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"It was a fight I should have fought a long tivoice, "I love you, Salem"

"Back atcha, Poppy"

I had spent the day surrounded by love, spent it watching faht for each other and help one another It made me realize how alone and solitary my life on theto build a fa at all that the roots of it rested at Rowdy’s booted feet He had always been the one single constant in my life even when miles andto a place I had sworn I would never set foot in again only because I knehere I would be going back to He would always be h any kind of stor tattoo on his chest said

CHAPTER 17

Rowdy

I WAS NERVOUS WALKING into the Bar I think I had asked her to meet me here instead of one of the classier, more upscale places in LoDo to try and put us onand I was never one to squander the hoood twentydoith her one-on-one, the closer I was to talkingit So when I entered the dark interior of the Bar on that Friday night teeks after Asa’s run-in with the laas relieved and surprised to see Rule sitting at the bar talking to Rome The Archer brothers were bound to keep my mind off ht I should have o, but I just noas able to think about talking to her without wanting to bolt in the opposite direction

I took a seat next to Rule and clapped him on the shoulder as Rome lifted his scarred eyebrow at me

"Where’s your lady?"

My ladyI would never get sick of hearing Sale Saint pack"

It seeree tono tiood

"I’ someone else for a drink"

Both the brothers turned to me, and if it was possible to burst into flames or be frozen on the spot from the disapproval in both pairs of blue eyes, I would have been a dead man I held up my hands in surrender from all the disapproval and shook my head

"No Not like that Jeez, have you met Salem? She would cutaround on her" I lifted up e of the bar "I found out a feeeks ago that the guy that contributed the other half of hter--my half sister--found out about me after he died and left me half of her inheritance She tracked et to know me for a couple months She’s actually the one that found the lawyer for Asa"

Roet ht there"

Rule and I both laughed "Tell h that he almost toppled off the bar stool "Why aren’t you hoinal wild child of the Marked fa doood on hihted himself in the seat and snatched the beer out of ave it back aftersure to slobber all over the top of it and I could only fake-glower at hihed at his antics

"We went for the ultrasound today and I think we both needed a uess it kind ofa kid with the last person on earth I ever thought I was going to fall in love with, and now I don’t have any kind of life without her in it I heard the heartbeat and ale in his face "What am I supposed to do if he turns out just likea boy?"

He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck "Yeah I think a girl would maybe be easier She would be sweet and soft like Shaw God help us all if this kid takes after his old irl, and while she is sweet and soft she is also ornery and de"

I s, but I wouldn’t have it any other way" He told Rule, "You’ll be fine If he is like you then you knohat you need to do to keep him in line and remind him that it’s okay to be difficult and to make your oay in this world, but that he also has to let the people that love him in"

The brothers shared an intense look that spoke to battles won and lost and I had to agree with Rohten up the mood a little, I told Rule, "And at least it isn’t twins I don’t think Denver would re if there were two h"

The quip had the desired effect and some of the tension unleashed from Rule’s shoulders "True Cora pouted for a full hour when Rome told her it was just one baby and not twins"

"I bet she did"