“And I want to go.”
I set my head against the steering wheel and close my eyes. “Fuck.”
“Would it make you feel better… if I took my shirt off?”
“Maybe a little bit,” I mutter.
I glance over as Jackson pulls his shirt off and presses his chest against the window, nipples smashed against it. It thrills me to no end.
“How do you know how to sucker me into things?” I ask as I roll the window down just a smidge to watch itsqueeacross his bare belly because it amuses me. Then with much hesitation, I unlock the door and he slides in.
He gives me a warm smile. “Thank you.”
“Hmmm. Thank you for going with me.”
Jackson reaches over and takes my hand, which he squeezes tightly. “You never have to go anywhere alone ever again.”
“You’d go anywhere with me?”
He hesitates. “I mean… most anywhere.”
I raise an eyebrow and he grins at me. “You said in your vows you’d climb the highest fence for me.”
“I… don’t remember that, but Iwouldclimb the highest fence for you. I’d probably embarrass myself horribly. But as long as you enjoyed it, that’s all that matters.”
“Thanks,” I say as I turn out onto the road. “I want to take Waylon somewhere he’ll love.”
“You do realize you don’t have to pamper him to get him to love you, right? He’s quite happy just loving you.”
“I don’t know. I’m afraid he’s going to be like ‘Nope, don’t like you.’ He’s quite stubborn… I just… don’t want him to make any stupid mistakes like I did. I don’t want him to ever think he needs to go anywhere else or that he ever needs anyone else. I’ve already set aside a college fund for him. I want him to get a good education. He’s so smart, Jackson.”
“Then you need to believe that he’s smart enough to know exactly what to do.”
“He could fuck up.”
“Everyone could fuck up. He could have been born with a silver spoon and still fuck up. Kids that have everything fuck up all the time. And he probably will fuck up at some point, but all that matters is that we’ll be here to help him.”
“Fine, fine… fine. What else can I fret about?”
“I didn’t know you were a fretter.”
“I wasn’t until I met you! I was just like ‘I’ll fuck up everything. I’ll do anything like the badass motherfucker I am.’ And then I met you, and I’m like how do I keep this man safe? How do I protect him? How do I show him how much I love him? Emotions suck. There’s just too much to fret about.”
“I don’t know. I think worrying is just part of having people you care about and love.”
“Yeah. How the hell did I go from having absolutely no one to being covered in people? It’s weird and icky.”
“It’s neither of those things.”
“Disgusting. And now I have to throw Ellis into the mix.”
“Did you see that he couldn’t even look at you this morning?”
“What? ME? Why? What did I do?”
“You embarrassed him.”
“HOW? How could I possibly embarrass him? I could have called it the fornication flat.”
