Chapter 40

Kelly

Grace was pulling the sheets off the sofa bed like she was mad at them, but I knew she was angry with me for bringing Hunter around. She had always been protective of me, but it had only grown stronger since Phil had walked out. She didn’t trust men around me. That went for any men, let alone huge, handsome men covered in tattoos with a tendency toward violence.

“Kelly, I just don’t understand what is going on here.”

“Grace, please, just give me a chance to explain. It’s not what you think.”

I was trying to come up with something to tell her, but I knew I wouldn’t get out of this conversation without the truth, or at least some version of it.

“Well, then just what is it, Kelly? Don’t lie to me, young lady. I see the way you’re looking at that vagrant in there, and even worse, I see the way he’s looking at you.”

I was momentarily flustered when she said she saw the way Hunter looked at me. I got a rush of butterflies in my stomach like some schoolgirl who found out the boy she was crushing on thought she was pretty. I could feel myself blushing and I felt stupid, but I didn’t care.

“Grace, it’s just, he’s just,” I was stammering through my words and looking at the ground. “He’s not what you think, Grace. I mean, he is, but.”

“But, what, Kelly?” Grace interrupted.

I went to open my mouth, but I couldn’t think of any answer that would make sense to her. Or me, for that matter.

“You supported Elle when she met Forrester,” I stammered.

“That was different,” Grace said back.

“Why was that different?”

“For one thing, Forrester was different from Hunter. He didn’t smell of booze. He didn’t beat people up in the diner.”

“Forrester was no angel, and you know it, Grace. And yet he and Elle are happily married now.”

“Well, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean this is going to work out the same way for you, Kelly. You can’t be naive. You have to face the facts.”

“The facts? The facts are that you supported Elle. You gave her your diamond bracelet. You wanted nothing but happiness for her, while for me, you’re just being negative.”

“Child, I am not being negative.”

“You are, Grace. You’re against this thing with Hunter. This one chance I have at happiness.”

Grace looked at me with a seriousness in her eyes that I had never seen before. She looked like she was going to scream at me, or perhaps burst into tears. Then she spoke, slowly and deliberately.

“Kelly, the reason I’m more cautious with you, is because I love you more.”

“What?”

“I only got to know Elle for a short time. I cared very deeply for her in that time, but you’re different. You’re family. You’re a daughter to me, Kelly. You and Luke are like my own flesh and blood. And I’d never forgive myself if things went badly for you. Remember how sure you were that things were going to go well with Phil? And look how they turned out. I can’t watch you go through that again, Kelly. I love you too much.”

I didn’t know what to say. I just shook my head.

“I don’t want you to make a mistake, Kelly, because I couldn’t bear to see some thug from out of town come here and ruin your life. I couldn’t bear to see you heartbroken again. You’ve been through too much. If it’s wrong of me to want to protect you, then I admit to it now.”

I just shook my head.

I didn’t want to listen to her, I didn’t want to hear her words, but she was right. She was coming from a place of love. She only cared about protecting my heart, and I was all too willing to throw it at the first hot guy to glance my way. I had met Hunter scarcely twenty-four hours earlier. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and all of a sudden I lost all my certainty about everything.

What was this? What was I doing with him? Was it all just lust? Some girlish crush?

Or was it really something more? And how was I supposed to tell the difference?

I let out a deep sigh and looked around the corner to check on Hunter and Lucas.

As I gazed down the hall and saw the two of them sitting there eating in silence, a sense of calm came over me. They were fine.

This, Hunter and I, whatever was happening, it was fine. It wasn’t something that could be explained, and it didn’t have to be. It was what it was and there was nothing that anyone or anything could do to stop it. I realized just as I had from the moment we first touched that I was not in control of anything. I was just getting better at accepting it.

Love is a strange thing. It doesn’t always make sense. In fact, it rarely makes sense at all. It’s something you feel, in your heart, not something that makes sense in your head. Was Hunter a violent criminal? Yes. Was he a dangerous bet for a girl like me? Definitely.

But did any of that matter? No.

Because love doesn’t explain itself. It doesn’t owe the world justifications. It just is. And once there’s love, real love, all the shitty circumstances in the world can’t do a thing to stop it.

“Grace, I don’t have an answer for you.”

I stood in front of her with my arms crossed and didn’t say anything more.

She stopped pulling off the bedding and looked up at me, shaking her head.

“Kelly. I want you to listen to me. I know things have been hard for you. You had to grow up awfully fast, and it wasn’t an easy ride. But, baby, you don’t have to make things even more difficult for yourself. That man in there is bad news. I knew it from the moment he walked into the diner. What he did to those two men, I can’t even bring myself to say it.”

“You mean, when he stopped them from raping me?” I said back.

I had never spoken like this to Grace in my life and it felt horrible. I felt like I was challenging everything she stood for. It felt like I was throwing back in her face, all the kind things she’d done over the years for me and Luke. She looked back at me and let out a deep sigh.

“Yes, that may be true. But he didn’t just stop them, my dear. He nearly beat them to death. And I don’t see any remorse, do you? I know not to judge a book by its cover, but look at him, Kelly? Is that what a respectable man looks like? Covered in tattoos, reeking of whiskey first thing in the morning? Is that who you want to spend your time with? Is that who you want Lucas to spend time with? How does this end well for you? He’s only going to hurt you, baby.”

I looked back at Hunter as he sat with Luke. His hair draped perfectly across his face. His strong jaw moved up and down as he chewed his food. The way his arm rippled every time he dug his fork into his plate sent shivers down my spine. More than that, the way Lucas didn’t seem to be afraid of him, that said something. It was the same with me. I wasn’t afraid of him. They call that instinct, and in my experience, it’s usually correct.

Was Hunter bad news? In theory, yes. He was capable of awful things and had done every lowdown deed one could think of at some point in his life. He hurt people, a lot of people. But what I found out in the last twenty-four hours was that he could never hurt me. He could try, but he would always stop himself before doing it. We were connected in a raw, animal way that somehow spoke to his violent, messed up nature. He had claimed me now. That might not mean much to a more civilized, standard type of guy, but to a man like Hunter, that meant everything. I was his, and he knew it. There was no escape for me and I didn’t want there to be. He was the only man I could ever love, and somehow, I knew it. It wasn’t just a crush. It wasn’t just in my head. It was real. I knew it. Hunter knew it. And soon enough, Grace would know it. This was my life, not Grace’s life, and it was my job to make the difficult decisions. That was one thing I’d learned losing my parents so young. Life wasn’t something that just flowed along calmly, like a lullaby. Life was real. Shit was real. And if you didn’t take what you wanted and make it happen, it wouldn’t happen, and you would be left with nothing.

My life and Hunter’s life were forever going to be one, but only if I had the strength to make sure that happened. It would mean a rocky road, but having him there by my side meant that everything would be better in the end. It was in my power to make it happen, or it was in my power to let all that die. And I knew which road I had to take.

“That is what a man looks like, Grace,” I said plainly as I stared out at him. “Honesty, integrity, strength, is that not what makes a man?”

For all the bad in him, I knew that at his core, Hunter stood for everything a man should be. Unapologetic power, in every sense of what that meant. Good and bad, he was both at the same time, and it was everything a man should be.

“Kelly, I can see he is handsome. I’m old, but I’m not blind, dear. It just seems to me that you’re letting a little crush cloud your vision here. There is nothing honorable in the way that boy walks around, destroying everything in his path.”

“That man,” I broke in. “That man sitting at the table has rescued me twice. That man is who I want to be around. That man has chosen me, and you will just have to get on board with it. He’s the one for me, Grace. I know it. I don’t just want it to be the truth. It is the truth.”

I turned on my heel and walked back down the hall. I could hear Grace huff in the other room but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to upset her. She was one of the most important people in the world to me, but today there was someone even more important. She would have to make room and that’s just the way it was.

“How are we doing in here, gentlemen?” I asked as I walked back into the kitchen and stood next to Hunter, placing my arm around his neck.

“Oh, just fucking peachy, darling.”

He pulled me onto his lap and kissed my neck, causing a smile to break out on my face and waves of heat to rush from where his lips touched my neck down to the butterflies in my stomach.

“Gross,” Luke cried.

Hunter shot a look across the table as if he forgot Luke was even in the room.

“Hey, you don’t like it, pal, there’s the door.”

“This is my house, pal,” Lucas fired back and, to my surprise, Hunter barely reacted.

“Not anymore,” he said plainly, as Lucas just laughed and finished up his eggs.

“Kelly, Hunter said we could go to his farm with him today. Can we go? Please, can we?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and looked at Hunter. He just took a swig of his coffee and looked out the window.

“Um, I guess that could be, I mean, if Hunter wants that.”

“He was the one who said we should come. He said he’d show me how to throw a football as soon as you two were finished talking grown up things in the house and I finished my homework.”

Hunter tightened his hold around my waist and leaned his lips into my ear.

“There’s no way I can go a day without feeling your pussy wrapped around my cock,” he whispered as he slipped the tip of his tongue in my ear and bit down on my earlobe. “You know, grown up things. What do you say, darling?”

He took his teeth off me and turned his head away from mine. I immediately wanted to be alone with him and to have him put his mouth back on me.

“Well, I think that sounds like a fine idea for the day,” I said and smiled as I felt Hunter’s hand slide down the back of my shorts.

I heard Grace scoff from down the hall, and the screen door slam as she walked out the door.

“Luke, why don’t you go pack a bag with what you need and we’ll leave in ten minutes?”

He shot out of his seat and ran down the hall to his room. As soon as he was out of sight, Hunter spun me around on his lap and pulled my lips into his. I could feel him getting hard against me and I started to grind myself into him.

He pulled his face away and looked up into my eyes.

“Might as well let the bad ideas ride, sweetheart.”

I drove my lips into his and sunk my nails into his shoulders as his hard cock slid up and down between my legs from inside his pants.

I had no idea what was happening, and at the same time, I felt more sure than ever that it was right.