by Kendra Riley
“From the moment I left, I have been drawn back to you. I wasn't at all sure how I was going to bring myself to leave you at the end of the week. I'm still not entirely sure how I forced myself to drive away from this town a year ago.
You're all I want. Knowing that we have a child makes it all the more perfect. I will make a good life for us. I promise,” he said, thinking of all of the money that he had stashed away from the jobs he had pulled with his brothers. They all blew their money on booze and women. He had saved nearly every penny, though. With that, he could buy them a home and he could get himself settled. He could start fresh and be the man that she deserved.
“There is no better thing you could have said to me,” she said, unable to keep the tears of joy from falling down her cheeks.
“It's true,” he said, linking his fingers with hers and staring down at their intertwined bodies, wishing nothing more than to go through life with the beautiful creature in his arms.
“And you don't mind making a life here?” she asked, skeptical that one so used to the road could be comfortable in her one horse town.
“This is where you are and this is where your family is. I wouldn't take you or Brian away from everything you have known and loved,” he said, though he wondered how accepting they would be of the man who had left their daughter pregnant and alone and stayed away for a year. She looked up at him as though she could sense his thoughts.
“It might not be easy, but they will accept you. I told them as much as I could. They didn’t know who you are or where you went, but I told them that I loved you and that you loved me deeply. I told them that I didn't regret getting pregnant, even if we were not married or might not ever see each other again. They know that you're the true love of my life. They would never stand in the way of that,” she said, trying to reassure him.
“They didn't try to make you feel shame?” he asked, wondering what treatment she might have endured as a single mother in such a conservative Southern town.
“Nobody has been anything but kind to me. They love me and they love Brian. The town will come to love you too,” she said, smiling at the thought of Jake truly being part of their community. She pictured he and Brian playing at the same playground her parents had taken her too and the thought warmed her heart.
“And your brother? I find it hard to believe that your cop brother will just accept my return,” he said, trying to picture what family dinners would be like with a brother-in-law who despised him.
“Sam has been the best of everyone. Without him, I don't know how I would have been able to stay in school through all of this. He trusts me and he will accept my choice. Besides, it will not come as a surprise to him that you have my heart,” she replied.
“If he has been so supportive of you then I owe him a debt that I cannot repay. What of his friend though? Was he not eager for you to return to the embrace of the man you loved before me?” he asked, unable to even bring himself to say Tony’s name.
“Things are strained between them. Tony has been the only person who has not accepted my choices. Sam has stood by me though and it has cost him a great deal, primarily his best friend,” she said with a sigh. It was the one thing she regretted. She hated to be the reason her brother had lost someone he cared about.
“What did this man do that was so bad that your brother couldn't forgive his best friend?” he asked, suspicious of just what Tony had put her through that offended her brother so deeply.
“Let us just say that he was forceful in his advances and leave it at that,” she said, not wanting him to know the extent of Tony’s persistence. However, if she had wanted him to leave the topic alone, forceful was the wrong word to describe it.
“Tell me,” he said, his eyes stony and full of anger. Not knowing what had happened had him thinking of all of the worst possibilities.
“He just couldn't let it go. He pushed and pushed. Sam and I might have forgiven him if not for what he did at the hospital after the baby was born,” she said, stopping short of giving him the details.
“And that was?” he asked, his voice cold and dangerous.
“He told me I should marry him. He said that the whole town would think the baby was his anyway. He told me that I should marry him and that he would save the baby and I by making us legitimate. I told him to get out and leave me alone,” she said, shaking her head at the pain the memory brought back to her.
“I'm so sorry that I wasn't there with you to shield you from that,” he said, his arms tightening around her.
“I told him that the baby was born of true love and that that was the only thing that mattered. Jake, that is the only thing that matters,” she repeated, needing him to understand how happy she was to have brought his child in to the world.
“Yes, our love is all that matters,” he said as he held her close and relished in the thought of never again leaving her side.
Chapter12
When morning came, Jake reluctantly rose to leave Savannah. This time, though, was so different than the last. He was going to go and tell his brothers that his days with them were over. It would be, he knew, the hardest thing he had ever done.
He wasn't sorry to do it though. He had a family of his own now. Jake had considered meeting his son before he went, but he wanted to start his relationship with his son as a new man, not a bank robber and a thief.
“This is the last time I will leave you,” he whispered to Savannah who lay silently watching him.
“I don't want you to make a decision you will regret,” she said, reluctant to say words that might keep him from returning to her.
“I could never regret choosing you. It was hard enough to leave you before I knew about the baby. I couldn't leave you behind now if I wanted to. Besides, my heart has always stayed behind with you,” he said as he pulled his jeans on and returned to her to give her a sweet good morning kiss.
“And mine went off with you as your traveled the countryside,” she said, rising to kiss him more thoroughly before he left her.
“I could feel you with me everywhere I went. It was the only thing that kept me sane,” he said, thinking back to the many lonely nights he had spent without her by his side.
“I know exactly what you mean,” she said, comforted by his embrace.
“I will not be gone long,” he explained as he pulled on his shirt and grabbed his duffle bag.
“Take this with you,” she said as she offered him her journal. “That way you will have a piece of me with you when you go to talk to them.”
“That I will gladly do,” he said with a smile as he tucked it in to his bag.
“Will they be very angry with you?” she asked, looking worried.
“No, they will understand. It will be hard, splitting up after all this time. All any of us have ever wanted is a family, though. It's what bonded us and made us our own family. None of them would ask me to leave behind my child and my love. They care too much for me,” he said, not at all doubting that his words were true.
“If they care for you, then I care for them,” she said, forcing herself to smile at him encouragingly, no matter how worried she felt.
“It helps too that you named the baby Brian. They will all like that,” he said with a laugh.
“Glad to be of assistance,” she said, her heart so full of love she thought it might burst.
“Where will I find you when I'm done?” he asked, suddenly aware that they were going to have to take their love out of their sanctuary and in to the real world.
“While you're telling your family, I will go and tell mine. They will be happy for us. I know they have worried that I would live a life alone, waiting hopelessly for you to return. They will be relieved to know that you finally have,” she said with a sigh of relief.
“So then I will come to your parents’ house when I return?” he asked hesitantly.
“Yes, you should come to my home and you can meet your son there,” she said, tearing up as she thought of her son finally
being in his father’s arms.
“I cannot wait to meet our son,” he said, shaking his head as though he didn't quite believe that it was all really happening.
“He will love you,” she beamed, thinking of how her son’s face always lit up when she told him tales of his father. Now, he would really know him.
“Will the rest of your family?” he asked, worried still about resentment they might have for him.
“Well, they might not be thrilled to see that you're a white boy. My Daddy and Sam always warned me that falling in love with a white boy was the surest way to get your heart broken for any black girl,” she said, thinking back to their stern warnings.
“They don't know?” he asked with a laugh.
“Momma and Daddy might suspect. After all, Brian’s skin is pretty light. I think they might be in a bit of denial, though. Sam knows but only because people kept coming up to him and asking who the white boy I was running around town with was,” she said, laughing at the thought of her father’s face when he saw Jake too comical to ignore.
“And he wasn't angry with you?” he asked, looking at her suspiciously as though she was shielding him from all of the pain that she had endured for loving him in the last year.
“He was angry at first. As soon as he found out about the baby, though, he has never said another negative or judgmental word about it,” she answered honestly.
“He didn't mind that you named the baby after my brother?” he asked, wondering if it had hurt her brother that she named the child for a family he might never know.
“No, his middle name is Samuel and I made him the baby’s godfather. I hope you don't mind that I made that decision without you. After everything he did for me during the past year, it just felt like the right thing to do for him and for our son,” she explained, smiling fondly as she thought of her brother.
“No, I don't mind at all. I think you did just the right thing,” he said, hugging her as he spoke.
“I think so too. Brian really is so loved in this town. Everyone fusses over him and cooes at him. We will have our work cut out for us just making sure he does not have the biggest ego ever to exist,” she chuckled, imagining her sweet baby boy as a handsome teenager, breaking hearts all over town.
“Well, should he end up with a big ego, he will be quite a bit like his namesake,” he laughed, thinking of the way his elder brother had always carried himself with an air of authority and entitlement that far exceeded what anyone who grew up as they did should have expected from life.
“Do you think that your brothers will be a part of the baby’s life? I would like that. I want him to have as large and diverse a family as he can. The more people who love and care for him, the better,” she said, her expression hopeful.
“I don't know how often their travels will bring them to our door, but I know that they will love him,” he answered, though his mind was full of thoughts that worried him to his core. He didn't doubt for a moment that his brothers would care for his child. What he was worried about was if his brothers forming an attachment to his son was the best thing for the baby.
His brothers brought with them all manner of danger, including the law on their back. They would see any home he made with Savannah as a place where they could come and hide out until any heat cleared, bringing with them potential visits from the law. He wasn't, after all, an innocent man. If the law came, they would take him away with the rest of them.
“What is wrong?” Savannah asked, sensing that his thoughts had gone to a dark place.
“It isn't anything,” he said, pausing to take in the sight of her before him, her eyes full of love. “I promise you, here and now, that I will never let anything hurt you or our son,” he vowed, nearly crushing her with the force of his embrace.
“I know that,” she said, her arms wrapping around him tenderly.
In that moment, Jake knew exactly what he needed to do. He took a step back from her and released her from his embrace. Before Savannah could protest the loss of contact, he dropped to his knee in front of her and took her hand in his.
“Savannah, I know that you could do so much better in this life than to spend it with me. I know better men could give you a better life, but I swear that no person on this earth will work harder to ensure your happiness than I will,” he began, his voice so alluring that Savannah felt goosebumps run across her skin.
“What are you saying?” she asked, staring down at him in awe.
“I'm asking you if you will do me the great honor of being my wife. I know that it's crazy to ask you to commit to me after only two nights together, but I have spent a year loving you and a lifetime waiting for you. Will you be my bride?” he asked, his hand shaking as he waited for her response.
“Yes,” she cried, diving in to his arms and knocking him on to his back. She covered his face in enthusiastic kisses that made him feel happier than he had known he could be.
“You're sure?” he asked, taking both her hands in his.
“Yes! That is all I have ever wanted. I promise you that,” she said, kissing him again so seal her promise to him.
“I promise you that I will be the best husband you could ask for. I will never let you and our baby down again,” he said, pulling her in for another kiss.
“I trust in you,” she said, resting her head against his shoulder.
“You will not regret that,” he swore. “I do have to go now, though. I have to tell them. Then every obstacle will be out of our way.”
“Alright,” she said, knowing that it was for the best that he go quickly. If he lingered any longer, she wasn't sure she would be able to watch him go. He kissed her on the head as he rose again and made his way towards the door.
The last time Jake had walked out the doors of that church, his heart had been heavy. This time though, his soul felt light with joy. He wasn't leaving her behind. He was moving towards their future. Still, he didn't look back. The sight of her standing there was just too appealing. Leaving was the thing that he needed to do, though a large part of him wanted nothing more than to spend the day wrapped in her arms. Still, he needed to tell his brothers so that he could meet his son without any baggage.
He jumped on his bike and road off in the direction of the hotel where they were staying, a few towns away so as not to draw attention to themselves. The entire ride, he tried to imagine what he would say to them. As far as they all knew, he had returned to scout the same job that they had abandoned a year before. When they read an article in a state paper about the Founders’ festival being moved back a week, they had all pushed him to return.
He had agreed only because the allure of seeing Savannah again was too great. The thought of returning to the town on the anniversary of their meeting and having the opportunity to spend some real time with her was all he could think of as the date drew nearer and his will to stay away folded entirely.
Now, he knew that his brothers had seen through him from the start. They had all watched him suffer from missing her for the past year. They just wanted him to be happy again and now he had even more to thank them for. When he got to the hotel, he parked his bike and ran in, not lingering outside as he had a year before when he returned to them.
“Back so soon?” Brian asked as soon as Jake came through the door.
“Did you get what you went looking for?” Reese said with a grin.
“I bet she told him to fuck off,” said Trevor.
“She should have,” Colton called from the adjoining room. “Leaving a poor thing alone for a year. Had she moved on entirely Scout? Did you show up to find her holding a baby in one arm and her husband’s balls with the other?”
“Don't talk about her like that,” Jake snapped, realizing just how protective he sounded.
“I take it, then, that she didn't turn you away or curse you when she saw you,” Brian said with a chuckle.
“No, she didn't,” he said, smiling as he recalled the sweet look of surprise on her face when he entered the ch
urch. It had been more than he had ever dreamed of, returning to find her in their place waiting for him. It was the closest thing to magic he had ever experienced.
“Then what are you doing back here with us?” Reese said, laughing and shaking his head. “We told you to go and scout for at least a week.”
“We wanted you to ‘scout’ your brains out with that girl,” Colton teased. “We thought maybe it would knock that stick out of your ass. You have been a real grouch for the past year.”
“I have news,” Jake said, reaching in to his pocket and pulling out the picture of Savannah and the baby.
“What is it?” Brian asked, sensing that something truly serious had arisen. “Did you hear news in the town that the law is looking for us?”
“Let them look,” Colton said as he swaggered towards them.
“You will not be so cocky when you ass is in a jail cell,” Brian said, glaring at Colton.
“It does not have anything to do with the law. Our secret is safe,” Jake said, annoyed that they interrupted his attempt to share his good news.
“Tell us, then, brother. The floor is yours,” Brian said, giving the others a look that dared them to defy him.
“I'm a dad,” Jake blurted out, holding out the picture to Brian. While his older brother was speechless, the rest of them certainly were not.
“Bull shit,” Colton snapped.
“No way in hell,” Reese said.
“How can you know the child is yours?” Brian asked, holding the picture in his hands and staring down at the smiling woman and child in the photo.
“I know. She loves me and I love her. She has waited for me,” Jake said simply.
“Women don't wait,” Colton cried, looking at Jake as though he was crazy.
“You're a dad?” Reese said, in awe.
“Yes,” he sighed, remembering the joy he had felt when Savannah had told him. He couldn't wait to hold his son in his arms and make up for lost time.