My Bad- Lani Lynn Vale Read online

  “Dude, just go over there and talk to her already,” Wade grumbled. “She’s a nice lady.”

  I didn’t bother asking how he knew her. Likely, it was for the same reason as Cas.

  “I talked to her two days ago when I went to the ER,” I admitted. “She said she didn’t date military guys.”

  “Well, that’s unfortunate,” Wade admitted. “You told her you were Delta?”

  I shook my head. “No. I didn’t really even confirm that I was military at all. She just saw me. When I asked her out, she told me she didn’t date military guys. Then went on to guess which branch. I have to admit, that impressed me.”

  “Her dad’s ex-military,” Wade said. “I saw him in there one week talking to his wife, who also works at the ER. Big motherfucker like you. I’m fairly sure that you could hold your own against him.”

  “Hmm,” I hedged, knowing damn well who her father was. It was hard not to when you idolized the man. Not that I would ever tell her that. “She’d have to give me a chance first, though.”

  After getting her full name, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together on who her father was. I mean, there were only so many Mackenzies that lived in Kilgore, Texas.

  “True,” Cas said. “But I didn’t know you were such a little bitch. Giving up at the first obstacle’s not like you, man.”

  That was true.

  I was Delta Force. We didn’t give up at the first obstacle—or the fortieth. If we wanted something, we would make it happen no matter what, or how long, it took.

  With that in mind, I looked both ways, and then crossed the street, very much aware of the eyes that stayed on me as I made my way over to the woman that was now bent over a different set of flowers. This one to the side of her walkway.

  When I got closer, I realized that she was pulling weeds out with her hands and tossing them into the grass behind her.

  “You do know, right, that all you’re doing is giving those weeds a different place to grow,” I teased.

  Pru looked at me over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at the comment. Then they widened when she saw who’d made said comment.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, standing slowly.

  The tight scrubs looked great on her, but Jesus Christ. Her in tight black jeans dressed like she was? Holy shit, that did it for me, too.

  Up close it was even better.

  Her body was voluptuous and curvy. Her breasts were not huge, but definitely not small either. And her hips were so pronounced that she almost looked like she’d been drawn to be the perfect female specimen instead of born.

  Her eyes widened when they came to a stop on my cut, and she frowned. “You’re one of Bayou’s Guardians?”

  Was that a hint of lust I heard in her voice?

  I nodded. “Bear Bottom Guardians, yes, ma’am.”

  Her breathing hitched.

  “What?” I probed.

  “How the hell am I expected to have control?” she inquired.

  Her outburst had me blinking in surprise.

  I frowned. “Ummm, what?”

  She licked her lips and looked away. “Nothing.”

  Frowning, I moved closer so that I could touch her hand with my fingers. She stepped away, a wild look in her eyes. “I won’t date you!”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why not?”

  “Because you’re Army. Plus, you’re youngish and hot. You won’t want to have a girlfriend at home while you’re deployed,” she explained, waving away my concern.

  I snorted. “You don’t know me.”

  “I know your kind,” she countered. “And you’re all the same. I’m not interested in being a page in your book.”

  The woman in front of me had no clue. None.

  “Darling,” I drawled. “You wouldn’t be just a page in my book. I’m not that kind of man. Never have been, and I don’t intend to start.”

  My dad had done it enough to my mom for me to realize the kind of pain that caused. Hell, if it wasn’t for my grandfather showing me what a good relationship was, then I might’ve never seen how good they could be.

  He’d been faithfully devoted to the same woman for sixty years. Even when she’d been dead for fifteen of those years.

  Hell, Dixie Normus might’ve wet his whistle with women since my grandmother had passed, but during all that time, he’d never once fallen in love with any of them. He hadn’t wanted to and hadn’t tried to.

  My grandmother was it for him.

  It was sad that my father hadn’t given my mother the same thing.

  “I can’t date you.” She tried a different tactic. “What if we did, and didn’t work out? Then I’d have to see you over here all the time.”

  “I’m not here all the time,” I paused. “But I am here quite a bit since Bayou’s my cousin. I spend just as much time at my other cousin’s house and I do have other friends. I don’t have a place of my own since I’m not currently living anywhere at the moment.”

  Or ever.

  I saw no reason at all to own a place or rent one for that matter since I was never fucking here. The only time I was here was when I was on leave, and that leave could end at the drop of a hat if I was needed for a mission.

  That was the life of Delta Force. We were there when we were needed, and we didn’t have set dates when that happened.

  With as much leave as I had built up after being in the military for fourteen years and never taking any of it, I could take off as much as I wanted.

  Though technically, I was on leave right now thanks to my accident, I still had more than enough to spare.

  “Even worse,” she said, looking relieved. “Bayou’s very protective of his family. Did you know he yelled at me once because I was mean to his sister? I’m sure he won’t like me dating you since he doesn’t really like me.”

  My eyebrows rose. “He yelled at you?”

  She nodded. “He did.”

  When she didn’t elaborate, I pushed.

  “Tell me what happened,” I ordered.

  “Why?” she replied.

  So fucking stubborn.

  “How about we make a bet,” I offered.

  Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Okay,” she rolled her eyes. “What do you have in mind?”

  “I’ll take you over with me right now. We’re having a little get-together since so much shit’s been going on lately. It’s just the immediate club. If he says a word, I’ll just say you’re borrowing some salt and send you back home. Then I’ll leave you alone and never say another word to you,” I proposed.

  She looked intrigued and saddened all at the same time. I could also tell she wanted to ask about the ‘shit’ that’d been going down, but didn’t want to pry.

  “Fine.” She dusted her hands off. “I have to wash my hands, though. Give me two minutes.”

  Instead of staying outside where she likely expected me to wait for her, I followed her.

  She looked at me over her shoulder as she heard the tread of my feet close at her heels, but didn’t say anything. She pushed open the door and paused to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, then continued forward.

  My eyes had adjusted before hers, which was why I saw the large blob on the floor by her feet.

  Before she could fall, I caught her around the waist and halted her.

  She squeaked in surprise and stilled in my arms, melting against me for ten seconds or so before remembering she wasn’t supposed to like being in my arms and stiffened.

  “Let me go!” she ordered.

  “I would, but you almost tripped over that…pig,” I said, staring at the object.

  “Oh, shit,” she said, stilling once again in my arms. “Bacon, what the hell have I told you about laying in the middle of my floor?”

  Bacon, the large black and white potbelly pig—and when I say large I mean fucking huge, at least a hundred and fifty fat pounds—lift
ed its head, oinked once, then collapsed back to the floor.

  His little piggy tail, however, started to go a mile a minute.

  She sighed and bent down to her knee, then started to run her palms over the pig’s fat belly. The tail picked up speed.

  It was actually fucking cute, in a really weird sort of way.

  “You have a pig,” I mused.

  She snickered. “I have a pig.”

  Standing, she stepped over the large blob. “Catch the door, though. When Bacon gets out, he’s really hard for me to catch. I also think that’s why your cousin secretly hates me. My animals get out all the time.”

  “Animals?” My eyebrows rose.

  “Yes, animals.” She paused. “I have a pig, a dog, two birds, and a goat. The goat stays outside, though, because he doesn’t have the potty training thing down just yet.”

  I opened my mouth, and then closed it, searching for something to say that wasn’t ‘what the fuck are you doing with all these random ass animals?’

  “It’s okay,” she snickered at the look on my face. “I know it’s weird. You should leave the madhouse while you still can.”

  I shut the door behind me and followed her into the house.

  I would not be leaving, no matter how weird I thought it was for her to have a massive pig in her house.

  “Do you want to build a snowman?”

  I paused and scanned the area, not seeing who’d just said that.

  She had a cute little house. It was nearly identical to Bayou’s.

  Large open kitchen that flowed into the dining and living room. A hallway off the living room that likely led to the bedrooms. And a door off the kitchen that led to her garage.

  “Come on, let’s go and play!”

  I paused in the middle of the kitchen while still scanning the area.

  “You have a radio on or something?” I wondered.

  Then a flash of red caught my eye, made my heart start to pound, and a beautiful macaw landed on the counter next to where Pru was washing her hands.

  A blue flash came from the other direction and landed on the opposite side of the counter, flanking her.

  “I never see you anymore!” the blue bird called.

  “Come out the door!” the red replied.

  “Guys,” Pru interjected. “No more Frozen. We have company.”

  Both birds, as if they understood each and every word out of Pru’s mouth, turned to survey me.

  I blinked.

  “Assssss….” the blue bird said.

  “Hooooole,” the red replied.

  I burst out laughing.

  Big guffaws left my chest in a rush, and it took everything I had not to cry.

  “Oh, God,” I wheezed. “That’s the best ever. What else do they know?”

  “A lot,” she admitted. “I got them a year and a half ago from someone my father knew. They were young and just learning everything. I left the television on for them during the day on HBO, and they started learning. They watched a lot of movies.”

  “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” the red bird said.

  “This one is Redbird.” Pru pointed to the blue bird. “And this one is Bluebird.”

  I blinked.

  “Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” I questioned.

  Pru grinned. “You would think, but they were named before I got them, and it’s not easy changing their names once they can already speak them.”

  No, I would imagine that it wasn’t.

  “So you think you can dance?” the blue bird named Redbird asked.

  Then he started a really cute head bob that caused the feathers on the top of his head to bounce with his movements.

  “You’re fired!” Bluebird screeched.

  The smile on my face was causing the muscles in my jaw to hurt.

  “They’re showing off,” she said, reaching for the towel beside the still dancing Redbird. “They like you.”

  I liked them, so the feeling was mutual.

  “That’s so cool,” I admitted. “I always wanted a bird…and an iguana.”

  “I used to have an iguana,” she confessed. “It was six feet long and loved to ride on your neck when you walked. It’s still alive and lives in the trees around my dad’s place. Every once in a while, he’ll come back and eat treats, but he prefers to stay outside. During the winter he moves into the shop.”

  “Wow,” I stated. “That’s actually really cool.”

  “Are you ready to have your point proven?” she asked teasingly.

  I offered her my elbow. “Sure thing.”

  We headed for the door and walked outside, only to come to a stop when a large white Labrador Retriever blocked our way.

  He was laying on the front mat, sprawled out, asleep.

  “That’s Doohickey,” she said as she stepped over him, letting go of my arm in the process. “He’s sweet but lazy. In between him and Bacon, I have massive lumps on logs that I have to navigate around because they don’t move.”

  I stepped over the dog, too, and then reached back to close the door behind me.

  “You wanna lock it?” I questioned.

  She shook her head. “I won’t be there that long.”

  I didn’t lock it, and I also didn’t correct her. She would be there for a while.

  We made it to the front door, and I walked in without knocking.

  Since I bounced between Bayou’s couch and his sister’s couch, they were both quite familiar with me making myself at home. Then again, there were six bikes parked outside and Rome’s truck, so I was highly doubtful that anybody would be surprised that someone was entering without knocking.

  They’d be more surprised if I knocked.

  Walking into the main part of the house, I came to a stop in the middle of the living room where Bayou was on the couch, legs extended, staring at Rome who was talking about Longview’s professional football team making it all the way next year.

  Castiel was on the recliner, staring at me with an amused expression on his face.

  Rome’s wife, Izzy, was on the couch squeezed in beside Bayou and Rome, holding her infant daughter, Astrid, over her shoulder.

  Liner, Linc, and Ezekiel were sitting at the bar hovering over a bowl of bean dip.

  “Where’s Wade?” I asked, looking around for the couple.

  I really liked Wade’s wife, Landry, despite the fact that she almost killed me for a second time in as many months only a week before.

  She’d pulled out without looking and had nearly sideswiped me on my bike. After getting supremely pissed off at her and making her aware of how upset that I was, I’d driven to her husband’s house. Minutes after the incident, she’d pulled up and had practically fallen out of her car crying. It was then that I saw, and heard, the dog that was snarling and snapping in the back seat.

  A dog that she’d rescued. A military working dog that could’ve been me if he was human.

  Knowing that she’d help such a broken dog had cemented my adoration for her.

  I loved that she treated that dog with the kindness and care that she would’ve any other dog. I also loved that she didn’t give up on him when many other people would have.

  Sometimes it was the broken ones that made the best companions.

  I’d seen a lot of me in that dog, and it hit close to home that he’d been harmed and nobody had wanted him.

  “Wade and his wife are looking at a house.” Castiel’s eyes slid to the woman still cemented to my side. “Who you got there, man?”

  “Pru!” Conleigh came out of the back hallway with her hands still slightly damp, her eyes alight at seeing Pru. “What are you doing here?”

  I guess it made sense that Pru and Conleigh would know each other seeing as they’d both worked in the same ER.

  Bayou looked up at the mention of his neighbor, and his eyes narrowed.

  I felt my lips twitch as Pru sucked in closer to me.

/>   “Uhhh,” Pru muttered stiltedly.

  “I invited her,” I explained. “She’s agreed to go on a date with me.”

  I felt a sharp, fast pinch to my side and nearly laughed at her audacity.

  “I didn’t know you two knew each other.” Conleigh came to a stop right next to us, blocking both her view of Bayou and Bayou’s view of her.

  Though he’d looked as if he wanted to say something about her being there, he’d held his tongue, just like I’d said he would.

  “We don’t…or didn’t until last week. She blew me off when I asked her out after seeing her at the ER.” I paused. “When I saw her outside, I felt like it was divine intervention.”

  “Why were you at the ER?” Conleigh inquired.

  I quickly changed the subject so that I wouldn’t have to explain my reasoning.

  Suffice it to say, that reasoning was no longer a concern thanks to the woman standing beside me. Even now, I was at half-chub status, and fucking happy about it. Despite the fact that you could see my dick really well through my jeans if anyone cared to look hard enough.

  Which I had no doubt that if Pru continued to stay sucked up to my side, someone would eventually notice. I wasn’t a small guy at half-mast. If I had to keep inhaling her sweet scent, and feeling her breasts against my arm, I was going to start sporting a full one any second.

  Pru suddenly pushed even closer, and I realized that while I was contemplating the way it felt to have her breasts pressed up against me, Bayou had gotten up off the couch and started toward us.

  Pru’s nails were now digging into my forearm where she had it in a death grip with both hands, and I reached down and squeezed the front of her thigh, which was the only thing I could reach with the way she was wrapped around me.

  But, instead of coming over to talk, he walked past us to the bowl of bean dip that was on the counter.

  “What the fuck?” Bayou growled the moment he got to the counter. “Y’all weren’t supposed to eat it all.”

  “Sorry,” Ezekiel mumbled around a mouthful of dip. “It was really good.”

  Bayou cursed under his breath. “Fuck.”

  “I can make more,” Conleigh pointed out. “It literally takes like five minutes in the microwave if you have all the stuff.”

  “What ingredients?” Bayou turned, his eyes on Conleigh.