“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
Jessie leaned back, and his smile was beautiful.
“That’s what I want to hear.”
Thirty minutes later, Jessie and I left with four restraining orders. One for me, one for Linc, one for the baby, and one for Jessie. They would only last for five years, but it was enough. In five years, I’d renew it, and continue to do it until either I died or Margot died.
We also left with full custody of Lydia.
My heart was so full.
Now all I needed was Lydia to get out of the hospital.
Chapter 27
Chocolate doesn’t ask silly questions. Chocolate understands.
-Ellen’s secret thoughts
Ellen
My father hugged me tightly on one side, while my mother smoothed back my hair.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a few minutes for a conversation with you and Jessie before y’all go through with this,” my mother said softly.
My insides turned to jelly.
“That’s fine.”
It didn’t matter what they said at this point, even if it was to tell me that Jessie wasn’t good enough for me.
I knew in my heart that he was, and they weren’t going to change my decision.
We were five minutes away from our appointment—one I was still reeling over—to get married, and my parents stopped and bombarded me.
I hadn’t seen them much since I moved back to our hometown. They were both excited to see me, as I was them.
But I was also wary, especially now that they said they needed to speak with us.
“Sure,” Jessie said.
I looked over at him to see him smiling softly. Not a trace of annoyance or anger was in his face at all.
It was as if he didn’t care that the people who broke us up fifteen years ago were here. He was that secure in our relationship that he believed nothing could change it.
And he was right.
“Good,” my father said. “Let’s go over there. I don’t want anyone to hear me groveling.”
Tommy, who was standing next to us but speaking with his wife, snorted.
My father shot him a look.
Tommy’s grin went even wider.
“Shut up, boy.”
My father walked away while Tommy’s shoulders shook, and I found my first real smile since my parents walked up two minutes before.
I loved Tommy. He always took care of me by finding a way to de-escalate the situation before it got too hot.
Jessie took my hand and we followed my parents into a small room I hadn’t seen before I was standing in it. A break room of sorts.
Then my mother broke down and started crying.
Shock lit my features.
“Mom…”
“I didn’t mean for you to do this,” she whispered. “I just wanted the best for you.”
I sighed.
“What your mother is trying to say is that she wanted what was best for you, and at the time, Jessie had some bad shit swirling around him.” He held up his hand when I would’ve argued. “I know it wasn’t his fault. We didn’t realize that until much later, but at the time, we only saw the fact that he had a baby and his parents were obvious drug dealers. We should’ve researched it a little harder, but instead, we tried to push him away before he could hurt you. It was wrong of us. We should’ve dug past the surface, but we didn’t. Not until it was much too late.”
Jessie’s body was taut.
“We didn’t know that you were in trouble. We only saw what was on the surface. What we heard in town, when we should’ve trusted our daughter to know her head. We should’ve trusted you.”
My father said that directly to Jessie, and I watched as the two had a silent face off.
“I know how it looked,” Jessie finally said, relaxing slightly. “My parents were deplorable. I was in a bad place, and to be honest, it might’ve been the best thing at the time. It forced me to wake up. Forced me to make decisions in my son’s best interests instead of my own. I might’ve brought her down with me and that wasn’t what I wanted. It was never what I wanted for her.”
My dad nodded his head.
“That doesn’t make it all right,” my father said quietly. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you two.”
My mother was crying silent tears, and it took everything I had not to throw my arms around her and tell her it was okay, because it wasn’t okay. Not even close. Eventually, I would forgive them, but Jessie and my relationship was too new to forgive them yet.
But Jessie was a better person than me and offered my father his hand.
“I’d like your permission to marry your daughter.”
Jessie’s words sent a silent sob through my system.
“You have it,” my dad said, then he looked at me. “I’m not sure there’s much of an aisle, but I’d love to walk you down to where Jessie is waiting for you.”
My mouth formed a small smile. “I’d love for you to do that, too.”
And that was how I got married in front of my family and new friends, to my best friend.
***
I darted behind some people when I saw Sean heading my way, and headed with my head down to Jessie—who stood across the clubhouse speaking quietly to my father and Tommy.
He was facing away from me, so he obviously didn’t see my discomfort, otherwise he would’ve saved me.
Or, at least, that was what I told myself.
I looked over my shoulder and realized that no longer was Sean so far away. He was directly behind me…and I had nowhere to go.
He cornered me, and I started to panic.
“I’m not going to hurt you, honey,” Sean said, reading my dread.
I eyed him warily, turned around and stared at him.
“I know. But the last time you cornered me, you yelled in my face,” I winced. “I’m still really sorry, Sean. I never meant anything bad to happen to your family.”
Sean’s face showed pain at my words, but he surprised me when he apologized. To me.
“I’ve tried to do this a hundred times, but either it’s not the right time, or you look so scared of me that I don’t want to freak you out. Now that you’re married, I want you to know a few things.”
I bit my lip and nodded.
“I never should have yelled at you in the hospital,” he said. “I never should’ve done that, and I regret it every day. I was scared, and you were a convenient target.”
My shoulders sagged. “I know you didn’t mean it,” I lied.
He snorted. “You were always a shit liar, but thank you for trying to make me feel better about it.”
I smiled.
“While we’re apologizing, I’m also not mad at you for leaving me. You did us both a favor, and I should thank you every day for the rest of my life for putting me on the path to meeting Naomi.”
My cheeks started to heat.
“I was selfish. I should’ve never dated you. Every man I’ve ever gone out with was always compared to him,” I said, staring at the him in question.
My husband.
My husband.
I looked down at the ring on my finger and breathed out. “Sean?”
The big man looked at me, sorrow for what he’d made me go through written all over his face.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s put this behind us. I just got married. It’s time for a celebration.”
His grin was a combination of relief and happiness that looked good on him. “I think I can handle that.”
Sean gestured with his hand, and all of a sudden Jessie was back at my side. Sean slipped away, and I stared at the man who’d left me on my own to deal with a man he knew I was nervous to be around.
“You’re so going to pay for this later,” I told him.
His grin was nothing short of maniacal.
“I’ll be
looking forward to it.”
Chapter 28
I’m unable to fully relate to someone until I hear them say ‘fuck.’
-Jessie to Ellen
Jessie
“I have everything I ever wanted,” Ellen murmured into my chest.
I grunted.
“Not everything,” I said. “Elle, it’s time to have that talk.”
She sighed.
“I don’t want to have the talk,” she started to pull away.
I held her to me, refusing to let her leave.
“You don’t have to become a doctor,” I said. “But imagine working with those babies every day.”
I felt her still.
“I saw your eyes light up,” I said. “Every single time you saw a new baby go home, I saw how happy you were. You get as excited for each of those babies when they meet a new milestone as you do when your own child does.” I paused and let my hand drift up her back. “I know that you want to do this, why don’t you do it?”
“My business…” She started to say.
I snorted.
“Your business can be run without you,” I told her. “It’s been doing that for quite some time. You haven’t actually gone to a client’s house and designed anything since we’ve been together, and the stuff you have on sale at your shop can be sold without you there. Hell, Justine has been doing it since you found out about Lydia.”
She pursed her lips and looked away. That’s when I knew I had her.
“Baby,” I said, turning her head to me. “Do it.”
She bit her lip.
“I’m scared.”
I ran my fingertip along the line of her forehead.
“Being scared is something we can work with. I believe in you, baby. It’s you and me now. I will catch you if you fall.”
“You think I will fall?” she teased.
I shook my head. “No. I think you will fly.”
Epilogue
I’ve mastered the art of bouncing back.
-Jessie’s secret thoughts
Jessie
Eight years later
“Mom!” My daughter came running into the kitchen, her hand covering her head. “Does this need stitches?”
Lydia lifted her hand from her head. The moment she did, blood started to ooze down along her hairline to the curve of her chin and to the newly tiled floor.
“Uhhh,” Ellen said, turning her head to the side with the tip of one finger. “It certainly looks like it. Why don’t you go get my med kit from the bathroom?”
Lydia trotted off only to come to a stop once Linc came barreling through the door.
“Mom said I need stitches!” Lydia told her older brother.
Linc looked down at Lydia’s still bleeding face.
“You also need to grab a towel so you don’t leak all over the fuckin’ floor,” Linc said laughingly.
“Linc!” Ellen growled, pointing her knife at him. “Watch that dirty mouth of yours.”
“Sorry, Mom,” Linc growled. “What’s for dinner? I’m starving.”
“You’re a professional football player,” I cut in. “Why are you starving? You have enough money to buy a fuckin’ grocery store.”
A carrot hit me on the forehead, and I turned my gaze back to my woman.
“Was that necessary?”
Ellen’s lips twitched. “Wipe up that blood, and stop cussing. It’s crass, dammit.”
Linc snorted.
“I am rich,” Linc said, grabbing the paper towels on his own and wiping the blood up himself. “But I still feel like I shouldn’t spend it. Like, if I do, I might need it again one day and not have it.”
I laughed.
“Your financial advisor has you fixed up well into your nineties with only what you made this year,” I told him, then stood up from the kitchen table to grab the bag that Lydia was hauling by one handle, dragging it along the floor, and smearing the blood into the grout lines of the kitchen tile. “Maybe, if you stopped giving it to us, you’d feel like you had more money.”
Linc grinned.
“You didn’t think I’d be able to do it, did you?” he challenged me.
“I knew you’d be able to do it,” I countered. “But I didn’t think you’d think I was stupid enough not to give it back to you in some way.”
Linc’s eyes narrowed just as Ellen threw all of her cut up veggies into the pot that she was about to start cooking the stew in. “You better not have given it back.”
I grinned. “I didn’t. I started a college fund for your children.”
“I don’t have any children,” Linc countered. “At least none that I know of.”
Ellen slapped him on the arm with a wet towel.
“Watch it, boy,” she ordered. “I specifically remember giving you the birds and the bees talk when you were sixteen. I even showed you how to roll a condom on a cucumber.” She stopped next to Lydia and pressed a four by four piece of gauze against her cut.
Her concentration was amazing.
I was so proud of her for finishing nursing school and going on to become a licensed nurse practitioner.
***
“Why did you use a cucumber and not a banana?” I asked her, leaning my hips casually against the counter and crossing my arms over my chest.
Ellen’s lips twitched. Her eyes flicked from me to Linc and back again.
“Because a banana wouldn’t be proportional to what he has to work with,” she explained.
My brows rose. “Why would you know what my sixteen-year-old son was working with?”
Her lips twitched as she continued to disinfect the cut. “I didn’t know. I was only assuming the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” She looked at my dick. “Or eggplant from the vine.”
I snorted.
“Eeeeewwwwww,” Linc whined like he was ten instead of twenty-five, slapping his hands against his ears. “That’s so gross.”
“That’s life,” I countered. “What time do you leave to play on Sunday?”
Though Linc now lived over two hours away in Louisiana, he still made it a point to come over every week, even if it was only for a couple of hours.
At twenty-one, he’d been drafted by the New Orleans Saints as a first-round draft pick. He’d, of course, been ecstatic. But no one had been more ecstatic than me.
And, ever since, he’d been smashing the records of some of the best quarterbacks in history.
This year was the first year, however, that he was going to the Super Bowl, and I could tell he was nervous. Just looking at him, I could see the way he held his body strung so tight.
“Tomorrow,” Linc answered. “What about y’all?”
“We’re leaving tomorrow, too,” Ellen answered as she got her suture kit ready. “Though, we’re driving. We’re going to spend some time in ‘Nawlins.”
I snorted.
Ever since Ellen had learned that Linc was going to be a player at LSU, she’d done her best to learn the culture of New Orleans. Then, when she’d found out that he’d been drafted by the Saints, she’d been in hog heaven. She loved the area, and I knew that, if there ever came a time when we were looking for a new place to live, New Orleans or something in the surrounding area would be where we went.
And not even because Linc now lived there, but because she loved the culture so much.
It’d been where we got married—for a second time. It’d been a private ceremony, just her, me, Linc and Lydia. It was where she’d told me that she was pregnant, and also where her water had broken with Laura, our third child.
“Is the rest of the club going?”
“You think they’d miss one of their favorite members play in a fucking Super Bowl?” I asked. “Of course they’re fucking going.”
I was hit in the head with a roll of medical tape.
“Hey!”
Linc grinned.
“I hate that I can’t fuckin’ ride my bike anymo
re without people trying to run me off the road for a goddamn autograph,” he grunted. “My publicist tried to tell me I couldn’t wear my cut, either.”
I started to laugh.
“Let me guess, you told him to shove that opinion up his ass?”
Linc was dedicated, that was for sure. He’d known at eighteen that he wanted to be a member of The Dixie Wardens MC, just like his old man, and he’d accomplished it at the age of twenty-one.
He would have accomplished it sooner if those first three years playing ball in college hadn’t kept him away from home more than he’d intended.
Although, it put him in a good place to be spotted by NFL scouts, so we really couldn’t complain.
“Mommy!”
My head snapped over in time to see my three-year-old daughter leading two police officers in the room—Aaron and Big Papa.
“Yo,” I said. “What’s up?”
Laura threw herself into my lap, and I caught her before she could hit her face on the table.
“You mind if we talk outside for a minute?” Aaron asked.
“Puppy!”
I looked over to see Achilles start growling ferociously at Tank.
The two dogs had never figured out how to get along, though they never went further than a few growls.
I was pretty damn sure that Achilles could take Tank if he really wanted to but that was because Tank was getting on in years.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said, standing up.
I placed Laura in my chair and handed her my phone.
She opened it like a fuckin’ pro and went to work doing what she always did on my phone—which was go to some animal sounds game and start making as much racket as a three-year-old could make.
“Be back in a minute, baby,” I said to Ellen as I passed.
Her eyes caught mine, and I could clearly read the fact that she expected to be apprised of whatever situation brought the two men over here without a warning.
I had a feeling I knew though.
Eight years ago, I’d gotten a restraining order against Margot and full custody of our daughter, Lydia.
Margot had been sent back to the psychiatric facility and had later been sent to prison after she’d tried to murder her doctor…twice.
The last seven years she’d been in a minimum-security prison for women, and I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her since.
The Beard Made Me Do It (The Dixie Warden Rejects Book 5) Page 21