“So you want a future with me,” I stated.

“No,” he replied firmly, a strange look hitting his eyes.

It was a look I couldn’t read, but it seemed unsure, and Deke never seemed unsure. So him giving me that answer to my question, that unsettled look in his eyes, my stomach clutched again.

But he wasn’t done speaking.

“I’m gonna lay this on you and hope like fuck it doesn’t freak you but you gotta hear it,” he began.

I took a deep breath.

Deke kept going.

“I got a lotta friends I watched go down for the count and stay down because they like the feel of bein’ stuck. And what I mean when I say that is they went down to the women they decided to spend their lives with. Watched that, dug that for them, straight up wanted it for myself. But I know the man I am and knew what that would take for it to happen to me. And never, not once, Justice, did I ever find one I even considered havin’ this conversation with so the shit I’m tellin’ you, baby, you gotta know up front not to take it lightly. And I’ll share what I mean by sayin’ that I don’t want a future with you. Where I’m at right now, after seein’ those cruisers at your house, is that I can’t imagine a future without you.”

I lay beneath Deke, staring at him, my mind filled with poetry.

Wither to dust, crumble like rust,

Only by your side.

Fresh air, cold beer,

Root myself in you,

Consider my life, you’re all that’s right,

Breathless to bring on the night.

Wither to dust, crumble like rust,

Only at your side.

Just what I need when I have everything,

The breath that I breathe,

I only get when you’re laughing.

Chain links, worn jeans.

Wither to dust, crumble like rust,

With me at your side.

I could search ‘til I’m done, ‘til moon becomes sun,

To discover I know, you’re the one.

There’ll be only you, only you that’s for me.

Through your eyes I finally see.

Holding your heart I can be.

At your side, I find peace.

Chain links, white tee.

Wither to dust, crumble like rust,

All I need is to be at your side.

“Jussy, need you to give me something, baby.”

I focused on Deke.

He was watching me intensely and I still saw the uncertainty.

It was a thing of beauty.

God, he really, really, so totally liked me.

I lifted a hand and held it to his cheek as I whispered, “Please, honey, get off me.”

Something passed through his eyes that I hated to see.

But I needed him up so I could give him something.

He angled off me and I wasted no time scrambling off the couch. I got my bag. I pulled my phone out of it and I dug in the side pocket to grab the wound-up ear buds I always kept with me.

I dropped the bag, plugged the ear buds into my phone and turned to him.

It took three steps to get to where he was standing, watching me, face blank, but I could see the distance forming. Perhaps he was confused at my movements but he didn’t even want to give me that vulnerability.

He wanted an answer to the question he didn’t pose but it was a question all the same.

One that meant everything to him too.

And I was going to give him one.

I got close, put my hand to his chest and put pressure on.

He was Deke so he gave me what I was asking for.

He sat.

I crawled into his lap and I saw relief strike through the blank as his arms started to curl around me.

That relief…

God, I was absolutely falling in love with this amazing man.

I lifted the ear buds, shoving one in his ear.

“Jussy.”

“Shh,” I whispered.

I put the other one in his ear, cued up my music, found what I needed and looked to him.

“Listen,” I said, looking again at my phone, making sure the volume was right (because I could blast my music).

When it was all good, I played him “Chain Link.”

Deke slid his hand up my back to curl it around the base of my neck while his other arm curved closer around my hip, his focus blurred and he listened to me singing in his ears.

I watched his face then I watched my phone and focused on breathing as the dot slid along the line.

When it was over, I hit pause and looked to him, lifting my hands to pop out the ear buds.

And when I did, he said quietly, “Heard that before, baby. Pretty song. You got a way.”

“You were standing by a chain link fence wearing worn jeans and a white tee the first time I saw you in a biker bar in Wyoming.”

The hand at my neck and the arm around me caused pain as both tightened with all the considerable strength Deke possessed.

I didn’t share he was hurting me.

I stared in hazel eyes burning into mine and I whispered, “Told you, baby. Sitting there in that bar before you brought me a Jack and Coke, I was writing lyrics.”

Suddenly we were up, me in Deke’s arms, and I dropped my phone so I could hold on to him as he stalked down the narrow hall, doing it sideways to accommodate us both.

When we got to his bed, he swung me out so he was standing at the foot but I was on my knees on the bed in front of him.

“Get naked,” he growled.

I stared for just a beat into the heat of his eyes before I hurried to do what I was told.

Deke didn’t take that beat. At the end of that beat, his arms slammed into the ceiling of his trailer as he yanked off his freaking…white tee.