Headstrong Like Us (Like Us, #6)

by Krista Ritchie

“You want anything to eat?” “The souls of my enemies,”

“Who would have thought the maverick bodyguard wants the most traditional wedding?” His lips lift. “Does it really surprise you?” I shake my head. “No.” Farrow has sought companionship and love since he was young, and I can easily see him craving to celebrate the love he shares with his future husband.

“I dreamed of a winter wedding. The snow, the cold. That was one of the things I dreamed up at thirteen—when I didn’t know who I’d marry.” His eyes redden. “But I’m marrying you, and the way you exist in the sun is the purest shit in the world.” My chest rises. “I want to marry you in the summer, wolf scout.” I draw closer, our eyes all over each other. “Marry me in the summer then.”

His love for his family has always been extremely sexy. And I’m going to be honest here: it makes me want to have kids with him. Badly.

There won’t be a single year, a single month or day or minute where Maximoff and I aren’t together. I’ll have him as a partner for as long as we’re alive, and fuck, it overwhelms me. I wipe my eye that wells up.

I feel one of the purest acts of love when Jane tells us, “I can carry your baby for you. I’d love to be your surrogate if you’d want that.”

I can’t tell if I’m being a territorial asshole and this dermal-pierced guy thinks he’s doing his job or if he’s actually checking out my fiancé.

You should know that I can survive in any universe, but I only want to live in the ones with Farrow Redford Keene.

Our uncle is proficient in computers and stuff like this. He’s hacked me before. I was twelve and gloated that my passwords were too strong for any hacker. Yeah, he proved me wrong.

😂😂

“The tattoo is about me.” Maximoff nods a couple times. I nod back, my lungs expanding in a deeper breath. “Yeah.” He cracks his knuckles. “There’s only one tattoo I want, one I’d even consider, and it has to do with you.” Emotion wells up in my chest. Even if I hadn’t already promised, I wouldn’t be able to make a joke. I’m choked up for a second, my eyes carrying the powerful sentiment.

“I want your name tattooed on me. Just Farrow.”

“If I’m tattooing your name on me, it’s going to be one-hundred percent visible. For the whole world to see.” His pride thunders through me. Bursting emotion into a million vibrant colors that I’d never contain. I wipe an escaped tear with the heel of my palm and I nod more than once, letting this overwhelming feeling sink deep. “I love the fuck out of you, Maximoff.”

He’s twenty-three, cautious to trust anyone, and he’s trusted me entirely, fully—to an intimate capacity. With his body. His love. And he’s my greatest love. The only man I’ve asked to marry me. The only man I’ve wanted to be with for a lifetime. Fuck, he’s my entire world, and I’ve vowed to protect him, even on the days where he says he can protect himself.

Farrow has my name on his body.

“You’re an infection I can’t rid.” He laughs and rubs his eye. “You should call a doctor. Get that taken care of.” I chew slowly, still smiling. “I am a doctor.” “You must not be very good then, man.”

“Kinney Hale!” I yell again. “Alright!” She emerges from her room. “Jeez. You don’t need to bust your vocal cords. No one likes the sound of your voice.”

She’s so funny

Loren Hale is the Emperor of Petty, and he’s extremely protective of his daughter.

She guides us back to the kitchen. “I must confess, I think this unit is a bit big for just the two of you and your little one, but I do think you make such a lovely couple.” I choke on air, my brows high-jumping. “No, we’re not—” I start saying just as Thatcher tells her, “Thank you, ma’am.”

Oscar is right. I want this. But more importantly, I want him. The baby that hates me. The one that wails unless he gets a dumb parrot or wolf scout’s attention. He’s shit on me. Laughed at me. And finds Maximoff to be the most precious human in the world. It’s perfect. The entire thing. And fuck, I really love him.

He’s a demon. Certifiable. Congratulations. But you’re lucky that I’ve raised seven gremlins of my own. Lily has raised four. Daisy two. You have nothing to worry about. Have fun tonight, and don’t do anything that my nephew wouldn’t do or I’ll have your head.

Every couple minutes, I’ve been taking out my cell to scroll through photos of Ripley and Farrow together.

“Kinney has Salem. Xander has Erebor. Luna has Orion. And Farrow and I named ours Arkham, after—” “Arkham Asylum.” A location in Gotham City.

Jane hooks an arm around my elbow, and I smile down at my best friend. Her blue eyes glimmer up at me. “It’s just you and me, old chap. Plus, our future husbands, two alpha chicks, and a hellion baby.”

“Maximoff Keene Hale.”

“Farrow Redford Keene Hale.

Ripley makes a confused cry and has trouble looking up at six-foot-seven Thatcher Moretti. I swallow another bite of banana. “He can’t see your face.” Thatcher crouches down some, and Ripley shrieks. I laugh my ass off.

“You’ll live,” Charlie says. “But we can still throw you a funeral to celebrate the death of your common sense.”

“I’m just jittery.” I massage my hands. “Feels like a thousand things are flapping in my fucking stomach.” Oscar pops another Cheeto in his mouth. “We call those butterflies, Redford.” “No shit.” I widen my eyes. “Make them stop.” “Can’t.” Donnelly checks his phone. “You’re about to get married.” “They’re not optional,” Oscar says.

Oscar leaves the groomsmen line and waits underneath the arch. He’s officiating.

Love is born into every human being: it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.’—I never understood this quote until I met you. Until you filled the incomplete parts of me.” Tears surge up and drip down my jaw, mixing with rainwater. “I was empty. So empty, and I didn’t even know it, Farrow.”

“You’re the person that my soul has been searching for because my head was too stubborn to do it.”

“Well, I’ve been searching for you my entire life, and if someone told me that we’d been together before, in another time or place, I wouldn’t question them. I’ve longed for you before I even knew you, and now that I’ve found you, there’s not a single day I want to live without you.”

Dum spiro, spero. While I breathe, I hope. I slip the black band on his tattooed finger, and as soon as I finish, Oscar declares, “By the powers vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and husband.” I don’t hear anything else. Farrow’s hand is on the back of my neck. Mine on his, and we unite in a soul-bearing kiss. All around us is clapping and lightning and thunder.

And I’d like to think Plato was right. That in the beginning of time, it was Farrow and me, and we were once whole together. Our souls united. But like all humans, we were split down the middle. Separate halves wandering around this universe. We found each other. And finally, together, we became whole again.

Donnelly slips a cigarette behind his ear and gives me a rising smile. “Dr. Hale.” Feels good to hear my last name.

If you’re reading this, it means we’re now married, and the sky didn’t fall in. We didn’t die before we could slip rings on each other. No doomsday or curse or hateful entity stopped us or separated us. It means you’re now Farrow Redford Keene Hale, and I can wake up knowing you’re mine forever. Thank you for giving the guy who has the world all the parts that he’s never seen or felt before. I love you. P.S. if this is too damn sappy, trash it. - Maximoff

Fair Warning: if you fuck with our son, we’ll wipe you from the face of existence.