by Megan Crane
“I think this is what I wanted to do with my life,” she’d whispered that first night in the hospital, holding the tiny little life they’d created and smiling so bright it hurt his heart. She’d looked up at him then, still smiling. “All this time. What I wanted was this.”
“I love you,” he’d said then, at last. He’d watched her eyes fill with tears but he knew her now. He knew they were tears of joy. “I can’t promise you that I’ll be a good man. But I’ll be good to you, Holly. And her. I swear it.”
“Silly man,” she said, her voice catching. “You’re the best man I know.”
Sitting there in prison with Benny, Uptown thought that maybe she needed some more context before she made that determination. Not that he had any intention of giving it to her. He sat there the way he always did, listening to Benny complain for a long, long time. About everything.
“Holly was right,” he said when the old man was done whining. “It’s better that you do your time, Mr. Mayor. You have that coming.”
He didn’t grin when he looked at Benny then. The slimy old fucker who had taken so much from him. And had given him the world. The truth was, he wouldn’t trade a minute of his shitty childhood, not when it had led him to Holly. It was worth it.
It was worth anything.
Benny deserved to pay and keep paying. But Uptown was done.
“Are you gloating?” Benny asked sourly. “Still?”
“This is goodbye,” Uptown replied. Happily. “I’m not coming back.”
And he left his father-in-law behind him, shouting out his toothless threats at the walls. Uptown didn’t take a full breath until he cleared the last gate, blinking in the summer heat and sunshine, letting Louisiana take him in one of her humid embraces.
His woman—his wife—was waiting for him out by the car the way she always did when he made these trips. She was holding the baby’s chubby hands as the little one stubbornly tried to walk. From a distance, Uptown could hear the sound of her voice in the air, sweet and right. And the giggles of a little girl who would never have to hide in a closet from predators like Benny. Who would always have two parents who would protect her with their own lives, if necessary.
Holly looked up as if she sensed him, and shot that smile of hers at him. Big and bright enough to drown out the summer. She made him feel clean.
Hope, Uptown thought. Home.
And most of all, his.
To all the good girls who love the bad boys. This one’s for you.
BY MEGAN CRANE
Make You Burn
Devil’s Honor
Devil’s Mark
PHOTO: COURTNEY LINDBERG PHOTOGRAPHY
USA Today bestselling, RITA-nominated, and critically acclaimed author MEGAN CRANE has written more than sixty books. She’s won fans with her women’s fiction, chick lit, and work-for-hire young adult novels as well as with the Harlequin Presents she writes as Caitlin Crews. These days her focus is on contemporary romance from small-town heat to international glamour, cowboys to bikers, and beyond—including her take on futuristic Vikings. She sometimes teaches creative writing classes both online at Mediabistro and at UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Program, where she finally utilizes the MA and PhD in English Literature she received from the University of York in York, England. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with a husband who draws comics and animation storyboards, and their menagerie of ridiculous animals.
megancrane.com
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