Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“He had no recollection of what happened, how he got here or even his own name when the doctors asked,” Cobie replied gently. “Will he be okay? Yes. Will he regain his memory? I believe he will, eventually. For now, though? We just don’t know if when he wakes up, his memory will have returned. He has a brain bleed from the concussion of the stun grenade that went off in our house. It affected the part of his brain that controls memory. So it’s likely, at least for a while, that he won’t remember anything.”
With that, Janie turned to go into Rafe’s room, leaving me alone in the hallway standing with Cobie.
I dropped my head down to hers.
“This was a bad day,” she whispered.
It had been.
I couldn’t even put voice to the words that churned through my brain.
Scared. Frantic. Thankful.
I was feeling everything all at once, and I couldn’t freakin’ breathe when I thought about it too hard.
“I’m sorry.”
I pulled back and looked down at my woman.
“For what?”
“For… not protecting her better.”
I framed her face.
“When I was in basic training, they gave us training on how to handle a stun grenade attack without losing all of our focus on our surroundings,” I told her. “It wasn’t easy. Even the best of soldiers became disoriented. You, my dear woman, did everything that you could’ve done under those circumstances. I don’t blame you, and I don’t blame Rafe. I blame Drake.” I blew out a breath. “I just want to put this behind us. With Drake gone, and everybody accounted for and on their way to being okay… I want to just be us. I want to enjoy my life with you. I want to be fucking over the moon and sharing the fact that our baby is the size of a fucking banana or avocado. What I don’t want to be doing is living in the past. The past is just that—the past. I’ll always be thankful for it, but it’s time for me to take a step into the future.”
Cobie’s hand went to my face, and she pulled me down to brush a kiss against my lips.
“I think I can do that.”
I growled against her lips. “Good.”
Epilogue
I’ll do anything with you except downhill sports and butt stuff.
-Text from Cobie to Dante
Dante
One year later
“You’re pregnant?”
Cobie was busy throwing up in the toilet, so she didn’t answer me.
I just looked at the test on the counter next to where she was and shook my head. “But how?”
“You do know how babies are made, right, D?”
I flipped my brother off. “Yes, Travis.”
My brother nodded. “Okay. Just checking. I didn’t want you to make this mistake again.”
I grinned. “Believe me, this is no mistake, fucker.”
Travis’ grin was wide as he offered me his hand. “I’m glad you’re back.”
I took his offered hand and shook it hard, squeezing it like only a big brother could.
“Fuck you,” Travis growled, shaking his hand out as he pulled away.
Cobie slammed the door closed, effectively closing us both out, making Travis smirk.
I chuckled as I pulled my hand back and wrapped my arm around Travis’ shoulders.
“Since you’re here,” I started, leading him out into the kitchen. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Travis didn’t stop until he was picking up our son, Dante Junior, whom his big sister and his mother called Junior.
Travis brought Junior up to his face and inhaled, just like I sometimes did, and smiled.
“What?”
Travis turned his face to me as he cuddled Junior to his chest.
“Selling you my half of the business so I can start a new one, here in the Longview/Kilgore area.”
His eyes went up in surprise, then lowered.
“Why do you have to sell at all?” he questioned. “Why not just open another place?”
I thought about that for a long moment then shrugged. “I guess I kind of thought you’d want something that was all yours.”
He started shaking his head. “No. I don’t want that. Hannah and I don’t want that. We want to keep doing it like we’re doing it. I wouldn’t mind having a reason to come up here and visit more often.”
I grinned.
After the shit that went down with Drake at my old place, we’d never gone back.
My mother, father, and brothers had packed up the house without our help and brought all of our belongings here, to Cobie’s place that her grandfather had left her.
Cobie and I started our new life here, but every day I still drove down to Hostel to go to work.
Which gave me a lot of time to think as I drove, and what I came up with was an idea to start up a new business here. Not only to save time but also to give Travis the opportunity to have his own business if he wanted it.
It’d been Cobie’s idea to use the sale of her old place—which had sold for a considerable amount of money thanks to Drake’s additions to the place—to pay for the start-up of the new business.