Chapter Twenty-Four

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Parrish

When a week went by without hearing anything from my dad or brother, I was surprised. Once the second week passed, I was worried, then the third week went by and I was just plain confused.

I wasn’t an idiot. They didn’t have a change of heart or anything—that wasn’t how they worked—but they also weren’t known for their patience. They didn’t know how to keep in control, so the fact that they seemed to be leaving us alone didn’t make much sense.

It was too good to be true.

All of it.

For the first time, my life felt normal, happy. I spent every night in Riven’s bed. Most of my day-to-day supplies had found their way to his house. Sure, it was mostly because Riven was a protector. He wanted me and Betsy in one place so he felt he had more control over keeping us safe. It didn’t matter that I didn’t need Riven to protect me—I’d spent my life defending myself against my dad and Rex—but it meant the world to me that he wanted to. That those small, little ways Riven had tried to look out for me when I was younger, now turned into him loving me and wanting to keep his man close.

It was lunchtime at work. I found a shady spot for us to eat, while Riven went to take a piss. My gaze was immediately drawn to my phone. No messages. Nothing. Again. I hadn’t expected anything different, not really, but I’d hoped.

I flipped over to my email.

“Nothing from Becca?” Riven sat beside me in the grass beneath the leafy tree.

“Nope. Last message from her was still the one saying she needs time.”

I’d replied that I would give her what she had asked for and told her to message me anytime, even if she just needed something but wasn’t ready to be friends again. She had message receipts on, so I saw she’d read it, but that was two weeks ago, and she hadn’t responded since.

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know. It’s still shitty, though. But hey, I got my test results. All clear.”

“Same,” Riven replied. We’d gone to get tested even though he had yearly physicals in prison, and I had one done not long before he got out.

“Looks like we can skip condoms.” I pumped my brows, then pulled my lunch out of the cooler. “I love Betsy’s sandwiches. She spoils us.”

“You just went from sex to my grandma’s sandwiches.” I laughed and he added, “She loves doing it.” Riven took a bite of his.

“Yeah, and now I know where you get it from. You’re both caretakers.” Riven huffed in response as if he didn’t believe me, then proceeded to pull up the app for the security cameras at home and check them for the millionth time. “I rest my case.”

He frowned, tossing his phone to the grass. “Fuck off.”

“Oh, someone doesn’t like to be proven wrong. Poor little baby.”

Riven turned on me, tackling me to the grass and straddling my hips. His hat had fallen off, black hair hanging down as laughter danced in his brown eyes. I loved when he let himself be silly this way.

“Wanna take me for a ride?” I teased, bucking my hips.

“I’m never wrong,” he countered.

“Nope. Not ever. You’re perfect, King Riven.”

“I like the way that sounds.” He leaned down and kissed me before climbing off me. I was surprised at even that small amount of affection he’d shown. Riven wasn’t big on PDAs.

I grabbed his hat and put it on my head, not caring that it was sweaty from him.

“Aren’t you two the cutest.” Wayne walked over and sat beside us.

“No,” my boyfriend grumbled, making me laugh.

Wayne ignored him. “Now that Riven isn’t a total grump and he’s a little more human, I thought I’d see if you guys wanted to go out and have a beer tonight. Even Smitty might go.”

A tingle of excitement sparked at the base of my spine. I’d never gone out with Riven that way. Our lives were so fucked up in too many ways to count. He’d let go when we’d gone camping, and I wanted that for him again.

“Hey, what do you think?” I nudged him. “Might be fun.”

I knew the answer before he opened his mouth and said, “Nah, that’s not really my thing.” I tried not to be disappointed. It wasn’t as if I wanted Riven to do something he didn’t feel comfortable doing, but there was a slight sting there. “You can go.”

Leaving him at home took most of the fun out of it. The point was I wanted to do things with him. “Maybe next time,” I told Wayne.

“You sure? We can still have some fun.”

I waved him off, and then Smitty came over and the four of us finished our lunch together.

Since it was Friday, Riv had to go see his PO. Like I had the past few weeks, I went with him but waited in the truck.

It wasn’t until we were back home, both of us having just showered, Riven sitting at the small table beside me, that he said, “You really can go without me. Your whole life has been turned upside down since I got out—you got beaten up, lost your nieces, your best friend, started sleeping in my shitty garage apartment instead of the house you worked hard for. I don’t want to argue about fault. I’m not even saying it’s my fault. It’s simply the truth. I want you to know I see it, the sacrifices you make, and I don’t want you to make even more.”

My heart started thumping, doubling in size with each beat.

I stood up, straddled his thighs and sat on his lap, facing him. The chair creaked beneath our weight. Two grown men in an old-ass kitchen chair was asking for trouble, but he didn’t move me, so I didn’t get up.

“You don’t even know the fucking things you do to me.” He leaned back some and looked up at me. “I’m right where I want to be, Riven. And yeah, would I have gone out with Wayne before? Probably. But right now I’d rather spend my time with you. It’s you I want to go out with, you I want to show a good time to. It’s less about going out and more about going out with you.”

Surprise flashed in his eyes, like he still wasn’t used to someone loving him. Some people were like that, I figured. It didn’t matter how many people cared about them, they had a hard time accepting it.

“I can’t do that with someone I don’t trust. Wayne is a nice guy, but I don’t know him. Not really. Plus, I’m not sure how it will even feel to be at a bar again.”

“Shit. That makes sense. I’m an idiot.”

“Nope.” He ran his hands up and down my back.

“You should go out with me tonight…just the two of us. We don’t have to go to a bar, but we can have dinner and…hell, go bowling or something. Do shit that normal people do. Have fun. I miss your smile from camping.”

“Getting me around people is the last way to make that happen,” he teased.

Maybe in some situations, but I didn’t believe that was always the case. “Go on a date with me, Riv.”

His stare was intense, penetrating, like the answers for everything he sought were in my eyes. “Don’t know that I’ve ever even gone on a proper date before. I fucked men on the down-low and looked for women who wouldn’t expect much from me. Jesus, I was shit to Becca when we were together.”

“You and Becca did things. I remember. Go on a date with me.”

One beat, then two and three moved between us before Riven gave me a simple nod.

*

We went outto dinner at a cheap steakhouse in Bedford. It wasn’t high quality by any means, and I used the term steakhouse loosely, but hey, I was taking my man out, and that’s what mattered. We weren’t fancy people anyway.

We both got a rib eye with a baked potato and vegetables.

I pointed at Riven’s potato. “I can’t believe you get yours covered in all that glop. Sour cream is the most disgusting thing ever.”

Riven surprised me by mock-gasping. “Who broke you?”

I snickered. “That’s you and not me.”

“You heard anything from Rex?” He didn’t make eye contact after the question, just shoveled a bite into his mouth.

“Nope. I would have told you if I did, but we’re not talking about that tonight. We’re having fun. I’m also going to kick your ass in bowling. I hate to be that guy, but I’m really good.”

Riven flipped me off. “You don’t hate to be that guy. You love it. Also, I’ve never been bowling in my life, so of course you’re gonna win.”

“Wait…what?” How could that be? “Betsy never brought you?”

“Not for lack of trying. I was a shit to her as a kid. I didn’t want to do anything positive. I wallowed in my suffering because…hell, maybe because I thought she would be miserable if she loved me, when it was the way I treated her that did that.”

“Jesus, Riv.” I reached over the table and took his hand. “Loving you is the best kinda happiness, and I should know.”

He rolled his eyes at my line, but I knew he really liked shit like that.

“I’m still gonna find a way to kick your ass,” Riven said. “I don’t care if I’ve never done it before.”

“That’s what you think,” I countered. And damn, I wished we had done things like this earlier. “What else haven’t you done?”

As Riven started giving me a list—he’d liked basketball but had always refused when Betsy tried to get him to play on the school team; he’d turned down trips to batting cages and had never been to an amusement park—I made a mental note to do each and every one with him.

When the bill came, I put my hand on it, sliding it in my direction before Riven could take it. He frowned, but if this was Riven’s first date, I planned to be the one who treated him.

“I could get that,” he told me.

“Yeah, but I got it first, baby. My treat.”

“Fine, but I’m buying next time.”

“Oh, so we’re going on a date again?” I knew I was being silly, but there was a lightness in my chest I hadn’t felt in a long time, if ever. Things were still a mess in our lives, I didn’t doubt that for a moment, but I wanted to forget that. I wanted Riven to forget that.

“I think that’s part of being a good boyfriend. I’m supposed to do those things?” He quirked a playful brow, and I laughed.

The waitress took my card, and a few minutes later, we were driving to the bowling alley.

It was pretty busy, which sucked, so we had to wait half an hour to get a lane, but the time passed quickly, and before I knew it, we were in our goofy bowling shoes and looking for a ball.

“Oh shit. My thumb almost got stuck in that one,” Riv said, chuckling as he put it away.

“Don’t let that happen. I like your fingers.” I winked.

“My fingers or my cock?”

“Both.”

Riven grinned, which made me feel like I’d just won a million dollars.

We each found a ball, and I entered our names in the computer. I put mine first, figuring I could give Riven a little lesson before his turn.

“Let me show you how it’s done.” I got into position, took a few steps, and let the ball release before… “What the fuck!” It landed in the gutter about halfway down.

Riven cracked up behind me. Annoyance prickled at me because I was a good bowler and couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten a gutter ball, but when I turned around to see him clutching his stomach, he was laughing so hard, that made it worth it.

“So the point isn’t to knock the pins down?” Riven asked.

“Fuck off,” I grumbled, trying to hold back my smile. The night wasn’t over, but I already knew it would be perfect.