Twenty-six

twenty-six

Zhen

We enjoyed some much-needed peace over the next week. Kris went back to work, which both she and my grandmother were happy about. I managed to (mostly) stay off my bad leg—look, I tried really hard; that counted for something—so it healed up nicely. Really, I had only managed to strain it and bruise it, so it didn’t take too long to heal. Or at least that was what I told my wife. It was just a little ouchy; it was fine.

I spent the week working out the kinks for my new shinies. I mean, they’d be Kris’s shinies eventually, but they were mine until I was done with them. Plus, I worked on the house and got it more up to snuff.

Then I took Kris over to Uncle Ty’s for her first real sniper lesson. She did great with the rifle. I hadn’t expected anything different, considering how good she was with her Glock. That said, it was sexy as hell. I watched her competently putting bullet after bullet into the targeting, either hitting the bull’s-eye or getting damn close to it, and felt my libido kick into overdrive. That was so sexy.

I managed, somehow, to wait until she was in the car before racing to her apartment—it was closer—practically carrying her upstairs, and sexing her up.

Which was how we’d ended up in this moment, with me collapsed over her in an afterglow haze, still in her, and Kris highly amused.

“What is it about you and guns?” she asked, snickering.

“Excuse you. The sight of you firing one lethal bullet after the next, wielding that gun like you were born to do so, was highly erotic .”

She snickered some more.

Frankly, I didn’t care if this amused her. I sometimes amused myself. But I did love that she took this as the compliment it was and rolled with it.

I pulled out, and we cleaned up and got back into a cuddle position.

With her snuggled in against my chest, her grey eyes on mine, it was such a nice moment. Just being able to relax with her was lovely. Sometimes, these moments were hard to come by.

“I do take it as a compliment, y’know,” she informed me, using one finger to trace mindless patterns over my chest. “That I was doing so well shooting things it turned you on. I imagine if I was bad at it, it wouldn’t be as much of a turn-on.”

“Eh. Hard to argue with that perspective. You’re mostly right. You’re doing really well with the bow, too.”

That wasn’t an exaggeration. I’d expected her to not be great with it, as she’d told me the only experience she had with archery was from a summer camp back when she was thirteen. But she’d picked it up without much trouble—loading it and firing it and almost hitting the bull’s-eye on the first try. I’d spluttered over that, and she’d turned and looked back at me with the most cocky expression before saying, “ I am a descendant of Robin Hood, y’know .”

I still laughed remembering that.

“Your hand-eye coordination is amazing,” I informed her. “It’s why all of this shooting is coming naturally to you.”

“I’ve been told before that I have good hand-eye coordination. I guess I have to believe it now.” She tilted her head back a little. “I’ve thought of a few things to do in the office to make it easier to work remotely, by the way. I want to focus on that this week. That and getting your social media presence really started. Have you and your buddies landed on a name yet?”

“Not yet. We’ve got it narrowed down to three possibilities, though. We’re more or less thinking that it depends on what kind of logo we can come up with to go with each name. Coolest logo wins.”

“I guess that’s one way to do it.”

“Frankie’s drawing stuff up, as he’s the best artist out of all of us. He actually does graphic design as a side job. Said he’d have something for us by next Friday, so you’ll have an answer soon.”

“Oh, so this will be resolved quickly. Good. I want the pages up and running before we get sucked into some kind of hunt.”

“This is your month,” I reminded her.

She gave me quite the look for that. “Emergencies. No planning emergencies.”

“Fair enough.”

“There is an emergency that you can avoid, though.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“A hungry wife.”

“I take it there’s a rumbly in your tumbly?”

“There is. And we have no food in this house.”

“Ahhh, yeah, I can see how that’s a problem. All right, you in the mood for anything?” I’d learned from previous dating experience to never make it the woman’s job to think of what to eat, but it was wise to start out the conversation with “are you in the mood for something?” That way you didn’t come off as an asshole.

She thought about it for a long moment. “Not American food. I had my fill of that in Virginia, and I’m very tired of it.”

“That’s fair.” I felt the same way about it, honestly. Right now, I could go for anything, as long as I didn’t have to cook it. I threw out possibilities. “Italian, Cajun, Korean, Chinese, Thai…?”

Her face scrunched up in thought, lips pursed. “Korean…sounds the best, but I want the good place.”

The good place, as she called it, was an authentic Korean restaurant. I knew, as I’d been to Korea. Food was A+, and I usually saw Korean customers in there, so you knew the place was legit. The problem being in this case, they didn’t deliver. No food apps connected to them, either. They were very much a family restaurant.

“You’re going to make me put pants on,” I accused her in the same way I’d accuse an axe murderer.

“Oh, you’re going to go get it? Excellent.”

Now, wait a hot second. I did not say that.

Did I say that?

Shit, I’d volunteered myself. Why did I do that?

“You’re so mean,” I whined, even as I rolled out of the bed and reached for clothes.

“You’re the one who said you’d go get it,” she reminded me gleefully.

I was pretty sure at this point she’d just learned how to push my buttons. It probably wasn’t much of a learning curve—I was a rather simple man.

I grumbled, but I put pants on. With the idea out there of having good Korean, nothing else appealed.

I left the apartment and slid into my car, other thoughts coming to me as I drove to the restaurant. With all of the trades and the work going on this upcoming week, the kitchen should be done by Saturday. Same for the main bathroom upstairs. It was grouting work and some tiling left—not much at all. We’d hired more trades to do all the drywalling and to finish the rest of the floors in the house. Right now, the house was move-in ready enough for us to shift over there. Really, when I got back, I needed to talk to Kris about moving in. Not, like, everything. She had a lot in her apartment and I had crap strewn over two apartments and a storage unit, so moving that all into a reno in progress wasn’t going to happen. But we could move ourselves in there.

Ooh, I could sweeten the deal, too. Tell her she could maybe get some pets. Kris wanted cats and fish. I wasn’t sure about the cats—we’d have to somehow introduce them to the huodou , which might not go over well—but fish we could certainly do. Jasha had already promised that he’d be our pet sitter whenever we went out of town. I didn’t know all the logistics of making this happen, honestly, but I wanted to do it for Kris. She had never been allowed to have pets—her parents hated animals—and this would be the first place ever she could have them. I liked cats, too, so I had no problem with this.

Strange how my life had turned so quickly on its head. Last year, I hadn’t even been dating someone. I’d had no real concept of whether or not I’d even be able to manage a long-term relationship. Now, I was basically married and far happier than I’d imagined. Most of that was Kris. She was easygoing and a pleasure to live with, so spending every day with her wasn’t a problem. She wasn’t the type to drum up drama for drama’s sake. She communicated what she needed from me, what wasn’t working, and gave us both the chance to work it out. Honestly, she was the epitome of what I’d always wanted in a woman.

With as much as I cussed out the bond on a regular basis, I had to wonder: Would Kris and I have made it as a couple without it? The reason why I had been single to begin with was that most women just couldn’t stand the uncertainty of my career. Me being in danger was one issue, but being on call like that—where I was suddenly gone for days or weeks at a time—was another issue most couldn’t accept. It wasn’t like I could do much about it, either. If we hadn’t been forced to figure it out, would me dating Kris have ended with the first real job?

I didn’t think it would have, but I also had no way of knowing. In this one aspect, I was grateful for the bond because it made sure I actually did work things out.

I was snapped out of my musings when traffic abruptly slowed. Awww, dammit, more road construction?

The city was beyond old, and its streets were sometimes old enough to be made of bricks, so road construction was the norm—especially during the spring and summer months. That said, I did not like it, precious.

I was bumper to bumper, saw detour signs and big work machines, and noped right out of there. There was another way I could go that was a bit longer, but it would still be faster than fighting through one-lane traffic.

Switching streets, I went around it, then ran into more road work and had to detour again. I basically had to go around, way up, and then come back down, which was annoying as fuck.

Wow, I just went a whole five miles out of my way for Korean—

Hold up. I pulled my phone up, engaged the GPS, and double-checked that. Shit on a cracker, I really was five miles away from Kris right now.

And the bond was fine.

Uh. SERIOUSLY?!

I immediately called Kris, who answered immediately.

“ Don’t tell me they’re closed ” was her greeting.

“That’s not it. I just pulled off the highway, Kris—I’m five miles away from you right now.”

She sucked in a startled breath. “ Oh my god. Are you sure ?”

“I’m looking at the GPS right now. I’m dead sure. It’s a little over five miles, actually.”

“ Wha— ? Eeh ? Huh ?!”

“Basically my thought process. Right now, I’m not angry at the bond or fighting it. You?”

“ Same, not fighting the bond, not stressed about it .”

“I think, after everything we’ve been through with it, we can take this as confirmation.”

“ Of our emotions playing into how restrictive the bond is ? Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right. Still, five miles ? I never expected it to go that kind of distance without a tug .”

“Me either. I’m…shocked. Also incredibly happy. Lǎo pó , note this down in your log thingy.”

“ I absolutely will. Hopefully this isn’t a fluke .”

“Yeah.” I didn’t think it was, though. It didn’t feel like one to me. “All right, I’m going into the restaurant now. Did you already text me your order?”

“ I did. See you soon. ” She let out a happy squeal. “ This is seriously exciting. ”

“It is. I’m grinning like a loon. People may think I’m on drugs or something.”

She laughed. “ Don’t get arrested, bye .”

I hung up, but the feeling of happiness lingered. Y’know what? There was a bakery right next to the restaurant. I was going to stop in there while waiting on my order and get a cake. If we really had cracked the code on this? Then that was well worth celebrating.