11. Worth the Wait
11
WORTH THE WAIT
Diana
“ Come in.”
Early afternoon, I opened Madison’s door to see her still in bed, curled around a pillow, but this time she was on her side, and instead of a self-comforting-because- I’m -terrified pose, it just seemed to be a self-comforting-because-my-shit-is-real pose.
But when I walked in, she moved, scooching and pushing up with some difficulty due to her arm still in a sling, so she was sitting against one side of the headboard, an invitation for me to take the other.
I did, curling onto a hip toward her.
She curled toward me.
“ Hanging in there?” I asked.
She nodded.
“ Just so you know, I told Big Petey there’s an Apple store essentially across the street. I also let slip you wanted a phone. Therefore , I think we both aren’t all that surprised he went right out to jump on his bike to go get you a phone. So , warning, it’ll probably have all the bells and whistles.”
Her face got soft and her lips curled up just a little.
“ He’s a nice man,” she whispered.
I thought about everything I’d learned about Big Petey in our short acquaintance, particularly our conversation about my mom.
Then I responded with feeling, “ Yes , he is.”
Her face changed when she noted, “ Hugger’s nice too.”
Oh crap.
Did she notice?
Right , how could she not notice, we were cuddled up for two movies.
“ Yeah , they all are,” I replied, going for blithe.
I knew I failed at blithe with what she said next.
“ But I think you think he’s the nicest of all of them,” she stated, and it took me a second, but then I realized she might be teasing me.
Or it might be something else.
To be safe, I went with the something else.
“ We were just sitting close together because there wasn’t a lot of room.”
It was then, Madison shocked the heck out of me when she laughed, just a little, and returned, “ No you weren’t. I see how you look at him.”
Oh crap!
Was I that obvious?
Oh crap again, was that upsetting for her?
“ Are we making you uncomfortable?”
She appeared to be thinking about that before she shrugged. “ No . He’s nice and he’s all big and strong and tough, and you’re all pretty and soft and elegant. You wouldn’t normally put you two together, but it’s cute.”
I was surprised. Well , not the opposites attract part, that was obvious, another part.
“ You think I’m elegant?”
“ Well …yeah. You wear fancy shoes every day to work.”
Okay then. If that was the criteria, that certainly was me.
“ It’s a little weird, with the timing and all that, but I like him, and he likes me. That said, we’ll try not to be—” I began.
“ I crashed your life, Diana ,” she said in a small voice. “ Don’t let me get in the way of it.”
I inched just a little closer and replied softly, “ You didn’t crash my life, Madison . I invited you here. Then I found out you’re awesome, and I’m really glad you trusted me to look after you.”
Her face scrunched, not like she was going to cry again, like she didn’t believe my words.
“ I really am,” I asserted.
“ I’m a pain in your behind.”
“ You are not,” I stated firmly.
She gave me a look of such disbelief, I started laughing.
“ Right , well, we haven’t exactly been tiptoeing through the tulips,” I allowed. “ But still, I’m glad to know you and it means a lot to me you’re letting me help you out.”
She tipped her head to the side, her blue eyes got cloudy, and she whispered, “ It happened to you too.”
I bent my neck so my face was closer to hers, and I whispered in return, “ Not as bad, not even close, but yeah, honey. It happened to me too.”
She was still whispering when she said, “ I’m sorry, Diana .”
“ I’m sorry about you.”
“ We girls, we gotta be sorry a lot, don’t we?”
This was a sad lesson of life, and I hated we both had to learn it.
“ Yeah ,” I agreed. “ We have to be strong a lot too, and strong comes in many ways, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to tax yours just a little bit more because I have one more tough thing to give you before we let it go and try to enjoy the rest of our Sunday .”
“ Di —”
I did it fast so it would be over.
“ Detective Scott talked to your parents. He says they were wild with relief to hear you’re okay and they want to talk to you.”
That was a mini lie.
He didn’t use the words “wild with relief,” those were mine. He also said her mother burst into tears and her dad had to end the first call and phone back, because he was choking up too.
I wasn’t going to tell her that, though.
The other thing that made my statement a mini lie was they did want to talk to her, but they also wanted to see her, and they were so intent on doing that, they reported to Detective Scott they’d be on the first flight to Phoenix .
But we’d deal with that tomorrow.
She shook her head and inched back. “ I’m not ready for that.”
As I’d guessed.
“ I told him that was probably your response. I just want you to know what’s going on.” Or most of it.
“ Okay ,” she muttered.
“ Okay ,” I said. “ Now , you wanna come out and maybe have some lunch?”
“ I’ve been crying so much and doing that always takes it out of me. I think I need to doze for a little bit.”
Tears healed. Rest healed. Talking healed. And with their response to finding where their daughter was, I was hoping seeing her family would assist in healing too.
This reminded me Hugger needed to do the same. His nap hadn’t even lasted an hour.
We’d wait for Big Petey to get back from the Apple store for that.
Funny how Madison and I had been going it alone for a while, and now, even after only a few days, it didn’t feel right not having the guys around.
But the simple matter of it was, it didn’t.
“ I’ll come out later, all right?” she asked.
“ Anything you need, honey,” I answered. “ Before I go, can I hug you?”
She looked surprised at the question then she nodded and pitched toward me.
I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a careful, but tight squeeze.
I was about to let her go when she said into my ear, “ I’m glad I trusted you too.”
Of course, this meant I gave her another tight squeeze.
I let her go, got off the bed and was halfway to the door when she called, “ Di ?”
I turned. “ Right here.”
She hesitated before she shared, “ There’s more I haven’t told you.”
I knew there was, and she might be a tiny thing, but she was strong. She was a total warrior.
But enough was enough for one day. I suspected even Alexander the Great took chill time.
That wasn’t my choice, however.
“ Do you want to do that now?” I offered.
“ I don’t think…” There was a long pause before she finished, “ Today has been a lot.”
“ It has, and I’ll take this opportunity to share that what you have is yours to give. There’s no rush. Since it’s yours, you can give it when you want.”
She sagged with relief. “ Thanks , Di .”
I smiled at her. “ Rest . Anything special you want for dinner?”
“ Are the guys coming over again?”
“ Do you want them to?”
“ I feel…safe when they’re here. And things seem normal.”
So she felt the same as me.
Her head jerked. “ Not that I didn’t feel safe when it was just us two.”
I laughed. “ Gotta say, babe, I feel a lot safer with a bunch of bikers stomping around in their motorcycle boots too.”
That bought me a kinda smile, I returned it with a not-kinda smile.
“ Can we have pizza?” she asked.
“ We can have whatever you want. What’s your favorite kind?”
“ Pepperoni .”
“ You want homemade, or someone else to make it for us and deliver it?”
“ I like cooking with you.”
I was going to have to send Big Petey to the store again.
I didn’t figure he’d mind.
“ I’ll get on that. You get on dozing.”
“ Okay , Di .”
I smiled at her again and left her room.
When I got to the living room, Hugger pulled his big, tall frame out of the couch.
I liked that frame. I liked the intent look in his brown eyes as they watched me walk into the room, as if he could check the state of my mental health through vision. I liked the wild of his hair and the wild of his beard.
Okay , official, I just liked him.
I went to him and was about to hug him when I remembered he said he wasn’t affectionate and didn’t like touch.
I hadn’t had the time to turn that over in my head, especially because, since yesterday at the tennis courts, he’d been touching me a lot. But now that I was turning it over in my head, it didn’t make me happy.
I’d never thought about that when it came to me, and I guessed I wasn’t touchy either. At least not over the top.
But I did like physical touch with my guy when I had one, and not just the sexual kind. And I couldn’t say I shied away from it with other people, I just wasn’t overly demonstrative.
But if Hugger didn’t like it, then I’d have to deal with it.
Somehow .
So I just got close and shared, “ She’s not ready to talk to her parents. She wants to rest after letting out all that emotion, and I don’t blame her. She also wants the guys to come over for pepperoni pizza tonight.”
“ She wants the guys to come over?” Hugger asked, not hiding his surprise.
“ She says she feels safer around them.”
His lips in his beard thinned before he said, “ Probably shouldn’t be surprised about that.”
“ And she likes that life feels ‘normal’ when they’re around.”
“ Then I’ll make a call and get their asses here,” Hugger stated.
Jeez , this guy was so awesome.
“ I’m going to have to send someone out for more groceries,” I muttered.
“ Make a list. I’ll take off when Pete gets back.”
Hmm .
This was another thing with Hugger .
When we were cleaning yesterday, he commandeered the vacuum and had at it, and he didn’t even have to be asked to take out the trash. No hiding on the balcony or pretending to fiddle with a faucet that wasn’t actually leaking to get out of doing housework.
I hadn’t thought about that at the time, either.
But now that I was, although the not touchy or affectionate thing was in the con column on the pros and cons list of Do I Want to Explore This with Hugger , that was definitely a pro.
Neither of my long-term boyfriends helped out around the house, and I’d lived with both of them. There were excuses—tee times, ballgames, trips to Lowe’s to pick up stuff to fix things I wasn’t sure were broken, and when they pitched in, they did a shitty job at it.
When I heard the term “weaponized incompetence” it rang the top bell for me with both of them.
Hugger didn’t just run the vacuum here and there to make a show of doing something, he actually vacuumed .
And he tidied the couch every morning, putting the toss pillows back like I liked them and everything (and I didn’t have to ask him to do that either).
Now , he was offering to go to the store, and it was partly because I couldn’t, but I was thinking it was mostly because that was Hugger .
Yes , this was definitely a pro.
Even so.
“ I could also order them online so Pete doesn’t have to go back out,” I suggested. “ You need to try to catch more sleep.”
“ We’ll talk about it when Big Petey gets back.”
I agreed on a nod.
“ Now let’s talk about you. How are you doin’ with all of this?” he asked.
“ I’m thrilled to pieces she cried. I’m thrilled to pieces she got the chance to get that emotion out, I think that will help start the healing, and I don’t think she’s been anywhere near doing that. I’m further thrilled to pieces her parents know she’s okay, or at least she’s still of this world and they know where she is. I’m also thrilled this is moving forward, she obviously trusts me and she feels safe with the guys being around. Last , I’m thrilled to the absolute beyond I know her name.”
“ Yeah ,” he murmured, then asked, “ Is it fucked that I’m glad she’s nineteen and not seventeen? I mean, it’s totally heinous, what was done to her, no matter her age. That’s not what I’m sayin’. But? —”
I shook my head and really wanted to touch him, since he appeared so awkward, saying what he was saying, and it was sweet and cute, but no one liked to feel awkward.
“ No ,” I cut him off. “ I think back to when I was seventeen and when I was nineteen, which was when my incident happened to me, and I can say it would have been way harder to deal if it happened earlier.”
His voice was deeper, rougher when he asked quietly, “ You were nineteen?”
“ Mm -hmm,”
His lips thinned again and there was a scary air charging out of him, and again, I really wanted to touch him.
“ I’m okay, Hugger . And I kneed him in the balls before it got too far, and when he was dealing with that, I punched him in the dick so I could be sure to get away.”
Hugger did a slow blink. “ You punched him in the dick?”
“ Well , yeah. I had to make sure he was incapacitated when I ran to get the RA .”
Abruptly , his hand darted out, caught me at the back of my head and slammed me face first into his wide chest.
That chest was shaking, and so was his voice when he said, “ That’s my girl. Don’t leave a job half-finished.”
I couldn’t believe it, considering the subject matter, but I was laughing too.
And it felt nice he called me “my girl,” not to mention he was touching me.
He one-upped his own self when he pulled me onto the couch, curling me into his arms and holding me close.
“ You been through a lot this morning too,” he remarked.
I loved he understood that.
Still .
“ Really , I’m okay.”
I snuggled deeper anyway, because if my chances at this kind of time with Hugger were going to be limited, I was going to take full advantage of them when I had them.
“ You don’t always gotta be going hell bent for leather to take care of everyone, Di ,” he stated. “ You can take some time for yourself too.”
“ Well , we need to talk about that, because not only does Dad want me to come over for dinner on Wednesday , he’s invited you too, and warning, this is so he can size you up, judge you and find you lacking.”
Hugger did a masculine eye roll at that, and if you don’t know what that is, it’s mostly a side-eye, but his eyeballs were aimed upward too.
It was kinda funny and kinda hot.
I didn’t have time for either. I had to smack him with the fullness of honesty about Dad .
“ I will share, this will be about you being a biker. But it wouldn’t matter if you weren’t, he wouldn’t like you. He never liked any of my boyfriends.”
“ Dads have a knack for bein’ like that,” he said. “ Don’t know if I’ll win him over. Do know, I don’t care if I do. The only person who’s gotta like me is you.”
I’d been resting my head on his shoulder, but I lifted it to look at him.
“ You’re going?”
“ Yeah , because I don’t want you alone with your dad this first visit when he’s been a dick to you in the past.”
Man , he was just so sweet .
“ And yeah, because I wanna make sure you’re safe in other ways too,” he concluded.
Totally another pro for Hugger .
All the same.
“ I don’t really want to eat dinner with Dad being a dick to you.”
“ I got tough skin, Di . Don’t worry about me.”
I wanted to know more about why he had to have tough skin, but I didn’t get into that. We were getting to know each other, but we didn’t have to do it all in one day.
“ My friend Bernie also wants me to go out to cocktails on Friday .”
“ We can arrange that too.”
“ Would you like to come to that?”
His lips tipped up and he replied, “ Not a cocktail guy, babe.”
No surprise.
“ And feel it’d be more of a trial by fire to pitch up with your friends than with your dad.”
He was right about that.
My friends weren’t judgy, but we didn’t accept just any pretty face when it came to who we were dating.
“ They know about Madison ?” Hugger asked.
“ No .”
“ They know about you?” he asked more gently.
“ Yeah .”
“ You wanna tell me why you didn’t tell them about Madison ?”
“ Because I didn’t want them to talk me out of doing something totally insane.”
He chuckled, and it sounded and felt nice.
“ So I can say yes to Dad and Bernie ,” I summed up.
“ Yeah .”
“ And now I need to make another list. So I need to know what your favorite pizza is.”
He answered readily. “ Not a fan of soggy onions, and if there’s a pizza in this house with pineapple on it, I’ll throw it over your balcony.”
I started laughing.
Through my laughter, he went on, “ Other than that, I’ll eat anything. But if I was ordering just for myself, it’d be sausage and mushroom.”
“ So pepperoni for Madison and sausage and mushroom for you.”
He gave me a squeeze. “ And what about you?”
“ What’s my favorite pizza?”
“ Yeah , I wanna know that. But I also want you putting your favorites on the list. Gonna repeat, it isn’t all about everyone else all the time.”
“ I fear you might be getting the wrong idea about me, my man.”
Me saying “my man” got me another squeeze, even if I didn’t mean it that way.
I liked what that squeeze meant, though.
“ I’m not always this selfless,” I warned him.
“ We’ll see,” he muttered.
“ I’m really not,” I stressed.
“ Okay , I believe you,” he openly lied.
I smiled at him.
His eyes dropped to my mouth and I saw up close how they heated.
“ Prettiest smile I’ve seen,” he murmured.
Ohmigod !
Nice !
“ You think it’s safe to make out?” I asked.
His eyes came to mine, and now I saw regret.
“ No ,” he answered.
“ Just a little?” I pushed.
That was when I saw close-up his eyes glimmered with humor.
“ You think after that kiss this morning we could make out ‘just a little?’ It wasn’t easy to stop then. Now that I know how good it is havin’ that mouth, not sure that’s in the cards.”
I frowned as I was forced to concede, “ I see your point.”
He chuckled again, I liked the feel and sound of it again, so I took a chance and snuggled closer.
His arms tightened even as he noted, “ You got a list to make.”
“ Yeah ,” I mumbled.
“ We can order pizza, Di .”
“ Madison likes to cook with me.”
His body started shaking and it took me a bit to realize he was laughing.
“ What’s funny?” I asked.
“ Tell me again how you’re not selfless all the time.”
I smacked his chest.
He caught my wrist, lifted it to his mouth, and I felt the brush of his whiskers along with the softness of his lips when he touched them on the inside.
And the all-over happy wiggles were back with a vengeance, because not only feeling that, but watching him do it was a massive turn-on.
“ Go get the pad and bring it back,” he ordered. “ We’ll do a big-ass shop. Make a menu or somethin’, so you’re not always havin’ to write out lists, and we’re not always havin’ to leave you with only one man on you when we go to the store.”
I thought this was a great idea, so I broke from his hold and zipped to the kitchen to get my pad and a pen.
When I returned, for a second I wasn’t sure what to do. Since he instigated cuddling, could I go back to that? Or did I need to give him space?
Hugger decided for me by taking my hand and tugging me to the couch where I was close.
“ Let’s make hot fudge sundaes tonight for dessert,” he suggested.
“ I’m so in love with that idea, I could cry.”
Now those fabulous brown eyes were twinkling.
“ You’re a nut,” he joked (though, as we all knew, there was some truth to that).
“ Not a bad one, though,” I said.
“ No , baby,” he whispered, looking right in my eyes. “ Not even a little bit.”
God , I needed to kiss him.
“ Are you sure we can’t make out?”
My heart soared when he dipped in and touched his lips to mine.
Then he pulled back.
And I narrowed my eyes at him.
“ Tease ,” I accused.
“ Whatever ,” he replied. “ Put ice cream on the list. And a jar of hot fudge, a can of whipped cream, not that Cool Whip stuff, nuts and cherries.”
“ You’re hog wild when it comes to sundaes,” I noted with deep approval.
“ We could say I’m an aficionado.”
Now he was totally teasing, and it was totally sweet, so I laughed out loud.
Hugger curled an arm around my shoulders, tucked me close and ordered, “ Woman . List .”
I got down to scribbling.
Hugger helped with menu selections.
Big Petey came back with Madison’s phone, and we decided he’d go to the store because he didn’t have any problem taking Baby Shark and neither of their bikes could cart that amount of groceries.
Hugger stayed with me, chilling, chatting and starting up My Cat from Hell episodes until Big Petey got back with the groceries. He helped put away (another big one for the pro side) before he returned to my room to try another nap.
Madison came out not much later, and was so happy to have a phone, she actually gave Big Petey a hug.
He wrapped her close in his arms, looked over her head and met my eyes.
Mine were wet.
And his were too.
* * *
Pizza , hot fudge sundaes, copious beer and wine consumed, the men were gone, Big Petey going with them.
Madison had turned in early, probably still drained from her emotional day (though, I had the sneaking suspicion she was also giving me time alone with Hugger ).
This I was taking, not cuddling on the couch.
Oh no.
We were both stretched out on it, Hugger to the back, me along his front, our arms around each other and our legs a little tangled, totally in make-out position (and more), just without the making-out part.
He had a weird way of not being affectionate and touchy.
I wasn’t going to say a danged thing.
As noted, we were not snogging, but Hugger was busy inscribing a number of pros on the Do I Want to Explore This with Hugger List .
These included being hella skilled with delivering an Eskimo kiss ( I mean… yum ), having awesome powers using his hands to smooth and sooth and not get a girl hot and bothered (or not too hot and bothered, I was both just being so close to him, feeling his warmth, smelling his scent, having his attention), and playing footsie.
Yes !
Playing footsie.
See ?
He was totally cute under all that big, strong, burly, whiskered man .
“ So do you have a minimum rating on the hotness scale to allow bikers into your brotherhood?” I asked.
He blinked once, fast, and chuckling, asked back, “ What ?”
“ Dutch is amazing-looking.”
Yes , I’d met Dutch .
And Eight had dragged Core and Linus along with the rest of them, so my table was so full, I’d had to borrow chairs from my neighbor. Although Madison didn’t natter away with all the boys, in her cocoon with me, Pete , Hugger , Eight and Muzzle at one end of the table, she did open up.
Core was Hollywood handsome. Linus not far away from that, but he was younger and hadn’t grown into his good looks yet, that being, exuding the confidence that Core did.
And Dutch was what I said.
Amazing .
There was just something really beautiful in his eyes, like a universal empathy with all the woes a human could face. It was a sight to behold.
“ You think Dutch is hot?” Hugger asked, like he thought Dutch was the dictionary definition of fugly.
“ You don’t?”
“ Can say we don’t have a minimum rating because we don’t notice that shit.”
“ It’s hard to miss. I mean, I’m scared to meet Jagger and Roscoe when they get here. My retinas might burn out.”
Another chuckle and, “ Get ready. Jagger is Dutch’s younger brother. You think Dutch is hot, they look alike, so there you go. I don’t got a vagina, so no clue what women think of Coe . Though , can say he’s got no problem with getting himself some.”
“ I’ll let you know when I meet him,” I offered.
“ I’ll be waitin’ with bated breath for that, babe,” he teased.
“ So Dutch is very married, considering how big and shiny his wedding band is,” I noted as a prompt to get him talking about his brothers.
“ Yeah , Georgie . She’s the shit. Jag’s hitched too, to Archie . She’s also the shit, but in a different way. Georgie is a journalist. Archie owns her own store, and I don’t shop, but it’s pretty kickass.”
“ Two brothers are married to two women with men’s names?”
“ It just happened that way.”
A good reminder that life could offer some fun surprises sometimes.
“ Dutch seems…” I didn’t know how to describe it. “ Like he’s super-tuned into what’s going on. Almost more than Big Petey is with his age and experience and wisdom.”
“ Dutch’s dad was murdered when he was a little kid.”
My body froze and I stared.
“ I met his dad when I was a lot younger,” Hugger continued. “ Too young to be able to form an impression outside of knowing I dug him. He liked kids.”
“ Ugh . I hate that for Dutch .”
“ You experience something like that, watch your mom grieve your dad’s death for two decades, it informs you on tragedy. We do what we do with Resurrection in part because of Dutch . Men were gettin’ antsy, that was a thing, but Dutch knew the Club just as good as any brother who’d had their patch for decades. He was restless, others were too. Now we wade in, if we want.”
“ Knew the Club ?”
He rolled to his back, pulling me partly on him and up, so we were face-to-face.
“ Our president, Rush’s old lady, Rebel , she’s a movie director. She made a documentary about Chaos .” He took a beat before he concluded, “ I think you should watch it, Di .”
Oh , I was so totally doing that.
“ How cool,” I said.
“ We used to be outlaws.”
Hmm .
I wasn’t so sure about that.
“ What does that mean?” I queried carefully.
“ Ran guns. Ran security for shipments of illegal shit. Ran a stable of whores. My mom was one of Chaos’s girls.”
Holy crap!
“ Harlan , I …that doesn’t…” Ulk ! “ Whoa .”
“ Yup ,” he agreed with my stunned stammering.
“ That isn’t a problem for you?”
“ Most the brothers didn’t want to be messed up with that shit. They got out. They took care of all of their girls when they did, at least they did that as best they could. Took ’em a while to extricate themselves, and it was dangerous, but they did it. By the time I was with the Club , they were clean.”
I was beginning to get it.
“ But they used to be adrenaline junkies, and to get a fix of that, you all hooked up with Resurrection .”
“ Not exactly,” he replied. “ In making the statement they were no longer outlaw, Resurrection went outlaw the other way, becoming vigilantes.”
Ummmmmmmmm …
Holy crap !
Though , this shouldn’t surprise me too much, considering Hugger and Big Petey showing up to do what they were doing for me and Madison .
Nonetheless , providing security for a couple of chicks and looking into why some criminal madman had targeted your club was a lot different than being a vigilante.
“ Not what you’re thinkin’,” Hugger told me. “ We just kept our patch clean. That’s it. No drugs, prostitutes, any a’ that shit around Ride , our store and the garage we run. We ran out of enemies, we stopped doin’ that, and now we leave it to the cops. That said, anything like that gets close to the store, we shut it down. But we minimized our patch to a couple a’ blocks around the store, not miles around it.”
“ Right .”
He was studying me closely while advising, “ You need to watch the documentary.”
“ I totally do. Wanna watch it now?”
He sounded surprised when he asked, “ You wanna watch it with me?”
“ Are you in it?”
“ No .”
“ Do you not want to watch it with me?”
“ No , actually”—he tucked some hair behind my ear (and he was skilled at that too, I knew, considering the charge of electricity that sizzled down the side of my neck when he did it)—“that’d be cool.”
“ Want me to make some popcorn?”
“ Babe , you made four pizzas, a huge-ass Caesar , and we went through two gallons when we made the sundaes. You can put down some popcorn?”
“ Is that a no?” I asked testily, never a fan of anyone commenting on what I ate (we could just say, Dad did that a lot), and definitely not a man I liked doing it.
“ No , it’s not a no. I’m just impressed.”
I relaxed and grinned at him.
“ I’ll get a brew and top up your wine, you deal with the popcorn,” he said.
“ Do you want microwave or oil popped?”
“ You choose.”
“ Oil popped with melted butter and tons of salt.”
Hugger slid his hands up my spine, murmuring, “ Perfect .”
Though , the way he was looking at me gave me the sense that word had two meanings.
And damn, that felt good.
Sadly , it didn’t last long because Hugger curled up, taking me with him, and then we were on our feet.
We both headed to the kitchen.
He helped by melting the butter (another pro for the Do I Want to Explore This with Hugger List ).
We cued up the movie and sat snuggled together with the popcorn bowl between us, watching the documentary of his Club that I would have thought was kickass even if it wasn’t about Chaos .
This Rebel chick had some serious chops as a filmmaker.
I couldn’t say some of it wasn’t scary, it was.
I could say I loved that Hugger was so open about it, not hiding anything, but also that the Club had made it to the other side.
Oh , and Dutch’s dad was just as amazing as he was, and that wasn’t just his looks. The man had a beautiful smile and clearly loved his wife, kids and brothers, something that made me sad, but I was glad he’d created two sons to carry on that goodness before he was lost to the world.
When the movie was over, it was late, and after a couple of lip brushes and some squeezes, Hugger sent me to my bed.
It was on the tip of my tongue to offer for him to come with me. Not jumping too far too fast, but he could sleep over the covers, me under them, and he’d get better rest.
I didn’t offer because, after Eskimo kisses and footsie and popcorn, and the brutal honesty he shared so openly with that documentary, I didn’t need the temptation.
So I went to bed alone without even a mini make out session to see me through.
It sucked.
But honestly, all that Hugger was giving told me he was going to be worth the wait.