Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“If I shit, just look away, okay?” Channing panted.
Knowing this was an argument I couldn’t win, I told her what she wanted to hear.
“Okay,” I agreed quickly.
Jesus Christ, why were women so fucking worried about that? There were a million and one different things to worry about, and she’s worried about shitting on the table.
“Breathe, pant, there you go,” I encouraged her.
Her forehead, neck, and hair were covered in sweat.
Her hand went to the sleeve of my shirt, and she pulled me down until I was eye level with her.
Then she said, “Get the fuck out of my face.”
I stepped back, giving her some space, and definitely not touching her.
“Excellent, Channing. Is it all right if I let one of the interns take over from here?” Dr. Summer asked.
“If you leave the room I’m following you,” she snarled.
I was secretly glad. Not that I didn’t think the interns needed to learn, but it sure as fuck didn’t need to happen on my woman and child.
The tendons in Channing’s neck relaxed as the contraction waned.
“Channing, darling, how are you feeling?” The baby doc asked.
Channing calmly looked around, and then closed her eyes. “I want to bash every one of your faces in with a nine iron.”
I turned abruptly to stare at the wall, trying, with all I had, to control the guffaws of laughter that were threatening to pour out of my chest.
Dixie didn’t bother to contain his. He just laughed, and let his big belly jiggle.
The nurses and doctors all cracked smiles just as another contraction started up.
We repeated the pushing process for nearly two hours.
Those two hours were the longest two hours of my life.
On the last contraction, the intern started shoving his hand up my woman’s vagina, and I was about to lose my shit when Channing yelled, “Get out of my cunt, you big handed heifer!”
And with that, our five pound, six ounce little boy, Justice Reese Rector, made his way into this world, spitting mad just like his mother.
***
“I’m sorry I was such a bitch,” Channing said, tiredly, later that night.
I looked up from my little boy’s face to find her on her side facing me, eyes finally open.
I smiled at her warmly. “You didn’t mean any of it, honey. I know.”
She closed her eyes again. “Baylee showed me a video of some of the things I’d said while you were with Justice when he was getting a bath. I know I was a bitch.”
I snorted.
That was the understatement of the century, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world.
“So...did Dixie see my coochie?” She smiled.
A startled laugh burst free of my chest, shaking the baby and making him cry out. “No, I think he slipped out at some point,” I said as I patted the tiny boy who’d already stolen a piece of my heart.
Her head fell back against the pillow, and her eyes started to close once again.
Standing carefully, I walked over to the side of the bed, and sat down beside her.
She smiled at me, but didn’t open her eyes.
Leaning down, I gave her a soft kiss on the forehead, and then rested there for a moment, breathing in her scent.
She smelled like her original citrus smell. A combination of the shampoo she used, and whatever products she gunked her hair up with that morning.
That, to me, smelled like home.
I’d found a home with Channing. We shared an unbreakable bond, now. One that’d withstood time, distance, heartache, heartbreak, and death. We were each other’s lifeline.
Channing kept me grounded. She made sure I talked through my day. If I ever needed her, she was there. She was irrevocably mine, and I was irreversibly hers.
She’d given me a precious gift today. One that I could never, ever repay for as long as I lived. I would spend my days trying to bridge that gap but somehow, I knew, I could never do anything to match her gift of life.
She was everything to me. Everything I never knew I wanted. The keys to my cuffs. The balm for my tortured soul.
She’s the reason I’m stronger today than I was yesterday, but she’s also my weakness.
She had the power to bring me to my knees, and I like it that way.
Epilogue
If at first you don’t succeed, give the jar to your husband and save yourself the time.
-Life Lesson
Three years later
“Loki!” I snapped. “I told you not to call them hose monkeys in front of the kids anymore. Do you realize how embarrassing it is to have them say that when they see a firefighter?”
Loki’s grin showed just how unrepentant he really was.
Our kids were at a very impressionable age.
Justice was three, and our baby girl, Glory, was just shy of eighteen months old.
“I’ll see what I can do about that,” he drawled as we walked up to the neighborhood block party.
The block party was something the community liked to do around Halloween each year. The downtown roads would be blocked off, and there would be live entertainment as well as arts and crafts for the children.
The fire department would get their ladder truck out and give bucket rides for the kids, while the police department would hand out badges. Trance was due to put on a demonstration with Kosher, his K-9 partner, within the next ten minutes.
“We have to hurry or we’re going to miss Trance’s demonstration,” I insisted urgently.
Loki rolled his eyes. “Haven’t you seen enough of Trance’s demonstrations? I mean, it’s not like this is the first time you’ve ever seen what Kosher can do.”
“Yeah, but he’ll be in uniform. I’ll get to see his butt in those uniform pants,” I quipped.
“Yeah,” Viddy agreed. “His butt does look pretty damn good in them.
Loki growled low under his breath.
“What was that, honey?” I teased him.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Cabe’s voice boomed over the loud speaker. “Gather around. The Benton Police Department’s K-9 unit has a special show for you tonight.”
“Hey,” I said when Loki started to break away from us. “Where’re you going?”
“I’m part of the demonstration,” he grunted out before turning around and leaving.