Marcus

Chapter Nineteen

Caroline ~

The plane ride was long and uncomfortable, but Marcus did his best to make sure Caroline was as comfortable as she could be given the circumstances. He raised the arms of the seats letting her stretch out and lean against him to keep pressure off of her aching side.

She knew he had to be equally as uncomfortable with his large frame crammed into such a small seat with her body weight pressed against him, but he never complained once, in fact he smiled most of the way to California.

"You okay Hon?" Marcus asked quietly against her hair.

"Yeah I'm okay, just uncomfortable." She said honestly.

"How can I help?"

"Distract me." Caroline huffed, trying to find a comfy position, but failing.

"Want me to break one of your fingers? That'd do the trick." Marucs joked.

"Sure, how about this one." Caroline sassed, holding up her middle finger in his line of sight.

A deep laugh rumbled deep from within Marcus' chest that bounced beneath Caroline's head as he laughed at her. It was a sound that made Caroline's soul happy and she'd do anything to hear it again and again for the rest of her life.

"Let me see the pictures again so I can quiz myself." Caroline said, motioning for Marcus to hand her the pictures he carried with him of his family.

He happily obliged, leaning down and pulling it from his wallet.

"That's your sister right? Sherry?"

"Yep."

"And these are your teammates, the one's I'm about to meet"

"Mmhmm." Marcus confirmed.

She ran her finger across the picture stopping on ever face as she passed it to make sure she had the names down.

"This tall mean lookin guy is your handler - Hunter,  The broad rugged one is your team leader - Declan, the model looking guy is Pierce, and the young one is Caleb...right?"

"You got it." Marcus said proudly as she flipped to the next set of pictures.

"Okay, so this is Lexi right?"

"Yes, and full disclosure...she's going to hug you. I have warned her about your injuries and Declan will too, but I'm gonna be honest with you, Lexi is going to hug you regardless." Marcus chuckled.

"Got it." Caroline said with a smile.

"And this is Claire and that is Natalie, or is it the other way around?"

"This is Natalie and that is Claire, next to Nate." Marcus corrected her as she nodded along making mental notes at his corrections.

"Okay. Then this last one here is Lainey."

"Yeah, I'm pretty close with Lainey. She lost her father recently and we bonded over that experience. At the time I was doing a lot of mourning myself." Marcus said softly, running his hand up and down Caroline's arm, needed to make physical contact with her.

I'm right here Marcus. I promise I'm not going anywhere.

"Does Lainey have any living family?" Caroline asked with sadness in her voice.

"Her brother James moved to California with her. He opened up a gym and a club that he hired Natalie to manage, so you'll probably get to meet him too."

Caroline nodded with Marcus as he spoke, trying to keep everyone straight in her head. It was obvious how much Marcus cared for the people in those pictures and Caroline hoped and prayed they would like her.