And I’m a willing listener when it comes to her.
But not her father.
“Can I please speak with my daughter?” he asks.
I turn and look back inside my home.
She starts walking towards the door and I take a step aside so she can pass, but I don’t go far. I stand right behind her letting her dad know I’ve got her back. Reminding him that if he makes her angry, or sad, or anything I deem to be not to my liking it’s me he has to deal with, not her.
Man to man.
And when it comes to my woman I don’t fuck around if I think someone’s upset her.
I watch his eyes and listen to his words as the two of them speak. His tone is definitely more cordial, understanding, and he’s suddenly a better listener with me looming in the background, reminding him to toe the line with his words.
And he does choose his words carefully enough that after only a few minutes time they’ve come to an agreement and he apologizes to me for the way he arrived…but not for the past.
I’ll consider that a victory for now, mostly because I don’t care about him. I only care about him in the way it affects her. And she seems to be happy with the resolution so that makes me happy.
And getting him out of here so we can get back to being the two of us was all I ever wanted in the first place.
But he better believe I’m going to be present when she shows up to pick up her things from her room…and move out for good.
And in with me forever.
But before that I’ve got something else I absolutely have to do, and I don’t have much time.
CHAPTER 13
Quincy
“So we’re not going back to the waterfall this time?” I ask.
“No. Different turn off from the road. This is another place I used to go when I needed time to reflect and think.”
“You had two places?”
“In the winter the water rises and freezes and you can’t reach the waterfall without a sledgehammer, a lot of will power, and the hope that you’re not going to fall through the ice.”
He pauses, “I had the willpower and the sledgehammer is easy…the drowning part before I made you mine always held me back. No way I’d risk dying unless it was for you.”
He says some of the strangest things, but they are so sincere and extremely romantic in his own idiosyncratic way.
I squeeze his hand tighter and we continue along the trail into the forest. This is a different trail, but just as beautiful as the last.
And I can’t help but think how he’s leading me down this trail I never even knew existed. It’s like a metaphor for life.
This trail has been right here under my nose my entire life but it takes him to show me the way, to lead me, for me to be able to experience it and enjoy it.
And feel safe doing so.
After a few minutes of smelling the crisp woodsy air and checking out his butt from behind he turns around quickly and says, “We’re here.”
And just like last time we arrive at a clearing, but this time there’s no waterfall as he mentioned.
But there is something else equally as spectacular.
There’s a blanket in the grass and a cooler on the edge holding it in place in case the wind blows.
“Did you set this up?” I ask in amazement.
“Yes. No way I’m telling anyone about my secret spot. No one but you that is.”
“But when? How?”
“When you were in the shower. Motorcycles go faster than you might guess.”
“You did this while I was in the shower? You’re joking?”
“I prepared it last night and had it hidden, but yeah…getting out here and setting it up only took about twenty minutes in total.”
“That’s why you were breathing hard when I got out of the shower.”
“I told you I went for a quick workout and I wasn’t lying. I was running down this path,” he says.
I give him a big hug and together we walk towards the blanket.
For the next, I don’t know…two or three hours, we feed each other grapes, brie cheese on crackers, olives, bruschetta, chocolate and everything else I could have ever wanted at one time and in one place. And the wine he picked out was just as nice as the snacks.
Except for one more thing he’s apparently been keeping a secret.
“What’s that wrapped thing in the cooler?” I ask mischievously.
“You like fireworks, right?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“You know how at the end there’s that one big finale? That big continuous display where it’s like the pyrotechnic guys are just emptying all their canons at once? All the colors and shapes and sizes and sounds and displays of all types light up the sky?”
“You’re describing my favorite part.”
“Good. Because what’s in the cooler is for after what this is for,” he says.
“What what is for?”
He rolls over onto his side and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a small black box.
“Oh my god, Knight.”
“I’ve dreamed of the day I’d be able to do this. For the time you’d give me the chance to show you just how much you mean to me. And to show the world.”
“Knight,” I gasp. My hands come up to my face.
“Beautiful I knew you were mine from the moment I first saw you. Back then that meant you were my friend, the one I was going to do everything to protect and make safe. As I grew older and understood what love meant I understood that it meant you. And as much as you’re still my friend, my best friend, and I’m still going to do everything to protect you and make you safe, now I want to give you something you can wear all day and all night and think of me. Just one look down at your finger and you’ll know your Knight is always there for you. Forever and always, just like we’re going to be in love…forever and always. Will you marry me?”
“Yes, my knight in shining armor! Yes!” I just couldn’t resist calling him that, but it’s not a pun or cheesy. It’s so, so true. This man has and will go to battle for me risking it all. And I know he’ll do the same for our children when they arrive in this world to join us.
He slides the ring on my finger and we kiss as we hold each other’s faces in our hands.
I feel one of his hands come off my face and hear something, but can’t make it out…nor do I care. I’m so lost in love right now that all that matters is the two of us together forever and the commitment he’s just made me.
Pop!
“Oh!” I say, my lips coming off his. I turn and see the champagne bubbling up off the top. “Did you just open that with your hand?”
“Just a flick of the thumb is all it took.”
“So that’s what was in the cooler. The big fireworks. That’s the grand finale.”
“Baby, this is only the beginning.”
EPILOGUE
Knight
One and a half years later
“Did Duke dookie?” I ask holding him up towards the sky.
“It’s okay. I can change him,” Quincy says.
“You just relax, beautiful. I got this.”
I take Duke over to a flat log that I prepared here in the forest at our special place. The log works perfect for playing games and other things my wife and I come here to enjoy, but it also should serve perfectly as a diaper changing station.
And I’ll be changing a lot of diapers these next few months seeing that I don’t want Quincy doing anything while she’s pregnant with our second child.
She already finished up her community college and is now pursuing her bachelor’s degree online through one of the better universities in the state, which also happens to be one of the better ones in the country.
I’m proud the university gives a discount for the family members of police officers and I’m equally as proud to be the one who pays for her education. I’m a man and it’s my job to take care of my woman and our family.
When she makes money she saves it
for a rainy day. She keeps telling me she’s going to pay for our next vacation, but there’s no way I’ll ever let her. She’ll never dig in her purse or reach for a credit card or any form of payment while I’m alive.
And thanks to my police pension she’ll never have to worry about money ever again. I’m only a year and a half into my cop career, but if something happens to me in the line of duty my insurance policy has her set for life. And once I’m done working I’ll have enough put away for her to live comfortably forever.
Or more accurately us forever.
But then again I’m already way past comfortable.
I’m on easy street when it comes to our relationship. No drama. No complaining. Only love, laughter, and a home full of happiness.
And we’re both loving the home we built outside of town. It’s not big, but we like it that way. It’s made of logs and it’s cozy, and it keeps our family close and our most important memories even closer.
She’s done an awesome job decorating the house with pictures of the two of us, places we’ve been, and also the three of us now. I think we’ve taken about one hundred times as many pictures since Duke came along than we did before.
And we took a lot before.
We love making memories together and at night we like to flip through our photo albums and relive them all over again. We joke that we don’t even need to go to the movie theater or have a Netflix subscription because we just play our own mental movies in our heads every night on the couch with a couple nice big bowls of popcorn in our laps.
And that’s what life’s all about. Being a good dad and a perfect husband.
I get a lot of satisfaction from my job, even though I got written up on my first day. It’s an event we now all look back on and laugh about.
But I get the most laughter and the most satisfaction from my family.
And her.
When we get home tonight we’ll take a quick shower and get Duke changed and then the three of us will head over to her parent’s house.
It took some time, but they came around. Once they saw how serious I was about everything and that I was actually a good guy.
Her father even apologized to me and now I consider the two of us to be square. No hard feelings. He was just protecting his daughter back then…something I can understand.
But that responsibility is one I take seriously and wear as a badge of honor now.
I’ll always protect and serve my family, because family comes first, second, third, and all places thereafter.
Because family is everything.
And family starts with her…my everything.
For life.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Quincy
Ten years later
“Cute kid ya got there, miss. And I like your dress,” the butcher at the meat counter says.
I purse my lips knowing what’s coming next.
Knight rounds the aisle end and stares down the butcher who’s holding a big meat cleaver in his hand. Knight doesn’t even pretend to care.
“You mean missus,” he says. “And I bought her that dress so if you’ve got anything to say about it you can say it to me, not my wife,” Knight says.
I put my hand on Knight’s forearm and feel his pulse shooting through his veins.
“Sorry, sir. I…I didn’t know.”
“Well now you do so you won’t make that mistake ever again…will you?”
“No sir. My apologies.”
Knight leans down and kisses me on top of my head. I can see his nostrils still flaring as the butcher puts his head down and quietly wraps our meat before weighing it and setting it on the counter. I can see the beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Then he disappears into the back.
In this case there’s nothing I can say to Knight. Usually I just remind him that people are friendly and they want to talk to people, even strangers.
But this guy was looking me up and down the last time I was in this grocery store and it was making me uncomfortable.
I’m glad Knight was off today and even more glad he had a little chat with this guy. I know he’ll never look at me that way again.
If he even looks at me at all.
We finish our grocery shopping and get all five kids piled into the station wagon for the trip home.
There’s Duke, Princess, York, Rook and Noble. And our Doberman Pinscher Dutchess.
Sometimes I jokingly tell Knight that our family sounds like a chessboard, to which he always replies that no one puts this king in check, referring to himself of course.
And I couldn’t agree more.
And our king protects his castle like no man I’ve ever seen.
Sometimes my girlfriends make little remarks that they wish their husbands had more of Knight’s characteristics.
And that’s when my possessiveness becomes equal to his.
Because just like he is obsessed with me, and me being his, I’m equally as infatuated with him and the knowledge that he is my man and no others.
His eyes never waver, and not just in regards to other women. His sights are set squarely on our family as he watches over us and protects us.
Always and forever.
Our possessive protector.
He is ours and ours alone.
And we are his and only his.
Forever.
A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy
Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol
Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess
Book 32: Statham
Book 33: Bodyguard
Book 34: Greek God
Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter
Book 36: Mountain Man
Book 37: SEAL’s Justice
Book 38: Royal Romance
Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery
Book 40: Crocodile Dan D
Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby
Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter
Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door
Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace
Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée
Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny
Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter
Book 49: Steamy
Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend
Book 51: Possessive Professor
Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter
Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby
Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day
Book 55: Doctor Next Door
Book 56: Possessive Policeman
Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter
Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter
Book 59: Virgin in New York
Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby
Book 61: Possessive Protector
man Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 61)
Possessive Protector: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 61) Page 5
