Blacklisted (Loveless, Texas #3) - Jay Crownover Page 0,66
in handing them over.
“I’m glad you didn’t like any of those houses today. I thought seeing what you were looking for in a permanent place to live would tell me a little bit more about you. It was interesting to see how all the ultramodern and minimalistic designs totally turned you off. They were too cold and empty. Honestly, I had you pegged as a new-build kinda woman.”
I tiredly shook my head and repressed a shiver of delight that he was trying to learn more about me. His rough charm was hard to resist when he decided to use it. I brushed a loose piece of hair away from my cheek.
“I’m not sure what I want, but I do know I don’t want a place that feels anything like a morgue when you walk in.” I cocked my head to the side, thinking about how warm and welcoming Aspen and Case’s remodeled Craftsman was. It wasn’t a huge house, but it felt big enough to hold the Lawton family and then some. It also had the perfect blend of both Aspen and Case in all the decorating choices. It was a little goth and a little country-western. Two styles that shouldn’t mesh well but did. Just like the couple who lived there. “I like Case and Aspen’s place. I’m not really handy or crafty, but maybe I need to look at something a little older that I can update and make my own.”
Shot chuckled and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “All the men in your family know how to swing a hammer. If you want to fix a place up, you won’t be doing it on your own.” His eyebrows winged upward. “And I can always ask the guys in the club to help out, if you don’t mind your place being overrun with bikers.”
Oddly enough, the idea didn’t bother me at all. Before Shot burst into my life, the thought of a house full of scary, leather-wearing strangers was my actual nightmare, but now it didn’t seem so bad. Shot and his boys took care of one another. They relied on one another, just like the Lawtons did. It wasn’t a traditional type of family, but the bonds they shared were unbreakable, and I liked that. I was starting to think I wanted to form some bonds of my own.
“If I take on a huge project like that, I’ll be open to taking all the help I can get.” I watched him quietly before asking, “What kind of place do you see calling home? I know you and some of the other guys in the club all stay out at the ranch, but some of the members have to be married and have kids. Do you ever picture yourself living in a normal house and having a family?”
He stilled a little and his hands tightened on the steering wheel. I bit down on my lower lip, wondering if I’d crossed a line I didn’t know had been drawn in the sand. We were getting to know each other, probably slower than most couples did, since we were both amateurs when it came to starting a relationship. I wondered briefly if I was pushing for too much, too soon. I hated that I couldn’t get control of the uncertainty that crept in when I was unsure of myself and my place in the lives of those I was starting to care so much about.
Luckily Shot put my doubts to rest with a surprisingly raw and thoughtful response. “I don’t really think it’ll be a place I’ll call home. I think it’ll be a person. Someone I want to see at the end of the day. Someone I want to come back to when the club inevitably gets into trouble. I think home will be the person who gives me a place to go when I need a minute to breathe and not be the president of the Sons of Sorrow. Any roof over my head, any place to sleep, is fine as long as I know I can wake up next to the person who matters most to me.”
I gulped because I didn’t want to assume he was talking about me, but it kind of felt like he was speaking directly to my heart.
“Kind of like you, no one was the right fit, so I kept looking. I think I stumbled onto a fixer-upper as well.” He flashed me a grin, his dark eyes glittering