47. In Her Arms
In Her Arms
Sheridan
The scent of sweet pastries and bacon fills the space. That means the caterer is probably setting up breakfast in the morning room.
How many people will be up to enjoy it when so many just went to bed a few hours ago?
Enough, especially since Dylan was one of them.
Should I go make a plate so it’s ready when Fly arrives?
Is he coming back? Maybe he realized that he doesn’t want to be with me. That I’m a waste of his time and effort. So many other women would be happy to be in a relationship…or whatever this is with Fly.
What do you expect? There’s no way a man like that wouldn’t be able to tell that you’re trash.
Except we were kissing and talking about our next date moments before he left.
Stop letting Grammie get in your head. She’s wrong. You aren’t trash.
Fly just needs to finish a few things…Things that took hours longer than the other men. They wanted to get back to their women…maybe he didn’t want to get back to you…
Stop.
Just stop.
You aren’t trash.
You aren’t trash.
“Sheri.” Fly’s voice is so low it could be a dream.
My head pops up. “Fly. You’re back.” I get up and rush to him, stopping a few steps away. “Are you hurt?”
“Nope.” He grins. “Not even a bruise.”
My mind hears the words, but my heart can’t believe them. “Show me.”
“Now?”
“Show me. I need to know that whatever happened, you’re okay. They didn’t hurt you.”
He pulls his shirt over his still-wet hair.
Slowly, I walk around him, tracing my fingers across his unblemished skin, stopping slightly before I reach the mottled skin that was previously bruised. “You’re okay?”
“Physically.”
What does that mean? This isn’t a discussion we should be having at the front door.
I take his hand in mine, grabbing the blanket from the chair where I left it.
“Come with me.” I start walking without waiting for him to say yes.
The need to get him safely ensconced on the lounger in the grotto overwhelms me.
It also makes no sense, but I’m past caring about sense now. I’m overtired…to the point of collapse. Worried. And all the other weird emotions that I can’t handle and don’t want to name right now.
“Climb in.” I point at what I now consider our chair in the grotto.
“Yes, My Royal Highness.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“It’s one of my best features.”
That, I’d disagree with, especially since he didn’t put his shirt back on.
“Are you going to join me, or are you going to keep standing there staring?” A small smile spreads across his face.
“I’ll stare as long as I want, because I spent the entire night worrying that you were dead.”
“Sheri, come here.” He holds his arms out to me, and I practically fall into them, crying. “I’m okay. No one hurt me.”
“They could have,” I mutter into his chest.
“Nah. They would have had to go through Maverick first. And it would probably take an atomic bomb to move that man.”
“Really? You’re okay?”
“I am now.” He squeezes me tight. “Everything is going to be alright. I can breathe now with you in my arms.”
What does that mean?
“Did you sit by the door waiting for me the whole time?”
Um…“No.”
He lifts me up so that we’re staring into each other’s eyes. “Were you running?”
“Not a lot…My legs gave out.”
“After how many miles?”
“Nineteen.”
“Woman, I’m going to have to increase my daily runs if I’m going to keep up with you.”
“I don’t normally do that much. What did you mean when you said you weren’t physically hurt?”
He sighs. “You listen to me too well.”
I shrug as well as I can in this position, which isn’t well at all. “I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be. I’m not.” He kisses my temple and pulls me in close. “It’s probably about time I tell you about my family.”
What does his family have to do with any of this?
“My upbringing wasn’t what you would call traditional. I never met my mother. My father and grandmother raised me. They were grifters, so we didn’t stay in one spot long.”
“Grifters?”
“Thieves. Con men.”
I know what the word means, but…“They really exist?”
“Even though I wish they didn’t, yeah, grifters still live under the reach of the law.
We weren’t your average con men. Every part of our lives was fake.
From my first memory until the day I couldn’t take that life anymore, we moved over a hundred times.
Many times, without as much as a bag of our own.
We’d live in other people’s houses. Sometimes wear their clothes.
Every part of our lives was stolen, even our names.
They might have given me a name, but I can’t remember, and they didn’t believe in birth certificates.
So when I walked away from them, I had nothing, not even a name of my own. ”
“That’s what you meant when you said Fly was as good as any other.”
“Yeah. If anything, it’s the closest to real I get.”
I reach out my hand and place it over his heart. “That’s very real.”
He smiles, taking my hand in his. “These are real, too.” He kisses each one of my knuckles while maintaining eye contact with me.
Small touches are more intimate than I can handle. I look away before my mind melts away with my heart. “That had to be hard.”
“It was. And it was terrifying. But oddly exhilarating. Every moment of every day, you felt alive. It forced me to notice things…No, it was more than that. I see the world around me. Including what people don’t want me to see. Which means I see the darker side of life.”
Living like that, he might actually be able to understand my life.
“You’re probably wondering why I told you that now?”
Kind of. “I’m glad you shared part of your life with me.”
“You’re dying to know, but trying to be supportive.” He grins down at me.
“Basically.”
“I’ve lived my life outside of the law, but tonight is the first time I truly understood the darkness in the world. It shook me more than I care to admit.”
“Did the darkness scare you?”
“Terrified me. The worst part is that it exists all around me and I’ve never seen it before.”
“And now that you’ve seen it?”
He glances down at me. “I understand why it’s worth fighting even more. The biggest reason was waiting up for me when I got back.”
I want to protest to explain that I shouldn’t be his reason for anything, but instead, I stay quiet, enjoying the feeling of being cherished for the first time in my life.
***
The sun is high in the sky when I open my eyes next.
He squeezes me tight to his body. “Did last night freak you out?”
Duh? “Yeah. How could it not? The thought of you being in danger terrified me.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant finding out I don’t really exist.”
I push up on one arm so we’re eye to eye, and he can see I mean what I say. “There are worse things than being born to grifters. At least they cared for you. Also, I doubt I have to worry about anyone stealing my purse when I’m with you.”
“No, you don’t.” He grins. “You never have to worry about anything when you’re with me.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“It is. I’ll always take care of you.”
The pit of my stomach falls out at the beauty of his words…and with them the temptation to believe he means those words.
But everyone who has ever loved me has walked away. I couldn’t handle it if he walked away. “We should get you fed and get back to the game. Someone’s bound to figure it out soon.”
Fly shrugs. “Does winning matter to you?”
Why would he ask that? “No, but participating in an event a friend worked so hard on is...Why? It isn’t like you know who the murderer is.”
Fly scoots up on the chair. “Sure, I do. I’ve known since yesterday.”
“WHAT?”
“It’s not that big a deal. I told you I grew up in a family of liars…they’re easy to pick out of the bunch.”
“They could be lying about something else.”
“They could be, but they’re not. So, do you want to win, or do you want to go eat and play the game?” He grins. “Or we could go to the conservatory and say good morning properly.”
“It’s afternoon, and everyone saw us.” Well, not everyone, but my friends don’t keep those kinds of secrets.
“So is that a yes or a no?”
“Maybe after you get something to eat. You’ve got to be starving.”