Simple Perfection

the truth.
    “It wasn’t easy. I wanted to meet you because I needed to know what the people who created me were like. I needed to know I was going to be okay. But I’m not ready to share my past with you. Honestly, I don’t think you want details. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to know.”
    Nile’s face paled at my words and his jaw worked back and forth. I picked up my water and took a drink. I was more honest with him than I had planned on being. But the words had come out without a filter.
    “You’re wrong. I want to know,” he said in a quiet tone.
    I shook my head. “No, you think you do but you don’t. And I don’t like talking about it. I’m still working through some things. Meeting you and Glenda and seeing with my own eyes that you have healthy, happy children is what I need right now. It eases fears that I’ve lived with a long time.”
    Nile leaned his elbows on the table and studied me. “You’re scaring the shit out of me,” he said.
    He had no idea.
    “Nile, I want to get to know you. But I plan on taking that slow and doing it when I can deal with it. One day I’m sure I’ll be ready to tell you about my life. Until that moment, I don’t want to discuss it again.”
    He took a long, deep breath through his nose, then nodded. “Okay. Fine. But the father in me wants to fix things.”
    He wasn’t my father. He was someone else’s but he wasn’t mine. He just provided the sperm that helped create me. “The male in you wants to fix things. Not the father in you.”
    He started to say something and stopped. A smile broke across his face and he leaned back. “Who is he? The man who wants to fix things for you?”
    I fidgeted with the napkin in my lap. “I’m not talking about that, either.”
    “Why not? Did he hurt you?”
    I shook my head. “No, he never hurt me.”

Woods
    I stood looking out the window of the conference room while I waited on my new board members to arrive. I had now talked to all of them. Everyone I had asked had agreed. Well, everyone except one of them. He would come around though. In time.
    My thoughts went back to Della. I had twenty-four more hours before I was going after her. She would arrive here by then or I was going to Georgia and Braden could get over it. I had agreed with her at first but I didn’t agree now. It was taking too long. Every day Della was away from me, she convinced herself even more that I didn’t want her.
    “I feel like a badass,” Jace drawled.
    I turned to look at him. He was standing in the doorway with a cup of coffee and a grin on his face. “When did we get so damn old?” he asked, then chuckled and walked inside.
    “We’re not old,” I replied.
    “Who’s old? I’m not fucking old,” Thad said as he followed Jace into the room.
    I had debated asking Thad to be a part of the board. He was rarely serious and he still thought he was seventeen most of the time. But he was one of us. His father had been a board member. He should be one too.
    “I’m old. That’s who’s old,” Darla announced as she walked into the room with her iPad in her hands, typing away at it. She was always working. That was why she was the best.
    “No, you’re not. You’re wise,” I assured her.
    She snorted and barely glanced up from what she was working on before she took her seat.
    “This kind of feels like the knights of the fucking round table,” Grant said as he sauntered into the room with a grin and a glass of what I assumed was bourbon. He really was drinking a lot more these days. I wondered if Rush knew about this.
    “This needs to be quick. Nate’s checkup is in two hours. I have to be there. They weigh him and shit. I don’t want to miss that,” Rush said as he walked into the room, followed by Dean.
    “I’m not missing it either,” Dean said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
    “No smoking in here, Dean,” I told him.
    He grumbled. “You bunch of prejudiced asses. No one lets me smoke anywhere around here. It’s fucking insane. I need to go back to home where I can smoke a joint on that street if I get the urge.”
    I ignored his rock star hissy fit. We were all here. At least the ones who were in Rosemary. We were missing two. One would take her place soon. The other still had his shit to figure out.
    “Are you drinking bourbon this early?” Rush asked, looking at Grant with a frown.
    Grant rolled his eyes and leaned back, propping his feet on the table. “Yeah,” was