Out Bad

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  “Gwen!” Someone far away called for her.

  “Jesus Christ. Gwen!” A man was yelling for her.

  Heath?

  She blinked and shook her head trying to clear away the darkness blurring her thoughts. She tried to yell, but her voice cracked, barely a croaky whisper in her throat.

  She heard the man yell again. She hit the side of the tub with her hand, the hot metal stinging her palm. She kicked her feet up against the bottom, each time a dull thud rang out.

  "Over here! I need help!" Heath's voice sounded far away, like he was at the other end of a long tunnel.

  A blast of smoky air filled her lungs as the tub around her suddenly disappeared. A pair of arms yanked her up off the floor as she tried to cough the acrid air out of her body. The smoke was so thick she had to close her eyes against the burning sting.

  Within seconds, she was outside. The eighty degree day felt like a freezer after the heat of the barn. Her body began shaking uncontrollably as she started to regain some clarity.

  “J-Joe.” She rubbed her arms trying to stop the quaking. “Where’s J-Joe?”

  The firefighter carrying her set her down, propping her against the trunk of a cruiser, the lights on top still flashing. Another fireman, holding Heath by the arm was right behind them.

  “Heath!” She stumbled forward and threw her arms around him. “Where’s Joe?”

  “What in the hell happened in there?” Heath wheezed between coughs as he struggled to catch his breath.

  Gwen shoved him back as she scanned the yard swarming with cops, firefighters, and medics looking for Joe and the assholes who hurt him. Had they they managed to avoid the fire and escape?

  “Where are the guys who kidnapped me?” She grabbed Heath by the shoulders, panic rising through her body. “Where the fuck is Joe?”

  “Grab her before he ends up with a head injury too.” She spun around just as two cops helped Joe prop against the car behind her. A line of dark blood trickled down the side of his face from the oozing lump on the side of his head.

  She fell forward against his chest, sobbing and coughing as relief swept over her. “I was so scared. I thought you might be dead.”

  “I’ve got a pretty hard head.”

  “In all truth, you probably came closer to killing him than those guys did.” Heath was at their side pointing at Cooter and Skrag as they were loaded into the back of a cruiser.

  “Damn it Heath, don’t tell her that.”

  Twenty-Six

  “What do you think?” Joe held up the picture trying to center it between the dark wood bookshelves he’d built to go on either side of her desk. “Up? Down?”

  “I think that’s just about right.” She tried to imagine the rest of the furniture in place. “I think once the desk is in and my computer monitors are set up, it will be okay.”

  “You’re sure?” He looked back at her, eyebrows up. “It’s gonna be a hole in the wall so you need to be sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  He marked the spot and propped the frame against the wall at his feet as he drilled a hole for the wall anchor. He tapped it in and twisted in the screw before hooking the picture on. He glanced back at her. “Does it look straight?”

  She nodded. “I just love that picture.”

  Gabbi shot it at the party after the wedding. It wasn’t so much that it was the best picture of them. It was the look in his eyes as he watched her dancing on the floor with her nieces. It reminded her of the way he looked at her the first time they met. It was one of the many reasons she hadn’t been able make herself stay away from him. Thank God.

  “Mrs. Parker.” His eyes twinkled. “Is it straight?”

  “It looks perfect.”

  Her stomach flipped as he crossed the room to wrap one arm around her, tucking her against his body. He splayed one hand across her growing stomach as he kissed her forehead.

  “You hungry?”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “We just had lunch an hour ago.”

  “You need to be sure you eat enough. I want you to stay healthy.”

  The past few months had been longer and harder than either of them expected.

  “I am fine.” She pushed up on her toes to brush her lips across his.

  He pulled her closer, keeping his lips softly against hers. “That is very true.” His lips moved against hers as he spoke. He moved his hand from her belly, trailing his fingers up her ribcage before closing around her breast.

  “Have I told you how much I love you?” His lips trailed a gentle line down the side of her neck.

  “Once or twice.”

  He chuckled low and deep, his breath tickling the sensitive skin of her neck. “Maybe I could remind you again.” He swept her up behind the knees and angled her through the door and headed in the direction of their bedroom.

  “Gwennie! Where are you guys?”

  Joe stopped, letting out a dramatic sigh. “They’re early.” He carefully lowered Gwen back to the floor, keeping one arm tightly around her until he was sure she was steady.

  The thundering of little girl’s feet up the stairs meant at least half their visitors knew where to find them. “Auntie Gwen my tooth fell out!” Cassondra came running up the stairs with her fingers hooked in either side of her mouth, stretching her lips wide to show the gap where her left front bottom tooth used to be.

  “Holy cow. Lemme see.” Joe crouched down and gripped the little girls chin between his thumb and pointer finger. “Did the tooth fairy come?”

  “Uh-huh. She brought me five bucks.”

  “The tooth fairy didn’t have change.” Gabbi was at the bottom of the stairs heading up with Heath right behind her.

  Joe released Cassie’s chin and stood, a grin on his face. “That’s a pretty steep precedent to set.”

  “I’m gonna use the money to buy the baby a doll so she can play with me.” The little girl patted Gwen’s tiny belly and whispered softly against it. “You hear that baby? We can play as soon as you come out.”

  “How’s the office coming along?” Gabbi patted Cassondra's head as she inspected the room. “It seems so much bigger without the closet in here.”

  Gwen followed her in, happy to show off Joe’s handy work. “I think so too.” She adjusted the wood blinds on the large window, letting in the afternoon sun. “I love how much light this room gets.”

  Gabbi came to stand beside her, looking out the window. “It’s a whole lot different view than you're used to, huh?”

  The open hayfield that bordered the farmhouse property swayed in the breeze. This was Gwen’s favorite window in the house to look out. There was something so calming and serene about the way the movement changed the textures and colors of the growth.

  Gabbi leaned in close. “Have they been okay with you working from home?”

  Gwen looked back at Joe and caught him smiling at them. For years he’d been telling her sister he wanted one certain type of marriage. A stay at home wife and house full of kids that he could take care of, provide for.

  Gwen wasn't sure if it was because he was old fashioned or because he thought he had to make the deal seem pretty sweet to offset what he considered an unfortunate past, but didn’t really matter. It turned out all he really wanted was her.

  “They’ve been great.” Better than great actually. Her boss didn’t bat an eye when she told them she was pregnant and wanted to work from home four days a week. “I think they were just happy I wanted to keep working at all.”

  “I bet.” She looked down at Gwen’s barely showing tummy. “How are you feeling? You sure you guys will be okay with the girls?”

  The first few months had been a struggle. Exhaustion, nausea, emotional instability, but Joe had been there every second. He was ready and willing to do anything and everything he could to help her get through it. Rubbing her back, holding her hair out of her face when she puked. Luckily his stomach was stronger than hers.

  “I’m feeling really good actually. And
if you try to skip out again on your husband he’s going to lose his mind.”

  “Not true. He would be just fine if you feel like shit.” Heath grinned at them from the doorway where he’d propped himself to chat with Joe. And apparently eavesdrop. “Uncle Heath wants his nephew to be big and strong so if you need to rest it will be just fine.”

  “What if you’re nephew is a niece?” Gabbi crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow.

  “Then she’ll be like her momma and lord help us all.” He nodded to Joe. “But mostly him.”

  Heath winked at her from across the room. It was amazing how much could change in a year. People, lives, relationships. Futures.

  Gabbi wrapped her arm around Gwen’s shoulders and pulled her in tight. “It won’t be long till it’s you guys heading out on a date night, leaving us with your little one.”

  “Even more reason to have a girl just like her momma. So we can leave her to give Uncle Heath a run for his money.” Joe gently took the hammer from Cassie and the drill from Caroline and put them high on one of the floor to ceiling shelves he built for the room. He grabbed the smaller girl and slung her over his shoulder before hooking Cassie under the other arm. “Come on girls. Let’s go feed your Auntie Gwen’s chickens.”

  “It has to be a boy. I don’t know how many fingers one man can be wrapped around.” Heath shook his head as he followed Joe and the girls down the stairs leaving Gabbi and Gwen together.

  Gabbi watched as they left. “If you told me a year ago this is where I would be right now, I would have never believed you.”

  Gwen rubbed her tiny belly and looked at the picture that would hang above her desk each day while she worked, remembering that first time she caught sight of Joe Parker across a smoky crowded biker bar. “I would have.”

  The End

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