Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
TIMOTHY
I glanced behind me, concerned about anyone’s back on the floor of the truck bed. “How about the back seat? There might be nails or something out here.”
“I need you half naked by the time you get me there.”
I leaned in and kissed her until she opened her mouth and let my tongue tangle with hers. Then we were in motion, me carrying her. I swiped a few things off the back seat. But then I paused. I remembered my dad’s warning to not rush it.
She kicked off her shoes and shimmied out of her pants. The beauty of her pale skin and smattering of red hair… shit, she was half naked and I was…
She sat up and started working the top of my pants. Each small bend of her fingers against my stomach sent tingles everywhere. “You can explain the slow-down plan in a few minutes.”
“Gia… I…” I swallowed hard. “I don’t do this kind of thing in the middle of the day. So, I don’t have what we need for this.”
“Are you worrying again about knocking me up? I just told you I can’t.”
“No, you told me you did but then things didn’t work out. You saying you can’t means you’re not on birth control. So, maybe we shouldn’t…”
She released the button and zipper of my pants. I inhaled hard when she palmed everything inside my underwear, questioning my own hesitancy.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” she asked.
A humorless laugh slipped out of me. “You get knocked up, and my dad drags us to a courthouse or church at gunpoint.”
I meant it as a joke, but the ugly truth of it sat heavy in my chest. My father had ironclad rules about things like honor, family, and doing things the right way—except when it came to Milly.
Then suddenly rules had been bent, twisted, and broken.
They’d done whatever it took to keep me away from her.
My parents had been right about her. But Gia…
I had a feeling Dad would see an accidental pregnancy as an excuse to get her as his daughter-in-law.
“Your dad? Gunpoint?” She laughed out a bright, reckless sound that made some tight place in my chest loosen. She did some wicked little movement that sent heat flashing through my whole body and stole every coherent thought I had.
“He’d pay for my dress,” she teased, grinning up at me. “He’d force us to do a ceremony in front of that nightmare llama he pretends to hate. He’d cry during the vows and insist on dancing with me at the reception. Hell, he might even walk me down the aisle.”
She tugged me down to her and kissed me—slow, warm, and sure—like she could taste every fear in me and wanted to replace it with something softer.
“I might just get a beautiful little mini-Rye out of it,” she whispered against my mouth, giggling.
“Let’s not joke about things like that.” My chest clenched painfully at how badly some traitorous part of me wanted that picture—something small and wild-eyed with her smile and my stubborn streak. Someone for Sofia to pretend-parent. That was a life I’d never let myself imagine.
“It won’t happen right now,” she said gently, reading the storm on my face. “The timing for me isn’t right.” Her smile turned wry. “Trust me, after a year of trying, I’m an expert at timing.”
She slid my briefs down and pulled me toward her. “Forget the world and all those things that need you…other than me. I need you right now.”
“Is this you saying you’re going to marry me?” I whispered, trying to keep my head in the game when I was steadily losing my ability to think straight.
“That’s clearly a part of the speedy plan that you said we’re not on.”
She was right. When I asked her, I would do it right. Not with some cheap ring or backward ass ceremony.
“You want me to take this slow again or go hard?” I asked.
“I don’t want controlled Timothy. I want you. Right now.”
I kissed her hard, encouraged her to wrap her legs around my waist, and entered her just as hard as my next kiss. She slid away from me. I caught her butt and pulled her back toward me with a short laugh. “You’re running away from me again.”
She laughed softly and braced her hands against the seat. I adjusted the angle and plunged hard.
“Holy shit…” She gasped. She grabbed onto my arms to try to hold herself in place.
I laughed but I kept the angle deep. No condom, feeling the heat of her… it was all getting to me fast. I could tell by the hitch in her breathing she was there too. “Come for me, beautiful.”
She didn’t, but I could tell she was close. I whispered, “I’ve got you.”
A scream detonated from her. She pulled me in and clamped down so tight, I felt everything go tense in a line down my back. With a blinding explosion and possibly a yell of my own, everything went white and dark for me at once. I almost fell on top of her, but I caught myself and stilled, panting.
She released a shaky breath and blinked at me. She realized her hand was in my hair, clenching, and she let go. “My world is still spinning.”
I kissed along her jaw and neck, all the way to her collarbone, unable to come up with anything articulate.
I pushed away to help her sit up. “We need food. You need food.”
“Solid plan. But maybe…” She bit her lip and stared around the truck. “After we eat we could come up with something else in here? I have ideas.”
A laugh exploded out of me. “You’re trouble.”
“Perhaps, but…” She kissed me and then blinked up slowly. “You like it.”
I side-eyed her as I adjusted my pants. “Maybe a little bit.”
* * *
Back on the tailgate, we ate our sandwiches in a silence that felt warm and fragile.
I said, “I heard your father found you at the hospital while Misty was having her treatment.”
Her head turned slowly. “How did you hear that?”
I exhaled a humorless breath. “Small town.”
“The hospital is two towns over.”
“News still travels.” My gaze dropped to her wrists, my stomach tightening as I searched for bruises, fingerprints or anything fresh that would confirm what I already feared. “Are you okay?”
For a second, she didn’t answer. She stared down at the sandwich in her hands like she’d forgotten it was there. Then quietly, “He took away my sister’s health insurance.”
Rage flared hot and immediate in my chest, even though I already knew.
She whispered, “He keeps pushing me to help him dig up dirt on you. Wants me to do something to hurt you. I keep telling him no, and every time I do, he gets meaner.” Her voice thinned.
She swallowed hard, staring over the lake like she couldn’t bear to look at me for this next part. “Then he threatened Sofia.”
My whole body went still. I may have heard it before, but for her to confirm it hit so hard I tasted metal. “What?”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been that angry.
I said some things to get him to back off, but…
” She shook her head, eyes bright with tears she clearly refused to let fall.
“Him being furious at you or your family for whatever is one thing. He knows ya’ll are dangerous and will kick his ass.
” Her voice hardened, turning razor-sharp.
“But him threatening your little girl?” She blinked up to meet my gaze.
“That’s a line no decent human being crosses. ”
“He’s never been decent. He’s also never respected lines.”
“I told him I’d shoot him in the head if he came near her, if you didn’t get him first.”
I smiled at her, fully supportive of her declaration.
Her phone chimed from inside the truck, sharp and loud enough to cut through the easy quiet we’d settled into.
She hopped down off the tailgate and jogged around the truck.
Then she looked at the screen. Everything in her changed.
Her shoulders sagged first. Her mouth flattened.
By the time she turned back, whatever light had been in her face was gone—snuffed out so completely it left a hollow ache in my chest.
“What is it?” I almost didn’t want to hear what new disaster would pull her away from me now that I finally got my moment with her.
She stared at the phone another second like if she looked long enough, the words might rearrange themselves into something kinder.
Then she let out a slow breath. “I’m going to have to talk to Justin while he’s here. In person.”
The name alone darkened her expression. She looked to be reading the message again.
“Why?”
She climbed back up, but slower this time, like she was carrying something heavy no one else could see.
“We bought a piece of property years ago. Nothing fancy. It was a piece of land we found with a thought to building a farm or something. In the divorce we never really settled what was happening to it.” Her mouth twisted bitterly.
“I told him I didn’t want it. He refused to buy me out then. He also refused to sell.”
“He wanted something to hold you to him.”
“Probably.” She held up the phone. “Now, suddenly, he wants to buy me out. Only he’s offering me next to nothing for my half, like I should be grateful he’s taking it off my hands.” There was something raw in her voice. “He knows I’m broke. Knows I can’t fight him. He calls it an offer.”
“Usually, division of property has to be settled when the divorce is finalized. Can’t your lawyer handle it?”
Her eyes dropped. “I couldn’t afford a lawyer beyond Legal Aid,” she said quietly. “We did mediation because it was all I could manage.”
The confession sat heavy between us, thick with shame that shouldn’t have belonged to her.
“I’ll go with you to talk to him.”
Her lips twitched, trying for a smile that never fully made it. “You’ll end up in jail.”
“Probably. Can’t say I’d be sad if I wiped the floor with him.” I watched the way she was trying to hold herself together under one more thing piled onto shoulders already carrying too much.
Then softer, “I’ll still go even if I might get arrested.”
She shook her head.
“I know someone who could go with you and seem friendly but will rip him a new one when he tries to screw you over.” I smiled, liking my idea the more I thought about it. “Tell him you’ll meet him downtown at the coffeehouse for breakfast. Has Justin ever met your mother?”
She shook her head. “My mother couldn’t handle this.”
“Didn’t say it had to be your actual mother. Now mine…Lisa Hurst…” I smiled slow and waggled my eyebrows. “Let’s get you on your way to work while I have a chat with Mom.”