Bulldog - Hope Ford Page 0,22
his.
“Is it that funny, Kate? Really? You promised not to laugh.”
“I’m not laughing!”
At the look he gives me, I bust out, unable to hold it anymore. He rolls me underneath him and I try to contain my laughter, but I can’t. “Oliver? You don’t look like an Oliver.”
“Har, har. You’re funny.” But then the smile drops from his face. “Now I need to talk to you about something.”
He looks so serious that I start to slide out from underneath him, but he makes me stay put. “Okay.” I take a deep breath. “What is it?”
“I can’t give up the Heartlands. They’re like family to me. I can’t just walk away from them.”
I push him away and I do sit up then until I’m cross legged in front of him, and I pull the sheet up my body to cover myself. He looks so worried after making that announcement that I grab on to his hand. “I never asked you to leave the Heartlands. I wouldn’t do that.”
“I know. But I want you to know everything that’s going through my head. I am going to quit the bar. But don’t worry, I’ll get a job at the garage or the hardware store, something.”
I hold his hand between the two of mine. “I don’t care where you work, Bull. You should keep your job if that’s what you want to do.”
“I want you to trust me.”
“I do. I apologized for the other night. That was more about me than anything else. I trust you and if that’s what you want to do, you should do it. I’m not stopping you,” I assure him, wanting him to know that I accept him for who he is.
“I’m glad you said that, but I’m still going to get another job. I want to be able to see you at night. I don’t ever want there to be a reason for you to doubt me. I want to be available to you, and I don’t want to miss stuff. Working at Ride or Die, I would. So I’m on the hunt for a new job.”
I start to argue with him, but I can tell he’s already made his mind up. “Fine. Whatever you want to do. But I love you as a bouncer, I love you as Bull, Bulldog, Oliver, whatever. I’m here for it.”
He pushes me backwards and lowers himself on top of me. “That’s good, baby, because I wasn’t giving you an option.”
Putting my arms around his neck, I pull him down until my lips touch his, but he pulls back really quick. “I love you, Kate.”
I smile. “I know you do.”
Epilogue
Bulldog
Six Months Later
“What is the matter with you?” I ask Kate for the third time tonight.
She keeps flipping through the channels and mutters, “Nothing.”
I don’t take my eyes off her, though. I know there’s something going on with her. The last six months have been the best of my life. Every possible minute we’ve spent together.
“Come here,” I tell her, pulling her into my lap.
She comes willingly, but her mood doesn’t seem to lighten any. Emma is in her room for the night and so it’s just us now.
She curls up in my lap, and I try to get her to look at me. “Talk to me. I know something’s bothering you.”
Her lower lip comes out in a pout. “Are you going to stay the night?”
I shake my head. “You know I don’t feel right doing that, not with Emma here. We don’t want her to get the wrong idea about how things work.”
Normally, she agrees with me, but tonight, she just turns back to the television. Which is a tell anyway because she never watches television. “All right.”
I take the remote from her hand and flip it off before tossing it to the chair across from us. I position Kate to where she has to look at me and demand, “Talk to me. Do you want me to leave? Is that what this is about?”
“No!” She leans into me. “I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay. I want to wake up in the morning with you next to me. I’m tired of this and I know, I know, I’m the one that started the rule about no sleepovers when Emma’s home, but I mean let’s face it. She loves you. She knows we’re together. I just don’t understand why you don’t want to be with me.”
“Don’t want to be with you?” I take a deep breath and let