your responsibility. You get kidnapped, you shake it off and go back to work. You get kidnapped again, you make fuckin’ friends with your kidnapper. With me, Ryn, you do not suck it up and move on. Nothin’ about me. We’re gonna fight. We’re gonna hit tough spots where it’ll be hard to see how we’re gonna find our way. But that’s ours. Nothin’ ancillary to me is going to be something you gotta suck up, put up with it and then move on.”
“Boone, seriously, that’s so sweet but that’d be impossible for you to achieve.”
“Well, I’m gonna fuckin’ try.”
There was the knight’s vow.
My heart started hammering.
“And one thing I know,” he kept going, “my boys are not gonna be dicks to you.”
I thought it best just to say, “Okay, baby.”
“Okay,” he gritted out.
“Are you gonna be all right?” I asked.
“I will be after I talk to Axl, Aug and Mag.”
Hmm.
“Okay,” I said. “Though, just so you know, seeing as I was there so I know more than Lottie, but Mag just kinda avoided me. He wasn’t a dick. He just wasn’t as sweet as he usually is.”
“That’s being a dick.”
Okay.
Right.
Moving on.
“And Auggie got Chaos involved with my house because he’s that good of a guy deep down inside, he couldn’t watch me tackle that huge project alone. And I’m at a flooring store with Mo, Hound and Joker, and they might get their knives out in a second, they’re so deep in the throes of getting the other to agree to a guest bathroom vision. But this is because of Auggie, as well as the fact that I’ve got a month’s worth of work I could do by myself done on the house in three days.”
I thought humor might get through with him.
It did not.
I knew this when he said, “So it was Axl who was the biggest dick.”
Uh, mostly, yeah.
I did not say that.
I said, “He wasn’t an overt dick.”
“He’s gagging for Hattie. He wants in there so bad, it’s fucking with his head. You and me fighting proved to him what he’s trying to convince himself of. It isn’t worth the risk. He still wants her, and like I said, wants her bad. And so it’s doubly uncool he took his shit out on you.”
“He wants Hattie bad?” I asked.
“Babe, yeah. He can barely see straight when he’s around her.”
“Then why doesn’t he just ask her out?”
Um…again.
She was pulling a me.
He asked, she shot him down.
But she was doing it because she was super shy, and he was super gorgeous, and as seemed to be a theme for the Dream Team, she had daddy issues.
So he had to put in the work.
“That’s not mine to give you,” Boone told me.
Oh, he was going to give it to me, all right.
Because Hattie wanted Axl bad.
And Hattie was my girl.
So that was going to happen.
I decided it was best for now to move us away from that.
So I asked, “Are you out of the danger zone?”
“Yeah.”
Excellent.
Still.
“Keep hold of some of that aggression, baby,” I purred. “You got a woman who’s all in to help you work it out.”
“Brat,” he replied, but his tone was a lot lighter. And I knew he was over it when he said, “Don’t let Hound win that fight about the tile, Rynnie. I’ve been over to his and Keely’s house more than once. And every time, it takes me half an hour to fight getting dizzy before I get used to it.”
I suspected this, considering what I’d seen of Hound’s vision.
“Thanks for the inside advice.”
“Anytime. But just to say, it’s your house, so you pick what you want.”
I was going to do that. I was just having too much fun watching Joker and Hound fight about it.
“Okay, honey.”
“Okay.”
“I best go, because they are actually carrying knives.”
I knew he was totally over it when I heard his quiet laughter.
“Later, Boone,” I said when it was done.
“Ryn?”
“Yeah?”
“Pack a bag for tonight.”
“Of course.”
“And don’t eat, I’m making us dinner.”
“I hope you’re a better cook than me.”
“I am.”
I burst out laughing.
When I stopped, he ordered, “Bring a silk scarf. A long one.”
I cast my eyes down as I experienced another private quiver.
“Yeah, baby?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“Later, sweetheart.”
“Boone?” I called quickly before he rang off.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for looking out for me.”
“Anytime,” he repeated.
And that…
Now that was a knight’s vow.
* * *
I chewed.
I swallowed.
I looked to my guy.
And stated firmly, “This sucks.”
His brows went up. “You don’t like your steak?”
Oh, I liked my steak.
A thick juicy fillet, grilled to perfection