Fighting for Us (Bailey Brothers, #2)

by Claire Kingsley

Also, we were fighting over who got to be the one to pick you up, and Gram said if we didn’t all get in the car and get moving, she’d turn her peckers loose on us.” I glanced back. “Her what?” “Gram got chickens,” Levi said. “And for reasons none of us can fathom, she calls them her peckers.”

“She said sometimes when a man goes to war, he has to make himself forget the people he leaves behind. It’s the only way he can become the warrior he needs to be to survive.”

“But I don’t care what anyone else thinks. It’s nobody’s business. Asher asked me to marry him and the fact that he went to prison—for saving me, in case you forgot that part—doesn’t mean it’s over.”

“Sometimes what we need is a place to fall apart. A place where we know our pieces will be safe while we work on putting them back together.” She patted my leg. “You’re safe here, Bear.”

“Why? So I could have an in-my-face reminder of how fucked my life was?” “You didn’t have to go through it alone.” “Yes, I did.” “You were never alone, Asher. I know I wasn’t there, and what you had to deal with was so much worse than me. But I had to live through it too.”

There was a fine line between angry noises and sex noises, and he was walking it.

“I know it hurts to hear this,” he continued. “It hurts to say it. But I can’t be with you. I’m too much of a wreck.”

We hadn’t said our vows—hadn’t declared in front of family and friends that we’d be true in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad. But I’d kept those vows anyway, and I didn’t regret a single second of it. Because this was love. Messy, imperfect, painful love. And I wasn’t giving up without a fight.

She was the moon to my ocean. I couldn’t escape her gravity. But I was sure as hell fighting it. I had to.

“You might want to put some clothes on, G,” Logan said. “You’re giving Gavin confusing pants feelings. Now someone’s going to have to give him the talk.”

“Because I’m her best friend and if anyone tries to hurt her, I’ll murder them, dump the body, then lead the fucking search party.”

That’s a #DownBitch

“You know how some people totally spoil and enable their children? That’s me. I’m people. I can’t stand the thought of you being unhappy, so I do whatever I have to do to make sure you’re not.”

“I’m not the one being all slutty and showing too much ankle. Hussy.”

“Maybe that’s not how love works. Nobody’s keeping score. I love you because I do. Because of who you were, and who you are now. Because something deep inside me is connected to something deep inside you. And whatever that is, I think it’s worth fighting for.”

The thing about pain, whether it’s physical or not, it demands our attention. A lot of the time that’s as it should be. We move our hand away from a flame to avoid being burned, or we treat an injury so our body can heal. But when that pain doesn’t go away, and it’s not something we can easily fix, it starts to dominate our life. Add in a hefty dose of anger, especially anger at things you can’t change, and it’s easy to forget how to feel anything else.”

“Grace, I’m fucked up and broken, and I can’t lie, I’m scared as hell. I’m scared I’ll ruin your life and someday you’re going to look back and wish I’d never come home. But I love you. I love you with every molecule in my body and every shred of my soul, and I will until the day I die.

“Gram said to quit making out back here or you’re both grounded.” “I said no such thing.” Gram’s voice carried from inside. “You kiss that girl all you want, Bear.”