beginning of experiencing that emotion is there, though.
“I think I should have told him that I’m falling in love with him, not that I love him,” I say, stopping dead in my tracks. “I came on way too strongly.”
Briar rolls her eyes. “He bit you. There really isn’t a coming on too strong when you’rebonded for life.”
“It does feel a little like semantics,” Saylor says.
“Look, this is just between us, but when Keir and Calder tell me they love me, Ifeelthat emotion through the bond,” Briar says. “When Easton says he loves me, all that I pick out is obsession. Maybe possession? Whatever. It doesn’t matter because that’s the feeling he’s experiencing when he thinks of being in love, so to him, that feelingislove.” Her lips blow together. “This is harder to describe than I expected, but I think it comes down to psychopaths experiencing love differently than we do. Maybe Trigg doesn’t know how to quantify that emotion,and rather than lying to you, he just stayed quiet. It’s very possible that it runs in the family genetics.”
“Oh my god, Easton and Trigg are related!” Saylor gasps. “I knew it. It’s all Shaw has talked about for days. He swore they had to be long-lost brothers or something.”
I smile tightly.
Easton asked me not to mention that.
Briar spilled the beans, so I wait for her to speak. “Yeah, so I’m not great at keeping secrets. How about gifts? It’s time to open gifts, don’t you think?”
I blink repeatedly.
I have been a pretty shitty gift receiver. Trigg sent me into a spiral, and I didn’t even open the presents.
