Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
I grunted. “I have no doubt.”
“Grayson?” Tru called, causing me to look at her.
“Yeah, honey?” I asked.
She smiled softly at me, and then rocked my world. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I shook my head, stood carefully, and walked to her, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead before I said what I had to say next.
“You, darlin’, are what I never knew I needed. I’ve spent all these years trying to find something I never knew I was missing. But the moment you launched yourself into my arms, you changed my life. This has time of my life, and I know there are many more to come. You’re the charge to my line, baby. Without you, I’d be useless. Without a water, a fire would become a raging inferno. And that’s what would happen if I ever lost you. I’d destroy mountains for you, and will until the day I die.”
A lone tear streaked down her flushed cheek. “You just made my life.”
“No baby. You made mine.”
Epilogue
Home is where the heart is…and where they have to let you in.
-Welcome mat
Tru
“Oh, dear Jesus. What is that boy doing?” I asked Baylee, looking out the cabin’s window at the ten year old currently riding the dirt bike down my driveway.
Naked.
Baylee looked up and found her son, then sighed. “That boy. I swear to God. He’ll never learn.”
Johnny was a take no prisoners kind of boy. In the five years I’d known him, he’d definitely grown, but his spirit stayed young. I had a feeling that had a lot to do with the company he kept with his father, though.
The Dixie Wardens lived hard and played harder.
They had a thirst for life, and lived life to the fullest.
Just last week I’d come into the club house to find tire scorch marks on the concrete floor. Courtesy of, from what I’d heard, Kettle. Who’d been dared to do it by my husband.
“Hey, baby,” Grayson called from the porch. “Do you have any ice?”
I cocked my head, but nodded. “Yeah, I’ll bring some out. How much do you need?”
“A baggie full. Ashe hurt her hand,” Kettle said as he walked into the kitchen with my daughter in his arms, sitting her down in front of Rue.
She was rough looking, too. Her hair was skewed from her pony tail. Her lip was swollen, and she had the makings of a black eye.
Rue pulled my daughter’s hand into her own and stretched it out.
My daughter whimpered, but didn’t cry.
At four years old, my daughter would never do anything abhorrent like cry.
She was her daddy’s girl from the ends of her blonde curls to the tips of her black painted toenails. She wanted to be her daddy in every way, including becoming a firefighter and never, upon any circumstances, crying in public.
In her daddy’s arms, that was acceptable; only, though, if they were in private. She was not a fan of showing weakness.
“What’d she do?” I asked, placing the bag of ice on my daughter’s hand.
Kettle laughed loudly.
“Ford tried to kiss her. When she told him to stop it, because that was ‘indecent,’ he chose to try again, where she promptly reared back and punched him in the nose. Then Ford, not one to be outdone, returned the punch. They did that back and forth for a good minute before anyone could get to them,” Trance said dryly as he brought his, just as bloodied, son into the room and set him on the opposite side of the kitchen.
I smiled softly, thinking that that was just the beginning. Ford and Ashe were the closest in age, along with Rue’s son, Zach. They were known as the terrible trio.
Although the other member’s kids were also close to them in age, none were as close as the three of them.
“Baby,” I said to my daughter. “Who told you that you could punch someone?”
I knew the answer, of course, I just wanted her to tell me who.
However, Ashe’s answer didn’t surprise me. “Nobody.”
She didn’t like getting her father into trouble. In fact, she’d go out of her way to make sure he never got into trouble.
She hated it when we fought.
Although it wasn’t often, we did fight. We’d learned over the years that we shouldn’t go to bed without making up. When we had a problem, we worked it out. Although, most of those times it ended up being ‘fucking it out.’
Ashe and our other two children were signs of our love for each other.
If Grayson had his way, he’d keep me pregnant.
However, after a third child, in five years, I was over being pregnant.
With my last C-section that had taken place six weeks ago today, I’d had my tubes tied.
Grayson was still mad at me for that, but he understood where I was coming from.
I wanted time to spend with just us. I didn’t want to be pregnant all the time. I wanted to be the real Tru, not hormonal Tru.
“Mommy, can you let me hold the ice? I want to go back outside and play soccer with Ford,” Ashe demanded.
With a shake of my head, I took her down off the counter and handed the ice pack over.
Trance did the same and we watched as the two ran out of the room acting as if the last ten minutes hadn’t even happened.
“Ford must take after his mother. So forgiving,” Trance muttered as he made his way out of my kitchen and back outside.
I giggled and turned back to the counter where I’d been trimming fat off of the massive brisket that Grayson had cooked the entire morning.
“That smells delicious,” Booney groaned as he walked through the door.
A sleeping Coal nestled down in his arms.
Coal was my youngest, and the toddler coming in on his father’s hip, Spencer, was the middle.
Coal was my easy going baby. He had no loyalty whatsoever. All it took was a set of arms, and he was happy.
Spencer, however, was momma’s boy. He needed his momma. He’d take his daddy, but daddy wasn’t momma.