35. William
35
WILLIAM
K ristin collected her things from her locker with a jittery hand. After the whole termination debacle, Karina Miller—the assistant manager at the inn—gave her the day off with pay.
Apparently Rich getting arrested was an incentive for Karina to not quit.
Kristin hadn’t stopped shaking since everything went down in Rich’s office. I walked her to my truck with my arm around her trembling shoulders so everyone knew, without a doubt, that she was mine.
“Jokers?” I asked. “I think we could both use a drink.”
She nodded and offered a half-hearted smile.
It felt like it had been an eternity since I had Kristin at my side. Now that I had her back, I had no intention of letting her go.
“You okay?” I asked as I used the heel of my hand to turn my truck into the gravel parking lot at Jokers.
She hadn’t said a word since we left the inn. I couldn’t imagine the fear, shock, or relief she must’ve been feeling—maybe all at once. It was hard to tell where she was in the recovery process .
“I don’t know,” she admitted quietly, picking at a spot on her crisp white polo shirt. The corner of her mouth quivered. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t shown up.”
“I’ll always show up for you.”
In truth, she would have been fucked. Rich did an excellent job covering his tracks. We had the money trail, but not the perpetrator. Not until Brantley ‘fessed up. We would have eventually pinned the crimes to Rich, but not before he ruined Kristin’s life.
Still, I didn’t want her thinking about all that. I didn’t want her worrying about what could have been. What would have happened to the kids had she really ended up in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. What would have happened to the poker club if Steve and Chase had been there to arrest her .
I was damn thankful that Jokers served breakfast and lunch because I was starving. I rounded the hood and opened her door. Before she could slide out of the seat and onto the running board, I bracketed her waist and kissed her.
It wasn’t soft and sweet. No, it was hard and demanding. Full of all the pent of things I hadn’t been able to say. I sucked her lower lip between my teeth and swallowed the moan that escaped her lips.
Kristin arched her back as I swept my tongue into her mouth.
I slid my hand up her thigh and rested it on the crease of her hip, where her tattoo hid beneath those dark green pants. With my thumb, I stroked between her legs, teasing her center through the stiff fabric.
She threaded her fingers through my hair, tugging the strands as she pulled me closer.
“Kristin,” I growled, fisting her polo shirt.
She acknowledged me with a whimper.
“Are you going to let me love you?” I asked as I pulled away, resting my forehead on hers. She didn’t say anything, so I kept going. “I know you think that you don’t have anything to offer me, but the truth is, you’re everything I need. I don’t need something from you. I need you . All of you.”
“I’ll never understand why you want me the way you do,” she said softly.
I chuckled. “We’re not meant to understand love, sweetheart. The best and brightest can’t figure it out. It’s not meant to be studied and debated. I think it’s supposed to be a beautiful enigma.” I brushed my lips against hers. “Love is a natural disaster. The moment we think we’ve got our lives all figured out, love comes in with an unexplainable divine force and turns everything upside down. It’s one of the few things in life that can’t be calculated or controlled, and that’s the point. You just have to go with it.”
Kristin smiled against my mouth. “You have a way with words.”
“Enjoy it now because I plan on doing very little talking later tonight.”
She laughed, shaking her head as she slid out of the truck. “Promises, promises.”
“C’mon, Sunshine,” I said, taking her hand as we crossed the parking lot. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
Apparently, Jokers was not a popular spot on a Monday morning in December at lunchtime. Apart from Bridget, we were the only two in the whole place.
I pulled out Kristin’s barstool and helped her up before sitting on my own.
“Hey, you two,” Bridget said as she blew a stray piece of blonde hair away from her face. Her eyes darted between us. “What’s, uh… what’s new with y’all?” She twisted the bar rag in her hand.
Kristin shrugged, “Oh, you know. Same old, same old.”
Bridget looked like she was about to burst.
I hid my smile behind my fist.
Bee chewed on her lip, “Have you, uh… looked at the group text today?”
Kristin shook her head casually, but I saw the first inkling of a smile breaking through her faux indifference. “No, I’ve been a little busy.”
“I bet you have,” Bee said, obviously wanting the scoop.
Kristin wore an unbeatable poker face.
I couldn’t help myself. “You gonna put her out of her misery, Sunshine?”
Kristin elbowed me playfully. “Geez, way to ruin it. I was gonna keep her going for at least another half an hour.”
“Oh, for the love,” Bridget huffed. “Are y’all actually back together? Did you really almost get arrested this morning?”
Damn. Hannah Jane had the rumor mill churning fast. We sat and ate lunch while Kristin filled Bridget in on everything that had happened.
I kept my hand wrapped around Kristin’s thigh underneath the bar. The way she leaned into me unconsciously didn’t go unnoticed.
When I walked into Rich’s office milliseconds before Kristin admitted to a crime she didn’t commit, she was as pale as unbaked biscuits. It had been an hour since Rich got hauled off, but she was still shaking, even as she dragged a fry through a pile of ketchup.
I was still scared that she was going to make a run for it. So, for the moment, at least, I decided to just soak up our time together.
The door jingled as Maddie walked inside. It wasn’t so much the bells on the door that jingle as the whole door itself. The frame barely held on to hinges, the handle fell off every other time it opened, and the screen sported tears in three different places.
But that was Jokers. It wasn’t the prettiest place around—or the most sanitary—but it was always warm and welcoming.
Something was up with Maddie. She was usually a one-woman party, but today she was quiet.
She wrapped her arms around Kristin and pulled her into a strangling hug. “I’m so sorry, Kris. Are you okay?”
Kristin let out a heavy breath. “I think so.” She looked over her shoulder at me. “I’m just glad Will showed up.” She swallowed thickly. “I don’t know what would’ve happened if…”
Shaking her head, Maddie held Kristin’s shoulders and said, “Don’t think about the what-ifs. Don’t look back.” She looked over Kristin’s shoulder at me, then back down at Kristin. “Have y’all—you know—talked it out?”
Kristin glanced at me with a sheepish smile. She was thinking about that kiss.
I discreetly adjusted myself under the bar and took a swig of beer, hoping to calm my unwieldy erection.
Damn. Five minutes around Kristin again, and I was already getting hard-ons with every slight breeze. It was like going through fucking puberty again.
“We’re working on it,” Kristin said softly.
I could accept that.
Maddie’s face broke into a bright smile. “Oh my God! Good! You had me worried there for a second. Y’all are just perfect.” Her eyes were wild with delight. “You’re like Cinderella, and he’s your fairy God-daddy!”
Kristin rolled her eyes. “I hate everything that just came out of your mouth.”
“And what about us?” Maddie asked. “Think you’ll come back to poker night?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Hey,” Bridget said when she saw Maddie. “How’s your mom doing?”
Maddie just shrugged. “She wasn’t having a good day today. I didn’t stay very long.”
“I’m sorry, babe,” Bridget said, reaching to give Maddie’s hand a squeeze. Bridget’s shirt sleeve pushed up as her arm stretched across the bar. Green and yellow bruises mottled her wrist.
Kristin and Maddie noticed the bruises at the same time I did, but Bridget quickly let go and pulled her sleeve back down .
“Bee, what the hell?” Maddie said, regaining some of her kick-assery.
Bridget didn’t even bother lying. “I gotta unpack the truck delivery that came in this morning. Holler if you need something.”
My time with Kristin didn’t last long. I needed to check in with the staff at Allegiant to make sure things at the inn were running smoothly. I also wanted to call Steve or Chase to make sure Rich wasn’t being released on the promise to appear in court. That snake deserved to sit in jail for as long as possible.
I took Kristin back to her car at the inn, then followed her back to Havelock to make sure she made it home safe. We lingered outside her house for a few minutes. I hoped she would ask me to stay until it was time for poker night. That was, if she decided to go.
That hope was dashed when Kristin said the kids would be home from school soon, and that she would meet me at Maddie and Luca’s tonight.
One step forward, two steps back.
So, instead, I found a spot at a coffee shop in Havelock to knock out a little remote work. Kristin could be as stubborn as she wanted to be about me hanging out at her house with the kids. But after the day she had, I sure as hell wasn’t letting her drive back to Beaufort by herself in the dark.
I decided to drop into a grocery store on my way back to her house. Since she didn’t exactly know I was going to insist on driving her to poker, I thought it best not to show up empty-handed.
I had three bouquets in one arm. The boys probably wouldn’t have been too crazy about flowers, so I picked up a six-pack of glass bottle cream soda—Logan’s favorite—and a six-pack of Cheerwine for Hunter.
When I pulled up to Kristin’s single wide, I felt as nervous as I had the first time I visited. Our relationship was in a precarious position. On the one hand, I thought maybe she was ready to dive back in—to give the relationship her all. On the other hand, I worried that she might cut her losses and tell me to beat it.
I tucked my humble offerings under my arm and made my way up the little dirt path to the three front steps. I stood on the lowest one and raised my fist to knock on the door. Before I made contact, it swung open from the inside.
Logan towered over me with his arms crossed and his shoulders filling the frame.
“Hey, Lo,” I said with a half-cocked grin. “How’s it going?”
“What do you want?” he snapped.
Okay, I should have expected that. Part of me knew that as hard as it was to win over Kristin, winning over Logan was going to be a greater challenge. I would be moving mountains to get back in Kristin’s good graces. It would take an act of God to change Logan’s perception of me.
“I’m here to pick up Kristin for poker,” I said as if it was a predetermined arrangement.
“Lo, who’s at the door?” Kristin called from inside the house. A second later, she appeared behind him, peering around his arm. “Oh…”
“Hey, sweetheart,” I smiled. “You look beautiful.”
And she did. Dark jeans were painted on her skin. She was in a cream-colored sweater with threads of gold woven throughout it and a pair of brown boots that came up to her knees. Her dark brown hair was piled on top of her head with a few loose tendrils hanging down, framing her perfect face.
“I, um… I thought I was going to meet you at Maddie’s,” she said, sounding annoyed that I’d thrown a wrench in her plan .
Well, buckle up, Sunshine. I’ve got a whole damn toolbox to toss at you.
“You had a long day. I wanted to make sure you got there and back safely.” I looked at Logan. “And I wanted to pop in and say hi to everybody. It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, ‘cause we didn’t wanna see you,” Logan sneered. “Or hear from you. Ever again. So, why don’t you just go fu?—”
“Logan.” Kristin put her hand on his arm. “Give me a minute. Okay?”
Logan didn’t move away from the door. He maintained the high ground, giving me a death stare. Finally, with another nudge from Kristin, he backed away.
Kristin slipped through the door, closing it behind her. With her at the top of the stairs, we stood eye to eye. “Will, I?—”
“I know, I know,” I said, interrupting her. “You told me to meet you there. But I’m sorry. That’s not good enough for me.”
Her jaw clenched. “You don’t get to decide what my boundaries are.”
“That’s not a boundary, Kris. That’s you trying to penalize me for something I already apologized for.”
“Yes, you apologized, and I accepted it. But that doesn’t mean things can just go back to the way they were. You and I have things we need to work out. And as far as the kids… You certainly don’t get to decide how they feel about you.”
“I’m not backing down,” I said firmly.
She cocked a single eyebrow.
“I love you whether you like it or not.”
“Do I need to get a restraining order?” Kristin was dead serious, but so was I.
“If you don’t want to see me, then yeah—you might. Because I plan on making you fall in love with me again.” I was only half-joking.
“Will…” Kristin was breathless .
The wooden step between us creaked as I closed the gap.
“I haven’t fallen out of love with you,” she admitted quietly.
“Then say it like you mean it.”
With a breathy sigh, she rested her forehead on my chest and closed her eyes. “I am literally too tired to fight with you right now.”
I wrapped my free arm around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Then stop fighting.”
We stood like that for a minute, resting on each other.
Finally, Kristin said, “I’m gonna grab my coat, and then we can go.” She gave me a sad look, then added, “But the kids… They’re really hurt. And I didn’t have a chance to talk to them about everything after we talked last night and then everything went to shit at the inn this morning—I’m still processing it all.”
I held out the brown paper bag with the bouquets of flowers and the two six-packs of sodas. “Then why don’t you take this inside with you, and I’ll go warm up the truck.”
She eased up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. It wasn’t the hot and heavy encounter that we’d had in the parking lot at the bar.
But it was a start.