Page 110 of Sacrifice the Knight (Checkmate 6)

“No,” he laughs. “He’s okay. We got to talking a little bit lately. I kinda…” His eyes turn wary. “I kinda spilled my guts to your kid when he asked about Gem and Callie. I didn’t know he knew, so when he brought it up…”

“That was my fault.” My voice cracks. “I’m sorry for telling him your business.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you both know. He was very mature in the way he spoke with me about it. He’s so smart for his age, empathetic and kind. We talked, which in itself felt a bit like a session with a shrink. But this time, it was with a kid who swore he’d have protected Callie if he knew her. He mentioned taking her to the gym to teach her how to fight, and beating the boys off, because she was probably pretty, and it would be his responsibility as her…” He hesitates. “Her brother.”

“Her brother?” Fresh tears spill onto my cheeks. “Oh my God.”

“Yeah.” He presses a kiss to my brow. “Mac seemed to feel my pain; he understood me, then he spoke about Callie and how she’d be his sister.”

“He asked me this morning about Zeke,” I admit. “The baby must be due soon, so maybe that’s why it’s on his mind. He talked about how he doesn’t feel a connection to that baby. Or to any of the others Zeke has floating around. They’re his siblings by blood, but he doesn’t care about them.”

“He knows family, and he knows that blood doesn’t mean love.”

“My sweet baby.” Silent tears track over my cheek. “He’s so perfectly fucked up.”

Eric barks out a laugh. “But aren’t we all? No one gets through life without a metric ton of baggage. Some of us hide it better, but we’ve all got it.”

“And some of us screech about it in a diner while she waves a coffee pot in the air.”

His smile dims as we pass under another streetlight. “I’m sorry for dropping the heavy on your son. He asked; I wasn’t going to share, but then it was just out there. Everything came spilling out, so now he knows way more than he ever should.”

“It’s okay.” I wipe a hand beneath my eyes and pray I don’t smudge my makeup. “I already spilled most of it to him, so if he asked for more, then he was willing to listen. But I really think I should go see him. I have to make sure he’s–”

“Hold on.” Eric grabs my face and drags his thumbs beneath my eyes. “He’ll kill me if you go back and look like you’ve been crying.” He takes a moment to stroke my face. He says he’s cleaning me up, but I feel like, as we stand under the stars and soft snow falls on our heads, this might be something else. “One date, Katrina? I’m begging you to give me one last chance.”

“I don’t know how to compete with the love of your life.” There! I said it. My ugly truth. “I can’t compete with her, and I won’t be able to feel good about myself knowing I was the consolation prize.”

“No.” He drops his lips to mine and swallows my surprised gasp. My gaze skitters across his face as he pulls back. “It’s not a competition. It was never a competition. Gem has been gone for ten years already. A whole decade. I’ve met women since then. I’ve spent a little time with them. But not a single one of them scared me like you do. None of them tore the heart from my chest and kept it for themselves.”

“You took mine,” I whisper. “You danced with me in the diner and whispered things that took my breath away. You seduced me beneath the stars and stole the only thing I had left to give.”

He releases my face, but pulls me back under his arm so we continue back the way we came. “I love you, Katrina. I never stopped. I know I hurt you when I ran, but I promise I won’t do it again. Everything we are is now in your hands. Your choices, your shots. If you want to know my deepest darkest fears, it’s you. You could destroy me. You could tear me apart and send me straight back into that dark hole. You terrify me, but I love you so much that I’m willing to take the risk. This thing between us…” He sighs. “I can’t let it go. So I have to trust that everything is going to be okay.”

I wrap both of my arms around his hips and snuggle in tight. He’s as vulnerable as I am. Perhaps more so. And knowing that gives me a little of the power back that I thought he stole. We stop at the corner of the next block, and while he checks for traffic, I stare up at the sky and smile. “Do you think our stars have found each other?” He slows and looks down into my eyes. “Ourbinarystars. Maybe they’re up there right now, twinkling and saying hey.”

“Well, actually, stars don’t twinkle. They look like they’re twinkling to us, but that’s actually the atmospheric gasses shifting.”

“You’re an atmospheric gas,” I grumble.

Chuckling, he grabs my jaw and pulls my face up to his. “Yes. I see our stars twinkling and finding each other. It took a really long time, but we got there, right?”

I nod. “Right.”

“One date?”

I’m a glutton for punishment. “A million?”

He flashes the most magnificent smile that makes me think of atmospheric gasses. “Thank you. I won’t fuck it up twice, I swear.”

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