Page 105 of Force At Third

“What happened due to my choice with my body aside, I wasn’t ready. I was embarrassed that I’d gotten pregnant. I was on the pill. We were careful. No one would have believed it. Right now, listening to myself say …” She shakes her head. “It makes me angry that I cared about what people might say or think. I know?—”

“You don’t have to explain,” I interrupt her with some truth, stepping into my boxers. “I’m all about her body, her choice.”

“I waited so long, Leland.” She holds her hand to her belly. “I waited because I’m selfish. I didn’t have you, but I had part of us.”

My eyes burn as I step to her and take her face in my hands. “Don’t fucking do this to yourself. What healing comes from that?”

She scowls and starts to argue, but I’m not having it.

“Would you say any of this to nineteen-year-old you?”

She nods.

“Bullshit. You wouldn’t have said it to yourself a week ago. You’re scared. Fuck, so am I. But I’m also having a hard time not being able to be a little stoked that there’s a mini us chilling inside you. You’re a mom, and I’m a dad, have been for all these years, and now we get to be that together. Mama June’s up there, singing to our first. I mean, it’s off-key as fuck, but she’s still doing it, giving it her all. She’s gushing about that ring on your finger, and our kid’s probably wanting to tell her it’s downright ugly. But he’s not because he’s part you and part me, and she’s Mama June. Our boy would never say that to her, would he?”

She smiles sadly, shakes her head and, at the same time, a tear falls down her face. Fuck, so does one of mine.

“Please don’t,” she whispers.

“My tears are just chasin’ after yours.” I press my forehead to hers. “No matter what, I got you, and you got me. We’re gonna laugh and cry, and fight and fuck, and we’re gonna do all that a lot more than maybe what some consider normal. But we don’t care, do we?”

She shakes her head.

“On three, say it with me—fuck them.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“One … two … three … fuck them.”

“Fuck them,” she whispers.

I wipe her tears, and she wipes mine. Then I kiss her quickly and stand.

“Ready?”

“Fuck yes.” She smiles, bright and beautiful.

I start to walk out, but she tugs my hand. “Pants, Locke, pants.”

“Shit.” I laugh and grab them up.

***

Walking out into the living area, I pull her back so we can take in everyone sitting around the table together. I mean, their phones are in their faces, but it’s cool.

Mom shakes her head. “That’s not going to work for us. I have an appointment.”

“So, it’s the seventeenth after the early game or the eighteenth.” Ms. Deb looks around the table. “What works for you all?”

“I think the seventeenth would be too much with having to return to Arlington the next day for another early game,” Chloe adds.

Blaze looks at AJ. “We can make the eighteenth work.”

“Use some of those frequent flyer miles we’re racking up to catch a flight the next day.” AJ holds out a fist, and Blaze begrudgingly taps it.

“Progress,” I whisper and kiss her cheek.

“What are y’all planning?” I ask.

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