Damaged and the Bulldog (16 page)

Days after he made his bones with the Reapers, I woke
up to find Dylan watching me sleep. Propped up on one arm, he smiled at me. My
fingers traced his lips. I imagined all the places they touched me the night
before. Based on his sly grin, Dylan sensed where my mind had gone.

“Good morning, Winona Todds.”

“Good morning, beautiful Dylan.”

He leaned forward and kissed me gently. “We better get
cleaned up for lunch at the folks’ place.”

“A quickie?” I asked, teasing his nipple. “Please?”

Dylan grinned then rolled out of bed. “Nope. We
promised we’d get there early. Besides, you and me don’t do quickies.”

“We could try,” I offered as Dylan tugged me out of
bed and into his arms.

“Fine, but in the shower. We need to multitask this
morning.”

“Why are you so gung-ho about going to see my
parents?”

“Family meals weren’t something I enjoyed often,” he
murmured against my neck. After slipping off my shirt, he picked me up and
carried me into the bathroom. “I like knowing people are waiting for me. My
presence isn’t an afterthought.”

Smiling, I kissed his stubbled cheek. “You deserve to
be appreciated.”

Dylan checked the water then carried me under it.
“You’re too damn tempting. At this rate, we’ll never get to your parents’
house.”

Laughing, I loved how he didn’t refer to it as my
house. I lived with him, even if most of my stuff remained in my old room. The
reality of our new life together still shocked me.

After a very enjoyable half hour in the shower, we
dressed and walked down to his SUV. Even with the weather too cold for the
Harley, I spotted Judd and Tawny riding theirs in the opposite direction as us.
I loved how Tawny had her own Harley and tried to imagine myself on one. The
vision ended with me crashing into a mailbox, so I figured I’d leave the Harley
riding to Tawny and Harlow.

My sister came out to the porch to meet us. I knew she
missed having me around the house. We spent most of our time together and often
shared a bed at night. I wondered what she did when the nightmares bothered her
now.

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling guilty as I hugged her.

“You should be,” she teased, clearly having no idea
what I was talking about. “We’re all ashamed of you.”

Rolling my eyes, I took Dylan’s hand and followed
Harlow inside. Jace sat in the front of the TV. I knew he was grumpy based on
the way he didn’t look at me. When I flopped next to him on the couch, he did
smile.

“You smell like a strip club,” he said, narrowing his
eyes at me.

“How would you know?”

“I’m not telling you my secrets.”

Shaking my head, I sighed loudly. “Why do you make me
do this to you? It’s like you want to suffer.”

Jace knew what was coming, but his escape came too
late. I pinned him on the couch and tickled him. Despite his efforts to seem
unfazed, he couldn’t withstand armpit tickling.

While I tormented my laughing brother, Dad and Mom
walked out from the kitchen.

“He missed you,” Mom said as I finally let Jace up.

Catching his breath, my brother leaned next to me on
the couch.

“I miss beating you at videogames.”

“I miss you beating me too,” I said, kissing his head.

Harlow flopped on the couch next to us and I smiled at
the familiar comfort of my family. Dylan watched us with a slight grin. When he
caught Tad and Toni’s gazes, his smile grew.

Suspicious now, I glanced at Harlow who was busy
gluing herself to me.

“Are they up to something?” I whispered. “Am I going
to be embarrassed?”

“I don’t know. If you feel embarrassed, I’ll punch
Dylan in the crotch and distract everyone.”

Rolling my eyes at her threat, I studied Dylan who
grinned at me.

“What?” I asked, nervous now.

“She’s on to you,” Dad said. “Better ask now before
she gets squirrely.”

“Squirrely,” Jace snorted. “She gets batty too.”

Harlow laughed. “Winnie can do so many animal
impressions.”

Ignoring them, I stood up and walked to a still
smiling Dylan. “What?”

“What happened to patience?”

Without thinking, I reached to pinch my hand. Dylan
took both hands then knelt on one knee.

“Don’t,” Harlow blurted, grabbing for me.

Everyone frowned at her. A moment passed where she
stared at me in horror. Suddenly, she shrugged.

“I meant don’t stop. Go ahead, Dylan.”

The mood in the room shifted back to anticipation. Our
gaze focused on Dylan who smiled up at me.

“I know it’s been a few weeks. I don’t care. I love
you and you love me, right?”

“I love you so much.”

“I’m not stupid. I know we’ll have problems. We run
into issues. When we do, we’ll work them out. We’ll figure them out because we
belong together. You believe that, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I whispered, staring into his beautiful dark
eyes.

“Winona Todds, you are perfection and I refuse to live
without you. Will you marry me?”

My legs turning to jelly, I knelt down too.

“Yes,” I whispered, afraid he was about to change his
mind. Maybe it was a trick. All these awful things rushed through my mind. I
wasn’t good enough for Dylan. He was going to leave me one day. I didn’t
deserve to be happy when I was so weak.

“You love me,” he whispered, pressing his forehead
against mine. “You want me to be happy.”

“Yes,” I said, tears rolling down my cheeks.

“You’re what I need to survive.”

“I’m not really strong yet.”

“I love you now. I don’t want to wait. Do you want to
wait for me?”

Shaking my head, I looked at my smiling parents then
back at Dylan.

“We’re in love and planning to live together. We need
to make our relationship official, so your daddy won’t kick my ass.”

Even laughing, I asked, “You want this?”

“I can give up everything else in my life, but never
you. Married or not, you belong with me.”

I exhaled uneasily then smiled. “Yes, I will marry
you.”

Dylan pulled me into an embrace while Mom and Dad
clapped. I heard Harlow and Jace clapping too, but they were less enthusiastic.
Like me, my siblings were wary of change.

Even wanting to glue myself to Dylan and never leave
his side, I joined Harlow on the back porch. We sat on the bench and I watched
a squirrel race across the yard and disappear in a tree. Next to me, Harlow
shivered under a blanket and stared at nothing.

“Why did you say don’t?” I asked finally.

“I think it’s too soon.”

“We’re living together. Marriage makes sense.”

“I know, but it’s too soon.”

Fighting tears, I needed Harlow to be happy for me. “I
love him. He makes me feel better than I have before and I crave that feeling.”

“We didn’t make you happy?”

Her jaw clenching, Harlow refused to look at me even
as I rested my head on her shoulder.

“I didn’t grow up with a sister like you did. When you
came to live here, I was jealous for a day or two. I worried you’d get all the
attention and be a better daughter. You were so beautiful too and I imagined
people would ignore me when they could be close to you instead.”

“Idiot,” Harlow said, smirking. “You took care of me.”

“I wanted you to like me. Beckett ignored me because I
was twitchy around him. I wanted you to be my friend, so I sucked up to you.”

Harlow laughed. “That’s not how it happened.”

“Yes, it was. I was so desperate for you to like me. I
nearly peed myself when you looked at other girls and I thought you might like
them more.”

Turning to me, Harlow wrapped the blanket around us
both. “You’re a good sister.”

“It’s why you don’t want me to leave.”

Harlow’s smile faded. “What happens when I have bad
dreams? You have Dylan to cuddle with, but I’m alone.”

“There’s always Jace.”

Harlow rolled her eyes. “Can you imagine me crawling
into his bed at night? He’d think he was under attack and punch me.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty grumpy about people in his bed.”

Harlow exhaled hard. “It’s bullshit. I got you and
Dylan together, but I’m the one suffering because you’re together. What the
fuck?”

“You’re selfless. A martyr really.”

Harlow’s smile returned. “I’m scared about what I’ll
do without you nearby.”

“I’m scared too. I love Dylan, but my family kept me
sane all these years. I miss you even though I see you every day.”

“I don’t blame you. I am pretty addictive.”

“Crazy addictive.”

Sharing a smile, we returned to an uneasy silence.
Life with Dylan was a dream, but the reality of it still scared me.

“I’m not buying a bike. I decided to use the fighting
money to take martial arts classes and get stronger. Dad said I can ride
Beckett’s Harley until he’s out of prison.”

“You’re such a badass,” I whispered, giving her a soft
smile. “We’re so different, but you’ll always be my best friend.”

“No man will change that.”

When we stood up to join the others for lunch, I took
Harlow’s hand. “If you’re ever feeling bad and think it’ll be a tough night,
we’ll have extra rooms at the house. You’re always welcome to stay.”

Harlow pulled me into a tight hug and I returned her
affection. Life was changing quickly and we could only struggle to keep up.
Understanding Harlow’s fears about me and Dylan, I knew our relationship
appeared on fast forward. Despite everyone’s concerns, God blessed me with a
chance at love. Dylan and I belonged together and nothing rational mattered.

Thanksgiving was a big day in the Todds’s household.
They started the day with a large breakfast at the church. After a service,
they served dinner to those less fortunate in town. Finally, the family shared
a dinner at home. Toni put us in charge of this last part.

In my family, we normally went out to dinner for
Thanksgiving. My mom didn’t like cooking. None of my stepmoms wanted to cook
either. Dad wasn’t the kind of man to treat holidays as a special occasion, so
this Thanksgiving was like my first.

Walking through the grocery store, I pushed one cart
while Harlow pushed a second. Winnie held a list of necessary supplies to make
the turkey dinner with all the fixings. Jace stayed close to Harlow as we filed
the carts.

“Are you going to grow out your hair?” Winnie asked,
shifting closer as we passed a crowd of college kids fighting over what beer
brand to buy.

“I don’t know. What do you think I should do?”

Winnie smiled at me, but she was in a quiet mood from
the noise around us. Harlow was happy to pick up the slack.

“I say keep it shaved. Makes you look tough and you
really need the help.”

Narrowing my eyes at her, I tried not to smile. Harlow
laughed at Winnie’s angry expression. I knew they were messing with each other,
so I looked to Jace for his opinion.

The kid stared at me with dark eyes and shrugged. “I
say let it grow longer. It’ll help keep your fat head warm.”

The girls laughed while I ruffled up Jace’s thick
black hair. “You’d know about keeping fat heads warm, wouldn’t you, kid?”

Jace gave me a great smile. He was warming up to me
and I realized I wanted his approval. Broken like Winnie, Jace needed people to
push past his walls and embrace him.

We were all teasing him about his wild hair when my
phone rang. I saw the call was from my mom and considered ignoring it. All the
family time with the Todds had likely made me soft because I decided to give
Mom a break.

“Hey,” I said while Winnie and Harlow talked ham and
turkey.

“Hay is for horses, Dylan,” Mom replied like
clockwork.

Rolling my eyes, I wished I hadn’t answered. “What’s
up?”

Mom sighed, desperately wishing to tell me the sky was
up. Instead, she got to the point of the call.

“Will you be visiting for Christmas?” I’d like you to
meet my future husband, Sal.”

Glancing at Winnie, I considered telling Mom my big
news. I imagined what she would say and how her dismissive words would make me
feel. Fuck it. She didn’t need to know my personal shit.

“I have plans for the holiday.”

“Oh,” Mom said in a snippy voice. “With your father
because I thought you two weren’t getting along?”

“No, not with him. I’m spending the holidays with my
girlfriend’s family.”

“Oh, who is she?”

I studied Winnie. She’d lost interest in the meat
section and was now watching me. I imagined her in the same room as my
judgmental mother. How long before mom would bitch about Winnie’s posture or
some other stupid little thing? I even imagined Mom making a snide comment
about Winnie pinching her hands or flinching at nothing.

“Mom, I’m in the middle of shopping. You have a great
Thanksgiving and I’ll talk to you soon.”

After she muttered something like goodbye, I hung up
and returned to Winnie’s side. She stared at me nervously even after I wrapped
my arms around her. Life would never be easy for Winnie, but my job was to make
her feel as safe as possible. Whether beating down a loud college idiot or
keeping my mom states away, I’d do whatever necessary to protect what was mine.