Wounded (In My Dreams) (14 page)

We all shared a chuckle at that but then got serious as they focused on Jasper.

“My father died while I was overseas,” he admitted, staring out the window. “The Marines mixed something up and reported that I was KIA but I was wounded and at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany the last three months before I was discharged. I was his bastard so the only mother figure I had, his wife who
hates
me, was all too glad to take all his money for her own. When I turned up alive, it was already done.

I was honorably discharged, but with PTSD, so before I could blink, she had her attorneys name me incompetent and I ran before they locked me up in a nut house. I didn’t get far. They live north of Omaha on some gaudy estate and raise several million head of cattle a year.” He glanced at me then and frowned. “I’m sorry. We
should
have talked about this before now.”

“You come from money,” I murmured, realizing it was no longer a question hanging in my mind. The manners he had, the way he acted about certain things, he’d been groomed as a high society gentleman.

Who’d gone into the Marines. That had to be an interesting story.

“Yeah. A lot of it.”

“Do you want it?” I asked.

“Of course he—” my dad started, but I waved him off. He was old school too, and while I got this was probably all about pride and family names, and blah, blah, blah to most people, I’d long since learned there was more to life than shit like that.

“No,” Jasper answered, begging me with his eyes for me to understand. “I never wanted the estate or ranch. It was never going to be mine since I was a bastard. He wanted me to take over other things since I was his first born son but I don’t want that either. I do want what was mine that my grandmother left me. My father’s wife took that when I was declared dead and kept it when I was declared incompetent. Grandmother wanted me to have it. She was like a mother to me given how my father’s wife treated me.”

I thought about it a few moments, everyone staring at me, before nodding. “Okay, then when you’re ready to talk more about it and want to go after it, we will.”

“Just like that?” he whispered, his eyes going wide.

“Just like that,” I chuckled as I shook my head. “What did you think I’d say?
No?
I love you, Jasper. You do
everything
for me. Help me in any way you can. Why would you think I wouldn’t do the same for you?”

He shrugged but I saw it then in his eyes—because no one had ever thought he was worth fighting for. Probably never told him he was worth much of anything ever.

They couldn’t have been more wrong. Jasper was special in a way I couldn’t put into words, and I personally planned to treasure him for as long as he’d let me.

8

After breakfast my mom had gone back to the guest room to take a nap with her dog while I ended up getting some work done. Dad and Jasper went off to rebuild the master bath, and after about ten minutes of that, I put on my earphones. Normally noise didn’t bother me as long as it wasn’t screaming or conversations I could hear, focusing on those instead of what I was supposed to be working on.

But for whatever reason, the drilling and hammering was echoing
just
right off the walls or surfaces of the bathroom that it sounded like glass breaking over and over again right next to my ear.

It was sometime before lunch I decided to check on them and figure out if leftover ribs and fixings would suffice. I needed to feed my workers after all.

“I’ll be honest, Jasper,” my dad sighed as I heard a thunk from my bedroom. “I came here expecting not to like you. I thought I’d find some leech who somehow worked his way past my very intelligent daughter’s defenses.” I grabbed onto the dresser, never having heard my father say that about me in all my life—that he thought I was smart at least. “But you seem like a good guy and I believe you truly love Lily.”

“I do and I’m glad you and Mrs. Slone are so protective of her, care enough to drop everything and make the trip to make sure I’m not some leech.”

“That’s actually why Josie said we should give you a chance,” Dad chuckled. “You didn’t run or have Lily make some excuse to delay us coming. You might not have anything to hide if you were open to us coming.”

“The women in your family are pretty bright,” Jasper praised.

“They are.” There was some more pounding, and I sat on the bed, not feeling bad for one
second
that I was eavesdropping since they were talking about
me
. “But I’m sure Lily has warned you that I’m old school and that’s fair—I am. Chopping wood and having some pocket money is noble after all you’ve been through, and it’s obvious already you’re a big help to her around her. But that’s not
providing
for her.”

“Mr. Slone, with all due respect—have you
met
your daughter?” Jasper drawled and I could practically hear him roll his eyes. “Lily would never
be
with someone who tried to provide for her, make her a housewife that made things all about them. For her to be
her
, she needs someone to
support
her, love her for who she is. That’s not about money. She makes good money. To truly love her that means knowing she forgets to take her migraine pills and vitamins and she’ll get pissed at herself later if she doesn’t.

“And she gets so angry when people walk all over her because she’s not overly demanding with contract workers and has too big a heart that she gives an underdog a chance and it
always
bites her in the ass. But still, each time she hires them because she would rather keep giving someone fresh out of school or someone who needs a break a shot than some established company that would charge her out the ass for shit she doesn’t need and make her fans jump through hoops for the info they want.

“She needs someone who doesn’t laugh at her because she makes sure there’s always Dr. Pepper Cherry in the fridge for the cleaning lady because that woman cleans Lily’s toilets and that’s the world’s worst job to Lily, and while the gal gets paid to do it, Lily wants her to know she always appreciates it. You and your wife raised a truly strong woman with an
incredible
mind, a gift that needs to be nourished and supported, not provided for financially. She’d eat someone like that up for breakfast.

“So I know we just met each other, and I’m not asking yet, but before you leave, I will be asking you and your wife for your blessing to propose to Lily. She’s the love of my life and everything I’ve ever wanted in the woman I’d hoped to spend the rest of my life with. We’re not there yet, but soon, and I don’t know the next time you’ll be visiting, and I think that’s a face-to-face conversation, don’t you?”

“I do,” my dad hedged. “But you’re not asking yet?”

“No, sir, not yet.”

“Good. We need more time to get to know you.”

“Of course.”

I snuck back out of the room and made some noise as I pretended to come back in for the first time. I didn’t mention anything, not sure what I would even have said. Jasper was right. We weren’t
there
yet.

We had a great visit with my parents. It took a few days for my dad and Jasper to redo the shower. They extended it out and put in one of those ceiling waterfall things that were in style. It was
amazing
.

Then we did some sight-seeing, showing them the zoo and a few other places, before spending a couple of days laying around and just hanging out. Next thing we knew, they were gone as quickly as they’d come in.

It was the night they’d left that I decided to bring it up. “You heard me in our bedroom that day, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but I would have said the exact same thing to him if you hadn’t been there,” he hedged before taking a sip of his mango daiquiri as he glanced out over the backyard. It was our one relaxing vice that we couldn’t seem to give up even as fall was kicking into high gear. Here we were outside in jackets with iced drinks sitting on lawn furniture that should probably have been stored in the garage already.

Yeah, we were weird.

“Did you ask them?”

“Yes, but not because I thought it was the right thing to do.”

“Do explain,” I drawled, not thinking I was going to like this.

“Look, I don’t feel I needed to ask permission from them for your hand, Lily. You’re a fucking adult and your hand is
yours
to give. But
they’re
old school. They would expect it and it could start trouble by not asking it. I did it for them, to have a nice relationship with them if I am to become their son-in-law one day. Not so I could make a deal with your dad for you.”

I thought that over a bit, knowing full well he was waiting for some type of response from me. “You’re smarter than you look.”

“I’m the smartest guy you’ll ever fucking meet.” He snorted and shook his head before shoot me a wink.

“Probably,” I agreed. “You figured out how to survive living with me this long and not die in one of the many mine fields known as my quirks.”

“You’re nowhere near as bad as you make yourself seem to be,” he drawled, rolling his eyes. “You want people to actually do what they say they’re going to do. Everyone does. You just really hold them accountable for it. Most people don’t have the stones for that because they flake out on people all the time themselves.”

“People are only as good as their word.” I shrugged and looked away from his knowing eyes. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep, and if I break one, there had better be a really good fucking reason, if an act of god didn’t kill me, as to why.”

“Yeah, most people don’t take it that seriously.”

I snapped my head in his direction and narrowed my eyes. “I know that. They shouldn’t open their mouths and waste their breath and my time then. What is your point?”

“That there’s nothing wrong with you or being around you is not some difficult thing. You don’t like drama. But you kind of forget that you also don’t
bring
drama into things, Lily!”

“I never see a need.” I shrugged. Seemed pretty basic to me, but I also didn’t really think he had much proof on that.

“Do you have any idea how many people would have flipped out about me accidentally cracking them in the face, playing the victim for a while on that? Or started a huge fight that I was a werewolf and kept it from them?”

“Why? One was an accident, and the other, there was no reason to tell me until you knew you could trust me.” I blinked at him, thinking making a big deal out of either thing was just… Right, unneeded drama. “I do have some questions now after what you told my parents about your father. Do you mind—”

“No! Of course not,” he exclaimed, turning his chair to face me. “I’ve been waiting for you to blow up at me. Grill me.
Something
, Lily.”

“I feel like I should apologize,” I sighed, setting down my drink and pulling my knees up to my chest. “It’s not that I don’t care, Jasper. I don’t like to push people or invade people’s privacy. Plus, it just takes me a while to figure out how I feel about things.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that. But we’re an
us
now, so I’m an open book to you. Ask me anything.”

“What did your dad want you to take over?”

“My pack. He was Alpha. I didn’t want it and I wanted distance to make sure, figure out what
I
wanted so I joined the Marines. He thought it would make me a better Alpha so he
allowed
it. He died in a car accident while I was gone and my half-brother took over.”

“Do you want it now?” I whispered, hoping he didn’t but wanting him to be happy to.

“No, I hate werewolf politics. My half-brother’s a good guy even if his mom’s a bitch. He’ll do right by the pack. He’s married, has a little girl, a good example for them.”

I stared at him and saw something… He missed them. “You should call him and invite them over for dinner. If he’s a good guy, I’m sure he’s worried about you. Tell him that. Maybe you guys could be okay. There’s no reason you have to be cut off from
all
your family, Jasper.”

“You’d be okay with that?” he hedged, hope filling his eyes.

“Yeah,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “Not everything has to always be all about me, dork. Maybe he doesn’t want drama like us either. Tell him you don’t want to be Alpha and that will appease him mom. That you just want your grandma’s stuff and to be here with me, get to see them, and run with the pack or whatever. One day his mom will be gone and you might need other wolves or support. Time does heal wounds and all of that.”

“I love you.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips over mine.

“I am quite loveable.” I winked at him and wrapped my hands over his when he leaned back in his chair. “You said there was something else I needed to know but it was a conversation for another time. Something about me being immune to your charm which I think is complete bullshit for the record.”

He took in a slow, deep breath and nodded before letting it out. “So wolves can find their one true mate or claim a mate they pick. There’s another reason I could never be Alpha now. We can’t lead and have a human mate.”