Page 24 (2/2)

“Hoas your date last night, my love?”

My own smile was shaky, but I forced it to stay in place as I sat on the edge of the hospital bed that practically sed up the tiny woman “Matt took me out to this old field, and atched stars for a few hours”

It wasn’t a coone to an old field, and he had spread out a thick blanket He’d heldstars had fallen across the sky, but my eyes hadn’t been on therief for ainst his chest

He hadn’t said a word the entire tiers up and down my back and let me cry it all out because he kneto lose when she took her last breath Sabrina wasn’t just my mom She was my best friend, and when she passed away, it would be just my father and me

A man ould try to control every aspect ofthat I had my own life, that I could be free froh, that would change We all knew that

“He sounds like a good boy,”question

“He is a good boy,” I assured her with a slightly stronger s her a full-blown lie

Matt Reid wasn’t a boy; he was a man His twenty-one to my seventeen could cause so a part of the Angel’s Halo MC probably didn’t ood boy,” not when bothto arrest someone from the motorcycle club I wasn’t stupid; I knew Matt probably did illegal things when he was off on “runs” that took him away from me for days at a time

The truth was, I didn’t care what he was doing for the MC when he left All I cared about was that he stayed loyal to me, that he only ever loved et enough of ot home That was all that mattered to me I could live with the rest

“We haven’t had sex yet,” I assured her when she continued to just look up at me with that question in her eyes “We want to wait until the tiht”

Which could have been any day in the three ly handed over ans’ the night I’d gone in on a dare But like everyone else in Creswell Springs, he had known exactly who I was Which meant he knew just how old I was, and while some of the brothers in his club were into jailbait, he wasn’t one of them